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April 2024 |
Newsy Nuggets, Just in case you missed them...
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Tuesday, 30-April-2024 17:49:50 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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A LED touchscreen that's also a PV charger and reads fingerprints. Tech is awesome
QDEL wants in on that action
Australia's biggest radio dish, DSS-43, it's the only antenna remaining capable of comms with Voyager 2
Agg was happy to hear Voyager 1 has resumed sending engineering data
No radio dish out here said the NASA laser
Nintendo really really dont like emulation
MSI dont like AMD GPU's much either
Boston Dynamics' new Atlas robot is freakish
PC enthusists; There's nothing left to RGB. Hold my beer says Razor
Apple Vision Pro sales tank, but also used in ground breaking surgery
US manufactured chips will cost more
Spiders, Mars, but no David Bowie
IntelInside wants you to get Win11 on the cheap (possibly)
Audio Visual:
Dangbei Atom 1080p Laser Projector @ TweakTown
Dell UltraSharp 40 5K Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) @ ThinkComputers
Creative Outlier Pro Bluetooth Earphones @ aphNetworks
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4X Wireless Gaming Headset @ TweakTown
Philips 27E1N1300AE Monitor @ OCinside
Storage:
Lexar PLAY 1TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD @ NikKTech
Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus @ TechPowerUp
Motherboard, Memory:
V-Color Manta X-Prism RGB DDR5 6800 MHz CL34 2 x 48 GB @ guru3D
Team Group T-Force Vulcan ECO DDR5-6000 32 GB CL38 @ TechPowerUp
ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi II Motherboard @ ThinkComputers
ASRock Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning WiFi Motherboard @ FunkyKit
Crucial 64GB Kit (2x32GB) DDR5-4800 SODIMM @ Madshrimps
Snapdragon X Plus @ HotHardware
Keyboard:
WhiteFox Eclipse Mechanical Keyboard @ HotHardware
Cooling:
Yeston x Zeaginal Sakura 360 AIO CPU Cooler @ Neoseeker
PSU:
XPG Core Reactor II VE 850w 80 PLUS Gold ATX 3.0 PSU @ TweakTown
I spent much of the weekend in a home-automation monitoring deep dive, after initially just wanting to measure how much electricity some devices were using. The core of it is Home Assistant, which is open-source and runs on a Raspberry Pi. I've ended up with a fairly ugly dashboard (next stop Grafana) which shows info from my home solar setup, the mains power usage, 6 (and counting) smart power plugs, the Starlink usage, etc.
If your high-end i9 machine is acting unstable, Gigabyte may have a fix. Intel's been under some fire recently for issues affecting its top-end Core i9 processors from both the 13th- and 14th-generation Core families. Some of these chips, even when set to "BIOS defaults", will crash or otherwise fail in certain tests, most commonly Cinebench 2024 and especially, games using Unreal Engine. The release of Tekken 8 really brought the issue to the forefront, as gamers started to struggle with stability on these high-end CPUs; one report noted as many as ten returns per day in Korea. MSI have some tips also.
But if you need a new Z80, you may be out of luck, thanks Callan. Zilog is retiring the Z80 after 48 years on the market. Originally developed as a project stemming from the Intel 8080, it eventually rose to become one of the most popular and widely used 8-bit CPUs in both gaming and general computing devices. The iconic IC device, developed by Federico Faggin, will soon be phased out, and interested parties only have a few months left to place their orders before Zilog's manufacturing partner ends support for the technology. Some more info here and discussion here.
Net Neutrality has been reinstated by a recent ruling in the US. Policymakers at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines Thursday to reinstate net neutrality principles, which mandate that internet service providers can’t interfere with how online content is transmitted.
A laptop with external watercooling? Sounds.. inconvenient. The difference between the models lies in their GPU configurations and cooling methods. The company has announced RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 models, both housed in the same chassis with attachable liquid tubes at the back. Gamers can choose to use the external radiator or rely on the integrated dual-fan cooler. This design resembles that of many OEM brands like XMG Neo, indicating a similar approach. While the laptop chassis may differ, the external radiator seems to be largely the same.
