|  |  |  | | | | | Maximum PC - All Articles | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  To say that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim looks glorious would be a massive understatement. To say that its giant spiders look positively massive would be, well, right on the money. Also, disgusting enough to send our mild arachnophobia into overdrive – which is what we imagine Bethesda was going for, but still. The horror. Check out that nightmarish sight after the break, and then purge your eyes with seven more thankfully spider-free screens.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Gaming as a whole may be better than ever, but let's face facts: where once our rigs groaned and creaked under the strain of triple-A games, they now yawn disinterestedly and check Facebook. Battlefield creator DICE, too, isn't afraid to stare the problem in the face, but instead of whipping out the old "PC piracy too expensive kthxbye" argument and calling it a day, the developer sees PC gaming as the solution – not the problem. "It's actually helping us make a better console game," said executive producer Patrick Bach.
"Yes, absolutely," he told GeForce when asked if he thought consoles were holding PC gaming back. "That's the biggest problem we have today. Most games are actually still based on the same core idea that the consoles are your focus, the superior platform or something. I don't know why. That was the truth 5 years ago, but the world has moved on." "So for our target of what we want to hit, we are now using the more powerful platform to try and prove what we see gaming being in the future rather than using the lowest common denominator, instead of developing it for the consoles and then just adding higher resolution textures and anti-aliasing for the PC version." He also added that putting your best foot forward and then scaling down for consoles allows for a greater degree of choice in what makes the final cut – thus eliminating the whole "hideous console version" dilemma. "In the end, by, you know, painting this high-end target, you actually set a new bar and then when you scale it back, I think people will be surprised to see how good it looks on the consoles. We can't show it right now, because we're aiming to use the PC to set the bar, but it's actually helping us make a better console game," he explained. You, however, are probably still skeptical. You've been burned before, after all. But you'll just have to trust us, because at the end of the day, that's all life really-- kidding. Here's a 12-minute trailer of Battlefield 3. Enjoy! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Atiq Raza wasn't an original AMDer. A holdover from the buyout of NexGen (which AMD bought when the K5 flopped), Raza became AMD's Chief Technology Officer. Boot had a forthright, frank discussion with Raza in the January of 1998 to discuss K6+3D (later renamed K6-2 3DNow!) AMD's intentions to leapfrog Intel in performance, his feelings on Intel domination and whether the Slot 1 design that Intel had switched to would kill everyone. While the K6-2 didn't slam the door on the vaunted Pentium II, it gave AMD a cachet the company had never had before. In fact, some would alter credit the K6-2 and its 3D gaming prowess as the saving grace for AMD. Among the gems from the Raza: "…I bought (a Slot 1 Pentium II system), brought it to my lab in my car, and it had flopped out of the slot. And I had been very careful." "Take a Pentium II today — which is a pretty damned good system — and compare it with a K6+3D, you will performance improvement between 50 percent and as much as four to six times with the AMD part…" Boot: "Ever fantasize about toppling Intel?" Raza: "Absolutely. With K6, if we had infinite manufacturing and good yields, you would have seen some fun in this company." 
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Do you have a case of the Mondays? Well we've got your cure, in the form of an hour of new tech news, rageful tech rants and, um, questionable tech questions. That's right, we're talking about the No BS Podcast, episode 172. This week, the crew talks about game consoles' high failure rates, the worst PCs of all times, the benefits of fossil fuels, and more! Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are not standing by. Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337    
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  You might remember a few months back when Apple went on the legal warpath and sued HTC and Nokia for violating its intellectual property and patents. Part of all these cases tends to be a duplicate federal court and U.S. International Trade Commission complaint. Well the ITC just spoke up, and Apple's arguments haven't impressed them.
ITC staff lawyer, Erin Joffre clarified the ITC's position at the start of the ITC hearing in Washington just today. Apple claims that phones made by HTC and Nokia are making unauthorized use of their IP. They point to all manner of user interface and hardware features, even esoteric ideas like power management for mobile chips. The ITC staff acts on behalf of the public to mediate trade disputes, so its recommendations are not binding. Although, they do carry weight. It's too early to tell how this will work out, but it's probably going to be years before we see a resolution. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  It wouldn't be a week in the technobubble without a new intellectual patent suit. This one is looking like quite the doozy, though. Apple has filed a patent and trademark infringement suit against Samsung. At issue are Samsung's line of Galaxy phones and tablets. Apple claims the physical design and user interface borrow too heavily from Apple products.
Apple's hefty court filings make numerous accusations. For instance, Apple takes issue with the physical shape of the Galaxy S phones with the rounded corners and button placement. The Samsung TouchWiz user interface is also called out as borrowing the Apple app icon look and feel. TouchWiz is Samsung's Android skin, which does change up some of the stock Android interface elements. Apple is asking for the usual stuff. Injunctions, damages, punitive damages, and the first-born sons of Samsung's board. Maybe not so much that last point, but Apple means business here. What do you make of the lawsuit? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  A preliminary report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Twitter is in "advanced talks" to buy the popular Twitter client TweetDeck for $50 million. Neither company is talking, but The Journal apparently has multiple sources on the matter. If true, Twitter will have taken yet another step toward controlling the application ecosystem for their platform.
