Corsair extends warranty on some PSUs to a whopping 10 years

Jeff Williams | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Apr 8, 2016 4:03 PM CDT

Corsair already has a good thing going with their high-end power supplies with tight tolerances and very good power delivery along all rails. They even throw in a seven-year warranty, or at least they did. Based on the confidence that they have regarding their PSUs, they're extending that warranty to a full 10 years on select lines.

The new extended warranty applies to the AXi, HXi, RMi and the RMx lines of power supplies, and of course, those are the higher-end units whose ODM is used to make them have much higher manufacturing tolerances resulting in something that can legitimately be used in future system upgrades until you need more power or higher efficiency for those new power hungry GPU's.

Crucially, you don't have to register (or re-register), provide additional information or do anything to benefit from the extended coverage. All PSU's from those lines are retroactively covered. Since the AXi range was introduced in 2012, the HXi in 2014 and the RMi/RMx lines in 2015, that means every single one they've manufactured and sold since then. That's a pretty big bet on Corsair's behalf and speaks to their confidence that these will work well for that long.

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Quantum Break is a gigantic mess on the PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 8, 2016 3:35 PM CDT

Well... the PC version of Quantum Break is a gigantic mess, and that doesn't surprise me one bit. Eurogamer's Digital Foundry have dug deep into Remedy's latest game, with nothing but problems reported.

During their testing, the AMD Radeon R9 390 smashes the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, with the NVIDIA driver constantly crashing under Windows 10. Quantum Break is also unable to run at 100% of the screen refresh rate, so if you're running a 60Hz display, you'll only hit 50FPS or so. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN.

The in-game 30FPS frame rate cap is broken, so you can't even receive the smoother performance that the super-underpowered Xbox One is capable of. The full-screen limitations of the Universal Windows Platform makes it impossible to use a third-party piece of software to get smoother performance. YIKES. Remedy has really done a number on the PC version of Quantum Break. Our advice? Don't buy it, yet at least.

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NVIDIA to reveal next-gen GeForce 10K video cards in the coming weeks

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Apr 8, 2016 3:26 PM CDT

Multiple sources around the world, as well as our own, are saying that NVIDIA will unveil their next-gen video cards in the coming weeks. With Computex right around the corner, this makes perfect sense.

We've already seen the company unveil its new Tesla P100 video card, powered by the new Pascal architecture, rocking HBM2 and the spiffy new 16nm FinFET process. The P100 features 15 billion transistors on the GPU itself, with another 135 billion transistors for the rest of the card - thanks to the incredible HBM2.

Most sites are still reporting that NVIDIA will call the new cards the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, but I don't think we'll see this happen. I think we'll see NVIDIA move towards something like GeForce 10K, which sounds much better.

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Data show Netflix users are happier with original content

Sean Ridgeley | Internet & Websites | Apr 8, 2016 3:13 PM CDT

Netflix's original content is growing about 185% per year with an even higher rate expected next year and the results are strong on the user end: Netflix original programming is rated 11.5% higher than syndicated content on average, according to data mined by AllFlicks.

Netflix documentaries do best, rating 4.08 stars on average; shows do worst, but still beat out syndicated shows by 6.5%. Meanwhile, other content rates an average of 3.47 stars.

It's important to keep in mind total Netflix content has dropped 31.7 percent in two years as the company has emphasized original content, indicating a significant drop in syndicated works. As such, with more selection, it's possible syndicated works would be rated higher overall.

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IBM and NVIDIA develop new OpenPOWER HPC server with Pascal P100

This week during GTC we saw NVIDIA change its focus from primarily consumer GPU's to professional technology aimed squarely at the evolution of AI. Pascal, while a vastly different and incredibly powerful architecture, is perfect for the ever evolving HPC field. IBM, at the OpenPOWER Summit that went on this week alongside GTC, announced their newest server that includes the Tesla P100 compute accelerators combined with POWER8 processors.

The big draw is the use of NVLink, the 40GBps data link directly from the CPU to the GPU that allows for quick communication and transfer of data. It's this innovation that might help to fuel faster HPC applications and even better, more nimble AI that can absorb vast amounts of information more quickly than before. The new server architecture will require the porting over of applications, but IBM and NVIDIA are both willing to assist in that regard, to make the transition easier.

IBM's Watson division will also be participating in the design and implementation of the new server platform, adn might even end up incorporating the Tesla P100 into their own design for an upgraded Watson super computer. The initial specifcations call for cramming 4 of those compute cards into the server along with four POWER8 12-core/96-thread CPU's operating at 3-3.5GHz combined with up to 1TB of DDR4-2400 RAM in this case. The implications for AI, let alone any other type of compute heavy load are tremendous. This could very well put the PPC architecture back on the map in a big way, especially with the assistance from IBM and NVIDIA in porting over your applications. Second generation POWER8 servers are just a stepping stone to the next-generation POWER9 architecture, which is just around the corner.