I'm a sucker for a nostalgic Amiga article - and here's another one. Personally? I really did love the Amiga. I had more glorious evenings with it than any other machine, in terms of hours played and the quality of those hours. It provided the best party game ever in Sensible Soccer, the best futuristic (and best looking) sports game in Speedball 2 and the best time-swallower with Championship Manager, just edging out Sim City. And I am not sure there has ever been a more mathematically precise sports game than Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker.
Shout-out to those who took today off and made a sneaky long weekend out of it:
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 26-April-2024 13:04:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Corsair iCUE Link XC7 RGB Elite CPU Water Block on TechPowerUp.
DeepCool AK620 Digital CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Gigabyte AORUS WATERFORCE X II 360 ICE All-in-One CPU Cooler on FunkyKit.
HYTE THICC Q60 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Corsair iCUE LINK RX120 RGB Cooling Fans on FunkyKit.
HYTE THICC Q60 240 mm AIO on TechPowerUp.
Audio Visual:
GravaStar Sirius P5 Combo Earphones on MadShrimps.
FiiO K19 Desktop DAC/Headphone Amplifier on TechPowerUp.
ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK In-Ear Monitors on TechPowerUp.
iFi audio hip dac 3 Portable USB DAC & Headphone Amplifier on NikKTech.
Mobile Pixels Duex Plus 13.3-inch 1080p Portable Laptop Monitor on FunkyKit.
Storage:
Lexar Professional CFexpress Type A Silver Review (320GB) on StorageReview.
UGREEN DXP6800 Pro NAS on StorageReview.
Building the Ultimate Home Entertainment Server with an ASUSTOR NAS and Viper Gaming NVMe SSDs on Tweaktown.
Cases:
Thermaltake CTE E600 MX Computer Case on APHNetworks.
Corsair 6500X Mid-Tower Dual Chamber PC Case on Guru3D.
Cooler Master TD500 MAX on APHNetworks.
Furniture:
Atlasio SHD Mini Office Desk and Dynamic Chair on OCInside.
FlexiSpot C7B-Mesh Ergonomic Office Chair on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 on Tweaktown.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 on StorageReview.
ACEMAGIC AD08 "Core i9 11900H" Mini PC on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
Glorious Model D 2 Pro 4K/8KHz Edition mouse on TechPowerUp.
Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Keyboard on TechPowerUp.
FiiO Jade Audio KB3 Mechanical Keyboard on NikKTech.
Power Supply:
Seasonic PRIME TX-1000 Power Supply Unit on NikKTech.
Seasonic Prime Titanium 1600W TX-1600 ATX 3.0 PSU on Guru3D.
Misc:
EcoFlow Wave 2 mobile air conditioner video on FunkyHome.
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER OC video card on Guru3D.
KLEVV Bolt V DDR5-6800 32 GB CL34 memory on TechPowerUp.
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
Thanks to mpot this week!
     
     
     
     
Thursday Evening
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Thursday, 18-April-2024 17:50:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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kombiman sent in this article about WipEout, a classic game I loved as well. Burcombe suddenly entered beast mode in the game. “I absolutely nailed the 150cc Championship on my first attempt with this track playing,” he says. “Winning by quite a margin.” In that moment of elation and hyperfocus, something had gone off in Burcombe’s brain – a lightbulb moment, albeit one that flashed with strobe-like intensity. “It was the best gaming experience I’d ever had,” he says. “That moment etched itself into my brain and I wanted everyone to feel that too.” Within a couple of years, they would. Via a new anti-gravity racing game complete with its own pioneering trance-techno soundtrack. WipEout, released in 1995, was to be the world’s first rave-inspired computer game.
HotHardware have an article explaining CPU caches. If you're a budding young tech enthusiast or simply a casual PC purchaser, you may have seen "cache" listed in the specifications for this or that processor and wondered what exactly that is. It's been a major marketing point for CPUs for decades, and recently it has even become a matter of discussion for GPUs.
HighPerformanceLaptops have overhauled their Best Laptop Group Test for April 2024. High Performance Laptops’ reviews use of an exhaustive scoring system that mathematically compares every new laptop with everything that’s come before it. However, price and availability change all the time and, consequently, so does 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.