TweetDeck has approximately 15 full time and contracted employees, mostly based in the UK. Twitter acquired popular mobile and Mac client Tweetie last year, and quickly branded them as the official clients. A TweetDeck buy could result in a new official desktop app aimed at the Windows segment. TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR app, and does work cross-platform. Twitter recently suggested developers stop making clients for the service, so this possible acquisition is all the more interesting. By having an official presence on all platforms, Twitter could more easily make the argument that other apps are not needed. Are you a TweekDeck user? How do you feel about this news? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The Internet is a vast, amazing land full of information and wonder. Unfortunately, you have to cross a troll infested bridge to get there. While you might be willing to brave creepy wet-fingered Chatroulette touch-talkers and Nigerian princes in exile just to get a glimpse of The Oatmeal, we know you wouldn't dream of subjecting your kids to that sort of online debauchery. Fortunately, Zoodle's Kid Mode for Chrome is here to make surfing the interwebz a kid friendly affair. It's an idea so great that we're declaring it our Web App of the Week.
Any net-savvy parent will tell you that Kid Mode has been around for some time now. However, as a Chrome application, the child-safe wonder really shines. Setting up a Kid Mode account only takes a few minutes. Once your account is activated, the folks at Zoodle provide a wide variety of age-tailored content for your child to enjoy. Music, books, math, social skills and art -- Kid Mode has it all, and it's accessible through one convenient, child-friendly portal. The web app even makes allowances for children with color-blindness and hearing disabilities. 
On the administrative side of things, parents are able to control their child's Kid Mode experience down to the last detail thanks to a number of powerful filtering options. Our favorite administrative feature? The ability to control how much time your child spends online with their Kid Mode account. It's hard not to be impressed by a web-based application that understands that kids need to get away from the computer once in a while and wants to help parents facilitate that. Well played, Zoodle. Be sure to check back with us every Monday for another edition of Chrome Web App of the Week. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Nvidia today made available the first set of WHQL-certified drivers from the 'Release 270' family of drivers (versions 270.xx to 274.xx) for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs, as well as Ion desktop GPUs. The release kicks off with version 270.61 and adds support for the newly launched GeForce GTX 590, 560 Ti, and 550 Ti graphics cards.
There are a ton of performance gains for GeForce 400 and 500 series GPU owners versus version 266.58 WHQL drivers. The most significant is up to a 516 percent boost in Dragon Age 2 (GTX 580 SLI 2560x1600, 8xAA/16xAF, Very High, SSAO on). There are several other situations in which Dragon Age 2 performance is obscenely increased, though depending on your setup, you can also expect an increase in framerates in Just Cause 2, Civilization V, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead 2, H.A.W.X. 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mafia 2, and Metro 2033. The latest drivers also flesh out Nvidia's 3D Vision support with new performance, bug fixes, and added features. Nvidia GeForce Driver Download | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Dropbox is quickly turning into a Silicon Valley success story of epic proportions. In January 2010, the cloud-based file syncing and sharing service had attracted 4 million fans, an impressive number for a startup that, at the time, was less than three years old. And now? Dropbox today announced that more than 25 million people are using the service to save more than 200 million files every day.
"Dropbox transforms the way people create and share their life's work," said Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox. "Whether that's designing buildings, writing music, or raising a family, we're focused on making it effortless to have your files wherever you need them, on any computer or phone. With this first step, we're excited to reach new people around the world and delight them with all the ways Dropbox can simplify their lives." Houston speaks for millions of users, including paying customers in more than 175 countries. In fact, over half of all Dropbox users live outside the U.S., Dropbox says. And starting today, anyone viewing www.dropbox.from from a Web browser with Spanish, German, French, or Japanese language preferences will automatically see the website in their native language. Do you use Dropbox? If not, what's your favorite file sharing/synching service? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Breaking the 250MB/s barrier with no moving parts If the automotive world progressed as fast as the computer industry, the old joke goes, we'd all have $1,000 cars that get 400 miles to the gallon, never need maintenance, and crash catastrophic-ally every eight weeks for no reason. Ancient punch lines aside, comparing this year's storage options to those of even half a decade ago would be like entering a Bugatti Type 35 in the Preakness Stakes. 
Half a decade ago, we were all still chasing the fastest mechanical hard drive. Today, solid-state drives are where the action is. And the progress made in SSDs over the past three years has been staggering. During our first SSD roundup in November 2008, the cream of the crop offered sustained-read and -write speeds on par with a mechanical drive, at 20 times the cost, and most were much worse. In 2009 and 2010, the first really excellent consumer SSDs arrived, powered by Indilinx's Barefoot controller, SandForce's SF-1200, as well as Intel's and Samsung's proprietary controllers. 2011's crop of controllers brings 6Gb/s SATA support, enabling much faster transfer speeds. Some are also using smaller-process NAND. Marvell's 9174 controller (the one from last year's Crucial C300) powers three of the drives in our roundup, while the fourth is the first SF-2200 drive we've been able to get our hands on. Where's the best bang for your buck? Does 6Gb/s SATA really make a difference? And who would ever buy a horseless carriage? Pole Positions 1. OCZ Vertex 3 240GB Will the new SandForce SF-2200 controller in the Vertex 3 dominate the field the way its predecessor did? The other SSDs here hope not. 2. Crucial m4 256GB Virtually the same drive that Micron is selling to OEMs with the RealSSD C400 moniker, the Crucial m4 is the follow-up to the C300 6Gb/s SSD.
