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Hard Stuff: Case Roundup

PC Gamer — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:40:54 +0000

Tempest 210 NZXT
SCORE: 77

The Tempest 210 isn’t all that large, measuring in at 19.3 inches deep, 17.9 inches tall, and 7.7 inches wide. It does manage to squeeze in a decent amount of stuff for its size, though, including two fans (a 14cm top exhaust fan and 12cm rear exhaust fan) with support for five more. There are seven PCI expansion slots, and although it comes with just three optical drive bays, it does include eight toolless hard drive bays and an SSD mount at the bottom of the case.

Three cable-routing cutouts keep the wiring neatly organized behind the motherboard, and the case accommodates extra-long graphics cards, though at the expense of some hard drive mounts. Building into the Tempest isn’t too tricky, although the cutout for the 8-pin CPU power cable is barely usable. The Tempest is still definitely a budget case. Its front panel connectors include just one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 port, and the hard drive mounts are a little on the flimsy side. On the other hand, two fans are better than one, and given that, for budget standards, it has slightly roomier confines and better stock cooling-performance, it should definitely appeal to some.

Outlaw BitFenix
SCORE: 74

BitFenix’s Outlaw is a petite steel midtower case with a restrained, refined aesthetic. The BitFenix signature “SofTouch” coating is restricted to the front panel, while the rest of the case is painted matte black inside and out. So why is it it called the Outlaw? Probably because the motherboard mounts upside down. The Outlaw has four hard drive bays, four optical bays, and room for one SSD at the bottom of the chassis, and the hard drives and optical drives attach with thumbscrews. The case has seven PCI expansion slots. Though it has mounts for seven additional 120mm fans (two each on the top, front, and side panel and one on the bottom), the Outlaw only ships with one 12cm exhaust fan.

The odd motherboard placement works well for the Outlaw—long video cards easily clear the top of the hard drive compartment. Spare power cables fit behind the hard drive trays, so a clean-looking install is pretty easy. Though small (18.9 inches deep, 17.3 inches tall, 7 inches wide), the Outlaw is a good choice for a budget build. If USB 3.0 and multiple fans are must-haves, though, look elsewhere, cowboy—the four front-panel USB ports are 2.0 only.

Thor v12 Rosewill
SCORE: 88

Rosewill’s Thor v2 is aptly named. It’s big, it’s burly, it’s heavy, and it’s really roomy. OK, my metaphor just broke down, but the Thor is huge on the outside and even bigger on the inside, and packed with features that are standard on cases twice or thrice its price. How nice! The Thor can accommodate motherboards in Micro ATX, ATX, E-ATX, and XL-ATX form factors. Its motherboard tray has squillions of rubber-grommeted cable routing holes to make wiring your case a snap, and it also comes with three 23cm fans and one 14cm fan, with two variable-speed controllers that can control up to three fans each. Six hard drive trays and six optical drive trays mean the Thor can handle all your storage and optical drives, with room left for a water reservoir or two.

Building a system into the Thor is easy, and the stock fans keep your rig cool while running quietly. You can swap the top 23cm fan for a dual 120mm or 140mm radiator (if water-cooling’s your thing), or stick four 12cm fans on the side panel for massive intake. The top has cooling vents that can open and close, though I can’t imagine closing them unless you take out the top fan. The Thor’s build quality can’t quite match top-tier full towers like Corsair’s 800D or Silverstone’s TJ11, and its front-panel connectors can get in the way a bit, but it’s solid enough, easy to build into, and keeps your components cool quietly. For the gamer who has everything (and wants to put it all into the same build), the Thor v2 is a good case for surprisingly low price.

Carbide 400R Corsair
SCORE:83

Corsair is known for cases that are stylish, well built, and on the pricey side. The Carbide series is aimed at the budget-conscious—and $99 is cheap for a Corsair case. The Carbide 400R is a midtower, although at 20.5 inches deep by 19.2 inches tall by 8.1 inches wide, it’s slightly larger than the BitFenix or NZXT cases in this roundup, and it feels much larger inside. The 400R contains two 12cm front intake fans and a 12cm exhaust fan, with five additional 12cm/14cm fan mounts, and the top panel can accommodate a 240mm radiator. The front and bottom panels have removable dust filters.
The 400R’s four optical drive bays are toolless, and the six removable hard drive trays have toolless hard drive mounts, though screws are still required for SSDs.

The motherboard tray has four rubber-grommeted cutouts for cable routing, and in true Corsair tradition, hardware installations and cable routing are extremely easy, with plenty of room behind the right side panel for cabling. The case easily supports the longest graphics cards. The 400R’s front panel contains two USB 3.0 ports (with pass-through cable and USB 2.0 adapter), FireWire, and audio jacks, as well as a switch for the front fan’s white LEDs. At twice the price of the Tempest or Outlaw, the 400R might be too much for the extremely budget-conscious, but it has Corsair’s build quality and ease of use, though there are certainly $100 cases that offer more bang for the buck.

Hard Stuff: Maingear VYBE Super Stock review

PC Gamer — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

The pitch line for the VYBE Super Stock is “Geared for gamers—priced for the masses.” But can you really get something that sports a reasonable price tag and can also meet the specialized needs of gamers?

The VYBE SS doesn’t feel like a budget box. In fact, the customized BitFenix Shinobi case has a nice quality to it and is fairly quiet. And looking inside the case, it’s obvious that Maingear didn’t skimp on CPU. Using Intel’s epically fast and cheap quad-core 3.4GHz Core i7-2600K, the VYBE SS makes no apologies to any other chip save Intel’s new Core i7-3960X, which is a hell of a lot pricier. Maingear takes advantage of a self-contained water-cooling system to overclock the 2600K by 1GHz to 4.4GHz. The Core i7 is mounted in a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard, which features a mini 20GB Intel 311 SSD on it. This SSD is used to cache often-used files to immensely speed up access to the machine’s single 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive. Other important specs include 8GB of Kingston DDR3/ 1600 RAM, a 24x DVD burner, and a fairly quiet Seasonic 660-watt PSU.

Who knew something's insides could look so cool.

The most important part of any gaming system is the graphics setup, and Maingear opts for two GeForce GTX 560 cards in SLI. Why not a single GeForce GTX 580 instead? The simple truth is that two GeForce GTX 560 cards often outgun a single GTX 580, and a single GTX 580 would be more expensive by about a hundred bucks too. The dual-card setup can hamstring you should you ever want to upgrade—you’ll have to jettison both older cards to do so—but for someone looking to pack in performance on a budget, the 560 cards makes immense sense.

