|  |  |  | | | | | Maximum PC - All Articles | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Let's pretend that rather than being a massively successful technology company, Apple was actually, you know, an apple. The bright, shiny red kind the old lady down the street hands out on Halloween. It looks really delicious on the outside, but deep down inside, there's a terrible secret lurking. If Apple is an apple, Mac Defender is its hidden razor. And not even half a day after Apple finally stopped twiddling its thumbs and released a patch to combat the malware, Mac Defender's authors released a new version that's already bypassing the new protections.
Apple released Security Update 2011-003 yesterday, and Ed Bott at ZDNet reports the new Mac Defender variation showed up at 9:24 P.M. Pacific time – less than eight hours after the patch. Bott says the newest variation comes with a different name, Mdinstall.pkg, but works the same as before; it still manages to install without the user ever having to put in their administrative password. And so the vicious cycle continues. On the plus side, the new File Quarantine definitions supplied by the patch definitely halts the older version of Mac Defender in its tracks. File Quarantine pops when the program tries to install, clearly informing the user of its malicious intent and asking permission to move it to the trash. It's an effective fix; too bad it only worked for one afternoon. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Simple, affordable, quiet NZXT's H2 is a simple-looking case—in fact, simplicity seems to be the overall theme—and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In the world of PC building, simple can be good. The H2 is an ATX mid-tower, constructed of sturdy steel. The side panels (which lack windows or adornment of any kind) are lined with acoustic-dampening foam to keep your hardware quiet. It works well for the most part. We had the case running three fans, and the addition of the side and front panels made the case noticeably quieter. 
The NZXT H2 has a very simple and, dare we say, classy design. The 8.5x18.3x20.5-inch chassis comes stock with a 12cm exhaust fan and two front-mounted 12cm intake fans, which are latched into the front of the case and use electrical contact points to connect with the fan power and control switch at the top of the chassis. Eight toolless hard drive bays are accessed by removing one or both front intake fans, and the hard drive trays slide forward out of the front of the case. The front panel features snap-off bezels over the three 5.25-inch bays for easy and toolless optical drive installation. The inside of the H2 is workable, though it felt a bit cramped for a mid-size case. Thanks to the way the hard drive bays are designed, long videocards, such as the Radeon HD 5970, can fit in the case, though you'll need to remove one or two hard drive trays to accommodate the longest cards. The three grommeted cutouts for internal case wiring are a cool addition, though they can be slightly difficult to access due to the confined space, and the rubber grommets tend to fall out of the cutouts easily. 
Not impossible to build into by any means, but a little more cramped than we like. Up top, the H2 doesn't disappoint, featuring a drop-down SATA dock, the standard audio inputs, three USB 2.0 inputs, and a single USB 3.0 input, as well as power and reset buttons. The USB 3.0 port uses a pass-through that will work with many boards but is unsightly compared to the few cases we've tested that are now using the new internal USB 3.0 header spec. There's also a nifty three-speed fan-control switch. The H2 accommodates an additional 12cm top fan behind the SATA dock. The case doesn't come with the fan, but it's nice to have the option. If you don't want to utilize the fan port, it can be covered with a magnetic fan cover that comes with the case. Ultimately, the H2 is a simple but solid case made more appealing by its super-low price tag. At just 100 bucks, you're getting a sturdy chassis with USB 3.0, a drop-down SATA dock, and an innovative fan configuration. Minor inclusions, like a slide-out dust filter below your PSU, and the aforementioned sound-dampening foam, are awesome additions for a case at the H2's price point—the Fractal Define R3, reviewed in the February issue, offered similar features but lacked USB 3.0 ports and fan control, and cost 10 bucks more.
$100, www.nzxt.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Cases and cooling go together like peanut butter and jelly, ham and eggs, movies and popcorn, rum and Coke, and everything else that's better with the other. It shouldn't come as a shock to the system, then, that NZXT is releasing its first ever CPU cooler, the Havik 140. With funky looking fins and plenty of heatpipes, NZXT thinks it has a "true game changer" on its hands.
"CPU heat is a detrimental force that will devastate your gameplay," Johnny Hou, Founder and Chief Designer at NZXT, points out. "Havik 140 delivers a strategically designed whirlwind of ventilation to ensure the CPU operates at maximum efficiency when you're in the heat of battle. It does so without generating the noise levels of an aircraft carrier like other heatsinks on the market and carries a smaller footprint to reduce wear and tear on your motherboard." The Havik 140 moves air over its six heatpipes and aluminum fins with nickel plating using dual 140mm fans with "expertly engineered fan blades." NZXT claims airflow is rated at 90.3 CFM at 27.8 dB. NZXT's first cooler is available now for $75 and comes with mounting kits for both AMD and Intel systems. Image Credit: NZXT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Being first isn't always something to brag about. First in line to drink the funny smelling punch at an ominous cult meeting comes to mind, and there's no prize (or second date) for yelling "First!" during a one-night stand. In MSI's case, it's totally acceptable to prance around with a press release announcing a first of its own: the first to ship a "supercharged gaming laptop" in North America utilizing Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560M graphics chip.
MSI's 15.6-inch GT683R sports Nvidia's latest mobile GPU and pairs it with an Intel Core i7 2630QM quad-core processor. Other specs include a Full HD display (1920x1080), a whopping 12GB of DDR3 memory (supports up to 16GB), 1TB hard drive spinning at 7200RPM with RAID 0, DVD burner, 7-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 720p HD webcam, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, VGA, HDMI, Bluetooth, Dynaudio speakers with subwoofer, and MSI's Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology for overclocking the GPU. Getting back to the GTX 560M that has MSI in such a braggadocios mood, this slice of silicon features 192 CUDA cores and comes with an engine clockspeed of 775MHz. The shaders race along at 1559MHz and 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory at 1250MHz on up to a 192-bit memory bus. According to Nvidia, gamers can expect to pull 50 frames per second in Duke Nukem Forever and five hours of battery life in Microsoft Office using this new GPU. The GT683R-242US is available now direct from MSI for $1,600. Amazon also has it in stock for $1,500. Image Credit: MSI | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you think your daily commute to work is overcrowded, just wait until 2015 and try driving on the Internet's highways. By then, network traffic will have quadrupled to 966 exabytes per year as a content hungry populace gains access to cyberspace on more than 15 billion network connected devices that, ironically enough, will outnumber people 2 to 1. These are just some of the numbers Cisco tossed out in its fifth annual 'Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015)' released today.