3. Intel 510 250GB In a surprise move, Intel enters the 6Gb/s field with a third-party controller—the same Marvell 9174 powering all but one of the drives here—instead of one of its own.
4. Plextor M2 Series 128GB Plextor has yet to make a name for itself in the SSD market after debuting with the unimpressive M1S. Perhaps the new Marvell 9174 controller will help it out. How We Tested New hardware, new software for our most comprehensive SSD tests ever Regular readers of our drive reviews might notice a few changes in our benchmark chart at the end of the article. HDTune and HD Tach, the low-level drive benchmarks, are gone, replaced by CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD, and ATTO. Several factors played into this decision. First, the low-level benchmarks work on the raw disk level, on unformatted and unpartitioned drives. This is useful on rotary drives, but less so on solid-state ones. CrystalDisk-Mark and AS SSD are designed from the ground up to test solid-state storage at the partition level, which better mirrors real-world use. AS SSD's 4KB low-queue-depth random benchmark gives results that match well with HDTune's, while CrystalDiskMark's 32QD 4KB read and write benchmarks parse well with Iometer's, giving another level of robustness to our storage tests. ATTO shows read and write speeds for a wide array of different block sizes; we use 64KB as a good middle-of-the-road benchmark. Premiere Pro and PCMark Vantage, as real-world tests, remain in our toolbox. 
AS SSD is built from the ground up to measure SSD performance. We still ran HD Tach and HDTune on all the drives in this review, but the end results were not as useful as those from CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD. We've also moved our SSD test bed to a Sandy Bridge motherboard—Asus's P8P67 Pro with the B3 chipset. Our previous test bed was based on the X58 chipset, which used a Marvell 6Gb/s SATA controller. The P67 chipset's native Intel 6Gb/s offers better, more stable 6Gb/s SATA performance. OCZ Vertex 3 240GB First of the next batch of SandForce drives Some amount of wheeling and dealing got OCZ access to special firmware for its last-gen SandForce drives, enabling faster random-write performance than the competition. Despite OCZ's recent acquisition of Indilinx, it seems there's still a spark to OCZ's relationship with SandForce, as the company was able to get us an SF-2200 drive before anyone else. Since the Vertex 3 is the first SF-2200–powered SSD we've tested, we don't know how it compares to the rest of the SF-2200 field, but we do know it kicks the pants off of most every other SSD we've reviewed. 
OCZ retains the solid-state crown with stellar overall performance. The Vertex 3 uses 25nm-process NAND and, like all SandForce drives, no cache. That SF-2200 controller really cooks, setting records in most of our benchmarks and performing competitively in the rest. No single drive in our roundup matches the Vertex 3 on all fronts, though the Crucial m4 is close in random read/write performance and the Intel 510 comes close to its sequential reads and surpasses its sequential writes. OCZ continues its tradition of blazing-fast random-write performance, both at low- and high-queue depths, serving up more than 85,000 IOPS in our Iometer QD32 4KB random-write test. That's nearly 80 percent faster than the Vertex 2, the previous SATA champion. It's too early to tell whether the rest of the SF-2200 lineup will be able to compete with OCZ's Vertex 3. But for the few weeks until we get our hands on more next-gen SandForce drives, the Vertex 3 reigns supreme. OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD OMG
Blazing-fast performance on all fronts. EEK
Sequential-write speeds slightly behind Intel 510. $540, www.ocztechnology.com
Crucial m4 256GB Company debuts second 6Gb/s SSD At first blush, the Crucial m4 seems virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor, the Crucial RealSSD C300. After all, it's available in the same capacity with the same Marvell 9174 6Gb/s SATA controller and same amount of DRAM cache—256MB for the 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB versions, and 128MB for the 64GB drive. 
