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March 2025 |
Why cant we have nice things ? The USA FBI has issued a warning ..... You probably have experienced situations where you needed to convert files from one format to another. In these cases, free online file converters are a common solution. However, the FBI Denver Field Office has just taken to Twitter to warn users that threat actors now use these seemingly harmless online tools to install malware on the devices of unsuspecting victims.
Rumours abound of Valve's SteamOS being made available to desktop PC's. When asked point blank if that meant it would be user-installable (as in, a general installer), he said yes, though his understanding is that Valve's intent is to initially target users who would install it on a handheld PC. "From what I understand, anyone will be able to download the official image/installed/whatever and try to install it on their devices But Valve is mostly insinuating that handheld PCs will have the best experience in doing so"
Want to install Windows 11 without the internet. I still think it's a terrible unfinished mess, but what do I know. Microsoft forces users to connect to the internet during Windows 11 setup. This rule applies to both Home and Pro editions in version 22H2. Users need to create a Microsoft account and download updates during installation. The forced internet connection blocks people without stable internet from using their computers. Local account setup gives users more control over their privacy and system usage.
This link is from Agg. Old Nintendo Consoles age like fine wine. It’s a fact of life that the older something gets, the slower and less reliable it becomes, and that’s just as applicable to video game consoles as anything. Although it turns out that one retro console is ageing like fine wine. The SNES is not only still popular 35 years after its original release but, bizarrely, it seems it runs faster now than it did back in 1990.
I thought this mini PC with a flip top screen was cool. At my age (don't ask), I probably wouldn't be all that keen on trying to manage with a such a small display for computing chores (though I see my smartphone giving me the stink eye). But it's still a nifty feature. The 5-inch flip-up display on Aoostar's little box boasts a 1920x1080 resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, and also touch support. It's really meant to be used a secondary display.
Thanks to wild and mpot this week!
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon Reviews
(1 Comments)
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Friday, 28-March-2025 13:49:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D Fire Range HX3D Exclusive: Gaming Laptop Supercharger on HotHardware.
ASRock Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi on TechPowerUp.
ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi on TechPowerUp.
ASUS ProArt Z890-Creator WiFi Z890 Motherboard on APHNetworks.
MSI MAG B860 Tomahawk Wi-Fi on TechPowerUp.
Cases:
be quiet! Pure Base 501 LX on TechPowerUp.
GAMEMAX N90 Mid-Tower Chassis on FunkyKit.
FSP M580 Plus Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
Montech XR Wood mid-tower on TechPowerUp.
Cooling:
TRYX PANORAMA SE 360 ARGB AIO CPU Cooler on FunkyKit.
XPG LEVANTE II 360 AIO liquid cooler on TechPowerUp.
CPS / PCCooler RZ620 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
MSI MAG CORELIQUID I360 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Storage:
Crucial T500 Heatsink 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD on FunkyKit.
Netac NV7000-Q M.2 SSD on ThePCEnthusiast.
Samsung 9100 Pro 2 TB Review - The Best Gen 5 SSD on TechPowerUp.
Crucial T500 Heatsink 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD on FunkyKit.
SK hynix Beetle X31 Portable Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Crucial P310 2TB NVMe M.2 2280 SSD on FunkyKit.
Team Group GE Pro 2 TB NVMe SSD Review - With Innogrit Gen 5 Controller on Guru3D.
Input Etc:
Epomaker P87 Mechanical Wireless Keyboard on MadShrimps.
Pulsar Feinmann F01 mouse on TechPowerUp.
CHERRY XTRFY M64 Wireless White Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Quick Look: Jelly Key Mystic Snake Artisan Keycaps on TechPowerUp.
Zaopin Z2 Mini mouse on TechPowerUp.
Memory:
Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 7600 MHz CL36 2 x 24 GB DDR5 on Guru3D.
KLEVV URBANE V RGB DDR5-7600 32GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.
Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5-7000 2x16GB DDR5 RAM on APHNetworks.
Crucial DDR5 Pro Overclocking 32GB 6400MHz CL38 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech.
Silicon Power XPOWER Pulse 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 Gaming Kit on MadShrimps.
Video Cards:
Palit GeForce RTX 5070 GamingPro OC on TechPowerUp.
GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU Review: NVIDIA’s Best Mobile Gaming Chip Yet on HotHardware.
Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse on TechPowerUp.
ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 OC Edition on Tweaktown.
ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF OC on TechPowerUp.
ASRock Radeon RX 9070 Steel Legend OC on ThinkComputers.
Audio Visual:
ALOGIC 40-inch Edge Ultrawide Monitor on Tweaktown.
EIZO FlexScan EV4340X 43" 4K Monitor on NikKTech.
Duex Float 15.6" Portable Monitor on Tweaktown.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
Alienware AW2725Q Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
Misc:
Assassin's Creed Shadows Performance Benchmark on TechPowerUp.
DJI Power 1000 Powerstation Video Review on FunkyHome.
SiFive HiFive Premier P550 Review: A True RISC-V Dev Kit Platform Emerges on HotHardware.
NVIDIA GTC 2025 Contest Winner
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Tuesday, 25-March-2025 00:39:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Congratulations to Mikuji who won our recent contest! You can see the contest draw in this post. Thanks to everyone who entered, and of course thanks to NVIDIA for the prize and opportunity.
Remember, today is the last day of our NVIDIA GTC 2025 - RTX 6000 competition!
     