Between 2014 and 2015 alone, Cisco predicts an increase of Internet traffic to the tune of 200 exabytes, a number greater than the total amount of Internet Protocol traffic generated globally in 2010. There will be 1 million minutes of video traversing cyberspace every every second (and three trillion video minutes every month) in 2015. By then, there will be nearly 3 billion Internet users -- more than 40 percent of the world's population -- according to Cisco. "The explosive growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimizing and monetizing visual, virtual, and mobile Internet experiences," said Suraj Shetty, vice president of worldwide service provider marketing, Cisco. "As architect of the next-generation Internet, Cisco stands ready to help our customers not only accommodate this rapid expansion of Internet activity through the evolution of their networks but also help them thrive as a result of it." While not addressed in Cisco's report, the numbers are further cause for concern for arbitrary data caps with overage fees. According to Cisco, the average fixed broadband speed in 2015 will reach 28Mbps, up from 7Mbps in 2010. What good will all that speed be if ISPs continue to clamp down on the amount of content users are able to consume every month? Cisco's figures also bring to light the need for companies to hurry up and transition to IPv6. Each network connected device needs an iPv4 address, and those are in short supply. "We are running out if IPv4 addresses and the adoption of IPv6 is going to be front and center of everything for the next several years," Shetty told BBC News. "The implication for vendors like Cisco is that we have to come up with a platform that can help scale the Internet to handle a lot of the traffic and to do it smartly. If you want to keep adding billions and billions of devices, the only answer is IPV6." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Intel today announced the launch of its Atom N435 processor, a new low cost CPU that will allow its partners to reduce the cost of netbooks. The target price point Intel is hoping its partners hit is $199 or less, both for the benefit of emerging markets and to help revive interest in a category that's been somewhat cannibalized by the red hot (and still emerging) tablet market, even though the average slate costs much more.
The N435 is part of Intel's 45nm Pineview family and runs at 1.33GHz with 512KB L2 cache and a sub-5W TDP. That makes it the slowest of all the second-generation N-series Atom processors, with the next fastest chips (N450 and N455) clocked at 1.66GHz. In an email to PCWorld, Intel spokeswoman Suzy Ramirez said new netbooks using the N435 will provide "new levels of affordability for emerging markets." Consumers will ultimately decide if the performance impact of a slower, single-core Atom processor is worth the price savings, a verdict that will likely come sooner than later. Asus has already slapped the N435 into its Eee PC X101 and X101H netbooks, and according to PCWorld, several other partners have lined up machines using the new chip paired with Intel's MeeGo OS and AppUp application store, including Acer's Aspire One Happy 2, Samsung's N100, and Lenovo's IdeaPad S100. Image Credit: Intel | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Corsair's new Carbide Series 400R and 500R computer cases share DNA with the company's Obsidian and Graphite Series and "have been designed for PC gamers with the same builder-friendly philosophy," but one thing these newcomers don't have in common is the price. The 500R will ship for $129, and the 400R slips just under the century mark with a $99 price tag, making them affordable alternatives to higher end cases that creep past the $200 mark.
Both cases take cooling seriously and provide enough room to accommodate 240mm dual radiators, which just so happens to be compatible with Corsair's Hydro Series H100 liquid CPU cooler and modular cooling systems. The 400R comes with three fans and features a total of four 120mm fan mounts and six 120mm/140mm mounts for those who want to create a wind storm, while the 500R kicks it up a notch with a 200mm side-mounted fan for extra GPU cooling and mulit-channel fan controller. The 400R can fit full-length GPUs up to 316mm in length, and the 500R can accept extra-long graphics cards measuring up to 452mm in length by removing one of the two hard drive cages. Both cases sport native 2.5-inch SSD support, two USB 3.0 ports on the front panel (with internal connection), FireWire, headphone/mic, eight PCI-Express slots, painted interior, and cable management cutouts. The Carbide Series will be available in July. Carbide 400R Product Page
Carbide 500R Product Page Image Credit: Corsair | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  OCZ ditched the DRAM business after helping pioneer a market for enthusiast level RAM, but the company didn't leave behind its power user mentality. That much was demonstrated at the Computex trade show when OCZ set a new benchmark record of more than 1 million 4K write IOPS with a Z-Drive R4 equipped 3U Colfax International Server based on a Supermicro platform with 7.2TB of MLC storage.
"The Z-Drive R4 enables our data center clients to maximize performance in the industry standard 4K file size, and this achievement with Colfax International demonstrates the raw performance benefits and latency reductions that OCZ PCIe SSDs can deliver over multi-terabyte device densities in a single 3U server," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "We are proud to enable our clients to deliver servers and storage arrays which provide the highest performance, maximum capacity, and lowest latency available to data centers today." The setup also delivered over 1.5 million read IOPS (cue the Tim Allen grunt). Impressive, though not terribly surprising considering the Z-Drive's spec sheet. OCZ offers the Z-Drive R4 in half-height, half-length (Z-Drive R4 84) and full-height, three-quarter length (Z-Drive R4 88) form factors. Both are based on SandForce's SF-2000 series controller, with the 84 rated at up to 1,500MB/s read, 1,200MB/s write, and 200,000 IOPS 4K random write speeds, and the 88 offering up to 2,900MB/s read, 2,700MB/s write, and 350,000 IOPS 4K random write speeds. Image Credit: OCZ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  AMD is delighted with initial sales of the first wave of its APUs. Now that it's through with the launch of entry-level Ontario and Zacate APUs, everyone is looking forward to its 32nm Llano chips for mainstream PCs, which are scheduled to make their commercial debut later this month. The chip maker, however, is already looking beyond Llano. It unveiled Llano's successor during its Computex press conference yesterday. Hit the jump for more.
Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's products group, unveiled the company's next-generation "Trinity" APU at the event, calling it "the next greatest thing" after Llano. It will be the company's first Bulldozer-based APU when it makes its debut next year. The company also announced that the first traditional processors based on the Bulldozer architecture - Zambezi for desktops and Orochi for servers - will be available in Q3 2011. It confirmed that Llano chips, which will be launched at a separate event later this month, will receive A-Series branding. The A series will have three APUs: A4, A6 and A8. Image Credit: AnandTech | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  From the moment we first saw the Fallout MMO beginning to take shape, we thought it seemed too good to be true. But we just figured we'd get a half-baked, wasteland-wandering WoW clone out of it – not, you know, nothing. Sadly, the latter's now looking like a distinct possibility, as publisher Interplay's found itself in a bit of a pickle. And by "a bit," we mean one of those mutant "world's biggest" tourist trap pickles that have their own giftshops in towns whose populations are halved anytime someone takes out the garbage.
Put simply, Interplay's in debt. More specifically, over $500,000 in debt. Meanwhile, in Interplay's bank account: $3,000. You do the math. "If we cannot generate additional income or raise additional capital in the near future, we may become insolvent or be made bankrupt or may become illiquid or worthless," read an SEC filing uncovered by Develop. Fallout Online – which is also currently being blocked by Bethesda's lawyers – isn't the only game facing an early trip to the chopping block, either. ClayFigher, Stonekeep, Descent, and Earthworm Jim 4 are also reenacting that one really cliched (but still oddly moving) scene from Toy Story 3. Granted, all hope isn't lost. Interplay just needs more funding, after all. That, however, may well be an impossibly tall order. Straight from the horse's mouth: "However, no assurance can be given that funding can be obtained on acceptable terms, or at all," said Interplay in the SEC filing. "These conditions, combined with the company's historical operating losses and its deficits in stockholders' equity and working capital, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." So yes. Not much room for thin rays of hope or lights at the end of the tunnel to squeeze through there. Fingers crossed, of course, as it's never fun to see people lose their jobs. But still, we don't recommend holding your breath. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Wait just a minute. Take a deep breath. The sky isn't falling. You still don't have to spend a dime to hunt filthy mouthed 12-year-olds online in Call of Duty. Make no mistake: Activision wants your money, but it's not crazy. Call of Duty: Elite – as the newly announced service is known – will give you more bang for more bucks, but you certainly won't be left high-and-dry if you decide you're a miser, not a fighter.
In a nutshell, Elite aims to transform the Call of Duty franchise into "a true social network." It's set to link every Call of Duty game (beginning with Black Ops and presumably ending with Modern Warfare XIV-2: Advent Precipice Child Revolution) via persistent stats, groups, and even personalized learning tools. Unsuprisingly, competition is the second biggest gun in Elite's arsenal, offering "a constant stream of events and competitions" with "both in-game and real-world prizes" on the line. So basically, Elite's exactly what its name suggests: a bunch of new toys for Call of Duty's most dedicated, obsessive players. If you pop in every couple months to blow off some steam, it's probably not for you. Even so, most of the things we've outlined so far? Completely free. As for what a still unspecified amount per month will get you, Activision's currently opting to short-circuit our brains with a swarm of buzzwords. Seriously, before reading this, you may want to take cover: "Call of Duty Elite will offer a premium membership with a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market." Which could mean just about anything. Ever. Meanwhile, in Concrete Information Land – where normal people who don't speak in fluent press release live – all DLC is a definite lock for subscribers. So that's one fairly sizable perk, though its worth will sharply increase or decrease depending on subscription price, frequency of DLC, etc. On the upside, Activision's already accepting beta sign-ups here, with a fittingly Activision Specific start date of "later this summer." In the meantime, though, there's always this trailer of the service in action. Now then, if you'll excuse us, we have to clean some buzzwords out of our teeth. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We used to have a love/hate relationship with sticky notes. They were great for jotting stuff down, but over time the small yellow squares ended up consuming the entire surface of our desks in a slow, ever-expanding Blob-like wave. We could never find the note we needed when we needed it. It always ended in hysterical tears and missed appointments. Then we downloaded Evernote, and never touched a sticky note again. Plus, we started making it to our appointments on time. Or at least some of them. Once you create or edit a note in Evernote, the program backs up your data to the Evernote servers and makes it accessible from any device with the software installed. You can get Evernote for Windows, Macs and all the major smartphones, giving you access to your notes from almost anywhere. But there's more to Evernote than simple reminders: we've compiled 10 tips to help you squeeze as much as possible out of the surprisingly powerful application.
More In Sync Than Justin Timberlake
The core of Evernote's power lies in its syncing ability. By default, the program uploads all of your new and edited notes to the company's servers every 30 minutes. You can change the frequency by selecting "Tools" > "Options" > "Sync." If you need access to one of your notes on another device, and you need to do it now, click the "Sync" button in Evernote's toolbar to upload your changes to Evernote's servers immediately. 
Evernote's Sync button.
