Computer Systems News - Page 28

It seems that SFF computers are all the rage recently, seeing companies like Corsair teasing its Bulldog, other manufacturers releasing Steam machines and ORIGIN PC proudly promoting this beast of a machine.

The Chronos gaming desktop is presented in a Small Form Factor (SFF) chassis, packing within some seriously powerful technology. Measuring in at 11.75" (H) x 4" (W) x 13.75" (D), a recently issued press release reinforced that this product is "ORIGIN PC's smallest form factor chassis ever offered." While it may be small, it certainly doesn't lack performance, with ORIGIN PC mentioning that there is plenty of space to fit an NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z within.

With further capacity for five hard drives, the top of the range Chronos can come packaged with an Intel Core i7 5690X or XEON and is said to support all Mini-ITX platforms that are based around Z170 and X99.

One of the quickest ways to hardware failure is running your system incredibly hot, sitting up there with rubbing your motherboard on the carpet or putting your video card through the washing machine.

Investing in a good heat sink or cooling fan is something that Reddit user 'ghalfacree' has suggested, sporting a thermal image of his Raspberry Pi 3 running at a scorching 100 degrees celsius, thanks to the help of thermal imagery.

While sitting at triple digit temperature isn't exactly common, this test was conducted on an open board under full load, causing concern for those who are straining theirRaspberry Pi 3 while contained in a small case or custom chassis. Ghalfacree's solution is a cute little fan, ensuring that his miniature pride and joy computer doesn't melt away.

If you've been casually following the various Raspberry Pi releases like myself, it's likely you have little to no idea what other mini ARM boards there are on the market.

Thankfully Phoronix has published a quick wrap-up and some benchmarks of competing boards compared to the well-known Raspberry Pi 3. Coming in hot and topping the list was the ODROID-C2, labeled as costing "just a few dollars more ($40 USD) while having a faster SoC and other advantages."

The claimed advantages of this product include a 64-bit quad-core SBC, backed by the Amlogic S905 which comes in at 2GHz with four Cortex-154 cores, paired with 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM and a Mali 450 GPU. Connection options include Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0 and full support for Android and Ubuntu, all wrapped up in a $40 asking price.

As the Raspberry Pi celebrates four years of DIY tech marvels and eighty million sales, the creators have unleashed a brand new computer iteration with a bunch of nifty enhancements.

The new Raspberry Pi 3 is 50% faster than its predecessor, owing this boost to a number of extra features like a beefier 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU (which is actually 10x more powerful than the original Raspberry Pi). The new Pi also sports onboard 802.11n Wi-Fi (up to 150Mbps) and Bluetooth 4.1 support, seamlessly unlocking a huge wave of device compatibility. As always, the Raspberry Pi 3 plays nicely with its younger siblings, the Raspberry Pi 1 and 2 computers.

The new Pi only sports 1GB of RAM--the same as its predecessor--but makes an upgrade in the graphics department thanks to Broadcom's 400MHz VideoCore IV. With Broadcom's graphics core, the Pi 3 can hit 1080p 60FPS video in H.264, and even supports H.265 but only at 1080p 30FPS.

If you don't have a gaming PC that's ready for the Oculus Rift and were in the market for a new PC, you can now pre-order Oculus Rift PC bundles right now - with the PCs starting at $1499.

The ASUS G11CD-B11 bundle sports an Intel Core i5-6400, 8GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 for $1499. The recommended specs for the Oculus Rift are an Intel Core i5-4590 or better, 8GB of RAM minimum, and a GTX 970 or R9 290. The entry-level VR gaming PC from ASUS barely makes it, but hey - it'll be fine for $1499.

Moving from there, we have the Alienware Area 51 which costs $3149, featuring an Intel Core i7-5820K, 16GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980. Alienware's Area 51 gaming PC also includes a 128GB SSD and 2TB mechanical HDD. Remember that each of the Oculus Rift ready VR gaming PCs includes an Oculus Rift headset, sensor, remote, an Xbox One controller, and the two games included by Oculus: Lucky's Tale and EVE: Valkyrie Founder's Pack.