What's the difference between the Crucial m4 and a Micron RealSSD C400? Branding. That isn't to say the Crucial m4 is identical to the C300. For one thing, the m4's firmware has been substantially updated from the sometimes-flaky firmware of the C300. For another, the m4 uses 25nm-process NAND, while the C300 used 34nm NAND. Smaller-process NAND means lower cost per gigabyte (thus, cheaper SSDs), but with a slight durability hit, albeit one probably unnoticeable to the end user. In our tests, the m4 (and every drive in this roundup) positively smoked our best-of-the-best 3Gb/s SATA drive, the OCZ Vertex 2—sustained- read and -write scores as measured by Crystal-DiskMark and AS SSD were more than twice the Vertex 2's scores, and the m4 scored higher 4KB random reads and writes across the board, from single-queue depth to QD 32. The 256MB of cache doubtless helped the m4 in PCMark Vantage's HDD subtest, where it posted the highest score we've seen from a non–PCI-E drive. The m4 doesn't have the fastest sustained speeds, but its random-access speeds are top-notch. And 400MB/s reads and 250MB/s writes would have been unthinkably fast a couple of months ago. The Crucial m4 represents a great implementation of the Marvell 9174 controller, and a great demonstration of the advantage of native 6Gb/s SATA. Crucial m4 256GB SPEED
Great random-access speeds; 400MB/s reads, 250MB/s writes. $500, www.crucial.com Intel 510 250GB Intel's new SSD, powered by... Marvell? Nobody panic. Intel is still coming out with its much-delayed third-generation solid-state drive. The 320 Series will use 25nm NAND and Intel's latest controller, on 3Gb/s SATA, and will focus on what made Intel drives great: high read speeds and random writes, and rock-solid reliability. Intel, recognizing that 250MB/s read speeds ain't gonna cut it in 2011 (and holy cow, do we love typing that), is also bowing to popular demand and releasing an SSD with 6Gb/s SATA capability, but rather than design its own controller for that, Intel is using a third-party component. Intel wouldn't officially tell us which controller, but thanks to the mysterious and powerful technol-ogy known as screwdriver, we can say with confidence that it's Marvell's 88SS9174-BKK2. 
Intel's 510 SSD isn't part of the same family as its X25-M drives, but it's special in its own way. Intel's 510 Series SSD uses 34nm Intel NAND chips and 128MB DDR3 DRAM cache—and, of course, the same 6Gb/s Marvell 9174 controller as the Crucial and Plextor drives. The 250GB model that we tested showed the strongest sustained-write speeds of any drive in our roundup—more than 300MB/s—and its sustained reads of more than 480MB/s bested every Marvell-based drive. But its 4KB random-read and -write speeds, at any queue depth, were good by 2009's standards, but no match for Crucial's offering or either of the last- or current-gen Vertex drives. If you go solely by sequential-read and -write speeds, the Intel 510 is one of the fastest drives we've ever tested, but its random-read and -write performance lags far behind the front-runners. By splitting its SSD line into two segments (3Gb/s SATA, random-write-centric versus 6Gb/s, sequential-speed-centric), Intel risks having two less-than-compelling options. And in a crowded field, consumers might not go with either one, especially given the jaw-dropping $614 street price of the 250GB 510 Series SSD. Intel 510 250GB 415
Fast sequential reads and writes; vaunted Intel longevity. 187
Expensive; noncompetitive 4KB random reads/writes. $614, www.intel.com Plextor M2 Series 128GB Second verse, better than the first! We'll say this for the Plextor M2 Series SSD: It's a huge step up from Plextor's last SSD. The M1S Series SSD we tested in our June 2010 roundup used Marvell's "Da-Vinci" 88SS8014-BHP2 controller, which suffered from instability and slow writes. We gave that drive a 5 verdict. To our great relief, the M2 series SSD instead uses Marvell's newer 6Gb/s SATA controller, the 88SS9174-BLD2—marking the third appearance of a Marvell 9174 controller in this roundup. With the M2 series, Plextor pairs the Marvell 9174 controller with 128MB of DDR3 DRAM cache, and the result is an undeniable improvement over its previous-gen drive. As reported by Crystal-DiskMark and AS SSD, sustained reads hover near 400MB/s, with sustained writes around half that. That's around double the read speed of the OCZ Vertex 2, but 25MB/s slower than the Vertex 2's write speed. 4KB random reads and writes also suffered in comparison to the Vertex 2. 
Plextor's M2 series manages to up the company's SSD track record from abysmal to middlin'. The Plextor M2 is much better than Plextor's last SSD, and in many benchmarks it's superior to last generation's top drives—mostly in read speeds. But its write speeds and random-access times lag behind the other 6Gb/s SATA drives in our roundup, and even high-performing drives from last year. The M2, like Plextor's last drive, comes with a copy of Acronis True Image Home to ease your transition from a smaller or slower drive, which is nice. If you're shopping for your first SSD, Plextor's M2 makes a decent offering. But it's not the best of what's available in the 6Gb/s SATA SSD market—or even the best Marvell-controlled drive. Plextor M2 Series 128GB FUNKMASTER FLEX
Better than their last drive; includes Acronis imaging software PLUNKMASTER PLEX
Middling performance can't match other drives w/ same controller. $300, www.plextor.com Today's Drives, Yesterday's Motherboards Even if you're stuck with 3Gb/s SATA, these drives can be worth it Are you contemplating buying a brand-new solid-state drive, but worried that your motherboard is draggin' you down? Even if your motherboard has no 6Gb/s SATA ports (or, like many X58 boards, has a crappy onboard 6Gb/s SATA controller), you can still benefit from running a 6Gb/s SATA drive. See, most last-gen drives had to deal with the 3Gb/s SATA interface, which tops out in the real world at around 250MB/s, so there was no incentive to push performance. But 6Gb/s drives don't have that limitation—they're built to far surpass it. And though you won't see 400MB/s read speeds on a 3Gb/s SATA port, you can still push closer to the 3Gb/s barrier with a current-gen drive than you can with a last-gen one. We tested OCZ's Vertex 3 6Gb/s SATA drive on our test bed's 3Gb/s SATA controller, and found that it far surpassed the Vertex 2 that was our previous champion, offering sustained-read and -write speeds around 260MB/s and 220MB/s, respectively. Even constrained by the 3Gb/s SATA interface, the Vertex 3 matched or bested the Vertex 2 in nearly every benchmark.