MSI have some wireless fans - kinda. Each fan has a JAF 7-pin header and magnetic connector blocks. These inserts lock the fans together in a single block and connect them to power and data. So, two of your three fans in this system are cable-free, which is better than none. MSI notes the MPG EZ120 ARGB also sports a whopping 33 LEDs spaced around the frame and blades for even lighting.
Another interesting snippet from HotHardware, about a full-size motherboard with SODIMM slots for memory. I've often wondered why mATX or other SFF mobos insist on full-size DIMMs given SODIMMs are available in pretty much every non-extreme speed and capacity and aren't crazy expensive. SO-DIMM, or Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module slots are around half the size of a regular DIMM slot, measuring in the neighborhood of 2.66 inches with a 260-pin connector versus 288 pins on a regular DDR5 or DDR4 DIMM slot. They are not interchangeable (not without a SO-DIMM adapter, anyway), so you won't get very far trying to cram a SO-DIMM memory module into a regular DIMM slot.
MUTMAN sent word of an AOI designed for de-lidded CPUs. Thanks to the rise of sky-high modern-day CPU power consumption, EKWB has built the world's first All-In-One liquid cooler tailored specifically for delidded Intel 12th,13th, and 14th Gen CPUs. EK says the new cooler was inspired by the huge surge of PC users delidding their CPUs to enhance performance. I really must dig up my old slug sanding article from 1999.
Also from MUTMAN, a pogo-stick bouncing drone. Hopcopter is the first robot that I’ve ever seen give this a try, and it’s remarkably effective, combining a tiny quadrotor with a springy leg to hop hop hop all over the place. Definitely sounds like the cutest future Terminator model.
TheVerge have an article about the ships that repair undersea cables and basically keep the global internet working. But thanks to a secretive global network of ships on standby, every broken cable is quickly fixed. This is the story of the people who repair the world's most important infrastructure. That reminded me of a huge article I read in a print copy of WIRED a zillion years ago, written by no less than Neal Stephenson (who also wrote two of my favourite novels) where he travelled the world explaining the history of undersea cables. Looks like it's available behind a paywall here, titled "Mother Earth Mother Board". Was a fascinating read at the time, will have to dig up the hard copy I no doubt still have on a shelf in the AggCave somewhere.
Also I mentioned robot watches ages ago and Ajax sent in this page with more info. I definitely had the round eye-panel one from page 3. Ah, the nostalgia!
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 18-April-2024 16:56:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
MSI MPG B760M MORTAR Edge TI Motherboard on Guru3D.
Gigabyte AORUS Z790 Elite X WiFi 7 Motherboard on FunkyKit.
Cooling:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black CPU Cooler on APHNetworks.
Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 240 A-RGB White AIO CPU cooler on Vortez.
TEAM T-FORCE Siren DUO360 ARGB Liquid CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Iceberg Thermal IceFLOE OASIS 360 ARGB Gen 2 AIO Liquid CPU Cooling System on NikKTech.
Power Supply:
FSP Dagger Pro 850W SFX (ATX 3.0/PCIe 5.0) PSU on FunkyKit.
BLUETTI AC200L Portable power station on Guru3D.
Lexar Professional SL600 2TB USB SSD on NeoSeeker.
Cooler Master GX III Gold 850W Power Supply on APHNetworks.
Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 (Rev. 2.0) Power Supply on FunkyKit.
Memory:
Crucial Pro Overclocking 32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 on MadShrimps.
Corsair Dominator Titanium First Edition DDR5-7200 32GB Memory Kit on FunkyKit.
Storage:
Lexar SL500 2TB Portable SSD on FunkyKit.
Crucial T705 Gen5 Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Sharge Disk M.2 2230 SSD Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Silicon Power UD90 2TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD on NikKTech.
TerraMaster F4-424 Pro NAS on Guru3D.
Icy Dock MB038SP-B ExpressCage on OCInside.
Corsair MP700 2TB PCIe Gen 5×4 NVMe M.2 SSD on FunkyKit.
