Podcast #247 - Frame Rating and Vsync, the future of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the OCZ Vertex 3.20 and more!

Subject: General Tech | April 18, 2013 - 01:46 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: vsync, vertex 3.20, podcast, pcper, overclocking, ocz, haswell, gtx 780, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, gigabyte brix, frame rating

PC Perspective Podcast #247 - 04/18/2013

Join us this week as we discuss Frame Rating and Vsync, the future of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the OCZ Vertex 3.20 and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

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• MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!

Program length: 1:07:41

1. 0:01:08 Win the Roccat ISKU Keyboard
2. Week in Review:
   1. 0:03:30 Enermax Ostrog GT Mid-tower Gaming Case Review
   2. 0:06:45 Frame Rating: Visual Effects of Vsync on Gaming Animation
   3. 0:22:45 GLOBALFOUNDRIES: 2013 and Beyond
   4. 0:31:15 OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SSD Review
3. 0:43:00 Help PC Perspective Expand by Contributing to our Indiegogo Project!
4. 0:51:20 A PC Perspective on Gaming: How We Rank Games
5. News items of interest:
   1. 0:56:00 I can Haswell-overclock?
   2. 0:56:30 NVIDIA Rumored To Release 700-Series GeForce Cards At Computex 2013
   3. 0:58:00 Gigabyte BRIX small form factor PC--NUC and Zotac Nano competitor
6. 1:00:20 Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
   1. Ryan: Peavey USB-P
   2. Jeremy: support Full Control not just because they're nordic
   3. Josh: Nice, open source router/firewall- just add used Firebox!
   4. Allyn: (portable headsets that don't suck)
7. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
8. http://pcper.com/podcast
9. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
10. Closing/outro

Toshiba Qosmio X870-BT3G23 17.3" Core i7 Laptop w/3GB GeForce 670M @ $1300

Subject: General Tech | April 18, 2013 - 01:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

At $395 off the full price, the Toshiba Qosmio X870-BT3G23 is a rather powerful Win8 gaming laptop or desktop replacement for $1300.  It has a proper 1080p LCD, an i7-3630QM, 8GB DDR3, a 1TB HDD, Blu-ray burner and a 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M.  With four USB 3.0 ports and HDMI out this is easily used as a desktop replacement as well as giving you great gaming performance while mobile though even Optimus won't save your battery if you are getting in a few BF3 games while waiting for a plane.

Toshiba Qosmio X870-BT3G23 17.3" Core i7 Laptop w/3GB GeForce 670M, Blu-ray RE, 1080p, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD
ToshibaDirect now offers new loaded Qosmios including the Qosmio X870-BT3G23 Laptop starting at just $1,299.99 with free shipping.  You also save $100 off in instant savings, plus $295 in component rebates (8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Blu-ray RE, 1080p). 

Intel and Vint Cerf are both talking up SDN

Subject: General Tech | April 18, 2013 - 12:35 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vint cerf, Intel, sdn, software defined networking, tha internets, open network summit, Seacliff Trail

Vint Cerf has been talking about the current topic on the minds of many network admins, software defined networking, sometimes referred to as smart networks.  While his original design was great at providing much cheaper connectivity than telcos, with the entire network being effectively dumb and not requiring any expensive routing equipment during transfer, that benefit is no longer as compelling as it used to be.  Moving from a model of only having routing equipment at the very edge of your network to placing equipment en route can offer advantages to security, speed and reliability.  He is quick to bring up a topic that is near and dear to anyone working in infrastructure; no matter how smart the equipment is, if there are no established standards which can operate between vendors and protocols then we will be worse off than we are now.

One company that has the power to bring SDN to the market and do so with enough backing to create standards and enforce them is Intel.  They are also at the Open Network Summit and are presenting their plans for SDN, virtual switches and even physical hardware.  Over at The Register you can see some of the slides that they presented along with information on new chipsets and ASICs that have been developed by Intel for use in a variety of networking applications.

"As you get to the point where you want to have something big happen, spend some time working on getting agreement on standards,” Cerf is quoted as saying. Standards encourage innovation because everyone can work to the standard, as “happened in the creation of the Internet—and these standards often create a certain amount of stability.