In performance this baby doesn’t disappoint, and for kicks, I also fired up EA’s Battlefield 3 beta on the VYBE SS and found it pushing out around 50fps at 1920×1080 when set to high.
At $1,700, the Maingear VYBE SS does what it claims to do—gives gamers pretty damn good performance for a pretty damn good price. In other words, it’s all damn good.

Nvidia 3D Vision Wired Glasses Review

Alex Castle — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:00:50 +0000

Although I’m a little sick of 3D hype, I have to admit that gaming in 3D is more immersive, more tactile, and generally a lot of fun. Nvidia must agree, as it’s expanding its 3D Vision line with a less-expensive wired model of its 3D glasses. That lower price comes hand in hand with easy setup—as long as you’ve got the necessary components (3D Vision-ready monitor, Nvidia GeForce video card, up-to-date drivers) the glasses are pretty much plug-and-play.

Most games work with very little configuration, but some, like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, simply will not run with Nvidia’s 3D Vision (thanks to an exclusive deal for AMD’s 3D products; you can check Nvidia’s site for a mostly comprehensive list of which games will work). And as with most 3D hardware, 3D Vision effectively halves your monitor’s brightness, meaning you won’t want to use it in a well-lit room.
The glasses themselves are largely the same as the wireless version, though the build quality is noticeably cheaper on the wired model. The set is matte instead of shiny, has more visible seams, and just generally feels a bit more plasticky than the wireless version. The wire is a long 10 feet and never left me feeling overly tethered, though it did have an unfortunate tendency to get tangled up.
The glasses come with swappable nose-pads, but even with them, I’ve never found the 3D Vision set to be very comfortable. Also, as with most active shutter glasses, the lenses are pretty narrow, which means they intrude on my peripheral vision more than I’d like.

At $99, the wired 3D Vision glasses are two-thirds the price of the wireless alternative. I’m not crazy about the build quality or design, but the 3D technology is a lot of fun, and these glasses are the cheapest, fastest way to get it on your PC.

A look at eight new mouse pads to ramp up your game

PC Gamer — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:35:45 +0000

Mousepads are an often overlooked piece of gaming hardware. I tend to consider mine more of a coaster for coffee than something that can improve my gaming. Yet thin sheets beneath our mice can go a long ways in helping define comfort and precision. These mouse pads just scratch the surface on the multitude of options to aid your next killstreak.

GP-MP8000

Some people say that size doesn’t matter, but I guarantee you that those people haven’t actually experienced anything this big. So, yeah—this sucker’s as big as a 13-inch laptop (and it’ll invade your precious desk space, shoving your keyboard aside with its imposing dimensions), but it’s worth it. Heavy-duty MMO raiders and StarCraft strategists will drool over the real estate; they’ll also adore the fact that the mouse doesn’t drop off the pad while they’re swinging about frantically. As long as you’ve got a gigantic desk and some long arms to accommodate it, this monster will last you for years.
Score: 85

9HD

The 9HD is a bare-bones professional mousepad, but it still performs like the big guys. It’s roughly the size of a magazine, is easy to slide in and out of your backpack, and can be cleaned with a quick wipe of a damp cloth. Mice coast across it effortlessly, and you won’t lose tracking even with sporadic gesticulations as you’re struggling to heal your troops in Team Fortress 2. If your focus is more on travel and LAN parties (and you’re not bathing in cash), the 9HD is a terrific choice.
Score: 85

Microtracker

The MicroTracker Mousepad’s makers posit that it’ll eliminate all of your mouse frustrations forever. They’re wrong. Very, very wrong. Guiding an optical or laser mouse across the MicroTracker’s microfiber surface is like pushing a vacuum cleaner over a shag carpet—it drags along and pulls the microfibers every which way, which is damned aggravating. Don’t think about playing games on this thing, or even moving your mouse across it for simple tasks like opening a document. On the other hand, you could always just use the MicroTracker for its other advertised use—cleaning your screen.
Score: 40

Ironclad

If only life were as smooth sailing as a mouse on the Ironclad’s delightful, aluminum surface. This entire pad is literally a metal sheet, and its sandblasted surface is perfect for lining up long-distance headshots. Better yet, the Ironclad’s rubber base stays put while you’re focusing on the important stuff such as machine-gunning Tangos in Counter-Strike. The surface is easy to clean and doesn’t attract any mouse gunk, and it’s perfectly safe to transport in the included (and stout) plastic carrying case.
Score: 95

Behemoth Regulator

This mousepad’s texture is a total throwback to the ’90s, when foam reigned supreme. (I vaguely recall buying one like this in a bargain bin at Fry’s.) Despite its chintzy appearance, however, it’s surprisingly comfortable—like a Tempur-Pedic mattress for your wrists. Its long, rectangular shape means tons of tracking room, so there’s a considerable safety net to avoid your mouse dropping off the edges. But because of its surface, it’s a dust-bunny magnet, which is annoying when you’ve gotta pick them off the bottom of your mouse. It’s a decent pad overall, but its large shape isn’t for everyone.
Score: 73

Fierce Teflon and Steel

Because of the Teflon’s frictionless, metallic surface, your mouse will coast across this pad just as easily as your breakfast comes off a Teflon pan. Its overall size is roughly identical to the SteelSeries 9HD, but much more brawny. It’s pleasantly smooth to the touch, though it’s a magnet for greasy fingerprints. It’s a good feel for first-person shooter fans who need the quick reaction time, but if you also use your mouse for things like graphic design, the tracking feels a little loose. If you’re looking for a smooth metal surface, Rude’s Teflon mouse surface is a fair buy. But if you can afford it, stick with the Ironclad.
Score: 74

Warpad

The WarPad’s 17- by 14-inch surface clips to the edge of your desk, which prevents the mousepad from slipping backward during feverish gameplay. Additionally, it enables fantastic wrist support, which is key for ergonomics—something that gamers should always take into consideration when they’re shopping for gear. The WarPad’s design also leaves your desk space’s sovereignty intact since it lies vertically rather than horizontally, and the tracking is nice and easy. Finally—a cloth mousepad that does it right!
Score: 92

Mionix Sargus 460

There are big mousepads, and then there are some so maddeningly bloated that you have to start charging them rent. Mionix’s Sargas 460 is one such offender. Measuring in at about the same size as a standard 21-inch monitor, dealing with where to put your keyboard so it’s still accessible (and level) is a frustrating conundrum. Fortunately, mice feel amazing as they shoot across the surface, and you can get away with orienting it vertically to save some space on your desktop. But again, as the Sargus proves, there is such thing as overkill.
Score: 70

Hard Stuff: LG Flatron D2342P Passive 3D Monitor review

Seamus Bellamy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:39:18 +0000

Good news! LG’s Flatron D2342P monitor allows for 3D gaming on the cheap! That said, the 3D experience it offers is, well, kind of cheap.