Audio Visual:
Samsung G8 34-inch QD-OLED Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
I\OAudio VOLARE In-Ear Monitors on TechPowerUp.
AVerMedia Live Streamer ULTRA HD on Tweaktown.
Dan Clark Audio E3 Closed-Back Headphones on TechPowerUp.
AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K 2.1 capture card on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
James Donkey R2 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard on TechPowerUp.
Rapoo VT9 Air mouse on TechPowerUp.
NuPhy Air96 V2 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard on Tweaktown.
CHERRY KC 200 MX Mechanical Keyboard on MadShrimps.
FiiO KB3 HiFi Mechanical Keyboard Review - Integrated DAC/Amp on TechPowerUp.
EPOMAKER RT100 Mechanical Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Video Cards:
XFX Radeon RX 7900 GRE on NeoSeeker.
ASUS Radeon RX 7900 GRE TUF OC on TechPowerUp.
Do AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPUs Offer Gaming Gains For Entry-Level Graphics? on HotHardware.
Portable & Prebuilt:
ASRock NUCBOX-155H Mini PC on Tweaktown.
Alienware m16 R2 Review: A Multi-Purpose Sleeper Gaming Laptop on HotHardware.
Nothing Phone (2a) Review: All Budget Phones Should Be This Good on HotHardware.
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
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Sunday, 14-April-2024 13:26:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Thanks to MUTMAN for putting this post together:
Audio Visual:
MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED @ ThePCEnthusiast
EIZO FlexScan EV3240X 4K @ NikKTech
Keyboard, Mouse, Etc:
Logitech G PRO X 60 LIGHTSPEED Gaming Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Arbiter Polar 65 Magnetic Gaming Keyboard @ TweakTown
AQIRYS LIBERTAS Gaming Keyboard @ Madshrimps
Cases and Cooling:
Hyte THICC Q60 AIO @ FunkyKit
XPG Invader X Mid-Tower Chassis @ TechPowerUp
Corsair 2000D Airflow @ guru3D
Storage:
MSI Spatium M580 FROZR PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD @ guru3D
Patriot Viper Gaming VP4000 Mini Gen4 Solid State Drive @ ThinkComputers
Motherboard, Memory, CPU:
Intel Core i9-14900KS @ TweakTown
PSU:
FSP Hydro PTM PRO 1350W ATX3.0 (12V-2×6) @ FunkyKit
Video Card:
MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio 24G @ OCinside
Misc:
Aqirys Atlas Gaming Chair @ TechPowerUp
Friday again!
     
     
     
     
Wednesday Afternoon News
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Wednesday, 10-April-2024 16:36:57 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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I love NotePad++ (NPP) and it seems I am not the only one that wants to keep it alive and well. Despite labels claiming it was an “unofficial fan website created for general information/educational purposes only,” Ho explained that this website had a “hidden agenda.” Ho called on the community to report the website to get it taken down and “safeguard our community and maintain a secure online ecosystem.”
The US restrictions on export to China of high performance silicon might have unforeseen consequences. The US government recently tightened its restrictions on chip exports in an effort to make it more difficult for China to access artificial hardware and services, all in the interest of national security. However, the restrictions could prove "insignificant" in the short term, and even worse, could actually boost China's efforts to develop AI chips in the long run, according to a TrendForce report.
An upgraded version of Androids "Find my Device" feature has launched, but it isn't compatible with the Apple iPhone feature that goes by the same name. Tracking tags are handy, but in the wrong hands, they can be misused. The Find My Device network supports unwanted tracker alerts across Android and iOS, so you’ll get a notification if a tracking tag that isn’t yours is moving with you — even if you’re on an iPhone. The network also limits the number of times you can get a tracking tag’s location in an added effort to deter stalkers. Dave Kleidermacher, Android’s VP of security and privacy, tells The Verge that this shouldn’t affect how most people use the tags.
Floppy Disks, no one still uses them for critical business applications still. Right? Officials at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Train Control Project, explained that the system was cutting edge back in 1998 when it was installed. Since then, nothing has changed or been upgraded because, “The system is currently working just fine,” but that said, they know “that with each increasing year risk of data degradation on the floppy disks increases and that at some point there will be a catastrophic failure.”