“Stability is your friend in networking environments. If you can’t rely on some stable point in the architecture, you’ll have some trouble in making things work reliably."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Botched Security Update Cripples Thousands of Computers @ Slashdot
• TSMC 16nm FinFET to enter mass production within one year after 20nm ramp-up, says Chang @ DigiTimes
• Foxconn to pay Microsoft for production of Android/Chrome devicesFoxconn to pay Microsoft for production of Android/Chrome devices @ DigiTimes
• Microsoft offers Outlook, Skype and Xbox users two-step authentication @ The Inquirer

Come fly the unfriendly skies of Columbia

Subject: General Tech | April 17, 2013 - 06:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gaming, bioshock infinite

As is their wont, [H]ard|OCP focuses on performance when reviewing the game, leaving examination of the game its self to sites dedicated to that type of content.  The half dozen contestants represent the top 3 single GPU cards from NVIDIA and AMD and the drivers used were released this March.  The game is DX11 through and through but tesselation is conspicuosly absent as is MSAA, only FXAA is available; even when enabled at the driver level they saw no differences.  Both companies cards could play the game at 1080p with all settings maxed out but for higher resolutions we saw NVIDIA's performance pull ahead somewhat.  Check out the image quality of BioShock Infinite in the full review.

"BioShock Infinite is here, delivering a colorful and dynamic world with the help of a customized Unreal Engine 3. BioShock Infinite has an improved PC gaming experience, we will test this game's performance among 8 video card configurations, and look at image quality of this immersive and colorful new game."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Gaming

• Bioshock Infinite Review @ OCC
• Squad Chat: Jagged Alliance – Flashback Interview @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• You’re The Boat Boss: Leviathan’s Smoooooooth Moves @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Please Watch This Dumb Blood Dragon Live-Action Short @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Antichamber just blew my mind @ The Tech Report
• Space Hulk Studio To Make Turn-Based Jagged Alliance @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Defiance @ LanOC Reviews
• Roundup of the 6 New Gaming Platforms Launching in 2013 @ eTeknix
• Smashing Dolphins: Planet Punch Redefines Self-Loathing @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Resident Evil 6 - Too Much Action for Horror? @ Techgage

HP ENVY dv7t-7300 Quad Edition Core i7 + Blu-ray @ $720

Subject: General Tech | April 17, 2013 - 01:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

At 20% off, both the 17.3" HP ENVY dv7t-7300 Quad Edition laptop deals are a bargain, though the more expensive 1080p model at $840 might be a bit preferable to the $720 model with a 1600x900 screen.  The base specs to both models are the same, with an Ivy Bridge i7-3630QM @ 2.4GHz, 8GB DDR3 and a 750GB HDD inside, running Windows 8 64-bit Edition.  For extras you get Beats Audio and an HD camera and mic built in, a 2 year warranty and discounts on some software and tools available from HP.

To get base HP ENVY dv7t-7300 Quad Edition deal, use 20% coupon code, follow these steps:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Select Customize button
3. Click View Summary button at the top, add to cart
4. Apply coupon code NB7361 during checkout

This HP dv7 Quad Edition deal: $899.99 - 20% coupon code = $719.99 + $9.99 shipping. shipping & 2-year warranty.

OR

To get HP ENVY dv7t-7300 Quad Edition with 1080p LCD, use 20% coupon code, follow these steps:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Select Customize button
3. Choose 17.3-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080) +$150
4. Click View Summary button at the top, add to cart
5. Apply coupon code NB7361 during checkout

This HP dv7 Quad Edition deal: $1049.99 - 20% coupon code = $839.99 + $9.99 shipping & 2-year warranty.

Otellini's last quarter

Subject: General Tech | April 17, 2013 - 12:44 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Intel, otellini, earnings

The downturn in the PC market has depressed the earnings of Intel during Paul Otellini's last quarter as head of the company, but not as badly as many companies thanks to decent sales of data centre products.   Their overall earnings are down $1bn from this quarter last year with their PC sales down 6.6% but their data centre sales up 7.5% when compared to Q1 2012.  The numbers are not so rosy when you look at the last year of sales, PC down 6% and data centre down 6.9%, in line with expectations but far from good news.  Intel has come a long way since 1974 when he first joined the company but even they are not immune to the decline in sales which has been hurting the industry recently.  Get the full sales numbers at The Register.

