By default the Intel Core i7-3770K processor comes clocked at 3.5GHz. Right away we found that reducing the clock speed resulted in a considerable drop in frame rates. There was a 14% drop in performance when going from 3.5GHz to 3GHz and then an even bigger 19% drop from 3GHz to 2.5GHz. Naturally, we felt that overclocking the Core i7-3770K would lead to increased performance and help us unlock the true potential of the GTX Titan....
Almost every significant device launched in the last two months or so is powered by Google’s platform, which last year managed to leap past iOS in terms of total users. But there’s also stuff going on elsewhere. Apple still reigns in terms of handset sales with the iPhone and the recent Verizon launch should give it a good run until the next release in its cycle – expected around June....
Although all these products are MLC flash-based and target the consumer enthusiast market, they do vary in price, on-board controllers, memory chips, and cache sizes, which should make for some very interesting results. With dozens of manufacturers now offering some kind of solid state drive, you should know there are only a handful of them you should concern yourself with. MLC drives based on either the Samsung S3C29RBB01-YK40, Indilinx Barefoot or Intel’s own controller are all you should be looking at today....
It’s interesting to note that the MSM8974-AA’s CPU has been downclocked 11 MHz from the maximum clock speed of 2.26 GHz to 2.15 GHz. This shouldn’t affect performance greatly, and is likely due to thermal restraints; the Z1 Compact can get quite warm when the SoC is being fully utilized, so this slight downclock may stop the glass from fracturing in extreme circumstances, for example. The connectivity options integrated into the Snapdragon 800 include Category 4 LTE (bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20), HSPA+ (at 850, 900, 1700, 1900 and 2100 MHz frequencies), quad-band GSM, Bluetooth 4....
If you’ve been closely following Sony’s hardware releases this year, you’ll probably assume (like I did) that the display in the Z3 is identical to the display in the Z2. However, like many aspects of Sony’s latest flagship, the display has actually been improved slightly compared to its predecessor through a series of tweaks. The hardware is mostly the same, but a side-by-side comparison reveals a few traits in the Z3’s favour....
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the rugged version of the Apple Watch will feature a “nearly 2-inch display” (diagonally), about 7% more screen area than the largest current Apple Watch. It will also come with a bigger battery for longer life and a larger resolution than its predecessor— 410 x 502, compared to 484 x 396—which will allow it to show more fitness metrics on the screen. The standard Apple Watch 8 is expected to keep the same 1....
“It’s inconceivable to me that we are keeping our most precious assets, our knowledge and our data, on Earth, where we’re setting off bombs and burning things,” said Christopher Stott, founder and CEO of Lonestar. “We need to put our assets in place off our planet, where we can keep it safe,” Stott continued. There’s arguably nowhere better to store data away from Earth than the Moon. At a distance of roughly 240,000 miles away, our natural satellite is close enough to maintain constant communication with users on Earth yet far enough away to protect it from local calamities....
Sadly (though not unexpectedly), “it’s also the beginning of the end.” When writing the show’s complete story arc from the beginning, the Duffer Brothers expected it would run four to five seasons. The story ended up being too large to compress into just four seasons, and as we’ll soon see, “we are now hurtling toward our finale.” Season four will be the penultimate season; season five will be the last....
When it came to comfort and sound quality, all agreed that the $90 Polk Striker P1 Multiplatform stood out as one of the best. The Kingston HyperX Cloud II also did well and most agreed that it was as comfortable as the Striker P1 and sounded almost as good. On the opposite side, neither the Gigabyte Force H3X nor the Tesoro Kuven Pro rated well. Unfortunately, the Razer Kraken 7....
