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At $70, the G3258 invalidates all other Pentium processors above it, including the G3420, G3440 and G3430 ($100). Its price also puts it around 40% cheaper than the cheapest Core i3 processor and again, it can be overclocked, something no Core i3 can claim. The most expensive Core i3 chip, being the Core i3-4360, costs $160 and at 3.7GHz it’s just 300MHz faster than the base Anniversary Edition model we tested....

Given that the Intel NUC6i7KYK is armed with a quad-core Core i7-6770HQ processor, its idle consumption results are most impressive. Here the NUC used just 16 watts, the same as seen from the DeskMini. Even with all cores placed under maximum load, the NUC6i7KYK is still very efficient consuming just 77 watts. Given the performance consuming 26% more power than the DeskMini is a great result. With the CPU and GPU at maximum working capacity, the power consumption reached 84 watts....

There was just a 1.5% performance variance between the slowest and fastest Z170 motherboards in the SiSoftware Sandra memory bandwidth test using DDR4-3000 memory. This time we see a 6% performance difference between the Z170 motherboards when testing in Excel 2013. The Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 and Asrock Z170 Extreme7+ provided the best results taking just 3.3 seconds, while the EVGA Z170 FTW was the slowest taking 3.5 seconds. There were no performance margins to be spoken of when testing with Photoshop CC, with just 0....

Unsurprisingly, the motherboard with the least features consumes the least amount of power with the EVGA Z97 FTW system pulling just 60 watts at idle. The MSI Z97 MPower Max AC consumed just 5 watts more and 6 watts more for the Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK. The Asus Z97-Deluxe and Asus Z97-Pro WiFi/AC setups both drew 71 watts, nearly 20% more than the EVGA Z97 FTW. The Asrock Z97 Extreme6 was slightly more power hungry than the Asus boards at 72 watts, while the Asrock Z97 Extreme9 due to its PLX PCIe bridge chip....

Baker, whose voice can also be heard in Bioshock Infinite, Fortnite, and more, had been a much-loved gaming personality until two weeks ago when he announced a partnership with VoiceverseNFT. The company says it lets people buy and sell AI voiceovers in NFT form that can be used in games. Baker’s decision to join the project did not go down well with fans. He also managed to exacerbate the bad feelings by tweeting: “You can hate....

The HyperX 3K 240GB sustained 164MB/s in our large file copy test, making it slightly faster than the original HyperX and 34% faster than the SSDNow V+200 240GB. However, the V+200 was still 35% faster than the Patriot Pyro 120GB, which also uses asynchronous memory, though the speed gain can likely be attributed to the higher capacity of Kingston’s drive. The program copy test is comprised of many small non-compressed files (6104 files totaling 2....

DigiTimes Asia (via NotebookCheck) writes that the Covid-19 lockdowns in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have led to increased manufacturing costs, supply chain issues, and logistical problems for laptop makers. As such, they are “mulling raising their prices to reflect rising logistics and other costs in the second half of 2022.” A rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Shenzhen, China, in March resulted in all businesses except those that supply food, fuel, and other necessities ordered to close or work from home....

Although Dell is positioning the Streak as a tablet device, not a smartphone, we think it’s a bit of both. The 5-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touch screen is significantly bigger than any other smartphones, even compared to the massive HTC EVO and HD2, but not quite as large as a typical tablet – the iPad features a 9.7-inch display, for example. The other obvious difference compared to most tablets: you can make calls… if you don’t mind looking a bit foolish with this thing held against your face....

Despite holding the top spot for almost five years, the GTX 1060 was last month’s second-best-performing card. The number of survey participants sporting the Pascal card in their rigs jumped 0.34%—only the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU did better with a 0.61% increase. Last month’s top ten biggest GPU gains show a familiar pattern: the list is made up of older cards like the GTX 1660 and RTX 2060, as well as mid/low-range options like the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 Ti....

