It looks like we can expect an AMD APU based on the Zen architecture in the future, though rather interestingly, it will include stacked High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) with bandwidth speeds of 128GB/s along with a larger onboard GPU for better gaming performance. This information comes to light from a paper(via: …
Read More »Samsung will show off new ‘Rink’ VR motion controller at CES
CES is going to have a lot of virtual reality hardware and software on show. HTC/Valve will probably showcase the final version of the Vive headset, Oculus is expected to announce the final price and specifications of the CV1 Rift and Samsung has now announced that it will be showing …
Read More »Asus Strix RAID DLX 7.1 sound card review
When it comes to building a gaming PC these days, a high-end sound card is likely pretty far down on your list of priorities. However, if you are serious about audio and want to get the best out of your speakers or high-end headphones, then you will find that your …
Read More »Oculus Rift will come with another free game: Lucky’s Tale
Even though it developed the first truly viable, commercial virtual reality solution, Oculus has known from day one that content is king. Which is why it's bundling so much of it with the CV1 headset when it releases in Q1 2016. Along with the already announced Eve: Valkyrie, it's now been …
Read More »Asus shows off ROG Maximus VIII with integrated EKWB cooling block
Asus has today revealed the latest addition to its ROG Maximus lineup with the ROG Maximus VIII, a top of the line motherboard with tons of overclocking features and an integrated EKWB water cooling block. There are even some RGB LEDs to allow users to further customise the look of …
Read More »NVIDIA Quadro M4000 Review
The NVIDIA Quadro M4000 has been out since August, but as the successor to the K4200, it's the flagship mainstream professional graphics card. So we are reviewing it here to show how it compares to its predecessor (and the higher-end K5200). In terms of specification, it's another step forward, despite …
Read More »Consumer Oculus Rift will have built-in DAC and headphone amp
One of the more noticeable (read: exterior) changes from the Oculus Rift DK2 virtual reality headset, to the CV1 launch model, is the inclusion of built-in headphones. Provided earcups don't have much of a reputation for strong sound reproduction with other products, but Oculus assures us the Rift will do, …
Read More »AMD to delay Fury X2 to coincide with VR headset launches
We've been hearing quite a bit about AMD's upcoming Fury X2/Gemini dual GPU over the last couple of months. However, we may not see the card launch for a while, if new rumours are to be believed, as AMD may be delaying its launch to coincide with the release of …
Read More »NZXT Hue+ Review
NZXT has updated its HUE lighting controller and while the HUE+ name may sound familiar the system has undergone a radical overhaul. Previously you had a control unit that sits in an optical drive bay with three rotary controls that adjust the behaviour of the LEDs. By contrast the HUE+ …
Read More »Palmer Luckey hints that Oculus Rift CV1 may be quite expensive
While we won't be getting an Oculus Rift pre-order option this side of Christmas, we're not far away from being able to put money down on a first-generation, commercial VR solution. That stack of cash may be a bit taller than we initially thought though. In a number of tweets over …
Read More »ASUS and Gigabyte may launch own VR headsets in 2016
Internal component, system and peripheral manufacturers, ASUS and Gigabyte, are working on their own takes on virtual reality headsets according to a new report. Expected to debut in 2016, the headsets will come from ASUS internal developments we're told, while Gigabyte's will come out of a partnership it has with Chinese …
Read More »Fractal Design Core 500 Review
There are two distinctly different ways to approach the Mini-ITX Fractal Design Core 500. The first is to pack out the drive bays with a ton of storage (optical drive, three hard drives and three SSD) to effectively convert your tiny PC into a server or NAS. The second approach …
Read More »PlayStation VR’s external processing box unveiled
When it became clear that Sony was working on a virtual reality solution for the PlayStaton 4, those who had experienced early VR with the DK1 and 2 were a little worried. The PS4 could barely handle 60 FPS at a decent resolution, let alone the 75+ it would need …
Read More »Samsung rumoured to be making chips for AMD next year
It looks like Samsung might start making chips for AMD starting early next year according to new reports from South Korea. These chips would include a CPU (possibly of Zen architecture) as well as a GPU, both based on 14nm technology. South Korean newspaper, Electronic Times (via: Reuters) was the …
Read More »DeepCool DQ750 ST PSU Review
Today we analyse one of the new power supplies from Deep Cool – the DQ750ST. This non modular unit is 80 Plus Gold Certified and they have also incorporated a quiet 120mm speed adjustable fan into the chassis. Deepcool claim this power supply offers ‘outstanding and stable performance'. Deepcool are …
Read More »Oculus VR now sending out CV1s, SDK 1.0 to launch-day developers
Oculus VR has known about virtual reality's chicken and egg problem since day one. Without games and experiences ready to play, nobody would buy a VR headset, but without VR headsets, nobody would develop them. It's assuaged that issue with developer kits over the past couple of years and to make sure …
Read More »HTC Vive delay because of a ‘very big technological breakthrough.’