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US military's new warship drives itself, hunts for enemy submarines

Sean Ridgeley | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Apr 8, 2016 12:12 PM CDT

The US military has christened an experimental warship that drives itself and hunts enemy submarines for months at a time. Named Sea Hunter and measuring 132 feet, it's said it will prove a major asset in Chinese and Russian counter-warfare (both countries have been making naval advancements to a degree that greatly concerns the US).

The ship is powered by two diesel engines and can go as fast as 27 knots.

Once it is proven safe, US defense secretary Robert Work says he hopes Sea Hunter will continue testing with the US Navy's 7th Fleet based in Japan, and eventually operate on a variety of missions, perhaps even those involving counter-mine warfare.

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Official No Man's Sky soundtrack is an instrumental masterpiece

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 8, 2016 10:02 AM CDT

65daysofstatic, a UK based instrumental band is going to be releasing their first original soundtrack, No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe on June 17th, coinciding with the release of one of the most anticipated sci-fi space simulators ever, No Man's Sky.

No Man's Sky is too big a production, and hyped way too much, to get just a normal soundtrack to be the backdrop for the vast, open, procedural generate masterpiece that it is. They've partnered with a UK instrumental band, 65daysofstatic, to produce a unique soundtrack that could only be good enough to grace your ears while exploring the space-lanes. Hello Games chose 65daysofstatic as their composers of choice after one of their singles, Debutante, was featured in the reveal trailer in 2013. Since then they've been hard at work composing the original music that'll be featured in-game.

The soundtrack is a bit unique when compared to other's of similar origin, in that it follows some of the similar practices of the procedural generated world that it'll be accentuating. They've compiled over two hours of music across 10 individual tracks, alongside a vast library of raw audio comprised of loops, sound textures and unique melody that currently being fed into the game's unique music engine, effectively creating a self-generating soundtrack that can mix itself into infinity.

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Tyan introduces 1U POWER8-based OpenPOWER server for HPC

Tyan announced at the OpenPOWER summit this past week that they're going to start supporting IBM's OpenPOWER initiative by offering 1U POWER8-based servers for the HPC and in-memory application markets. POWER processors might not be as prolific as Xeon, but Tyan is of the mind that variety is the spice of life, and that there's a market for these processors that could well be untapped.

They're going to offer a total of three different configurations with their new GT75-BP012 server platform. This particular platform is a single-CPU design that allows for a massive amount of memory to be installed, though at slightly slower DDR3L speeds. They're positioning these to compete in niche markets that might not need such high processing requirements but need that extra capacity of RAM to be able to keep more things persistent so they run slightly faster as a result. It'll be difficult to compete with the price-performance ratio of the typical, and even lower-cost Xeon's, but with far more DRAM here, it could be useful in some markets.

The maximum configuration will have a single 10-core/80-thread POWER8 CPU running at 2.095GHz with 1024GB of DDR3L-1600MHz RAM, four 10GbE ports, four GbE ports and 1 PCIe expansion slot, that will actually support NVIDIA's forthcoming Pascal P100 GPU. These also have support for IBM's own Centaur memorry buffer chips that allow for even more in-memory buffer capacity at DDR3 speeds. The low-end will have an 8-core/64-thread POWER8 CPU running at 2.328GHz with the same 1TB of DDR3L RAM limit. a 750W PSU will be powering the servers.

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PS4 Update 3.50 has way more new features than advertised

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 8, 2016 8:03 AM CDT

The newest software update for the PlayStation 4, system software 3.50, seems to have some hidden, or unannounced functionality that Sony hasn't put into the official patch notes. The biggest change is support for external HDD's of up to 4TB, up from the previous limit.

There are also a few more features that have been uncovered by PlayStation 4 users in the Reddit firmware 3.50 megathread. This update was already a significant one, if not one of the larger updates, adding the rudimentary ability to stream games from the PS4 to your PC or Mac, but underneath they've found that the ability to play music stored on USB drives, also letting you play your stored music while you game. Along a similar vein, you can now attach 4TB external HDD's, just in case you want to download your entire library of games.

There are some smaller tweaks that have made their way into the update, too. It's easier to search for livestreams of specific games through the Live From PlayStation app, and you can actually pin up to three games at the top of the apps search field too. Screenshot notifications can be turned off, you can set a part limit from 2-8 people and there's plenty of stability improvements across the entire OS, including the PlayStation store.

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Dark Souls 3 Twitter uses the Sad Affleck meme to promote the game

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 8, 2016 7:08 AM CDT

Bandai Namco did something incredibly clever by using an already prevalent meme and using its popularity to promote their recently released Dark Souls 3 game. The official Dark Souls Twitter account used the viral Sad Affleck meme to advertise, and the result is actually quite entertaining.

Their marketing department and social media managers converged for what might be the perfect storm, something that itself went viral within mere minutes of posting. Sure, it's not to be outdone by the likes of their chicken wings eating contest and isn't quite the same as the great animated short video that they produced with the help of Eli Roth, but it's on the level of some of the most genius, and well timed, marketing stunts ever.

The original video is from an interview where Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck are asked about their thoughts in regards to the negative criticism of the movie, where Affleck seems to go to a dark place and his facial expressions mirror his thoughts. Cavill seems to keep his cool, however.

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