     
     
     
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Contest - Last Day!
(0 Comments)
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Friday, 21-March-2025 13:15:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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This man wants to give YOU (or another OCAU Forums member like you) a video card!
click here for details
Wednesday Night Reviews
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Wednesday, 19-March-2025 22:50:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock Radeon RX 9070 Steel Legend on Guru3D.
ASUS ROG STRIX B850-A Gaming WiFi on ThinkComputers.
MAXSUN Z890 iCraft VERTEX Motherboard on NikKTech.
ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme Motherboard on HWAsylum.
Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro on TechPowerUp.
Storage:
Predator GM7000 Heatsink Edition 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD on FunkyKit.
Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB SSD Review - A New Contender on Tweaktown.
Team Group MP44Q 2TB SSD on TechPowerUp.
DapuStor Roealsen6 R6101 7.68TB Enterprise SSD on Tweaktown.
Acer Predator GM9000 2TB SSD on Tweaktown.
Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 2 TB Review - Energy-Efficient PCIe Gen 5 on TechPowerUp.
Crucial P310 2280 2TB (Heatsink Version) Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
Video Cards:
ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi OC Review - Excellent Cooling on TechPowerUp.
Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 SOLID on ThePCEnthusiast.
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition on Tweaktown.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 TRIO OC on Guru3D.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12G GAMING TRIO OC on FunkyKit.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Gaming Trio OC on TechPowerUp.
SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
FSP MEGA TI 1650W ATX 3.1 Power Supply Unit on NikKTech.
Corsair SF750 750 W on TechPowerUp.
AVerMedia Core Go & Elite Go USB-C chargers on TechPowerUp.
Input Etc:
AQIRYS M60 Wireless Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
VAXEE Zygen NP-01S V2 Wireless mouse on TechPowerUp.
Misc:
G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5 memory on ThePCEnthusiast.
AVerMedia Core Go GC313 USB Charger/Dock on APHNetworks.
NVIDIA GTC 2025 - RTX 6000 Giveaway!
(3 Comments)
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Friday, 14-March-2025 15:06:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I know you're here for Misc Pics, but remember we are giving away a special limited edition RTX 6000 (yes, 6000), signed by Jensen Huang:
Click for details!
Thanks to mpot for a bumper couple of submissions this week!
     
     
     
     
Also here's a leftover set of Retro Misc Pics from June 2012 that didn't fit into last week's post:
     
     
     
