Posts

It’s a disappointing situation at present and yet there’s great opportunity for Microsoft to revamp, refresh and breathe some life into their mobile platform. Windows 10 is just around the corner, and although the desktop variant will be landing first, the phone team is currently hard at work developing Windows 10 Mobile. What follows is a list of changes, improvements and new features we hope Microsoft includes when Windows 10 Mobile lands sometime later this year....

We first see how the AMD FX-8350 scales in CoH 2 using maximum quality settings with the GTX Titan. At the standard frequency of 4.0GHz, we averaged 37fps and boosting the clock speed by another 13% increased performance by 8%, which isn’t bad. The problem is we still only achieved 40fps. Moreover, the game seems quite CPU dependent, as we saw a 42% performance increase when going from 2.50GHz to 4....

With support for up to 13 hard drives and a total weight of nearly 50 pounds without any hardware installed, this is probably the largest case I’ve ever worked with in over 10 years of reviewing computer hardware. Starting at the front, we see that Cooler Master hides the front drive bays with a hydraulic-style door that slides up and down. The door locks in the top position but pushing it barely past the “breaking point” initiates a slow downward fall of the door....

In this article, we’ll be checking out Intel’s Core i5-10400F, a direct competitor to the Ryzen 3600. The more affordable 10400F variant is essentially the same processor we reviewed last year, but drops the integrated graphics. Once again, the idea is to see how this processor performs when paired with a latest-generation high-end GPU. As we noted in the Ryzen test, the R5 3600 isn’t as inexpensive as it used to for those looking to build a new PC in early 2021....

The thing is, besides supporting larger motherboards, the 450D is the same case. It’s still limited to two 2.5" and three 3.5" drives, which is pretty weak from a mid-tower, though we kind of get Corsair’s logic. Today’s chipsets support six SATA devices so if two ports are used by 2.5" drives with another three tapped by 3.5" drives, that leaves one for an optical drive and you’re out of ports on a standard board....

With a sequential write performance of 238.2MB/s, the m4 was a whisker faster than its elder, but it was still 20% slower than the Vertex 3’s solid throughput of 277.7MB/s. AS SSD Benchmark’s 4K-64 thread test showed similar performance trends as the CrystalDiskMark 4K-32QD test. When measuring read performance, the RealSSD C300 outpaced the m4 by some 25%, while the m4 was about 3% faster in write performance. Both read and write access times have improved with the m4, particularly the latter....

Matt from DIY Perks recently dismantled the still-in-short-supply PS5 and set about shrinking its footprint. The standard PS5 measures 4.1 inches thick but Matt wants to get it down to less than one inch (0.79 inches, to be exact). Key to accomplishing that goal will be to totally revamp the cooling system and relocate the power supply. Much of the PS5’s girth is necessitated by heatsinks designed to keep the system’s various components from overheating....

We used Fraps to measure frame rates during a minute of gameplay from the campaign mode right as the game kicks off from the first level. Here you talk to Dr. Megan Reed who takes you through a scripted walkthrough of the lab. During this time your character will follow a predetermined path while some of the game’s plot is revealed. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was tested at three resolutions: 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600....

There’s no point spending lots of money on PC hardware if you don’t have a great case to put it in. But with so many options out there, how do you know what’s best for you? There are plenty of factors to examine: looks, size, cost, features, thermals, etc. But we’re here to make the process easier and narrow things down to a few excellent options for you to consider....

You control Victor with a controller that you cannot see, because you play this game with the Oculus Rift VR headset strapped to your face. You push Victor forward with a tilt of the analog stick and make him leap, icepicks drawn, toward the side of a glacier. As he clings there, you can tilt your head down. You won’t see your living room floor. You’ll see the chasm below....

Whether or not you believe that working from home prevents your colleagues from being productive, Elon Musk certainly thinks his employees at SpaceX and Tesla should return to the office, full-time. The New York Times reports that Musk emailed SpaceX employees this week, demanding they spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week, while those who didn’t would be fired. Musk emphasized that senior employees should make their presence more visible, which is why he spent lots of time in the factory with workers on the line....

This week, Epic Games and its recent acquisition Bandcamp have come out against Google’s upcoming policy changes, which will force the music app to process digital payments exclusively through Google’s payment system. Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond said this is incompatible with the original purpose of the music service. Epic, which struck a deal to purchase Bandcamp in early March, filed a motion in a California court with the same sentiment....

Traditionally, the Exynos vs. Qualcomm debate has always concluded in favor of the latter, as phones, including Samsung’s flagship Galaxy models, have been known to provide superior performance if they’re running a Snapdragon chip inside. It seemed, however, that Samsung’s new flagship Exynos 2200 SoC announced earlier this year would close that gap, bringing with it unheard features to the mobile space like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading....

Last week the Federal Communications Commission announced it proposed a $45 million fine for an insurance broker out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who was caught using automated calls without customer consent. According to the FCC’s account, Interstate Brokers of America made 514,467 robocalls without written consent. It also made false claims about the pandemic to generate an urgency to take action. These calls went against the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)....

Mobile gaming is currently facing an oncoming dilemma. Owing to the high price of storage upgrades, customers are more frequently opting for minimum storage when buying new mobile devices. Bloomberg notes that most flagship phones start at 128GB of storage, with upgrades costing up to 50 percent more. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), migration to phones with more storage has steadily declined since 2017, with most owners (41.9 percent) opting for 128GB models in 2021....

Although the Shinobi is aimed at gamers, we can’t see why the average system builder wouldn’t appreciate its subtle styling. The façade features three external 5.25" bays which are accompanied by a brushed aluminum BitFenix logo and two tin parallel strips of mesh. The top of the case reveals an I/O panel with four USB 2.0 ports, a pair of audio jacks and the power/reset buttons. Behind that is a large mesh grill to dismiss hot air from the case....

We’re not sure how to describe the Enforcer’s design – it’s clean yet aggressive, kind of like the HAF X. We can also say that despite using different materials, it all comes together in a cohesive design. Cooler Master has blended the steel and plastic together as car manufacturers do, so that you can’t really tell what’s what. Frankly, it doesn’t seem like they knew how to explain the look either, claiming that it “changes everything with its speed, stealth and guile....

Aside from what we class as a killer looking design, this mouse has the features to back it up. With fairly aggressive lines, LED lighting and a sleek logo we can’t see this design disappointing too many people. Out of the box this mouse weighs only 110g (without the cable or tuning weights), which felt a little light and unbalanced, especially on the front end. But that’s no issue thanks to the included weights, as you can add up to 39g in increments of 1....

This week, Nvidia released its latest GeForce Game Ready driver with support for ray tracing in Chernobylite, certifications for new G-Sync monitors from Asus and Samsung, as well as performance optimizations for Dune: Spice Wars and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, which are available in early access. Team Green used this occasion to celebrate seven years of Game Ready driver development. The company is touting over 150 such drivers released to date with support and optimizations for over 400 games....

Right now, it’s very much looking like the RTX 2080 Ti will be the only 20 series model worth purchasing unless we see a massive price correction or new technology implementation like DLSS becomes widely supported and works really well. At this point though, we know very little in regards to how well DLSS really works. We’ll be digging into this soon and follow its development, but right now I wouldn’t purchase an RTX graphics card in the hope that DLSS is amazing....