The performance difference on 3Gb/s SATA isn't so great that you should upgrade to a current-gen SSD if you're already rocking a SandForce 1200, Intel, or Samsung drive and you don't have 6Gb/s SATA ports available. But if you're in the market for your first SSD and still rocking a last-gen motherboard, don't rule out 6Gb/s SATA drives. If your current mobo can't take advantage of all that speed, your next mobo can. Or you can grab a PCI-E-to-6Gb/s SATA host bus adapter, like HighPoint's Rocket 600 series, to get 6Gb/s SATA on your current board.
Post-Race Wrap-Up Team SandForce maintains dominance in a field of strong performers We've been anxiously awaiting the SF-2200 controller for a while—could the company that sprung out of stealth mode to take the solid-state drive market by storm in 2010 pull a repeat in 2011? Though we're still a few months away from seeing multiple vendors shipping SF-2200 drives, if the performance of the OCZ Vertex 3 is any indication, it's going to be another good year for SandForce. The SandForce-powered OCZ Vertex 3 is the clear winner of our little roundup, posting race-winning scores in virtually every benchmark. In CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD, which are solid-state-specific synthetic benchmarks, the Vertex 3 posted average sequential reads of 500MB/s and average writes of 280MB/s, second only to the Intel 510. In queue-depth 32 4KB random-read and -write benchmarks (both Crystal-DiskMark and Iometer), the Vertex 3 again bested the rest of the field, though Crucial's m4 SSD came within spitting distance of OCZ's drive. PCMark Vantage, which mirrors real-world applications, actually gives the top spot to Crucial's m4 SSD, with the Vertex 3 a close second. One interesting result our testing shows is the importance of good firmware. Three of the drives in our roundup share the same Marvell 9174 controller (albeit with varying amounts of cache), but they all post different benchmark results. Intel's 510 shows the strongest sequential-read and -write scores by far, but its random-access scores are no better than those of the Plextor M2. Crucial's m4, on the other hand, shows random-read and -write speeds almost as high as the Vertex 3, but its sequential speeds were much lower than the Intel or OCZ drives. Intel's and Crucial's offerings each excel in at least one area, while the Plextor M2 is competent compared to last-gen drives but unexceptional compared to this generation. We should make explicit that any of these solid-state drives deserves your purchasing consideration. They're all powerful performers that really take advantage of the increased bandwidth of the 6Gb/s SATA bus. Depending on your needs, either Crucial's or Intel's drives should be near the top of your list, though the OCZ Vertex 3 combines the best features of each—for a price. Benchmarks | | Plextor M2 | Crucial m4 | Intel 510 | OCZ Vertex 3 | OCZ Vertex 2 (6Gb/s SATA) | OCZ Vertex 3 (3Gb/s SATA) | | Capacity | 128GB | 256GB | 250GB | 240GB | 100GB | 240GB | | Controller | Marvell 9174 | Marvell 9174 | Marvell 9174 | SF-2200 | SF-1200 (6Gb/s ports) | SF-2200 (3Gb/s ports) | | CrystalDiskMark | | | | | | | | Sustained Read (MB/s) | 415.2 | 404.5 | 480.1 | 485.5* | 206.2 | 269.6 | | Sustained Write (MB/s) | 197.5 | 257.3 | 328.9* | 289.8 | 87.92 | 228.4 | | 4KB Read, 32QD (MB/s) | 75.58 | 167.9 | 80.02 | 171.2* | 111.1 | 166.2 | | 4KB Write, 32QD (MB/s) | 47.72 | 235.8 | 49.7 | 247.4* | 81.56 | 182.8 | | AS SSD | | | | | | | | Seq. Read (MB/s) | 387.33 | 407.73 | 483.6 | 506.2* | 208.46 | 262.77 | | Seq. Write (MB/s) | 186.67 | 249.73 | 308.03* | 280.19 | 71.7 | 218.84 | | 4KB Read (IOPS) | 3,729 | 5,091 | 4,674 | 5,539* | 5,249 | 5,213 | | 4KB Write (IOPS) | 9,961
| 13,837 | 9,923 | 14,263* | 12,910 | 12,302 | | Read Access (ms) | 0.232
| 0.105* | 0.207 | 0.157 | 0.13 | 0.168 | | Write Access (ms) | 0.093*
| 0.278 | 0.095* | 0.222 | 0.235 | 0.209 | | ATTO | | | | | | | | 64KB File Read (MB/s) | 391.3 | 284.9 | 449.2* | 446.5 | 257.6 | 253.9 | | 64KB File Write (MB/s) | 216.9 | 260.2 | 341.5 | 505.3* | 269.1 | 264 | | IOMETER | | | | | | | | 4KB Random Write | 13,169.8 | 56,087.81 | 12,123.95 | 85,144.43* | 47,647.11 | 46,655.39 | | Max Access Time (ms) | 576 | 143 | 318 | 61* | 30.2 | 52.37 | | Premiere Pro Encode Write (sec) | 438 | 429 | 424 | 422* | 443 | 433 | | PCMark Vantage x64 HDD | 37,792 | 61,758* | 39,053 | 59,978 | 42,290 | 38,281 | Asterisk (*) denotes highest score. Our current test bed is a 3.1GHz Core i3-2100 processor on an Asus P8 P67 Pro (B3 chipset) running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. All tests used onboard 6Gb/s SATA ports with latest Intel drivers, except 3Gb/s SATA tests, which used onboard 3Gb/s Intel SATA ports. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If it weren't for the branding on the Kühler H20 620's fan and water block, you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a Corsair product. Its mounting bracket is the exact same one used in Corsair's Hydro H50 and H70 coolers, while its radiator looks like the H50's and the pump unit looks like the H70's. Is this a case of industrial espionage? The answer is less sordid, but still full of intrigue. The reason that the Antec Kühler H2O 620 looks like Corsair's last two coolers is that, well, that's basically what it is. Antec has tapped Asetek, the OEM behind the Corsair H50 and H70, for its Kühler series, which feature's Asetek's newest pump unit and radiator. 