Have SMTP Do The Work for You As powerful as Evernote is, sometimes you just won't have access to it. If inspiration strikes while you're helping Grandma clean malware off her Mac, just shoot your Evernote account an email. Evernote sends you an email address for your account when you sign up. The subject of the email becomes the note's title, and the body becomes the content of the note. You can even categorize emailed notes by including modifiers in the subject: add @(notebook name) to assign the note to a specific notebook, and add tags with #(tag). Wanna Trade Pics? A picture's worth a thousand words, especially if it's a picture of your totally cool case mod. The free version of Evernote lets you add images, audio files and PDFs to your notes simply by dragging and dropping them in. Smartphone users can just snap a pic with their camera, or you can add a supported file to an emailed note by including it as an attachment. Upgrade to the premium version and you can add any kind of file you'd like. Digitize Your Life Adding images to your notes can be used for so much more than sending your mom pics of your Pomeranian. Handed a business card? Snap a shot of it and tag it with the person's name and business. Swimming in school notes? Don't want to lose the kick-ass idea spewed all over your whiteboard? Take a pic. Not only do you keep the information forever, but Evernote's awesome optical character recognition software can read your handwriting and turn the pictures of words into searchable text. Music To Your Ears Eminem fans doing their best "Eight Mile" impression used to have to resign themselves to the fact that their battle-mic prowess was lost to the aether the second they spit out a hot lyric. No longer. Mobile Evernote apps include the ability to record audio notes, so you'll be able to record those spur-of-the-moment thunderbolts of inspiration while your fingers are otherwise occupied. Additionally, the Voice2Note software by Power2Do can transcribe your audio into text notes if you want a print version of your brainstorm. Voice2Note even maintains a dedicated phone line so that you can call in your notes completely hands-free. Add Web Pages to Your Notes Adding Web content to Evernote in Firefox.
You can always just copy text from a website and paste it into a note, but you'd be losing a lot of the benefits of the Web. The modern Internet is chock full of media, baby, and Evernote's Web Clipper plugin grabs entire chunks of the screen at once, keeping images and formatting intact (for the most part). Simply download the Web Clipper add-on for your browser, then highlight a portion of a Web page. Right-click the excerpt and select "Add to Evernote." Bam! Done. The Chrome plugin adds even more functionality. Its "Simultaneous Search" option adds results from your Evernote tags whenever you search Google, so when you Google "Furry" pics, it conveniently tells you that you already have thirty teddy bear-sporting notes tagged with the term. Streamline Your Research and Shopping The Web Clipper plugin makes it easy to compile multiple research sources into a single note. Rather than bookmarking each and every website you reference in your thesis, just create a new note and clip the appropriate snippets of each page into it. It works great for keeping track of websites and prices while comparison shopping, too. You can still add your own text to notes with clipped Web pages, so jotting down notations and extra details to go with the clips is easy. Show Me Yours And I'll Show You Mine Users of Evernote's Mac and Web versions have been swapping notebooks for a while, but the feature only appeared on Windows earlier this year. Spamming Twitter or Facebook with your notes is easier than ever before thanks to the "Share" button in Evernote's toolbar. Just click it and choose how you want to share your grocery list with friends. Sharing whole notebooks is handled via the "Shared" tab in the left-hand navigation panel. Select which notebook you want to share, then choose to show your stuff to the entire world or to selected individuals via email. If you're using the free version, others can only see your notebook; upgrading to a premium account lets others alter shared notebooks, making it an awesome collaboration tool for business or creative types. Search Like A Pro Evernote supports several modifiers that can help you unleash some serious Search-Fu. Preface your search with "Tag:" – minus the quotes – to limit your searches to notes with a specific tag. The "notebook:" modifer works the same way, only with notebooks. Add a minus sign to the front of a modifier to exclude compatible results from searches. Asterisks act as wildcards, just like they do in Google searches and DOS commands. Want an example? Search for "-tag:*" to show all your untagged notes. The "created:" modifier sorts by date. There's tons of depth to Evernote modifiers – so much that honestly covering them would take an entire article of its own. Check out this comprehensive post over at Dropping Steps for all the syntax info you'll ever need. 
Evernote search modifiers in action. Get Things Done With Checklists Are you like Santa, constantly making a list a checking it twice? Evernote's got you covered. Just right-click in the body of a note and select "To-Do" > "Insert Checkbox" to drop a checkable box into the note. It's perfect for creating shopping lists on the run. No Love For Linux A last, quick note for Linux fans: Evernote doesn't offer a Linux version. Sure, you could try to run the program in Wine, or you could just download and install Nevernote, an open source Evernote clone that fully interacts with the Evernote servers. Nevernote gets bonus points for including "Why is it so ugly?" as a topic in its documentation. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The "Tweet" button has been available for some time, allowing users to share links easily on Twitter. Now the short messaging service has added a feature from the other side of the coin. The Follow button can be placed on websites to allow visitors to easily follow an account. No more awkward linking to profile pages, just a one-click follow.
According to Twitter, over 50 sites have added the Follow button today. The goal is to make it easier to know when someone has an account, and to help users find official accounts for notable personalities. Sites like IMDB, MTV, and TVGuide are among those using the button already, but any user can configure their own Follow button on the Twitter site. You will need to be logged into Twitter in the browser to use the one-click Follow button. Simply input your user name, pick a background color, and decide if you want your follower count shown. The site will give you the HTML snippet to paste on your blog or website instantly. Will you be more likely to follow someone if they have this one-click button set up? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When all of the walls of a system are transparent, where do you hide the cables? Answer: behind all the awesome insides 
Were there a Mount Everest of PC builds, the see-through PC would likely be it. The difficulties are great, and the possibilities for failure high, but there's nothing that gets me more excited than the opportunity to crack my knuckles and customize the lighting and electrical setup of a transparent desktop system. The most fearsome part of this build is the acrylic case I'm using: There's nowhere to hide any mistakes. Nor can I just stuff a mass of cables in some secluded area of the case and call it a day. Every bit of this build has to be focused on aesthetics, so I'm grabbing my toolbox and busting out a ton of different tricks to make sure this system can stand up to scrutiny. Ingredients - Total (customizations only) $945
Total for PC: $1,945 Selecting the right hardware to make a system look good is the most important part of a transparent PC construction. That's why you'll see that my parts—a number of which were donated to the cause by online retailer FrozenCPU—are more focused on the system's appearance than its actual performance. Feel free to use whatever components you want. I'm using the same standard parts I've used for my previous case builds. The case is a no-brainer: acrylic. DangerDen graciously sent over a version of its acrylic case that hides the hard drive underneath the power supply, lest I be tempted to bust out the Dremel and construct a window within the drive itself. The two-bay cutout on the front of the case is critical, too, providing just enough space for an optical drive and a series of switches that I'll use to power and control the system's lighting. Also critical: the modular power supply (provided by Kingwin). If you haven't noticed by now, the name of the game here is cable management. Specifically, I need to use as few cables as possible inside the case, as there's no great way to conceal them. I'm packing a 3/8-inch water-cooling setup to give the inside a bit more visual flair. The reactive fluid should look extra special combined with blue lighting from the radiator fans and separate UV spotlights. And to complete the Tron motif, I'm outlining the exterior of the case with yellow electroluminescent wire.