The front of the IdeaPad displays no buttons or LED lights. I liked how the lid hangs over the front just enough to let you get a good grip when lifting the screen. On the right side of the system is a USB port, HDMI port, Ethernet Jack, VGA jack and power connector. The back of the system is featureless, save for the small exhaust fan vents. On the left is a locking slot, USB port, headphone / microphone jacks and the Wi-Fi switch....

The resulting hardware is a beautifully slim tablet that folds apart like a book, transforming it into a lightweight, portable laptop. Lenovo is aiming for the best of both worlds here: a compact tablet that’s easy to hold and transport; and an on-the-go laptop that isn’t hindered by an awkward dock, mediocre keyboard case, or confusing tablet stand. To achieve this goal, naturally there are some trade-offs. There is a keyboard attached to this tablet, however there are no physical keys; you’re typing on a touchscreen slate....

But the key feature of the LG Gram isn’t the internal hardware, which is similar to a lot of other laptops at this price point. Instead, the major selling point is its portability, particularly its weight. The LG Gram 13 weighs just 965 grams (2.12 pounds), well below the typical 1.2 to 1.4 kilograms for a laptop of this size and class, and it’s immediately noticeable. This is by far the lightest laptop I’ve held with this level of hardware inside, so if you’re keen on portability, the Gram is a standout option....

The software says to move the mouse as fast as you can and I did this using low and high sensitivity. With the sensitivity turned down I maxed out at 162 IPS and frankly I felt stupid moving the mouse that quick around the pad. With the sensitivity up around 3000 DPI, which is what I would play with, the maximum IPS that I could achieve was about 150. With the Fusion Engine disabled that figure dropped to 140 IPS, so there isn’t really a significant difference here when sweeping my mouse around like a lunatic....

Looking Glass has launched a page where 3D artists can convert their work into the company’s new holographic image format and embed it on just about any web page. The company says this will let more people view 3D art from more angles than through 2D screenshots. The “holograms” use dozens of snapshots to turn renders into diorama-like images that viewers can manipulate with a mouse or by swiping the screen on mobile devices....

The large size of this notebook affords it the luxury of three hard drive bays, allowing multiple storage configurations including RAID 0, 1 or 5. I can also appreciate the large 17.3" display with its 1920 x 1080 resolution. The screen has pretty good viewing angles for a non-IPS display. Colors depth and reproduction also look pretty good but I’ve seen better. Gaming in the dark is a non-issue, as are brightly-lit areas....

Although its graphics weren’t groundbreaking, 2010’s Medal of Honor looked decent while allowing low-end GPUs to provide playable performance using respectable quality settings. Looking at the old benchmarks I see that even then quad-core processors were a must, with dual-core chips giving half as much performance. Having grown accustomed to Modern Warfare-like titles, Medal of Honor’s relatively tame GPU requirements weren’t too shocking. Interestingly, it seems Medal of Honor: Warfighter might buck that trend, as its recommended system specifications call for no less than a 3GHz quad-core processor paired with a GeForce GTX 560 or Radeon HD 6950....

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Thanks to its high efficiency and integrated support by iconic products like the everlasting Winamp player, the MP3 codec became the de-facto standard for sharing audio files on the internet during the Nineties and beyond. Now, a new codec wants to make history again by offering even more extreme gains in efficiency and bandwidth saving. The secret is an AI algorithm capable of “hypercompressing” audio streams. Meta researchers conceptualized Encodec as a potential solution for supporting “current and future” high-quality experiences in the metaverse....

Army veteran Tom Katis, a former Green Beret, began developing comms tech in 2006 after witnessing communication issues on the battlefield while serving in Afghanistan. Voxer’s complaint (via the LA Times) states that after reenlisting following 9/11 and serving as a communications sergeant with the Army Special Forces in 2003, his unit was ambushed, and he faced the shortcomings of existing systems while trying to coordinate medevacs and reinforcements. Voxer launched its Walkie Talkie app in 2011....