The D2342P looks great on paper: it’s got a tasty 23-inch serving of 1080p-capable 3D gaming and movie glory. And with sleek lines, a glossy piano-black bezel, and matching stand, it looks even better when it’s assembled and sitting on your desk. Sadly, looks aren’t everything, and once you get past this beauty’s aesthetics, there’s not a lot left to love.

For starters, the external housing feels pretty flimsy. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you could be confident that the monitor would stay where you put it, but one of the first things I noticed after setup is that it moves around on the desk in response to the mild vibrations caused by typing. Even worse, anything more than a light touch to the side of its bezel left it wobbling back and forth like a Weeble on a bender. It never fell over, but if your rage-quits include a lot of gesticulation, this ain’t the monitor you’re looking for.

You could also run into problems if your desk sits on the low side, as the D2342P’s stand only offers 15 degrees of backward tilt. However, as the monitor is VESA compatible, it can be mounted on a wall or an articulated arm, making up for the shallow amount of out-of-the-box tilt LG provides for. As for connections, the D2342P covers the bases, and comes equipped with a headphone jack, HDMI, DVI and VGA ports.

Even if you’re able to get past setup issues, the performance isn’t great. While the D2342P is capable of rocking a resolution of 1920×1080, its color quality is a washed-out disappointment in both 2D and 3D, with black tones—something that LED displays have traditionally handled well—often appearing in both games and movies as dark grays.

The big selling point for this bad boy is that the D2342P is capable of providing 3D video at a significantly lower price point than hardware that uses Nvidia’s 3D Vision Kit technology. LG delivers this by outfitting the D2342P with its own proprietary passive 3D technology. Despite the rest of the monitor’s failings, the D2342P does serve up a satisfactory 3D gaming and video experience, albeit with some pretty substantial ghosting whenever there is a large amount of movement on screen. It just goes to show that in life, and in this case, with 3D monitors, you get what you pay for.

Price: $350 ◆ Size: 23” (diagonal) ◆ Resolution: 1920×1080 ◆ Aspect Ratio: 16:9 ◆ Ports: HDMI, DVI, VGA ◆ Type: Passive 3D ◆ Link: www.lg.com ◆ Category: Mid

Just arrived: Samsung 700G7A

Adam Oxford — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:42:54 +0000

Not a name you’d normally associate with gaming notebooks, Samsung’s latest 700G7A has just turned up in the office ready for review in issue 235. With its 17.3inch, 1080p screen and £1500 price tag, it’s up against some fairly serious opposition from the likes of Alienware and ASUS, but I think it’ll do rather well.

Here’s why.

First off, it’s got a great screen – which is sadly still unusual for a high price laptop in which you’d expect everything to be the best. Part of the reason is that Samsung has a lot of know how when it comes to display technology, but it’s also because this is a high frequency monitor designed for 120Hz 3D.

Which means that in 2D mode, it’s as good as any laptop display I’ve seen barring Apple’s IPS ones.

Secondly, it’s got great specs. Unlike most of its peers in the 3D-laptop world, the 700G7A uses an AMD video card rather than an NVIDIA one. If you watch stereoscopic movies, the glasses are lightly and slightly cooler looking – more like a character in a Daniel Suarez novel than the lead from Joe 90.

More pertinently, though, AMD’s notebook video chips are much better value than NVIDIA’s at the moment. A similarly priced laptop with a GeForce on board would likely come with a GTX 560M. The Samsung 700G7A packs a Mobility Radeon HD6970M, which more or less doubles most of the benchmarks I’ve run at high detail settings. That’s because the AMD chip is roughly the same as a respectable Radeon HD6850 on the desktop, while the GTX 560M is somewhere between a GT 545 and a GTS 450

Shogun 2′s high detail 1080p benchmark goes from 14fps on the GTX 560M to 30 on the HD6970.

Aside from performance, the 700G7A is also really well built. The mostly plastic chassis isn’t particularly good looking, but at 3.5Kgs its reasonably light for a 17inch. Most importantly the keyboard is well designed for gaming and there’s plenty of I/O connectors, including an easy to upgrade hard drive bay for adding extra storage if you need it.

There’s also a rotating dial on the side for switching between an overclocked game mode, general purpose mode, silent ‘library’ mode and maximum battery saving mode. The last is a bit of a joke – even with the dial locked here you’ll be lucky to get two hours out of it because it doesn’t switch to the on-board Intel graphics – but you can customise each setting far better than on other laptops, and there’s something about its physical presence I love.

There’ll be a full review with more benchmarks in issue 235, but based on first impressions it’s likely that the 700G7A will do very well indeed.

Turn your hard drive into a hybrid

Adam Oxford — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:00:57 +0000

Fancy SSD performance with the kind of storage capacity more commonly associated with a traditional hard drive? You’ve got two choices: either sell your first born to buy a large SSD drive, or take a look at Icy Dock’s new SSD Xpander.

The SSD Xpander is a 3.5inch hard disk caddy designed to hold a standard 2.5inch laptop SSD drive. Around the back, though, there’s an extra SATA port for daisy chaining a normal 3.5inch hard drive to the Xpander. Once you’ve connected both SSD and HDD, a second partition is created on the latter and connected to the SSD via an internal RAID interface. The SSD now appears to Windows (or any other OS, since this is a hardware implementation) as double its actual size. Caching technology moves data between the HDD and the SSD to try and ensure that the bits and bytes you need are kept in the faster SSD half of the virtual drive.

It’s a little like Intel’s Smart Response Technology (SRT) which premièred on recent Z68 motherboards, which can also join an SSD and a hard drive in an unholy union of speed. Only the Xpander theoretically works with any motherboard and system.

The obvious drawback is the same one as is associated with any RAID striping set-up – if one drive fails, you lose data from both. Also, if the caching technology moves data around too much it could end up wearing out the SSD or overloading its garbage collection capabilties. It’s also potentially cheaper to look at a native hybrid drive like the Seagate Momentous XT than buying two separate drives for a new build.

Still, the idea of having a large virtual drive capable of SSD speeds is hugely appealing, and gets around the current house keeping problems of what should and shouldn’t be installed directly to the SSD when a small capacity one is included in a system. Plus, the Icy Dock SSD Xpander is only £30/$48. Since our review sample of has just turned up in the labs, I’ll be able to tell you whether it’s any good or not in the next few days.