     
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Reviews
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Friday, 14-March-2025 00:01:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have released the Ryzen 9 9950X3D they teased at CES. This is the new high-end part, with 16 cores, 32 threads, a max boost clock of 5.7GHz and 96MB of second generation 3D V-Cache. Here's some reviews from the news box:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D on StorageReview.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D on LanOC.
Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review: A New Level of Zen for Gaming PCs on Guru3D.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU Review: Dominant, No Compromise Performance on HotHardware.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review - The all-round X3D chip we've been waiting for on Tweaktown.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D on Vortez.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review - Great for Gaming and Productivity on TechPowerUp.
Discussion continues in this thread. Also, here's more AMD Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT video card reviews:
Sapphire Pulse RX 9070 & RX 9070 XT on NeoSeeker.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT on StorageReview.
Acer RX 9070 Nitro OC on LanOC.
Thursday Night Reviews
(0 Comments)
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Thursday, 13-March-2025 23:46:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
Endorfy LIV Plus Wireless Mouse on OCInside.
HYTE Keeb TKL Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
TeamGroup T-Force GC Pro 2TB SSD Review - 13,000 MB/s on the Cheap on Tweaktown.
Patriot Viper EV330 M.2 2230 SSD Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Video Cards:
ASUS GeForce RTX 5090 TUF on TechPowerUp.
Palit GeForce RTX 5070 GamingPRO OC on Guru3D.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 GAMING TRIO OC on Tweaktown.
Misc:
be quiet! Silent Loop 3 420mm AIO CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Ubiquiti U7 Pro XG & XGS Review: WiFi 7 with a 10GbE Uplink on StorageReview.
XPG Valor Air Plus Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
Dough Spectrum Black 32 monitor on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA GTC 2025 Contest - RTX 6000 Giveaway!
(7 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 11-March-2025 00:48:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NVIDIA's annual GTC conference is just around the corner - and we have a limited edition RTX 6000 video card signed by Jensen Huang to give away to one lucky OCAU member:
See the thread for details!
Tuesday Morning
(8 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 11-March-2025 00:44:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Backblaze have released their 2024 Drive Stats report. At the end of 2024, Backblaze was actively monitoring 301,120 data drives, though 487 were excluded from the Q4 analysis due to insufficient data points. This left a dataset of 300,633 drives, which helped give a valid quarter-by-quarter comparison. The annualized failure rate (AFR) for Q4 was 1.35%, a noticeable drop from 1.89% in Q3, mainly due to the introduction of newer, high-capacity drives.
IntelInside sent word that Skype is going away - because Microsoft are going to kill it off. In order to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams (free), our modern communications and collaboration hub.
Also from IntelInside, some COBOL news. If you've gotten cash from an ATM, you've interacted with a COBOL-based system. Here's why this old programming language will probably outlive us all. I did a bit of COBOL in a former life, along with MVS JCL.. *twitch*
Some news from Matt, worthy of congratulations: my data container, std::hive, made it into C++26 as of last week. Reference implementation here. More info in a trip report here. P0447R28 “Introduction of std::hive to the standard library” by Matthew Bentley is a major library addition that formalizes a widely-used high-performance data structure. Well done!
No idea where this video came from but it's an interesting one about building a retro Mac from new parts. What happens when you get a broken Macintosh SE/30 but it's not worth fixing? You go incredibly overboard instead.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
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Tuesday, 11-March-2025 00:21:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 Ti on ThePCEnthusiast.
XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Magnetic Air on TechPowerUp.
ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 5070 OC on Guru3D.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Gaming Trio Review: Boosted Mid-Range Blackwell on HotHardware.
ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC Edition on Tweaktown.
XFX Radeon RX 9070 QuickSilver OC on Guru3D.
Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Pulse on Guru3D.
PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 9070 on Vortez.
NVIDIA RTX 5070 Founders Edition Review: Blackwell Architecture for the Masses on StorageReview.
Motherboard & CPU:
MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi on TechPowerUp.
ASRock X870 Pro RS AMD AM5 Motherboard on OCInside.
Memory:
Crucial CT2K16G64C52CU5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB DDR5 RAM on APHNetworks.
Corsair Vengeance RGB CUDIMM DDR5-8800 48 GB CL42 on TechPowerUp.
Input Etc:
MechLands Vibe99 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard on APHNetworks.
HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Pro Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers.
RAWM ES21M mouse on TechPowerUp.
Audio Visual:
Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones on NikKTech.
AQIRYS SAGITTA Gaming Headset on MadShrimps.
EIZO FlexScan EV4340X Review - A Multitasking Powerhouse on TechPowerUp.
Majority D40X Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers on NikKTech.
MSI MPG 321CURX Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Western Digital WD Black SN7100 2TB SSD Review - A Powerful Bargain on Tweaktown.
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 2TB - A First of its Kind Masterpiece on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
FSP Vita GM 1000W Power Supply on APHNetworks.
Monster Hunter Wilds PC Benchmark @ HotHardware
Sharkoon Rebel C70G RGB PC Case on NikKTech.
be quiet! Light Loop 360mm AIO CPU cooler on MadShrimps.
Got a plane to catch so here's some early Retro Misc Pics from June 2012. Back to normal next week!
1st June 2012:
     
     
     
     
8th June 2012:
     
     
     
     
15th June 2012:
     
     
     
     
22nd June 2012:
     