Step One: Build the Case The DangerDen acrylic case I'm using, the DD Tower-21, comes fully disassembled. The process for assembling your flat-packed parts into a mighty chassis will vary with whatever case you've purchased, but two key pointers will always stay the same. 
First, take precautions to minimize fingerprint smudges. Wearing a pair of soft gloves or using a cloth barrier between you and the panels can keep things clean (above). 
Second, don't use power tools—no battery-powered screwdrivers, no drills, nothing. Over-tightening screws can lead to cracked acrylic, which defeats the entire purpose of having a see-through case to begin with. I love how the design of the DangerDen case makes it so I don't actually have to hold nuts in place while attaching screws (above). Step Two: Attack the Radiator There's only one place to attach a radiator on this case, and it's on an acrylic panel that sits directly behind the case's front. Since I knew I wanted to run EL wire to outline the front of the chassis, this secondary panel had to be in position prior to setting up the case's lighting. This point illustrates the reason why you should inventory and strategize a case build before you start slapping things together. 
I used smaller screws to attach my Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow radiator to the acrylic panel. I then flipped the panel over and used longer screws to attach a combination of three UV-reactive Yate Loon 12cm fans and three ModRight FilterRight fan filters (above). I then slid the secondary panel into place and screwed it into the case (below). 
Step Three: Install the EL Wire 
EL wire, or electroluminescent wire, is thin copper wire that glows a particular color (thanks to a phosphor coating) when you run current through it. After mounting the primary inverter to the rear of the case (above), right around the hard drive (for maximum concealment), I ran the black wire cabling for my two strands of EL wire through the holes in the rear of the case. I then looped each 5-foot strand of wire around the bottom, front, and top of the case, securing it to the case's sides using clear adhesive tape (below)—any other method would disrupt the strand of light. 
Step Four: Add PSU and Hard Drive 
I next decided to throw in my Kingwin LZ-1000 modular power supply and 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, because I wanted to get a feel for how the system's primary components would affect the placement of the other aesthetically oriented parts I had in mind. I also wanted to start testing out my system's lighting setup by connecting an Antec power supply tester to my PSU, which would generate juice for anything attached to its wires. Both the power supply (above) and hard drive (below) slid right in without difficulty, and I hand-secured them with a smile. 
Step Five: Assemble the Water Cooling To assemble the water-cooling apparatus, I began by attaching Koolance Quick Disconnects to my various water-cooling parts (below); these would come in handy for adjustments and spill prevention later. My plan was to run 3/8-inch tubing from my Swiftech MCP35X pump (overkill in power, but extremely small and easy to position) to the Black Ice radiator, which would flow out to my Koolance CPU-370 water block, up to a Swiftech MCRes Micro Rev2 reservoir, and back down into the pump. 
We've said it once and we'll say it again: Test your loop away from expensive components before you put it in your rig. I tested the whole setup using UV-reactive Feser One cooling fluid (below) before cracking open a cold one and pondering just how I was going to get this into the case—and look good, to boot. I decided to delay this decision a bit and proceeded to install the system's motherboard into the case using the provided standoffs and screws, followed by the graphics card. 
Step Six: Install Water Cooling 
I decided to mount the reservoir right below the hard drive, using a mechanism that would allow me to run the reservoir itself parallel to the case. I screwed a mounting bar into a hole previously designed for a hard drive, then screwed a mounting bar attached to the reservoir into the first mounting bar (above). The way I attached the reservoir meant that the tank could conceivably pivot on an axis, so I made sure to tighten the screw and nut combinations as much as possible to lock the entire contraption into place (below). 
Attaching the pump to the case was much easier: I just used velcro, adhered to the case itself (below). 
Step Seven: Connect the Cables To minimize cabling and maximize my ability to control lighting brightness and fan power, I connected all the case fans and lighting equipment (including a 12-inch UV cathode) to a Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme six-channel fan controller (below). The controller provides up to 30 watts of power per channel, meaning that no connected device would need a secondary connection to the power supply. 
I cut off these secondary connections and, if a device didn't come with a 3-pin connector, I split its cable and the cable of the fan controller's included 3-pin wire, then connected these two halves by twisting the wiring and covering the connection with electrical tape (below). 
After I plugged in all the cables to the controller, I installed the system's optical drive over the top of it—both to hide the cabling connections and because it would have been a real pain to try and hook them up with a huge optical drive in the way. Step Eight: Tidy Up 
For any smaller cables that didn't come presleeved, I used Flexo Pet sleeving to wrap the cables in a colorful, UV-reactive exterior. Heat-shrinks and—in some cases—velcro strips were used to hold the sleeving in place (above). I used these same velcro strips to bind all of the power supply's black-sleeved cables together, and then wove all UV cabling around the exterior of this mass, akin to vines around a tree trunk (below). It might not look that interesting with the lights on, but the UV-reactive cabling looks striking in the dark—and with my UV spotlights on, of course. 