Hard Stuff: Falcon Northwest TLX review

Chris Comiskey — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:11:59 +0000

Got a hankering for Ferrari-like paint jobs? Check out Falcon Northwest’s TLX. Its lid is covered in an eyeball-caressing, glittery blue paint, with a majestic falcon’s head emblazoned across the middle. Nice. The trackpad glides easily under the fingers, and the keyboard is one of the finest my digits have ever danced on—laptop or no. Not only that, but games look glorious on the 15.6” screen—all images were sharp and rich with color. The TLX’s Nvidia GTX 460M is a rugged little videocard, and at 1920×1080, with high settings and 4x antialiasing/4x anisotropic filtering, it snagged a very decent 28fps in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and a fantastic 50fps in DiRT 2. The TLX’s modest one hour and 40 minutes of battery life (under constant use) is at least enough for a single viewing of Commando (or any other short film) while traveling.

For those always on the go, the included, Falcon-branded backpack has loads of pockets and a sturdy top-handle. The power brick is practically a ball and chain, but that’s a necessary evil for higher-end parts like the TLX’s Core i7 2820QM processor. The single Crucial 256GB SSD hard drive is speedier than a standard 7200RPM hard drive, but a quarter-terabyte will quickly feel like an abysmal prison for anyone that wants to use the TLX as a portable cinema or mobile gaming library. Its power can’t be questioned, but its value can—at almost $3,500 (and with just a one-year standard warranty), you could have two other laptops for the TLX’s price.

SPEC ◆ Price $3,495 ◆ CPU Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz ◆ RAM 16GB DDR3 1333MHz ◆ GPU Nvidia GTX 460M ◆ Storage Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB ◆ OS Win 7 Home Premium 64 ◆ Link www.falcon-nw.com ◆ Category Dream

Hard Stuff: Digital Storm xm15 review

Chris Comiskey — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:22:43 +0000

For those of us whose pockets don’t bleed money, laptops priced around $1,000 are far more practical, such as the Digital Storm xm15. Of course, you should expect some sacrifices for the lower price. For one, its budget-minded Nvidia GT 540M can’t handle most games at the xm15’s native res of 1920×1080 with high settings and antialiasing turned up. The xm15 squeaked out 17fps in STALKER: Call of Pripyat, and absolutely tanked in Metro 2033, with a slide show-like 8fps. You’ll need to bump down all your in-game resolutions to 1280×720 for decent framerates—which really sucks, especially on an 15.6” screen. And strangely, the xm15’s battery taps out in just under an hour for gaming (compared to the typical 1.5 hours from similar laptops).

That said, the xm15’s chassis is light and compact, as is its power brick; you’ll have no trouble packing it all away in a shoulder bag or backpack. The glossy, graphite-colored lid is gorgeous, although it tends to collect fingerprints. The brushed aluminum on the keyboard tray is wonderful to rest your palms on, and the shallow keyboard is just the right amount of springy when typing. The track pad is smooth as silk, and its buttons depress deep and satisfyingly. For the tragically accident-prone, the xm15 includes a standard three-year limited warranty and lifetime free tech support (and even a 30-day money-back return policy, should your significant other decide that the thousand-buck cost would better be spent on your mortgage). If you crave portability over power, the xm15 is a worthy rig.

SPEC ◆ Price $1,050 ◆ CPU Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz ◆ RAM 6GB DDR3 1600MHz ◆ GPU Nvidia GT 540M ◆ Storage Seagate 500GB 7200RPM ◆ OS Win 7 Home Premium 64 ◆ Link www.digitalstormonline.com ◆ Category Mid

Hard Stuff: Origin EON15-S review

Chris Comiskey — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:01:59 +0000

You know those folks that dress for utility instead of style? The ones that wear flak jackets and ammo belts to dinner parties? The Origin EON15-S is their laptop equivalent. Its lid is painted a flat grey, its power brick is the size of a Volvo and the thing arrives on your doorstep in a gigantic wooden crate that you need a screwdriver to open (seriously). But behind this raw appearance is some hardware that’s ready for any game out there. The EON15-S’ meaty GTX 485M videocard spit out 43fps in STALKER: Call of Pripyat (at its native resolution of 1920×1080), and 83fps at the same resolution in DiRT 2—all on high settings with 4x antialiasing/4x anisotropic filtering.

Performance like this is rare for a sub-$3,000 laptop, especially one that’s so tiny and thin. The 15.6” screen makes games look vibrant with no detectable blurring. HD movies (though there’s no Blu-ray drive) also play with exceptional detail—enough to spot the Kevlar weaves in Batman’s suit. The chiclet keyboard is a joy to dance your fingers on, but sadly, the trackpad is covered in a rubberized coating that creates a bit too much friction for comfort. The EON15-S’s battery life is decent, but you’ll want to plug it in for anything other than web-browsing or writing—don’t expect it to last for more than an hour and a half while playing games or watching videos. The base model comes with a one-year warranty, plus lifetime free tech support and labor—not too shabby. It won’t win any beauty pageants, but for $2,580, this is one badass laptop.

SPEC ◆ Price $2,580 ◆ CPU Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz ◆ RAM 8GB DDR3 1600MHz ◆ GPU Nvidia GTX 485M ◆ Storage WD 750GB 7200RPM ◆ OS Win 7 Home Premium 64 ◆ Link www.originpc.com ◆ Category Dream

Geek toys review: Star Wars FX Lightsabers

Chris Comiskey — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:13:13 +0000

There are certain moments in life I’ll never forget. That time I forced my brother down a make-shift zipline constructed of clothesline rope and a wooden dowel that served as a “pulley,” and then watching him plummet into the earth, breaking his wrist (his fault—he shouldn’t have let go). Or the time when I first beat Battletoads on the NES. (OK that never actually happened.) And know what? I’ll never forget the first time I wrapped my fingers around the glorious hilt of a Star Wars FX lightsaber and fired it up. I mean yeah, the first time I held one was, like, 6 hours ago, but still: I know I’ll remember it for eternity, because this toy is quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to me. Ever.

While the FX versions aren’t quite exact replicas of the movie props (they’re a bit bigger overall, and the on/off switches are small sliders attached to the side of the handles instead of buttons), the lightsabers feel agreeably heavy, and they’re constructed from high-quality metal and rubber. I guarantee it’ll send tingles through your skin the second you activate one (like the movies, the glowing effect travels quickly upwards and downwards instead of just instantly appearing on or off). Waving around a powered saber results in different pitches and tones in the warbling hum, and whipping the blade into random objects sends out those iconic energy-clash-on-impact noises (and all the sounds are thunderously loud—sleeping parents and roomates beware!). It requires four AA batteries to run, but they’re cleverly hidden inside the casing, and they’ll last you for hours of mock-decapitations and de-handings.