     
     
     
Also - all the best to those affected by Cyclone Alfred.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT Reviews
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Thursday, 6-March-2025 02:51:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have released their RDNA 4 architecture, starting with the Radeon RX 9070 and the higher-end Radeon RX 9070 XT. Broadly speaking, these compete with the corresponding GeForce RTX 5070 and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT And 9070 Review: Competition Heats-Up For Gamers on HotHardware.
GIGABYTE Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC Review - Fantastic Performance, Questionable Value on Tweaktown.
SAPPHIRE Pulse AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB Gaming Graphics Card on NikKTech.
Radeon RX 9070 XT review (ASUS TUF OC) on Guru3D.
Radeon RX 9070 review (ASUS TUF OC) on Guru3D.
XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury Magnetic on Guru3D.
SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ on Guru3D.
AORUS Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE Review - AMD Strikes Back on Tweaktown.
Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ Review - Beating NVIDIA on TechPowerUp.
Discussion continues in this thread.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Reviews
(0 Comments)
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Thursday, 6-March-2025 02:41:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NVIDIA have unveiled the 4th in their 50x0 series - the cheapest so far, the plain 5070:
ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 5070 Solid OC on ThinkComputers.
Asus Prime RTX 5070 on LanOC.
Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition on LanOC.
GeForce RTX 5070 FE Review: NVIDIA’s More Affordable Blackwell Tested on HotHardware.
GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition on Guru3D.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition Review - DLSS 4 is Still a Game Changer in 1440p on Tweaktown.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition on TechPowerUp.
Also some straggler reviews of the more expensive 5070 Ti cards:
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti on ThePCEnthusiast.
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti VANGUARD SOC on Tweaktown.
Asus TUF Gaming RTX 5070 Ti OC on LanOC.
Discussion continues in this thread.
Thursday Morning Reviews
(1 Comments)
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Thursday, 6-March-2025 02:04:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Thanks to MUTMAN for putting this post together!
Audio Visual:
Cooler Master GM2711S Gaming Monitor @ TweakTown
AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD2 Monitor @ OCinside
TRIBIT StormBox 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker @ ThinkComputers
Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C @ TechPowerUp
Corsair Virtuoso MAX Wireless @ TechPowerUp
Keyboard, Mouse, Etc:
ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini @ TechPowerUp
Corsair K70 PRO TKL Hall Effect Gaming Keyboard @ TweakTown
CHERRY XTRFY M50 Wireless White Gaming Mouse @ Madshrimps
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 @ HotHardware
Cases and Cooling:
be quiet! Pure Base 501 DX @ TechPowerUp
Montech HyperFlow Silent 360 @ TechPowerUp
Storage:
PNY RP60 1TB Portable SSD @ TweakTown
KLEVV CRAS C930 2 TB @ TechPowerUp
Motherboard, Memory, CPU:
ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi X870E Motherboard @ aphNetworks
Gigabyte Z890 Eagle WiFi7 Motherboard @ TechPowerUp
Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi 7 @ TechPowerUp
ANACOMDA G5 Python 32GB DDR5 8000MHz CL38 @ NikKTech
ASRock Phantom Gaming B860M Lightning WiFi @ FunkyKit
PSU:
Seasonic PRIME TX-1600 Noctua Edition ATX 3.1 @ NikKTech
Montech TITAN PLA 1000 W @ TechPowerUp
FSP MEGA TI 1650W PCIe 5.1/ATX 3.1 @ FunkyKit
Video Card:
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming TRIO OC Plus @ guru3D
MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC Plus @ TweakTown
Portable & Prebuilt:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition @ HotHardware
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 (Strix Point APU + RTX 4070 Laptop GPU) Gaming Laptop @ TweakTown
AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and Radeon 880M in the BeeLink SER9 Pro Mini PC @ guru3D
This month's "Retro Let's Play" for March is F.E.A.R. from 2005
You play as Point Man for the First Encounter Assault Recon unit, a military complex ghost busting squad essentially. You’re after Paxton Fettel, who is psychically connected to an army of clones and is seeking revenge on Armacham corporation for the abuse he and others suffered in the past. Meanwhile you keep seeing hallucinations of Alma, a little girl in a red dress who can melt peoples skin off.
Graphically the game has dated slightly, but don't let that put you off, its no slouch by any means and the AI is still a lot better than some of the newer titles coming out these days.
click for the thread!
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