Even though Oculus VR had a big lead in with fans of the head mounted display (HMD) technology, Valve and HTC have gone a long way to garnering their own following with the Vive and its Room Scale VR set up. However they've taken some flak as of late, as …
Read More »HTC Vive shown off with finger tracking and a gun in live demo
Tracking our hands in virtual reality has been something all of the big VR makers have been working on for the past year or so. Oculus has its Touch controllers which will release soon after the Rift CV1 and Valve/HTC have their motion tracking controllers, which will come with the …
Read More »Commercial HTC Vive hardware/devkit 2 spotted in leak
In a leak on the HTC website, excited virtual reality fans have discovered the final, commercial version of the HTC Vive headset. It looks quite similar to the original, with a few noteworthy changes, but it's the controllers that really look different. Overall though, everything is just much more polished, …
Read More »NZXT H440 New Edition Review
NZXT has updated its enthusiast H440 case. This new version goes by the unimaginative name ‘H440 New Edition' however the list of changes from the original H440 is very encouraging: All black matte colour, Scratch resistant paintwork, Tinted black window (with optional no window version), Increased height & depth with …
Read More »Need more memory? G.Skill has a new 64GB DDR4 kit ready to go
Most PCs, laptops and tablets use just a few gigabytes of memory and even the average gaming PC sports just eight gigabytes according to the Steam hardware survey. But there are people out there that want more than that: the uber-high-end enthusiasts, renderers and heavy photo editors. It's for them …
Read More »Mozilla releases A-Frame making VR web developing easy
As much as the idea of walking around websites, rather than interacting with them on a 2D display might seem like a relic from a '90s future-tech story (anyone remember Net Force?) it's actually something that some are already experimenting with. It's hard though, so Mozilla has developed a technique …
Read More »Oculus Rift CV1 will require four USB ports, 64bit Windows
It was way back in May 2015 that we were given a sneak peak at what the recommended specifications for the Oculus Rift CV1 headset would be and they weren't insubstantial: a GTX 970, i5-4590 and 8GB of RAM. You also needed two USB 3.0 ports, but that's now been …
Read More »ASRock SkyOC technology enables non-K Skylake overclocking
Traditionally overclocking has been something that though enabled, wasn't a major feature of CPUs. It was more to do with luck of the draw (or bin) but in recent years overclocking potential is something CPUs are sold with in mind. Most obviously so in the Intel Skylake generation, which locked …
Read More »Micron comments on recent GDDR6 reports
Earlier this week, reports began circulating surrounding the existence of GDDR6 memory for future graphics cards. The news originated from news site, Fudzilla, which claimed to be in contact with sources familiar with the matter but it seems that right now, Micron is looking to squash any talk about GDDR6 …
Read More »Aerocool Aero 800 Case Review
Aerocool has a history of delivering budget cases but the Aero-800 is far and away the cheapest case we have seen to date. It's a steel chassis with blue painted finish on the top and side panels – the window is smoked and the finishing touches are a plastic front …
Read More »AMD launches low-cost FX-6330 Black Edition CPU
It's been a long time since AMD offered a credibly performing alternative to Intel's high-end CPUs, but it's always had a good range of cost-effective options at the lower end and it's looking to continue that with its latest release. Although it hasn't arrived with much fanfare, AMD has now …
Read More »MSI motherboards can now support overclocking non-K Skylake CPUs
Over the weekend, we heard that several motherboard makers had begun working on BIOS updates to enable overclocking on some of Intel's locked Skylake processors. The feature was first made available on an Asrock motherboard, which was used by overclocker ‘Dhenzjhen' to increase the BCLK (base clock) of a Core …
Read More »FSP Hydro G 750W Power Supply Review
FSP have been manufacturing power supplies now since 1993 and are one of the world's leading OEM suppliers. Companies such as Zalman, OCZ, Antec, Silverstone, Super Talent and AOpen have adopted their power supplies in various ranges throughout the years. It would be fair to say that over the years …
Read More »Micron reportedly developing GDDR6 memory
While HBM still seems set to be the next big thing when it comes to VRAM on high-end graphics cards, we may have another contender in 2016 as reports are claiming that Micron is currently developing GDDR6 memory. This isn't the first time we have heard about a new version …
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