The FX lightsabers also come with a posh display stand to show off the hardware. Sadly though, you can’t remove the white, semi-translucent tubing with these models. So when you have sophisticated dinner guests over, and it’s sitting on your fireplace mantle, it’ll look a little funky turned off with the blade still there. Of course there’s an easy solution to that: keep it turned on for a fantastic supper-light ambiance! (Can table-candles stab through metal and bring about galaxy-wide peace? No. No they can’t.) If you fancy yourself a Star Wars nerd, or even if you’ve only seen the movies a few times, or hell: if you just enjoy things that are awesome, for crap’s sakes: buy an FX lightsaber. Nowish.

Grab one at: Think Geek
It’ll cost ya: 100 of the best dollars you’ll ever spend
Wielding one in full-contact cosplay is a bad idea because: The blade, while fairly rugged, will most assuredly shatter on impact if swung with considerable force into another lightsaber. Driving one into a Jar Jar Binks’-themed beanbag or an inanimate poster of George Lucas is fine though (and encouraged).

Hard Stuff: Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 review

Chris Comiskey — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:44:14 +0000

I’ll be frank: the GeForce GTX 590 will murder your checking account. At $700, you’re probably wondering—as I was—if it could possibly be worth it. Well, it’s time to start scraping up extra cash by mowing lawns on the weekend, because yep: this thing is amazing. With all graphics options jacked to their highest levels, the GTX 590 will crush and smoothly liquefy any game you shove in its way, even at the demigodly resolution of 2560×1600. And while it looks like a normal dual-slot videocard (it’s reasonably small for a high-end card), the GTX 590 is actually two GTX 580 chips melded together and crammed into a single casing. The downside of this doubling is that the processor and graphics clock speeds of each on-board chip are set at 607MHz/1215MHz, slightly less than the 772MHz/1544MHz you’d get from running two whole GTX 580 cards in SLI. But since two GTX 580s would run you almost a thousand bucks, that’s a pretty minor quibble, especially considering just how much ass the GTX 590 kicks.

Silent but deadly
Dream-level videocards sometimes suffer from obnoxious fan noise due to the heat from their increased clock and memory speeds. But despite cranking out an amazing 47 frames per second in Metro 2033 and 90fps in STALKER: CoP (at high settings with 4x antialiasing/4x anisotropic filtering and 2560×1600 no less), the GTX 590’s single, center-mounted fan runs ninja-quiet. It’s damn nice to finally get a videocard that doesn’t sound like a helicopter starting up in your PC.

That low-decibel output, of course, doesn’t mean the GTX 590 isn’t a power-hungry beast. This card requires no less than two eight-pin power connectors to function. To be on the safe side, I’d recommend at least an 800W power supply to keep the GTX 590 stable (as opposed to the minimum 700W PSU suggested by Nvidia). Like the GTX 580, the GTX 590 supports all the fanciest DirectX 11 perks, such as hardware tessellation, and you can set it to run PhysX with only a minor dip in performance at high resolutions. It’ll also run Nvidia’s 3D Vision.

For output, the GTX 590 forgoes an HDMI port in favor of three dual-link DVI connectors and one Mini-DisplayPort connector. This is a little odd, but it still supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), so you can watch all your Blu-rays in full 1920×1080 resolution (as long as you’ve got a monitor that’s also HDCP compliant). The good thing about three DVI ports is that hooking up multiple monitors is as simple as plugging in the cables and adjusting the Nvidia display settings on your desktop. (Enabling more than two monitors with different cables can be frustrating.)

Do keep in mind that unless you game at high resolutions (1920×1200 or above), you’re better off saving money and sticking with a single GTX 580. But if you wanna see all your games in their maxed-out, visual best on a 30-inch LCD or multiple displays—the GTX 590 is the card for you. Note: it is illegal to sell your liver.

Benchmarks: 3DMark 11/Vantage (Performance Level) P8479/P37589 ◆ STALKER: CoP 90fps/131/142 ◆ DiRT 2 122fps/120/119 ◆ Metro 2033 47fps/72/85 ◆ All games run at 2560×1600/1920×1200/1680×1050

$700, www.nvidia.com ◆ Category: Dream

Hard Stuff: Razer StarCraft II Marauder review

Lucas Sullivan — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:47:35 +0000

The Marauder’s like a pair of Air Jordans—they look fantastic, but they’re expensive, and buying them won’t improve your skills at the game you know and love.

As part of Razer’s line of StarCraft II gear, the Marauder’s main feature is nifty dynamic backlighting that gauges your APM (actions-per-minute), exclusively in SC2; in other games, it simply glows a static color. And, annoyingly, this smallish keyboard requires two USB ports to make the lights work. Depending on how many actions you’re spamming, the Marauder shines from a Protoss blue (when you’re almost comatose) all the way to blood-red (when you’re a GSL superstar). Unfortunately, the APM colors might show you how bungling of a SC2 player you really are.

While playing against platinum-league vet Norm Chan, my keyboard never surpassed green (one step above lifeless blue); I could only achieve a satisfying red through rapid-fire-clicking waypoints while my fingers played a drum solo on the hotkeys. After Norm ruthlessly thrashed me, the Marauder added insult to injury by blinking red to make sure I knew I lost. Gee, thanks.

Without the Lite-Brite gimmick, the Marauder is a less-than-stellar keyboard. Razer inexplicably decided to smash the arrow keys and Insert/Home/Page Up block into the numpad—this jarring change left me constantly fumbling for keys. Still, you can reassign almost all of the buttons, and each key has a nice tactile feel: they’re sturdy, springy and have an aesthetically-pleasing gloss. But paying $120 for what’s essentially a StarCraft mood-ring—that spectators will enjoy more than you do—just doesn’t make sense.

$120, www.razerzone.com ◆ Category: Dream

Geek toys review: Nanodots

Chris Comiskey — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:04:42 +0000

When the carrying pouch is more entertaining than its contents, there’s something amiss. Inside an admittedly awesome yellow drawstring bag—complete with atomic logo emblazoned across the front—lies a handful of magnetic BBs called nanodots. That stick to each other. Awkwardly. That’s all they do. This is sort of like tearing open the wrapping paper off a massive box on Christmas morning only to discover a mouth-guard and a jockstrap within.

The idea of the nanodots seems cool enough: you’re supposed to be able to mold them like clay, creating nifty, bead-based shapes and miniature modern art masterpieces. In actuality, all I was able to make was a grayish, poop-like cylinder and a hideous metallic doily. Wheeeee. I guess if you bought dozens of packages (there’s a measly 216 dots per bag purchased), you could construct something worthwhile, but at 30 bucks a sack, that’s not likely to happen. Oh, and these are the cheap ones. For $35, you can order the black or silver versions. Or, for a staggeringly painful $40, you can buy them in gold coloring.

