EVGA introduces Android overclocking
EVGA has announced its latest Z77-touting motherboards and at the same time unveiled a vision for our ubiquitously computed future. It’s got PC and phone working together in perfect harmony, the one symbiotically adapting and informing the other. Just as happy computers should be.
Thanks to an Android-friendly version of its Precision X tuning software, you can have your games running their beautiful virtual worlds in immersive high resolution on your PC screen. On your phone, meanwhile, there’s a touch sensitive interface for tuning your CPU and graphics clockspeeds without flicking back to the desktop.
Lian Li launches littlest (ATX) mobo, lovely for LANs
What with all these new sub-30nm, highly power efficient processor designs from Intel, AMD and NVIDIA launching lately, the days of the big box PC must surely be behind us. Why set aside all that space for internal airflow and cooling when you can pack everything closer together and still get Battlefield 3 running at more than 60 frames per second?
Which is why next PC might well look like this: Lian Li’s latest case, the PC-V700.
Intel intros series 7 motherboards
Easter Sunday. Depending on your ethical proclivities it was a day for church, chocolate or just chilling out playing some games safe in the knowledge that you don’t have to work tomorrow. Or, if you’re Intel, it’s a day for launching your new range of motherboard chipsets and a swanky example of their kind to go with it.
Nope, timing beats me too. Still, I’ve had one of their new Z77-type boards in the office for a few days now, which is long enough to be suitably impressed with it.
Awesome Aztec mod seeks Tomb Raider types
Ever looked at that big black box under your desk and thought it looked a little bit too modern for your Chocola-themed games room? Does it rather spoil the ambience of your human sacrifice chamber? How about turning it into something a little more traditional, like a stone shrine to Q’uq’umatz or other god of your own choosing?
That’s what Dan McGrath did when he turned an already bonkers Thermaltake Level 10 GT chassis into AzTtec, a PC worthy of the ancients.
Cooler Master joins mechanical keyboard club
Once upon a time a mechanical keyboards seemed to be typing their way into extinction. Their loud and bouncy buttons appeared very old fashioned and expensive against a legion of slender Apple clones. Now, no serious peripherals company can be taken seriously without a mechanised letter rack to its name, and barely a week goes by without another one joining the fray.
The latest firm to do so is Cooler Master. Better known for its cases and power supplies, it’s been slowly building up its Storm gaming brand over the last couple of years, and just like Corsair before it has announced a Cherry MX Black-toting keyboard as its premiere gear du guerre.
Google glasses just got real
According to a post over on Google+ (remember that?), engineers from the top secret Google[x] laboratory have just confirmed one of tech’s most interesting rumours. They’re working on a pair of glasses that includes a heads-up display for augmented reality information.
There’s little in the way of detail on the Google+ landing page, but The New York Times has some interesting extra information, including a few quotes from someone who claims to have used the glasses in question.
Valve actively seeking Linux devs
Oh happy day. As someone who resents leaving the safety of his Ubuntu desktop every time I want to play a game or do some benchmarking, today’s headline from Phoronix.com is frankly the news I’ve been waiting for for years.
Valve has been recruiting for at least one Linux specialist to help port Windows games with this job ad since January. But it looks like they’re getting very serious, and keen to push on with the project. Phoronix’ Michael Larabel has received an email from Gabe himself asking for help head hunting.
‘Like’ to have a left handed MMO mouse?
In these days of equal opportunity and well enforced rights of access laws, it seems almost unforgivable that one group of gamers is still unconsciously discriminated against. But then, it wasn’t until I’d worked with a particularly militant south-paw dep ed that even liberal’ole me came to realise just how few of our toys take left-handedness into account. This realisation grew stronger every time a right-handed mouse was thrown in my direction.
You’ve been able to get left-handed guitars, left-handed golf clubs, left-handed hammers and even left-handed pencils on almost every high street since 1968, but only Razer makes mice suited to the one in ten people for whom ergonomics is a backward science. And they only released their first DeathAdder lefty two years ago. Which is great for FPS player, but what about MMOers? Won’t somebody think of them?
Help Hubble, win an iPad
It’s not a PC game as such, but it does involve your PC and there’s an element of competition, here’s something to occupy a few hours of free time between now and the end of May. Take those sharp powers of observation and image analysis you’ve honed through play and put them to some sort of productive use.
Join the hunt for Hubble’s Hidden Treasures. You can help to find new galactic objects, make some of those of colourful ‘artists impressions’ pictures of nebula that grace box art and maybe win an iPad too. Not bad for what is, to all intents and appearances, a browser based game. It’ll help kill time until the next Mass Effect 3 DLC comes out.
Digital Storm’s sub-zero system revealed
I’m not hugely familiar with US system builder Digital Storm, since they don’t have an outlet on this side of the Atlantic, but the ’boutique’ PC maker has just added an impressive looking new case to its line up that rather makes me wish they did.
It uses the first case that the company has designed itself, apparently, something which is almost unheard of for an independent shop, certainly since Alienware and VoodooPC were bought out by Dell and HP respectively. The ‘Aventum’, as Digital Storm’s new range is known, may not have the catchiest name and it certainly has a bleeding eye price, but it’s intriguing, nonetheless.
The PC Gamer Rig: A graphics upgrade… or is it?
You can always hold off upgrading until the next big thing has been announced, so offering it as some sort of advice is a little bit weak. But the thing is, right now, there really is a good reason to hold off putting together a new machine or upgrading your old one. I’ve updated the PC Gamer Rig this week, but I’m not so sure you should.
Here’s why.
Red Harbinger puts a PC in your desk
Big gaming PCs are great, but finding room for that giant case with all its fans and graphics cards can be tough. Especially if you live in a moderately sized flat as opposed to a rural mansion. Which is why the work of Red Harbinger looks interesting. This newcomer to the world of bespoke boutique systems is looking to popularise the idea of putting a PC inside a desk.
Future PCs made of blood and spit
If you built a computer using your own bodily fluids, would you – shamanlike – imbue it with mystical powers and the very essence of your life force? Would it be, technically, an android? We’re about to find out, if researchers at the University of Tel Aviv have their way.
They’ve figured out a way to create nano-scale transistors from organic materials, including blood, milk and mucus. Which means not only are they the future of electronics, they could also be classed as art.
And they’re biodegrable. Everyone wins.
The PC Gamer Rig: A hard drive bargain driven?
Thinking of building yourself a new PC or upgrading an old one? Then you’ve come to the right post for component advice. The PC Gamer Rig is our (almost) weekly update about the state of kit costs and best value performance for your PC.
Gaming ultrabooks on their way?
There’s been some interesting new laptops shown off this week over at the giant German gadget-fest that is CeBit. Most intriguing is Acer’s next ultrabook, the Aspire Timeline Ultra M3. That machine is just 20mm from table to top, has a 15inch screen and a DVD drive, an Ivy Bridge processor and what appears to be a – if Legit Reviews is to be believed – a GeForce GT640M graphics chip.