Antec's Kühler series looks just like Corsair's earlier coolers, and there's a reason for that. While the new pump unit and radiator might look familiar, the Kühler 620 sports some features that are distinct from its Corsair-branded predecessors. First, its liquid-bearing tubes are smooth and rubbery rather than corrugated and plastic-feeling, and they feel more flexible. Second, the little plastic adapters that let you swap the mounting bracket between LGA 775, 1155/1156, and 1366 are green and blue instead of black. Finally, the radiator fan plugs into a lead on the pump unit, and the pump unit plugs into the CPU_FAN header. Previous coolers had both the fan and pump plug into the mother-board, which can lead to confusion. This system eliminates that confusion. Installation of the Kühler 620 is easy. The 12cm fan and radiator mount in place of your case's rear exhaust fan, and the pump/heat-exchanger unit is held tight against the CPU by a familiar backplate/clamp combination. The clamp has a series of barbs around the edge that correspond to ledges around the pump unit; once the pump unit is against the CPU, you turn the cooler a few degrees to match the barbs and ledges, then tighten the mounting mechanism to the backplate. We only had one slight issue—it's very easy to overtighten the mounting screws and strain the blue 1156/1366 screw adapters on the mounting bracket. Once installed, the Kühler H2O 620 performed well. At 100 percent CPU load on all cores using Intel's custom Lynnfield thermal utility, the Kühler brought our overclocked CPU to 65.75 C—slightly cooler than Corsair's H60, and 2 C cooler than the H50. At idle, though, the Kühler was the worst of the bunch, at 38 C with zero CPU activity. None of the liquid coolers outperformed our dual-fan Prolimatech Armageddon, our air-cooling champion. The Antec Kühler H2O 620 performs better than the Corsair H50, which is built on the same framework, and the Corsair H60, which isn't. It's also $5 cheaper than the former and $10 cheaper than the latter. This is a whole lot of cooling with not a lot of noise, for not a lot of dough. $70, www.antec.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Sony says that worldwide sales of its PlayStation 3 consoles reached a milestone of 50 million units as of March 29, 2011. In addition, sales of Sony's PlayStation Move surpassed 8 million units worldwide as of April 3, 2011, the console maker announced. Both are impressive numbers, though it's worth noting that even though Sony calls them "sales," these are really shipment numbers to retailers, not necessarily to end-consumers.
For the sake of comparison, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer announced at CES in January that his company's Xbox 360 console had just sold 50 million units as of December 2010, while Nintendo's Wii console now boasts 86 million units worldwide. Microsoft also recently announced its Kinect device set a Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling consumer electronics device when it sold 8 million units in its first 60 days of availability (that number has since increased to 10 million units). Even without the number comparisons, the console wars have been heating up as of late. Nintendo recently released its 3DS handheld console and there are rumors of a Wii 2 coming out this summer. Sony, meanwhile, had some strong words for Nintendo last week, saying the console maker makes "babysitting tools" and that "no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with" a Nintendo device. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Microsoft introduced its cloud-based productivity suite, Office 365, in limited beta last year, giving small businesses access to always up-to-date versions of Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online from remote locations. According to Microsoft, the private beta was such a hit that the Redmond software company decided to open it up to the public, expanding Office 365 availability to millions more people in nearly twice as many countries and languages.