On the plus-side, each tiny ball sticks remarkably well to other metallic surfaces, making these perfect for fridge magnets or office use. But that’s distinctly utilitarian, and completely separate from the nanodots’ intended purpose: fun. So if you want some nuclear-powered ferromagnetic spheres to hold your vacation photos to your cubicle, these’ll do just fine. But if you’re looking for a creative sculpturing outlet, stick with Play-Doh instead—it’s cheaper, it smells better, and it doesn’t require an ER visit if accidentally ingested.

Grab one here

It’ll cost ya: $30 to $40 for 216 dots, depending on color (plus shipping)

The plush storage bag is terrific for: Keeping an emergency stock of LEGOs in your jeans’ pocket, filling with rocks to wield as a mini-bludgeoning device, using as an improvised cat-food bowl.

Hard Stuff: Razer Naga Epic review

Josh Augustine — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:05:54 +0000

When the Naga (April 2010, 94%) emerged, its 15 impeccably-placed buttons (designed to catch the overflow of abilities in most MMORPGs) and super-comfy design caused us to hail it as the finest mouse that MMO gamers could buy. Only its leash—the USB cable tying it to the PC—held it back.

The Naga Epic detaches that irritating tail and throws in a docking station and customizable grip plates—great features that live up to the new name. The battery lasts a full work day (around eight to 12 hours in my testing), and swapping between wireless and wired mode (by attaching the USB cable to the docking station or the mouse directly) is quick and painless. Plus, the three different, detachable grip plates provide support for a wide variety of hand sizes, ranging from ogre to dwarf.

The battery pack adds a heftiness that was lacking in the original, almost-weightless Naga, and the slick driver software gives you easy access to its capable insides, adding macros, tweaking DPI and keybindings, and playing with the color and power settings.

One change leaves the Epic feeling a bit neutered, however: two buttons have been moved from the side of the left mouse button to directly below the scroll wheel. It’s horrible placement—I can’t reach either of them without straining my fingers or lifting my hand off the Naga; this effectively removes the buttons from the mouse.

It’s a shame you have to sacrifice button-count for wireless capability. The Naga Epic is a good mouse, but with awkward button locations and a price that’s $50 higher than the wired Naga, it falls a bit short.

$129, www.razerzone.com

Geek toys review: Skitterbot!

Chris Comiskey — Wed, 18 May 2011 23:54:37 +0000

The Skitterbot is one of those toys you buy for your kids, but end up hoarding for yourself. It’s that awesome. The stylish body of this six-legged mecha-insect is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and when activated, it scurries around the floor at a speedy one foot-per-second. You can choose from four different colors—red, blue, green, and white—and all of them look fantastic covering the Skitterbot’s armored shell. You control the Skitterbot via an oval remote that also doubles as a USB-powered recharger (via a retractable data port on the remote and a cord that plugs into the Skitterbot’s mouth).

Sending the little monster in different directions is attained by pressing one of the remote’s five buttons—left, right, back, forward, and stop. Precision jukes and moves are tough to master though, as once a movement button is pressed, the Skitterbot will rocket off in that direction indefinitely until another one is mashed. Sadly, the Skitterbot can’t jump, and those tiny legs tend to skid along smooth surfaces when you change its trajectory. Battery life is kinda so-so as well—about 15 minutes of non-stop skittering—but that’s plenty enough time to generate some heroic pet/spouse-scaring.

You bring the Skitterbot to life by toggling a small switch under its rump; and you’ll know when it’s turned on, because the Skitterbot’s eyes will glow and pulse at you, staring directly into your soul. Pitting two Skitterbots against each other is pretty much euphoria. I could watch my two little guys battering-ram one another for hours and not get bored. Playing with them in the dark is even better, as their angled, plastic bodies look like miniature UFOs dashing around the carpet. For God’s sakes, show your inner child you still love him and buy a Skitterbot.

Grab one here

It’ll cost ya: $15 (plus shipping)

It’ll terrify your cat because: Its crimson carapace acts as a natural defense mechanism to feline incisors. Also, it sounds like a mini-machine gun whilst skittering.

Hard Stuff: Psyko Audio Labs Carbon review

Chris Comiskey — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:58:25 +0000

This headset is absolutely massive. I’m talking Goliath-massive. After just two hours of using it, my neck ached as if I was wearing a military-grade Kevlar helmet. This is because the Psyko Carbon is constructed off a hard-molded, reinforced plastic frame (and consequently, it can’t be folded up to save space). It’s got some fabulous extras though, including a cloth-braided cable that doesn’t get tangled on your desk, an external mix-amp with a bass and volume dial, and LED lights on the mix-amp that show which of the headset’s speakers are currently being used. You can even pop open the sides of the ear cups via their hinged plastic covers to hear what’s going on in the real world (but closing them is like hearing a door slam inside your skull). While the mic doesn’t sound incredible, it’s detachable, which is nice.

However, the Carbon sounds better than any headset I’ve ever tested. The audio is routed down from the top of the headband, and the speakers are positioned at different angles and locations inside the ear cups (as opposed to traditional headset speakers that all face your ears). The design is perfect. Echoes and thunderstorms surround you from all directions, shouts and groans from bad guys move around your head as you juke and weave through cover, while the sounds of your own gunshots and melee attacks are planted firmly in the center. The Carbon costs a fortune, but if you’ve got the money—and a strong neck—it’s worth every nickel.

$200 ◆ www.psykoaudio.com ◆ Category: Dream

Hard Stuff: Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB review

Erik Belsaas — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:16:27 +0000

The X-Fi HD is something of an oddity. It’s a USB-powered external soundcard designed for laptops—and when it comes to delivering awesome audio, it exceeds expectations. However, the features of the card leave you wondering who Creative had in mind when designing it.

The X-Fi HD USB is based on the same architecture as the X-Fi Titanium HD, and you can expect the same kind of sound out of it, including striking Dolby Digital support and THX certification (meaning it passes rigid sound standards set by Lucasfilm Ltd.). You’ll have no issues getting lost in deep soundscapes that’ll sweep you across Azeroth or have you diving into the trenches of Germany—tweaked just how you like it thanks to great drivers and software like Creative’s ALchemy and EAX Studio. Unfortunately, due mainly to the higher noise and interference you get from running power and input signals through the same USB cable, and the lack of ASIO support (which helps prevent lag in sound signals), the overall quality isn’t quite that of the Titanium HD.