I finished out the system build by connecting all the associated power and data cords, including the tiny wires used by my third-party, UV-glowing system switch. The last part of the puzzle involved finding the perfect place to mount my three UV-LED spotlights, which deliver focused light over a good chunk of the case's now-glowing parts.
The Guts 
The Brain This build would not be possible without this rig's six-channel fan controller. Every light and fan in the case (save for the PSU's) is adjustable (and powered) using this simple series of switches. COOL IT In addition to providing better cooling than air, a
liquid-cooling setup provides visual flare, especially with UV-reactive coolant. Simplicity, simplicity I didn't just pick Koolance's CPU-370 for its prowess. The water block is also a snap to install, requiring very few parts, headaches, or wizard swears in order to firmly attach the block over one's CPU. Artificial Walls Use elements like your lighting inverter or your water-cooling pump to wall off cabling where possible. It's a lot easier to keep a cable in place with a rigid device blocking its path than with a ton of Velcro and twist ties. Looking Through the Results It sure looks easy on paper, doesn't it? In practice, the physical construction of the see-through PC was a multiday build involving several trips to the hardware store to deal with a variety of issues. The biggest hurdle in working with a case that you build yourself is that not everything always goes according to plan. Some screw lengths don't fit the predrilled holes in the chassis; some unexpected twists have to be navigated (the first UV-reactive coolant I used looked less than impressive); some dents, dings, and cracks find their way onto the chassis no matter how careful you are. If I could offer one piece of advice to instill courage in folks looking to follow in my transparent footsteps, it would be this: over plan. Take your time. Don't order a mess of components at once with some grand vision in your head of how they're all going to come together, because you'll be amazed at some of the new ideas you'll come up with once you actually have a huge acrylic case sitting on your coffee table. You can just wing it with a conventional build, but acrylic cases require a lot more TLC. Had I the time, opportunity, or work setup, I would have loved to craft some acrylic frames for both the power supply and the optical drive. That's not the kind of deal that one just budgets an hour for, and it does pose some risk that a newbie with a Dremel could send his or her expensive components off to the scrap heap. Still, see-through is see-through, and see-through devices, where possible, would have been a nice touch. One final word to the wise: EL wire is both a blessing and a curse. Get the longest single strand you can purchase. Here's why: The more strands of EL wire you connect to a converter, the dimmer the strands become in total. Depending on the brand of inverter and wire you've chosen, the inverter itself can also emit a loud, high-pitched whine. It's a rookie mistake, but one that could easily scuttle the dreams of those looking to turn their mid-tower desktops into a device out of Tron: Legacy. Building a see-through PC is like the sword in the stone of computer construction: Once you've mastered the sleeving, electrical, and liquid-cooling challenges of a transparent build, you can accomplish great things. May your lights shine bright, aspiring builder. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The European Union frowns on mega-mergers and doesn't like it when a handful of companies control an entire industry. It's not afraid to spank companies that try to grab power, either; just ask Microsoft and Intel, who were each slapped with bowel-quiveringly huge antitrust fines in excess of 1 billion euros in the past. Now, Seagate and Western Digital find themselves in the regulatory spotlight as each company tries to take over competitors in the increasingly cut-throat hard drive business.
Seagate wants to absorb Samsung's hard drive division while Western Digital is hungrily eying Hitachi's storage business, Bloomberg reports. The European Commission put dampers on both moves to conduct a detailed investigation of the proposals. The inquiries would be complete by October 10th, the Commission said. Joaquin Almunia, the European Union's competition commissioner, cited concern that the mergers would limit the number of hard drive manufacturers to just three. "The sector has already experienced significant consolidation and the proposed acquisitions will further reduce competition," Almunia says. If approved, Western Digital would hold 50 percent of the hard drive market, Seagate would control another 40 percent, and Toshiba would bring up the rear with the final 10 percent. US regulators are taking their own look at the deals. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | On April 15, thousands of professional Internet gamers were put out of work by the U.S. Justice Department. You didn't realize there were so many people who derived some or all of their income from online gaming? Well, if poker isn't a game, then I'm not sure what it is. And thousands of people—many of them college students and the unemployed—played poker online to support themselves, right up until the Justice Department decided to pull the plug. Technically, Internet gambling isn't illegal, or at least not clearly illegal. When the Bush administration rammed through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (the UIGEA) as a last-minute addition to a port security bill, they didn't bother to really define "unlawful Internet gambling." Instead, they opted to deny the financial tools commonly used for e-commerce (extension of credit, electronic fund transfers, etc.) to any enterprise transmitting a wager to any location where that wager is illegal. 
But these laws, which are different for each state, simply can't be applied to something like Internet poker. Plus, all of the major poker sites were based offshore, bringing international law into the picture. President Obama, in his mysterious efforts to cement his reputation as The Second Coming of George W. Bush, decided to pick up the UIGEA ball and run with it. Thus, on April 15, the Justice Department seized the domains for Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars.net, and Absolute Poker; froze billions in assets; and arrested 11 of their executives. These three weren't chosen at random: They are the three largest online poker sites. 
If you were a casual online player, you may miss the thrill of playing for real money. But if you relied on that income, you woke up on poker's Black Friday to find your world gone. Rather than taking on the complex task of defining and perhaps even regulating Internet gambling, the government simply destroyed it.
You can follow Thomas McDonald on Twitter at StateOfPlayBlog. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Does Asus have a chip on its shoulder? The company showed up swinging at the Computex expo in Taiwan with the official announcement of the PadFone yesterday, and today, it unleashed a torrent of PC-related products upon the drooling crowds. Souped-up notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, peripherals and full-blown gaming PCs – most sporting the Republic of Gamers brand – were on display as Asus tried to offer a solution for every gamer who ever even thought about playing Crysis.