With the release of Far Cry Primal around the corner, Oz Modz custom PC builder Stephen Hoad had created a beautiful custom gaming PC in the theme of Ubisoft's upcoming first-person shooter.

The PC rocks an ASUS T.U.F. Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 motherboard, backed up by 2 x ASUS Strix NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970s in SLI. CPU wise, Stephen used an Intel Core i7-6700K, backed up by 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM. The Corsair RM 850i PSU was used, with 2 x 240GB Kingston Hyper-X Savage SSDs backed up by a 2TB Western Digital Black HDD handling storage. The full list of gear inside of the system, we have below:

Current brain-computer interface systems are extremely limited in their capability, so DARPA is looking to blow them wide open. The plan with its recently launched Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program is to create a tiny implant that provides "unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world." Specifically, it aims to talks clearly and individually with each of up to one million neurons in a given part of the brain.

With the implant, hearing and sight disabilities could be compensated for though other applications are of course possible (coughcyborgswithlasereyescough).

The project is ambitious and thoroughly complex, to say the least. DARPA states "integrated breakthroughs" in eight different fields -- including neuroscience and low-power electronics, to name a couple -- will be required for success. To expedite matters, they will be recruiting stakeholders willing to give up the cutting edge prototyping and manufacturing services needed on a "pre-competitive basis" in exchange for research and commercial rights. To that effect, they will hold a "Proposers Day" meeting February 2 and 3.

First there was the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero computer, then the $15 PINE A64, and now we have the $9 CHIP.

CHIP (Computer Hardware in Products), is open source and houses a 1 GHz R8 ARM processor, 512MB RAM, and 4GB storage. Features-wise, it includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and supports composite, VGA, and HDMI outputs, so you can connect it to your desktop or laptop display or even TV. As for OS, it runs on Linux (Debian) and is capable of running apps and games (tons come pre-installed, including the Chromium browser). Peripherals work just fine, too.

So, while CHIP is more expensive than the popular Zero, it's not so bare bones. That said, if you want to expand it, the PocketCHIP peripheral effectively turns it into a Game Boy, but with a touchscreen and keyboard. It will launch in May at the $49 price point.

CES 2016 - The small-form factor PC is making waves in the industry in a very big way. Living room gaming is already a great convenience that console gamers have enjoyed, and now the PC is slowing moving that direction as well. Corsair has a a solution that can be both pre-built, and customized, that has it's own cooler and SFX power supply so you can potentially have the best living room experience. Titan X not included.

The Bulldog was announced in June, though development of the case has continued as they prepare to actually launch it. The surprisingly roomy case didn't quite ship when they wanted it to, which was over this past holiday season, but they've had time to refine the inside, moving screws around and making it an overall easier and more accessible case to work inside of.

But just like what was announced, this is built from the ground up to support both water-cooled CPU's (up to 150W), using their own SFF solution that comes with the case, and water-cooled GPU's if you get their GPU adapter or one of the hybrid cooled cards from MSI. Thankfully the power supply, an 80 Plus Gold certified 600W unit, can handle nearly any single card, even gual-GPU single cards. It's a uniquely shaped system that might not have the Wife Acceptance Factor, but it does fit into a lot of modern decor. In person it's rather stunning to look at.

CES 2016 - You had better watch out for media! We were invited to a secret backroom at CES 2016 where a separate subdivision of GIGABYTE's notebook business unit gave us a tour of their latest technology. Although AORUS is still in its infancy, they have made huge waves through the gaming notebook community in the past year.

Backed by one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards, VGAs, and notebooks, AORUS takes the experience of a large technology corporation and freedom of a separate division to push out some of the best gaming notebook offerings.

Their focus is to design and produce the best gaming notebooks on the market, and we saw nothing mediocre. Every AORUS notebook we saw had a dedicated NVIDIA GPU (or more), and many of the technologies they offered were unique and on the bleeding edge of VR and gaming.