Before jumping to the benchmark results let’s take a look at some encoding performance. Using our old HandBrake test the G4560 manages to beat out the i3-4360 coming in just 10 fps behind the i3-6100. Again the G4560 was a fraction faster than the Core i3-4360, this time in the x264 HD Benchmark test. The last encoding benchmark was conducted using TMPGEnc Video Master Works and here the G4560 again beat the Core i3-4360 to come in 5% slower than the i3-6100....

Editor’s Note: Matt Bach is the head of Puget Labs and has been part of Puget Systems, a boutique builder of gaming and workstation PCs, since the early days. This article was originally published on the Puget blog. In addition to the Z170 chipset, there are now five other consumer chipsets available: the H170 and H110 for consumers and the B150, Q150, and Q170 for business. With the move to the new Skylake-S CPUs, all of these chipsets have some large changes over their predecessors, such as the move the DDR4 and many other things we covered in our Z170 vs Z97: What is the Difference?...

Similar to the relatively new Z68 chip of the LGA1155 platform, the X79 is a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) and will take on the full responsibility of a southbridge along with some of the duties of a northbridge. So what does the Intel X79 have in store for us? We had heard rumors that the PCH would include more than a dozen SATA ports and most would be 6GB/s capable and ready to accommodate SAS drives....

With the 600p 512GB in hand I quickly threw it in our test system for some conditioning and then eventually the benchmarks. To get a gauge on performance we first ran CrystalDiskMark and the sequential results were roughly what we were expecting. The random 512K performance looked a little rough but other than that there was decent performance overall, especially given the price. Our first warning sign was seen during the copy tests....

According to the milestones presented in the meeting, the first of the Intel 7 process node-based product line, known as Sapphire Rapids, is poised to hit the market in the first quarter of 2022. Later products will include Emerald Rapids in 2023 and new P-core and E-core configurations for 2024’s Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids product lines. Intel’s Client Computing Group (CCG) provided attendees with even more upcoming technology to look forward to....

According to TechPowerUp, Intel is already pushing to make 700-series chipsets DDR5-only when they arrive later this year. The company has reportedly been asking motherboard makers to avoid developing DDR4-compatible 700-series mobos, likely as a way to speed up adoption of the latest memory type. The good news is that Raptor Lake CPUs themselves are expected to come with support for DDR4. As the processors should also be compatible with current 600-series chipsets, you could pair the two and have the choice of DDR4 or DDR5, depending on the board....

As spotted by 9To5Mac, a number of iPhone 14 Pro owners have been posting videos of their device’s cameras exhibiting strange behavior when used with third-party apps. Luke Miani, from the YouTube tech channel of the same name, tweeted a short clip showing his $999 handset using the Snapchat camera. As you can see, not only does the picture look like it has a drunk-effect filter because of the vibrations, but the camera module’s violent movements are causing a buzzing/rattling noise....

On Monday, researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) broke another data-rate record, with an officially recorded speed of 1.02 petabits per second. This rate is 10 Tb/s faster than its previous high-data-rate test in December 2020. And it’s more than three times faster than the long-distance test NICT performed last June. To put that in perspective, the researchers pointed out that 1.02 Pb/s is equivalent to sending 127,500GB down the pipe every second or enough to facilitate more than “10 million channels of 8K broadcasting per second....

It was hard to separate Kingston and OCZ’s drives when comparing CrystalDiskMark’s random 512K performance as well. The HyperX averaged a read throughput of 431MB/s – a fraction behind the Vertex 3’s 435MB/s – while the there was a 15MB/s margin in write performance. That trend continued in Random 4K-QD32 read and write performance: the HyperX reached 283.6MB/s on reads and its write performance was particularly strong, reaching 220MB/s.

We found that the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB struggles with threaded performance as it had much slower reads and writes in AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64 Thread than most SSDs we tested. The access times of the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB were solid, as both the read and write results were among the best we’ve seen from an affordable SSD.