Maybe the coolest thing Asus unveiled was the G53SX Naked Eye 3D gaming notebook, which obviously carried the ROG brand. The portable beast is powered by Sandy Bridge Core i7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics, but perhaps best of all, it can display in 3D without the need for those goofy 3D glasses. Slashgear reports the notebook will be able to convert 2D to 3D and even display them side-by-side. Other announced ROG systems were the G74SX 3D notebook – which still needs glasses – and the CG8565 Gaming System, which includes a Z68-based Core i7 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 GPU. The thing looks like a stealth fighter itching to kick your ass and includes an overclock button, charmingly labeled "Level Up." Asus also displayed three new ROG motherboards: the Maximus IV GENE-Z and Maximus IV Extreme-Z motherboards both feature Intel's Z68 processor, while the company's press release boasts that the "Crosshair V Formula is the first AMD 990FX-based motherboard supporting both 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX." It runs on a AM3+ CPU. Two NVIDIA GTX 580-based graphics cards also carried the ROG brand, and the company showed off its M5A99/97 Series and Sabertooth 990FX motherboards. The M5A99/97 lets users fiddle with power settings, while the Sabertooth 990FX keeps cool with CeraM!X technology. Asus also revealed the first peripheral carrying the ROG brand: the Vulcan ANC gaming headset, which features active noise-cancelling technology so that you can hear you foes being vanquished while simultaneously ignoring your girlfriend shouting at you to get off the computer. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Convenience isn't just for fast food and corner store shopping; laziness – or efficiency, whichever you want to call it – is also one of the driving factors in portable PC design. Us end-users hate to lug around gargantuan laptops, and we hate being tied to electrical outlets while our batteries recharge. We want to be like Ali and float like a butterfly, dammit! Fortunately for us, Broadcom unveiled a new 40nm-thick Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo chip at Computex on Tuesday, the smallest ever developed.
Called the BCM43142 InConcert combo chip (the link keeps timing out, presumably due to heavy traffic), its invention follows the trend of incremental changes: while we've seen WiFi/Bluetooth combo chips before, we've never seen them this small. Not only does the device combine what used to be two chips into one – eliminating one full chip entirely – but the smaller size means less weight, which could lead to less energy consumption. Win-win all around! The chip will be available for Windows and Android-based notebooks and netbooks. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Between 1,000 different flavors of Android, iOS, QNX, Windows Phone 7, and every other operating system out there, it's not as if the mobile world is dire need of yet another OS. That's good, because if tablet and smartphone makers are waiting for Google's Chrome OS to be ported over, they better bet cozy, it could be a long wait. Speaking at the Computex trade show, a Google senior executive says the search giant is content to keep its Chrome OS on notebooks.
"Chrome OS is a computer model designed with various form factors in mind, but we are entirely focused on the notebook form factor for now. We have no other plans at this time," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior VP for Chrome, according to a Reuters report. Whether or not that's a sound strategy will soon be revealed. Laptops from Samsung and Acer sporting Google's barebones Chrome OS will go on sale next month, and some analysts predict it will have a similar impact on the PC world as Android did (and continues to have) in the mobile space. "The big issue is whether Google has the marketing nous and focus to position the Chrome PC to compete head on with the established full-OS laptop and tablet players in the consumer computing market," said Steve Hodgkinson, IT research director fo Asia Pacific at research firm Ovum." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Corsair has come up with a solution for anyone having trouble trying to squeeze a monstrous CPU cooling solution into their rig only to find that the RAM is getting in the way. It's the company's new Vengeance LP DDR3 memory series. These low profile kits feature heat spreaders with a reduced height of 1.03 inches (25.25 millimeters), nearly an inch shorter than the standard height of 1.87 inches (47.37 millimeters).
The Vengeance LP kits are available in three different colors, including "Jet Black," "Cerulean Blue," and a "Special Edition Arctic White." Like the original Vengeance series, these are designed to run at 1.5V, except for the Arctic White version, which operates at the ultra-low voltage of 1.35V. To kick things off, Corsair plans to offer its Vengeance LP series in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB kits, each one with a rated frequency of 1600MHz and 9-9-9-24 latencies. No word yet on price or availability. Image Credit: Corsair | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If there's a Rodney Dangerfield of browser makers, it has to be Opera Software, the Norwegian browser maker responsible for Opera, the oft overlooked alternative to Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Opera might not get the same market share respect that the big three receive, but even if the useage numbers don't bear it out, it's a decent overall browser worth checking out. For those who like to live on the bleeding edge, Opera Software just made available Opera 11.50 beta codenamed "Swordfish."
The new beta shakes up Opera's popular Speed Dial feature by adding extensions to the mix. Speed Dial extensions transform what's traditionally been a simple thumbnail bookmark into a dynamic source of information. Using extensions, you can configure Speed Dial to display live, animated content like news feeds, weather, a photo stream, and more. Opera's other big feature upgrade is password synchronization through Opera Link. Opera Link synchronizes bookmarks and other browser information across multiple computers, and purportedly keeps passwords safe through encryption (you can read more about the security features here). Those are the two main features of Opera 11.50, which are flanked by improved HTML5 support, improved CSS, better DOM event handling, and a handful of other changes underneath the hood. Opera 11.50b1 Download
Opera 11.50b1 Changelog Image Credit: Opera Software | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  It's a good thing our PCs don't run on gas. This hobby is expensive enough as it is, and that's especially true for gamers. If you're more interested in fragging than Facebook, then that means you'll spend twice, maybe three times as much on the videocard alone. Factor in more RAM, a speedy SSD for ultra fast load times and overall system performance, and high-dollar gaming peripherals, and you can blow through a budget faster than Lady Gaga on tour. NZXT feels your pain, and if you can live with a case that's anything but ostentatious, the company's new Source 210 is about as wallet friendly as it gets.