"I work out of two offices, and Office 365 saves me the hassle of tracking book files between so many different places," said David Kroenke, who has authored more than 15 undergraduate business technology textbooks over the past few decades. "I don't have to wonder where I put everything, because it's always available to me, no matter where I am." Microsoft on Sunday also introduced the Office 365 Marketplace for customers to find apps and services to extend and customize Office 365. The Marketplace is now live and contains over 100 apps and 400 professional services from more than 16,000 Microsoft cloud partners. Office 365 is on track to launch later this year, Microsoft says. You can learn more about Office 365 and join the public beta here. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Google sent us an email over the weekend letting us know that video content hosted on Google Video will no longer be available for playback later this month. For most users, this won't be an issue, but if you happen to have videos uploaded only to Google Video, your window of opportunity to both view them and download them is rapidly closing. Assuming you don't procrastinate, Google has made it easy to grab your videos.
"On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We've added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don't want to download your content, you don't need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)," Google says. To download your video, head over to the Video Status page and click the Download Video link located on the right side of each your videos in the Actions column. Google Video became a redundant (and expendable) feature once the sultan of search acquired YouTube in 2006. Google paid $1.65 billion for the video sharing site, but didn't stop accepting uploads to Google Video until May 2009. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  As you've heard, T-Mobile has agreed to sell out to AT&T for $39 billion in cash and stocks in a deal expected to close in March 2012. That gives Sprint, the most outspoken opponent to the deal, about 11 months to convince U.S. regulators to step in and block the transaction, and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse isn't wasting any time. Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Hesse said the acquisition would pose a "serious threat" to industry innovations.
"We just cannot let this happen," Hesse said just before the weekend. "If the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merge is allowed to go forward, it can also push the wireless industry from competition to duopoloy." As it stands, Sprint Nextel Corp. is the third largest U.S. wireless provider behind AT&T (No. 2) and Verizon (No. 1). T-Mobile is the fourth largest, but should the merger be allowed to happen, AT&T and T-Mobile combined would control about 80 percent of the wireless industry revenue, jumping ahead of Verizon as the largest carrier in the country. Hesse warns that regulators should think long and hard about what effect the proposed merger would have on consumer prices and innovation. He believes that the acquisition could restrict access to device makers among smaller wireless companies, and with the buying power of the two largest wireless companies, "they could restrict access to some of the cool devices." Image Credit: wareground.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Haters will view this as more proof that Apple's iPad tablets are nothing more than toys and not computing devices to be taken seriously. We don't agree with that assessment, but for what it's worth, Toys R Us joins a growing army of retailers who now carry Apple's second generation slate, the iPad 2. Not every Toys R Us location is participating in the iPad frenzy, but it is available in hundreds of toy store locations across the U.S., T.G. Daily reports.
Authorized sellers of the iPad 2 now include AT&T, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, and of course the Apple Store. By adding Toys R Us to the list, Apple opens up to a whole new demographic, that of spoiled kids who already own an iPhone 4 and iPod touch and aiming for an Apple triple play. It will be interesting to see what other tablets Toys R Us chooses to carry. Selling tablets in a toy store underscores just how flexible and far reaching these devices are. To find out if your local Toys R Us is participating in the launch, see here. Image Credit: macgasm.net | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Talk about a royal flush. Kohler Numi, a manufacturer of kitchen and bathroom products, is getting ready to launch an ultra luxurious 'smart toilet' in the U.S. Wondering how luxurious a toilet can really be? For starters, it comes with a touchscreen remote control. You know, so you can skip tracks and adjust the volume on the toilet's built-in speakers. That's right, not only does this technological wonder whisk away your excrement, it also has the capability to belt out crappy songs while doing so.
We haven't even scratched the surface here. There's a motion activated lid and seat, a boon for germaphobes and for those who never remember to put the toilet seat down, the latter of which can save marriages. It comes with a deodorizer, a heated seat, floor vents to warm your feet as you stumble into the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning, illuminated panels, and yes folks, it comes with advanced bidet functionality, allowing you to control both the water pressure and temperature. When you're finished, there's an integrated air dryer, too. There's more. A magnetic docking station charges and stores the remote, it flushes automatically, and should you misplace the remote, auxiliary controls let you control basic functions. The Numi will be available nationwide this fall for around $6,400. Numi Video | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Humanity's knowledge of the next version of Windows has come up by leaps and bounds in light of a number of leaks over the past couple of months. New features revealed thus far run the gamut from hard system reset to system-wide implementation of the much maligned "ribbon" UI. Now, freshly leaked Windows 8 M1 Build 7850 screenshots show an overhauled task manager. Meanwhile, there is another report that points to an "Advanced Task Manager" in the latest builds of Windows 8. A Mydigitallife forum user has discovered a new task manager interface in the already leaked Windows 8 Build 7850 using a simple registry hack. The "Modern Windows Task Manager" as it is called appears to have a touch-friendly way of killing applications. According to WinRumors, the latest Windows 8 builds include an Advanced Task Manager, which appears to be a "combination of Microsoft's Task Manager interface and Microsoft's Resource Monitor." It is said to convey important details about active processes, services and the system in general. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  A privacy flaw in Skype's mobile application for Android could give cybercriminals access to user information from smartphones, private details such as the user's name, email address, contacts, and even chat logs, the VoIP service confirmed in a recent blog post. It's not something you should be overly concerned with, as unfettered access to cached profile information and instant messages does require the installation of a malicious third-party application, but definitely something you should be aware of, especially if you tend to install apps from outside the Android Market.