Admittedly though, many of those devices have been relegated to the realms of special applications and extreme ergometry. In truth, only touchscreens and trackpads have proven themselves as alternatives with mass appeal, but even those popular devices aren’t properly suited to replace the inexpensive mouse tethered to desktops everywhere. The Leap Motion controller is another such attempt and an interesting one at that. The company touts the device as a new paradigm in human input devices, allowing users to wave, swipe and poke their way through a digital world otherwise meant for keyboards, mice and touchscreens....

The Lego Star Wars Razor Crest construction set (#75331) is based on the starship from The Mandalorian. It consists of 6,187 pieces and features removable engines and a cockpit as well as an escape pod and a carbon-freezing chamber. The set additionally includes minifigs of Grogu, the Mandalorian, Mythrol and Kuiil on a buildable Blurrg. The Razor Crest measures 28.3 inches (length) x 19.7 inches (width) x 9.4 inches (height) and is intended for builders at least 18 years of age....

Today we’ll be taking a look at yet another family of all-in-one desktops from Lenovo, the C Series. This entry-level range is comprised of the Atom-based C300 and the AMD Athlon-equipped C315 – which itself is available in 40221FU or 40221GU variants. Sitting on our test bench is the latter, which for an extra $100 nets you an additional 2GB of memory (4GB in total), a larger 500GB hard drive and a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium....

Sharpness has never been an issue with LG’s 1440p LCDs, and now that this display is in its third iteration it keeps getting better. LG has managed to increase peak brightness up to a huge 860 nits, placing it above older 1080p and 720p displays that have typically had a brightness advantage. Combined with low glass reflectivity, the G5’s display is easy to view outdoors; far easier than competing devices I’ve used recently....

If you own a compatible LG TV, live in the US, and would like to access the marketplace, the app can be downloaded from the television’s home screen. There aren’t any NFTs available just yet; the first drops, a set from sculptor Barry X Ball, land on September 22. LG says more will be added on a monthly basis. The LG Art Lab platform is built in collaboration with the Hedera network....

For a mATX case, the Mini Q PC-V354 is very flexible, supporting even top contenders such as the GeForce GTX 480 and Radeon HD 5970. Installing a 23cm or shorter graphics card into this case can be done without sacrificing any of its storage capabilities. However, you’ll have to remove one cage to use larger 24-31cm cards such as the GeForce GTX 480 and Radeon HD 5870. The biggest problem we have with gaming computers is their sheer mass, but Lian Li’s subtle design makes it a breeze to move....

This is almost entirely down to the premium price point that mechanical keyboards occupy. A typical high-quality option sits in the $100+ price bracket, which can be a fair bit to pay for just a keyboard. This is where the Logitech G413 comes in: it’s a full-sized mechanical gaming-oriented keyboard, but at $90 it undercuts most of its competition including the Corsair Strafe and HyperX Alloy, while packing in largely the same feature set....

This same processor was slightly slower when operating at its default frequency of 2.66GHz delivering 83fps. Overclocking the Core i5 and Core i7 processors did very little to improve performance in Mafia II when using these quality settings. The Phenom II X4 965 was ~4% slower than the Core i5 750, which is not bad. This also made it 8% faster than the Core i3 540 when working at its default operating frequency....

For the unaware, DirectStorage boasts many of the same benefits of similar next-gen console tech: fast load times, and more detailed game worlds, to name just a couple. How does DirectStorage accomplish this feat? Microsoft explained the tech in detail in a blog post from late 2020, but we’ll briefly summarize it here. In short, DirectStorage aims to take advantage of the newer, speedier storage drives that have become commonplace over the past couple of years....

Microsoft has just announced that it’s significantly scaling down its operations in Russia. The move comes after the company suspended all new sales in the country in March due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. A Microsoft spokesperson claims they made the decision because of changes to the economic outlook and the impact on its business in Russia. The firm also stated that it continues to fulfill its existing contractual obligations with Russian customers while the suspension of new sales remains in effect....