For the purpose of this review Synology supplied a pair of 750GB hard drives which retail for roughly $80 each, making the total hard drive bill $160. However, to justify spending $370 on the DS410j users may want to go with at least 1TB drives, giving a total storage capacity of 4TBs and a ~$360 hard drive bill. The Disk Station Assistant software is provided on a CD, though the latest version as of this writing (2....
x6 Western Digital Red 1TB Synology DiskStation DS713+ and DX513 x6 Western Digital Red 1TB Synology DiskStation DS713+ x2 Western Digital Red 1TB Synology DiskStation DS413 x4 Western Digital Red 3TB Synology DiskStation DS413j x4 Western Digital Red 3TB Synology DiskStation DS213+ x2 Western Digital Red 3TB Synology DiskStation DS213air x2 Western Digital Red 3TB Thecus N5550 x4 Western Digital Red 3TB QNAP TS-269L x2 Western Digital Red 3TB...
This category encompasses a little bit of everything, but commonly you’ll find 14, 15 and 17-inch screens, mid-range discrete graphics cards (though some are also settling for Intel’s Ivy Bridge integrated HD 4000 graphics nowadays), at least 4GB of RAM, and plenty of connectivity options. Lenovo ThinkPad T430s Lenovo’s ThinkPad T Series has long been known as the gold standard for business notebooks. Starting at $999, the T430s offers all the business-minded and security features you’d expect from the ThinkPad line while maintaining a slim design that’s easy to lug around....
The company showcased a host of notebook systems from all the usual suspects, accompanied by netbooks and tablets running the tiny Atom chip. In total, more than 400 mobile and desktop platform designs are expected from computer makers based on these products, with another 200 expected for embedded devices. While most of this information was revealed prior to start of the show, Intel still had one tidbit to keep us interested at CES: their new WiDi (Wireless Display) technology....
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the lawsuit, which claims Google is violating a 2009 Texas biometric law that requires companies to receive advanced, informed consent before collecting biometric data, including fingerprints, voices, and records of people’s “face geometry.” The complaint alleges that Google has been violating this law since 2015 when it introduced the Google Photos Face Grouping feature, which identifies facial features to recognize a face within a photo and group any pictures or videos that include that person (or pet)....
Silverstone Heligon HE02 The Heligon HE02 is without question the largest heatsink in our shootout and quite possibly the biggest heatsink we’ve ever seen. It’s so massive that it can safely cool high-end CPUs such as the Core i7-4960X without a fan directly attached. Using only chassis fans, it can handle chips with a TDP of up to 130W, though you can also mount a pair of 120mm fans if additional cooling power is desired over silence....
Called the “Dark Knight,” Xigmatek’s entry has a typical heatpipe/tower design, but it strays from the norm by covering its copper and aluminum parts with a black nickel coating. The only exposed area is the base, which features heat-pipe direct contact (HDC) technology (you’ll get it when you see the pictures). The three 8mm heatpipes are exposed at the base to provide maximum thermal condition from top to bottom. The cooler measures 159H x 120W x 50D mm and weighs 483g without a fan....
The low and medium quality settings are very similar. There is slightly more detail when using the medium quality settings and the textures are improved. Oddly, the high quality preset looks much better than the ultra quality in our opinion. High offers more details overall, while ultra has softer shadows and lighting. Unlike the previous set of pictures, there is a significant difference between low and medium here. The foliage off in the distance is softer when using the medium quality preset and there are small 3D rocks on the ground....
Once in Windows and your graphics drivers and other software is updated, it’s a good idea to disable things that might interrupt the system’s 24/7 operation such as the screensaver, hibernation (type “powercfg -h off” in an elevated command prompt) and the User Account Control prompt to name a few. I also set the system’s power plan to performance and disabled the option to put my hard drive to sleep....
Over the weekend, a senior artist from Naughty Dog hinted that the studio’s remake of the original The Last of Us will hit PC “very soon” after it releases on PlayStation 5. Those words are vague, but they may set a precedent for the cadence of Sony’s PC ports going forward. So far, all of the former PlayStation-exclusive games Sony has brought to PC arrived on the platform multiple years after releasing on PlayStation 4....