Skype is currently investigating the matter, though doesn't have a time frame on when users can expect a fix. "We take your privacy very seriously and are working quickly to protect you from this vulnerability, including securing the file permissions on the Skype for Android application," Skype said. According to AndroidPolice.com, Skype mistakenly left certain files with improper permissions, allowing malicious apps to read them. Not only are they accessible, they're also unencrypted. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  T-Mobile recently rolled out its new 'Even More' plan, a single-line unlimited plan that opens the spigot on data, calling, and text messaging. It's an $80 plan with a two-year service contract required that applies to both new and existing customers, and since it's an all-you-can-consume buffet on all three fronts, there aren't any overage charges to worry about.
"Consumers today are looking for even more value and flexibility from their wireless plans," said John Clelland, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. "While data plans for many of our competitors continue to be very expensive, T-Mobile is lowering the price of our unlimited plan and offering more options, making it easier than ever for customers to step up to a richer mobile data experience on our 4G network." According to T-Mobile, customers who sign up for the Even More plan will potentially save more than $350 per year compared to similar plans from AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Thinking there has to be a catch? Kudos to you and your skepticism. While there aren't any overage charges, T-Mobile says customers who exceed 2GB of usage in a billing month will still have access to unlimited data but at reduced speeds until their new billing cycle starts. Having a data cap blows, but if there must be one, we prefer this approach than tacking on fees for additional data. What do you think about T-Mobile's new Even More plan? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The tail end of 2010 was supposed to see a multitude of tablet releases. Fueled by the successful launch of Apple's first generation iPad device, companies left and right talked the talk about how they would all be coming out with slates of their own in the near future, but few walked the walk. Delays and other factors pushed what we expected to be 'the year of the tablet' into 2011, and while we've seen a handful of slates make it to market, are we due for an avalanche of tablets anytime soon?
Don't hold your breath. Citing "industry sources," news and rumor site DigiTimes says that an increasing number of players have decided to postpone the launch of tablet PCs, both because they're still unsure how the market will ultimately shake out, and also as the result of lingering component shortages caused by the Japan earthquakes. That's a far different situation than what we were expecting now that Google has launched its Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform, the first version of Android built from the ground up specifically for tablets. The release of Honeycomb was supposed to spark a tablet war, but so far Motorola's Xoom is the only Android 3.0 slate available and it hasn't exactly been flying off of store shelves. One of the more anticipated tablets on the horizon is Asus' Eee Pad Transformer, but according to DigiTimes, the launch date for the 16GB model was pushed back to the end of April and the 32GB model until May, Both were supposed to be on the market by now. It's not just Asus. Smartphone maker HTC has pushed back the date set for volume production of its Flyer tablet PCs until the second quarter. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you've been patiently holding out for Nikon's swivel screen D5100 digital SLR camera, you now have a decision to make. Should you wait until the April 21, 2011 (this Thursday) launch date and order one from an online vendor that won't hit you with sales tax, or should you succumb to impatience a pop over to your local Best Buy (or snag one online)? The choice is yours to make, but here's what you need to know.
The model that Best Buy is selling comes with an 18-55mm VR lens kit and runs $900. Shipping is free, tax is not, and if you've interested in just the body, then you should probably hang tight and save a few bucks. Both Amazon and Adorama are offering the D5100 body-only for preorder for $800, saving you a C-note over the kit lens. Also worth noting is that the accompanying ME-1 external mic is not available to order and probably won't be until the official retail launch later this week. While you ponder your options, here's a refresher on the D5100. Nikon's latest sits halfway between the D3100 and D7000 and sports a 3-inch Vari-Angle LCD monitor. It comes with a 16.2MP CMOS sensor, in-camera special effects mode, in-camera HDR, Full HD recording, and up to ISO 25,600. Image Credit: Nikon | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  According to rumors, Nintendo is gearing up to drop the price of its Wii game console in the middle of May by $50, dropping the cost down to $150. We'll have to wait and see if that happens, but in the meantime, both Best Buy and Toys R Us marked the motion-controlled console down to $170. Is it worth rolling the dice, or will you be kicking yourself in a month?
Unfortunately, we don't have the answer. Nintendo does, but the company hasn't made any kind of official announcement about an upcoming price drop, nor has it commented on the rumors. In other words, if you don't want to wait, this amounts to a $20 gamble, and possibly more depending on how long the reduced pricing lasts. Both the white and black versions are available now for $170, and both come with Wii Sports Resort and Wii Remote Plus. Toys R Us
Best Buy Image Credit: Best Buy | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