Oddly lacking on the X-Fi HD are any 3.5mm audio jacks—instead there’s a .25 inch jack. This means that with most headsets, you’ll need a .25 inch to 3.5mm adapter, which is annoyingly not included in the box. Just as odd: included on the card is a phonograph ground—you know, for all your portable record-playing needs. That said, there are top-notch RCA and optical inputs and outputs, and converting from RCA to 3.5mm is easily done with an included patch cable, so finding a solution that works for your particular setup shouldn’t be too difficult.

As portable soundcards go, it’s tough to find anything better, especially at $100. However, if you’ve got a tower instead of a notebook, look to the Titanium HD for better (although a little more expensive) results.

$100, www.creative.com

Hard Stuff: Thermaltake eSPORTS Shock review

Chris Comiskey — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:10:15 +0000

Getting a headset that rivals your 2.1 external speakers’ sound is tough to do without dropping $200 (or more). And yet, the Tt eSPORTS Shock manages to do just that, and at a very reasonable $80. Each sound that flows into your ears is powerful, smooth, and snappy—whether it’s a fireball detonating in Dragon Age 2, a Geisha’s soft advice in Total War: Shogun 2, or the background music hammering away in Mass Effect 2’s Afterlife club. I never detected any audio glitches or muddied sound, even with the volume jammed to ear-bleed levels.

The magic doesn’t stop there: the plush, soft ear cups fold up into themselves for easy and compact storage (via a strong metal hinge on each), and the plastic that covers them is bendable and rugged. The white coloring peppered with dashes of black and red looks fantastic, and the mic and sound cables are long enough to connect to a PC over six feet away. These headsets are helium-light as they rest on your noggin, and the microphone is surprisingly clear for in-game chat (but not quite to studio-recording quality). There aren’t many extras though—you won’t find THX/DTS support or 5.1 virtual surround software, for example, but that’s fairly common for the sub-$100 realm. Considering that some other headsets cost three times as much and still don’t sound as good, I can’t recommend these enough.

$80 ◆ www.thermaltakeusa.com ◆ Category: Mid

Hard Stuff: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD review

Erik Belsaas — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:55:37 +0000

So you’ve got a sweet 5.1 surround sound speaker setup and an awesome gaming library to support it—but if you’re running those speakers via your motherboard’s onboard audio, you may as well be using $20 speakers from your local drugstore. What you need is a dedicated soundcard, and Creative—the pioneer of soundcards for PC gaming—has released its newest flagship warbler: the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD.

Creative rebuilt the X-Fi Titanium HD from the ground up for Windows 7, ditching support for some legacy audio architectures. While this does create an easier to use experience (i.e. switching playback devices mid-gameplay), it means that any Windows XP users out there will not be able to use this card. That said—it’s worth the upgrade. Creative has pulled out all the stops and turned the X-Fi Titanium HD into an audiophile’s dream card—dedicated headphone amps, a durable EM shield, and swappable op-amps (small amplifiers designed to enhance analog signals). Changing these amps will alter the overall tone of all sounds produced, depending on personal preference.

Installing the card is as easy as plugging it into a PCI-E port, screwing in the top bracket, closing the case, and running the drivers. There’s also a suite of included software. Some of that software is essential, such as Creative’s gaming audio and recording tools, and some of it is unfortunate, such as trials of bloatware media players. The card offers standard 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks, Toslink (optical sound cable) input and output, and even gold-plated RCA line inputs for analog recording. Plus, the card supports Dolby Digital, DTS, and Creative’s own EAX 5.0 standards. Notably missing is Dolby TrueHD support, and 3.5mm jacks (the orange and black plugs) for older surround sound systems, but provided you’ve purchased yours in the past five years, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Playing Mass Effect 2 with the Titanium HD lets you savor every last explosion, laser, and dispute about Salarian ethics.

OK, so it’s a technically impressive card, but tech only goes so far: what really matters is the quality of the sound—and the X-Fi Titanium HD will kick you in the ears with awesomeness. Hook this baby into an optical A/V receiver and the deep rumbling bass of a tank rolling by in Company of Heroes or the piercing squeal of an F1 engine kicking into high gear in F1 2010 are pitch-perfect. Positional audio is processed so well that I could have played Left 4 Dead 2 with a blindfold on, and headshotting zombies would still have been a breeze.

The huge, acrylic EM shield on the X-Fi Titanium HD keeps internal PC interference away, and makes static noise levels whisper-quiet—a huge difference in atmospheric games like Dead Space 2, where even a tiny static buzz can kill the immersion. Also flawless are the inputs, with voice communication that transmits crystal clear, as opposed to the distortion and robotic recording you can expect from onboard audio. Of course, if you do want to sound like a robot, Creative included its VoiceFX and Silence microphone features, allowing you to knock out background noise, or transform your voice into elves and ogres, with surprisingly pleasant results.

With this card’s release, Creative is once again the undisputed king of gaming audio. If you’re looking to upgrade from an existing soundcard, or onboard audio, the X-Fi Titanium HD will make your speakers sing with joyous explosions and gunshots for years to come.

$180, www.creative.com

Hard Stuff: Razer Chimaera review

Chris Comiskey — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:18:43 +0000

On first glance, the wireless Chimaera’s gloss and flat-black coloring is absolutely gorgeous, but this beauty is tarnished by some quirky design choices. For one, there’s no USB connection. Instead, there’s a docking station that resembles an upside-down “T” that’s powered by an A/C outlet plug. You also have to use RCA cables to connect the docking station to your soundcard or motherboard. If neither of those have RCA inputs—and they probably don’t—you’ll have to search for a 3.5mm to RCA adapter cable that may or may not have come with your mobo or soundcard, or head to your local electronics store and buy one (they’re just a couple bucks). You then rest the headset on top of the docking station to recharge the Chimaera’s two included, but tough to install AAA batteries.

Still—once it’s functional—the Chimaera sounds wonderful. It’s a 2.1 headest, but the bass is punchy, and sword swipes and gunshots seem to come from all directions, despite the lack of any virtual surround software. The mic quality is average, but fine for gaming and Skype. I managed to squeeze out 10 hours of use on a charge, and I successfully walked up three flights of stairs before the 2.4GHz wireless signal began to hiccup. That’s respectable, but for 130 bucks, there are better wireless headsets out there (such as the Logitech F540s) that don’t require as much setup frustration.