Where would you be without GMail? Would the same 20 million spam emails still be sent each day? We will never know, but Happy 20th Birthday anyway GMail. Sergey Brin says, "And while developing Gmail was a bit more complicated than we anticipated, we're pleased to be able to offer it to the user who asked for it." The service is real, however. The advertisement injection has sparked fierce internal debates, reports The NY Times. "Many people inside the company are worried that users might fear that the content of their e-mail messages could be used to tailor individual advertising messages"
Trizae sent news that should warm the heart of the one iApple retro gamer. The move should allow the retro console emulators already on Android to bring their apps to the iPhone. Game emulators have long been banned from iOS, leaving iPhone owners in search of workarounds via jailbreaking or other workarounds. They're also one of the key reasons, so far, that iPhone owners in the European Union might check out third-party app stores now that they're allowed in the region.
Todays Time Waster is a live map of the Starlink Satellite borg. Starlink now has over 5600 satellites orbitting earth, serving 2.6 million customers with the nearest competition having just 859 satellites.
Turbine sent this tracker. Similar site but has more stats/bandwidth.
This month's "Retro Let's Play" for April is Dragon's Lair from 1983
Play as Dirk the Daring, a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has locked the princess in the foul wizard Mordroc's castle. Control the actions of the daring adventurer, finding your way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the dragon’s lair. As the valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon, Dragon's Lair has solidified itself as a cultural icon in gaming.
click for the thread!
Saturday Evening Reviews
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Saturday, 6-April-2024 18:32:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hope you all survived the rains from yesterday and last night!
Storage:
Crucial T705 Pro Series 2TB Gen5 M.2 SSD on NikKTech.
UGREEN NASync DXP480T All-Flash NAS on Tweaktown.
WD Gold 24TB HDD on StorageReview.
Synology BeeStation Review – User-Friendly NAS-ish Solution on StorageReviews.
QNAP TBS-h574TX Thunderbolt 4 NAS on StorageReview.
MSI Spatium M580 Frozr 4 TB Review - 14 GB/s Passively Cooled on TechPowerUp.
MSI Spatium M580 FROZR 4TB SSD Review - Nice and cool at 14,000 MB/s on Tweaktown.
Netac US5 1TB High-Speed USB 3.2 Gen 2 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
Crucial T705 2TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD on FunkyKit.
KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 NVMe Gen4 2TB SSD on MadShrimps.
Memory:
Silicon Power 2x16GB DDR5 4800MHz CL40 SODIMM Memory Kit on MadShrimps.
Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 (Non-RGB) DDR5-8200 48GB Memory Kit on FunkyKit.
Cooling:
Endorfy Navis F360 AIO CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
Thermaltake SWAFAN EX14 ARGB Sync Cooling Fan on APHNetworks.
Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 ARGB cooler on Guru3D.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360 Review: A Gorgeous 16" OLED Laptop on HotHardware.
MSI Stealth 14 AI Studio on HighPerformanceLaptops.
Cases:
Fractal Design Terra SFF chassis on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master NCORE 100 MAX mITX Chassis on Tweaktown.
Input etc:
ASUS ROG Falchion RX Low Profile Keyboard on Tweaktown.
Corsair K65 PLUS Wireless RGB Gaming keyboard on Guru3D.
Cooler Master MM712 Wired Optical Mouse on APHNetworks.
Audio Visual:
Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM (QD-OLED monitor) on Guru3D.
Glorious Model O 2 Pro 4K/8KHz Edition on TechPowerUp.
MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Review - 4K gaming at its best on Tweaktown.
Tribit StormBox Flow Portable Speaker on ThinkComputers.
final ZE8000 MK2 True Wireless ANC Earphones on TechPowerUp.
Misc:
EnGenius ECP106 Switchable Smart PDU on LanOC.
AMD EPYC 9754S Review – A CPU With a Very Particular Set of Skills on StorageReview.
Friday again! Here's a timewaster, 10 free goes at GeoGuessr thanks to Geocaching.
     
     
     
     
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