"After 39 years at Chipzilla and over 80 earnings calls Paul Otellini has just finished his final one before stepping down in May. He didn't so much leave with a bang as a whimper.

The company booked $12.6bn in revenue for Q1 2013, down nearly a billion from the last quarter, and profits dropped 25 per cent to $2bn, over half of which will be given out as a dividend and another $553m used to buy back 25 million Intel shares. The results were broadly in line with analyst's expectations and Intel stock is up slightly in late trading."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Oracle critical patch plugs 128 security vulns @ The Register
• How to Install and Configure a Dedicated PhysX Video Card @ Hardware Secrets
• Google Drive and Gmail go down for some @ The Inquirer
• PLA4201 Powerline Ethernet Adapter @ VelocityReviews
• Magellan Switch Review @ TechReviewSource

ROCCAT's feature filled keyboard, the Isku FX

Subject: General Tech | April 16, 2013 - 07:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: roccat, input, Isku FX

There is a new keyboard from the company that Ryan loves to try to pronounce; ROCCAT's new Isku FX is more than just a gaming keyboard with multimedia buttons and LED backlighting.  With the configuration software installed you can change the Caps Lock key to modify the macro and thumb keys to give you a total of 16 macro keys, remap the multimedia keys or even change up what ROCCAT refers to as the Easy Zone.  For aesthetic purposes you can choose from 16.8 million distinct colours in the backlighting.  There are also apparently achievements you can unlock with this keyboard if you have become addicted to those thanks to Steam.  If this sounds like something you might like you should check out the full review at Techgage.

"At the time of writing, the Isku FX is ROCCAT’s range-topping keyboard. Appropriately it’s packed to the gills with features and capabilities lesser keyboards tend to eschew. No, it’s not a mechanical keyboard, but despite this is it still worth your hard-earned dollars? Read on and find out!"

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• ROCCAT Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard Review @ Legit Reviews
• SPEEDLINK ATHERA Multi-Profile Keyboard Review @ Madshrimps
• AZiO Levetron Mech5 Mechanical Keyboard @ eTeknix
• Gigabyte AiVia Osmium Keyboard Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Your Wireless Mouse Or Keyboard Acting Up? Blame USB 3.0! @ TechARP
• Corsair Vengeance M95 Performance MMO & RTS Laser Gaming Mouse @ Tweaktown
• Func MS-3 Gaming Mouse @ Rbmods
• FUNC MS-3 Gaming Mouse @ Modders-Inc
• Leetgion El'Druin "Optimized for Diablo" Gaming Mouse @ Tweaktown
• Steelseries Sensei Limited Edition Mouse @ eTeknix
• Razer ONZA Xbox 360 PC Tournament Edition Pro Gaming Controller @ eTeknix

IBM gets serious about flash storage

Subject: General Tech | April 16, 2013 - 01:26 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: TMS RamSan, IBM, FlashSystem, flash, 1 billion

IBM has invested $1 billion in SSD research and development, creating a project called IBM FlashSystem.  They will create a dozen 'competency centres' across the globe this year to help customers understand scenarios in which flash storage will help their business.  To show off their prowess they created a 500TB system based on their FlashSystem 820; you can see a video of the system at The Register.  IBM has already signed a deal with Sprint to build 9 storage systems and there will be more customers soon.  IBM is also redesigning their system software to take advantage of the speed of flash which will make the transition even more attractive to companies.

"Say goodbye to TMS RamSan and hello to IBM FlashSystem. Back in 2001, IBM CEO Lou Gerstner said IBM would spend a billion dollars to boost its Linux business and that billion paid itself off within two years. In 2002, the firm splurged the same amount on Java tools, and in 2006, pumped $1bn into information management. Fast-forward seven years and Ginny Rometty's IBM is going to spend a billion dollars to boost its flash solid state storage business."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• VIA Labs lands new orders for USB 3.0 hub controllers @ DigiTimes
• Gigabyte gaining on Asustek in motherboard shipments @ DigiTimes
• 63 TRILLION maths ops a second - in 5 inches? Mm, show me @ The Register
• 10 dual-band router round-up @ Hardware.info