$130 ◆ www.razerzone.com ◆ Category: Dream

Hard Stuff: Black Ops|Enix PC review

Chris Comiskey — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:25:12 +0000

Ever seen a honey badger? They hunt cobras twice their size and stick their tongues into bee hives. This is much the same with the Black Ops|Enix: it’s short but mighty, and it attacks gaming resolutions of 2560×1600 without fear. Tucked within the rugged metal case (that takes up about as much floor space as a full backpack) are two blazing-fast GTX 580s in SLI, a brand-new Core i7 2600K (overclocked from 3.4GHz to 4.7GHz), 8GB of DDR3 Corsair Dominator RAM, and USB 3.0 support. Digital Storm played it smart by including a Corsair H70 liquid cooler to keep the processor overclock stable. It’s pretty damn impressive how much high-end hardware they’ve packed into such a teensy area.

But this doesn’t come without tradeoffs. First, it has a small-as-it-sounds microATX motherboard, which means that with two videocards populating the PCI-E slots, there’s no room for a discrete soundcard. Instead, you’re stuck with the ASUS mobo’s less-than-fantastic integrated audio. Second, while Digital Storm did a respectable job keeping all the system cables neatly tied and out of the way, sticking your hands inside the machine to swap parts is rough—there just isn’t enough room.

Small case, but its guts are potent.

Despite some upgrade-related bruised fingers, the Enix’s proprietary case is pretty slick. You can easily remove the red vents for quick internal inspections, it’s chock-full of quiet fans, the motherboard’s rear connectors all face the top of the case (allowing more efficient cooling), and it’s got a sweet, unobtrusive, slot-loading Blu-ray combo drive grooved into the side of the case. There’s also an awesome hard drive access panel that pops up with the press of a button, allowing you immediate access without any tools. Don’t be mistaken though: this heavy, handleless case is not an ultra-portable LAN PC. Think of it instead as an alternative to enormous cases like the Cooler Master Cosmos.

As you might expect, this PC shreds the benchmarks. However, unless you play games on a 30-inch monitor (or two) with all the graphics’ settings cranked, two GTX 580s is overkill—you probably won’t notice a difference between 70fps and 150fps, and that difference comes with a hefty price tag: at roughly $3,600, they’re not exactly giving these away. Still, if you’re not into building your own PCs, and you want an elegant little rig that’s as powerful as they come, the Enix will deliver.

Specs ◆ CPU Core i7 2600K OC’d to 4.7GHz ◆ RAM 8GB DDR3 ◆ GPU GeForce GTX 580 (x2) ◆ Storage 128GB SSD, 1TB 7,200 RPM ◆ OS Win 7 Home Premium ◆ 3DMark11/Vantage P10381/P48110 ◆ STALKER: CoP 98 ◆ DiRT 2 148 ◆ Crysis Warhead 72

Maximum PC review: EVGA GTX 470 SC

Dan Stapleton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:04:44 +0000

Our compatriots over at MaximumPC.com have given outstanding marks to Nvidia’s newest mid-range graphics card, which trounces the Radeon HD 5850 in most tests.

“Built on a cut-down version of Nvidia’s high-end, DirectX 11 GPU, this card posted eyebrow-raising benchmarks, pretty much putting it into a class of its own.”

Click here to read the full review and benchmark tests.

GeForce GTX 480 review

PC Gamer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:18:55 +0000

Nvidia’s DirectX 11-capable graphics processors, codenamed Fermi, have finally arrived. The Fermi core, also known as GF100, at last pushes Nvidia beyond the first unified shader design it used with the 8800 series almost four years ago.

Fermi is Nvidia's first DirectX 11 card.

Individual processing units now come in groups of 32, each of which has four texturing units along with ‘Polymorph Engine’ logic support for DX11’s cool new tessellation effects. Beyond that there’s a massive 48 ROP (raster operation) units for post-processing and anti-aliasing.
In comparison to the current top-end GeForce GTX 285, the GTX 480 has twice the number of unified shader processors (480) and over three billion transistors, compared to 14,000 for the GTX285.

It’s a massive step up in performance. The GTX 480 is the fastest single GPU card available today, and despite what you may have heard about power consumption, we had no problems running it in the current PC Gamer rig with its 600W PSU. It does require both an eight pin and a six pin molex, though.
Is it worth the money? If you’re putting together a multi-monitor rig and want a single card that will play at obscene resolutions, then it may be your best choice. If you’re using one screen, it’s hard to argue that the performance is worth the £100 premium over an AMD rival.

There’s a stronger case for the GTX480 if you’re looking at the latest DirectX 11 scores. On the evidence of these benchmarks (most notably the Unigene Heaven test) the gap between Nvidia and the current Radeon cards grows when new effects like tessellation are turned on.

Whether or not you need the power the GTX480 can produce is questionable, but the fact that this is the first card to appear in a long while with a 20% performance lead over its closest competitor is something you have to credit Nvidia for. Even if you buy its cheaper cousin, the GTX470, which we’ll review next month.

Adam Oxford

Ultra Triton SE review

PC Gamer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:06:21 +0000

You have to tip your hat to Cyberpower for this one. When PC Gamer asked their engineers to create a gaming PC for less than £500 they pulled a crafty trick I wasn’t expecting. I’ve seen overclocked CPUs sold off the shelf in low cost systems, but hacked CPUs – that’s a whole new one on me.

Inside the Ultra Triton SE the component list is almost identical to the more expensive Advent CBE1401. It has the same Phenom II processor, the same graphics card and the same allowance of RAM.

The Phenom II X2 550 processor is unusual, however, in that it’s not a dual core. It’s a quad core with two of the cores turned off, usually because of faults in the redundant cores or to meet demand for dual core chips. Cyberpower’s cunning trick has been to turn on the disabled cores.

It’s a well documented and very easy hack, which can be done in the AMD Overdrive driver control panel. It isn’t 100% reliable with all X2 550s, because there’s often a reason the two cores are disabled, but we had no stability problems with this system. And obviously it comes with the company’s standard retail warranty in its altered state. It also shows how essential four cores are becoming. In games that aren’t heavily multithreaded, such as World in Conflict, it’s performance edge isn’t pronounced. With newer engines, it wins every benchmark hands down.

As for future-proofing, the AM3 socket motherboard will also take a ‘proper’ quad core upgrade for the foreseeable future, and possibly even be compatible with AMD’s forthcoming six-core CPUs available later this year.

If I could change one thing about the Ultra Triton SE, it would be the chassis. The case is smaller but slightly quieter than the Advent machine, but still a bit more noisy than the excellent Gigabyte chassis used in the YoYo Tech challenger. All things considered, a minor quibble.

The Ultra Triton SE is outstanding value for money. You’ll have to spend considerably more before the performance starts to get significantly better. It’s the first budget machine I’ve seen which makes me seriously consider rebuilding the PC Gamer Rig from the ground up along similarly parsimonious lines.

Adam Oxford