NZXT is asking $40 for the Source 210 and $50 for the Elite version. Described as a "starter chassis for gamers on a budget," the Source 210 isn't made out of cardboard and duct tape, but features a textured aluminum panel in both black and white. It comes with modern amenities like wire management support, painted interior (black or white), and a bottom mounted PSU slot for optimal cooling. And speaking of cooling, gamers can install up to seven 120mm fans. For an extra $10, the Elite model includes USB 3.0, a tool-less design, and a 140mm top fan for additional cooling. Image Credit: NZXT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Samsung is off to a fast start with its 32GB memory modules using 30nm-class, 4Gb (gigabit) DDR3 DRAM chips and is the first in the industry to start producing these parts. These massive memory kits won't end up in home systems, few of which could actually support that amount of RAM in the first place, but in cloud computing environments and advanced server systems where there's no such thing has having too much memory.
"With this module, Samsung has secured the highest level of product and solution competitiveness in the DRAM market for PC, server and mobile applications," said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We also plan to ship more energy-efficient 4Gb DDR3 DRAM based on 20nm-class process technology in the second half of this year, which will significantly expand the rapidly growing market for green IT memory solutions. Moreover, we intend to keep delivering the greenest memory products with optimal performance for customers." Samsung says its 30nm-class 4Gb DDR3 chips offer increased productivity in the neighborhood of 50 percent compared to 40nm-class 4Gb DDR3. Because of this, Samsung expects rapid market penetration. The company's new 1.35V 32GB RDIMM serves up a whopping 1,866Mbps, representing a 40 percent improvement over a 1,333Mbps 40nm-class 32GB RDIMM operating at 1.5V. Image Credit: Samsung | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Corsair used the Computex convention in Taiwan to introduce its 'Corsair Link' technology, which is a "modular hardware and software system that provides comprehensive monitoring and control of PC cooling and lighting." Towards that end, Corsair also unveiled its Link Cooling Kit and Link Cooling and Lighting Kit, a couple of products that can best be described as highfalutin fan/light controllers that go above and beyond other fan controllers.
The whole Link system starts with the 'Corsair Link Commander.' As pictured, this is an aluminum housing designed to slide into any available 3.5-inch drive bay. It connects to your PC via USB and provides eight Corsair Link Digital terminals and one analog Link terminal for non-digital sensors and nodes. You can plug Corsair's Link Cooling Node and/or Lighting Node to digital terminals on the Commander. The Cooling Node provides five fan control terminals, four sensor terminals, and three temperature sensors. The Lighting Node provides two lighting channels, each one capable of controlling up to 33 LED strips. On the software side, there's the Corsair Link Dashboard, a Windows app that gives at-a-glance parametric monitoring and control options. From within the app, you can setup automatic cooling and lighting schemes, or change everything on a whim. "Corsair Link is a complete ecosystem of kits and components that will bring a new level of cooling and lighting customization to the PC enthusiast market." said Ruben Mookerjee, VP and General Manager for Components at Corsair. "Fan and lighting control has traditionally required manual adjustments, and that's the problem we're solving. The Corsair Link Dashboard software offers complete on-the-spot or automatic control, and it's fun to use." The Corsair Link Cooling Kit will ship in July for $99 and includes the Link Commander and one Link Cooling Node; the Link Cooling and Lighting kit will run $139 and include everything in the Cooling Kit plus a Link Lighting Node and three LED light strips. Image Credit: Corsair | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  With one market research study after the other pointing towards the cannibalization of netbooks and other PCs by the iPad and other media tablets, Intel has a reason to be alarmed. After all, it has yet to gain any traction in the tablet market.
But Intel is trying to turn things around. Even as it makes a play for a foothold in the tablet market with its Oak Trail chips, the company has decided to do something on the PC front too. The chip maker is now counting on a new class of laptops called "Ultrabooks" to turn things around for portable PCs. An Ultrabook, as defined by Intel, will be a "mainstream thin and light mobile computer" that will "marry the performance and capabilities of today's laptops with tablet-like features." For a mobile computer to be labeled an Ultrabook, Intel requires that it should be less than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick and cost less than $1,000. The first Ultrabooks will be powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge processors and arrive later this year. They will then continue to evolve with Intel processor platforms, moving to Ivy Bridge chips in the first half of 2012 and to "Haswell" SoCs the following year. The UX21 ultrathin notebook from Asus that we reported about on Monday is the world's first Ultrabook. The PC maker is showing off the UX21 at Computex. "At ASUS, we are very much aligned with Intel's vision of Ultrabook™," said Asus Chairman Jonney Shih while unveiling the UX21 at Computex. "Our customers are demanding an uncompromised computing experience in a lightweight, highly portable design that responds to their needs quickly. Transforming the PC into an ultra thin, ultra responsive device will change the way people interact with their PC." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Sandisk on Tuesday introduced two new SSD models for ultra-thin notebooks and tablets at the ongoing Computex trade fair in Taipei. According to the company, both the u100 (for ultra-thin notebooks) and the i100 (for tablets) use the SATA III interface and boast "a low-power architecture that reduces power consumption to as low as 10mW.
The U100, which replaces Sandisk's P4 modular SSDs, is claimed to have maximum sequential read and write speeds of 450MB/sec and 160MB/sec, respectively. Thanks to the SATA III interface, the U100 is significantly faster than its predecessor. "The drive is available in 8GB to 256GB capacities, and OEMs, attracted to the outstanding price/performance value proposition, are already successfully integrating the new SSD into their next-generation platforms," reads the press release announcing the new SSD models. The i100 iSSD is, as per the company, the "smallest, fastest 128GB (SATA III) BGA-based SSD on the market." Available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities, the i100 is said to have maximum sequential read and write speeds of 450MB/sec and 340MB/sec, respectively. Products featuring these two SSDs are expected to arrive sometime during Q3 2011. | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
Case DangerDen DD Tower-21 $210 
Fans 3x Yate Loon 12x2.5cm UV-reactive LED fans $21 
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (OEM) $99 
Fan Controller Sony Optiarc BC-5640H-01 $35 
