Mr. X

SLI EVGA GTX 580

If you don't need a microphone I would suggest just get a pair of headphones instead of a headset, they will have better quality drivers. Any sennheiser, beyerdynamics or Audio Technicas will do a great job and will be even better with the xonar STX as it can drive heaphones up to 600ohms

Can't wait for this game.

Real Racing 3

H10, more surface area means more cooling performance

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

Tomb Raider Sim City

When we first reported on the leaked image of China Unicom's HTC One with its back cover off, some questioned its authenticity since the phone touts its unibody design in other parts of the world. Well, as we found out at HTC's Beijing launch event on Wednesday, the Chinese variants (802w, 802t and 802d; ¥4,888 or about $790 for 32GB) do indeed have a removable cover for access to their dual SIM slots and microSD slot. But the question is: how does that piece of metal come off? It's simple: the usual micro-SIM tray at the top left side of the phone is replaced by a latch release (close-up shot after the break), and pushing it up would pop the cover open, as pictured above. While this may technically not qualify for the "unibody" moniker, HTC's Vice President of China Lin Zurong told us that the removable cover and its accompanying parts at the top and bottom are cut out from the same piece of aluminum; so if you mix and match covers across two Ones of the same color, the fit or texture may not feel "right." Other than that, the Chinese One feels and looks very much the same as its foreign counterpart. And finally, we asked whether the much anticipated red HTC One will be sold in China, to which a representative replied this was originally designed with other regions -- namely Japan -- in mind, so there's no confirmation as to whether China will get it just yet. Come to think of it, wouldn't the red HTC One be a nice fit for Verizon? Source

As the first Google Glass units came off the production line and started reaching members of the early-access Explorer program, we have first impressions. Unfortunately, the first feedback is bad as it seems that the battery life is extremely poor. According to Robert Scoble, one of the first consumers to try out the Google Glass, explains that "one six-minute video took 20 percent of the battery." Google did mention that Glass can last up to one full day of typical use, but applications such as video recording and have a greater impact on endurance. Nonetheless, this could end up being a deal breaker for a lot of users and even it's not the final version we doubt anything can change. Source

I feel you, Activision are just milking it. They have been using the same game engine since COD4, hopefully when the next gen consoles come out they will be forced to design a new one.

pretty cool. Thanks for posting.

Its about time, people need to get with the times. I understand that some people don't upgrade their systems as often as us enthusiast, but c'mon windows XP is over 10 years old now.

It turns out that when Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that there won't be any new devices from the company until this fall, he was merely referring to iOS powered handhelds, the iPads and iPhones. One of Apple's oldest product lines, the MacBook, could still be in for a hardware update, which sees it mated with Intel's next-generation Core "Haswell" line of processors. What makes the move particularly interesting is that with Haswell, Intel is introducing special SKUs that feature meaty integrated graphics cores that are said to rival any and all discrete GPUs by AMD and NVIDIA under the 20W TDP envelope. This could mean that 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display could do away with discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics, and rely entirely on Intel's "GT3" graphics core, which reportedly features 40 execution units, and L4 eDRAM cache. This doing away of discrete GPUs could facilitate "significant redesigns," according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities. The new MacBook Pro powered by Core "Haswell" processors could arrive any time between June and fall. Source

The drama that ensued between game developer Infinity Ward and its holding company/publisher Activision, over the past couple of years, apparently, isn't going to affect the developer taking turns with Treyarch to dish out a new Call of Duty title each year. A sloppy job by leading retailers Tesco Direct and Target leaked some juicy tidbits about the next addition to the franchise, including, but not limited to the official box-art. Named Call of Duty: Ghosts, the game is the first Infinity Ward production after the Modern Warfaretrilogy, which had a successful run between 2007 and 2011. The box-art itself reveals little more than an operative taking a peek through a blindfold. It's got elements from Battlefield 3 andHomefront box-arts. The game will be available at least for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, although it's unlikely that Activision will forget to milk its third cash-cow, the PC. It didn't end with the box-art. The retailers even leaked the game's expected US launch-date, which is 5th November, 2013. The title Call of Duty: Ghosts, to us, implies a story-line covering secret operatives fighting secret-wars that the world is largely oblivious to. Source

There have been some rumors that there will be a cheaper version of the GEFORCE GTX Titan released in the summer time. Specifications indicate that the card should be fairly similar towards the Quadro K6000, let's assume for now that NVIDIA will middle out that gap with a 600~700 USD product. Now an PCB photo turned up on the web. Have a peek after the break. Here's Wcctech on it: The information we received came with a backside PCB shot and a few technical details of the upcoming GeForce GTX Titan LE GPU. As you can note, the PCB is remarkably similar to the original GeForce GTX Titan minus a few memory chips. In total, there are 20 memory chips (10 on back, 10 on front) which amounts to a 5 GB GDDR5 memory buffer across a 320-bit interface. Given NVIDIA’s Titan and 600 series specifications, the GTX Titan LE would have its memory clocked at 6008 MHz effective frequency. We can’t see anything else new on the board. The power scheme remains the same which includes 8+6 Pin PCI-e connectors, 2 SLI Gold fingers, DVI-DL, HDMI and Display port for display connectivity. It is also seen that the GTX Titan LE uses the same cooler as the GTX Titan so the overall design would be very similar. The only thing that would be changed is the GK110 with reduced core count around 2304-2496 and a 5 GB GDDR5 (384-bit) memory. Hopefully, we would be looking at a lower price range around $659-$759. Source

First shown to crowds at this year's International CES event in January, ASUS' first enthusiast SSD, the ROG RAIDR, is heading toward a mid-May launch. A few more of its pictures and specs sheets were posted by SweClockers. As detailed earlier, the RAIDR is a compound SSD in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor, with PCI-Express 2.0 x2 interface (supports x4, x8, and x16 slots). It uses two SandForce SF2281-driven SSD subunits striped in a hardware-abstract RAID 0 configuration. The subunits use Toshiba-made 19 nm MLC NAND flash chips, with 16 KB page size. The ROG RAIDR supports TRIM command, NCQ and SMART, despite being a RAID 0-based SSD. It is bootable, and supports Windows 8 Secure Boot. Installing an operating system on the drive doesn't require any F6 drivers, as the controller masquerades as a standard AHCI controller and a single disk, with the subunits and their RAID 0 stripe completely abstract. This way, the drive can accept TRIM commands from the OS. Initially, ASUS plans to launch 120 GB and 240 GB models. The 120 GB model offers sequential transfer rates of up to 765 MB/s reads with 775 MB/s writes; while the 240 GB one offers up to 830 MB/s reads, with up to 810 MB/s writes. Both drives sport a swanky EMI shield, which frankly looks more aesthetic than functional; and a backplate. ASUS will include a license to Kaspersky Antivirus 2013. It will also include software that lets you tweak the SSD to manually increase performance. Pricing information is not at hand, but we expect about $1.30-1.40/GB pricing on the 120 GB variant, and $1.10-1.20/GB on the 240 GB one. Source

With Computex 2013 a little over a month away, alongside which Intel plans to launch its 4th generation Core "Haswell" family, motherboard manufacturers are gearing up for another summer of product launches, with compatible socket LGA1150 motherboards. Among these is MSI, which teased its flagship motherboard that targets overclockers and PC enthusiasts interested in taking the Core i7-4770K and Core i5-4670K for a spin. This motherboard falls inside the company's Big Bang series, bearing the name Z87 XPower. As the name suggests, it's based on Intel's Z87 Express chipset. Not much is known about the Big Bang Z87 XPower, except what the teaser video (after the break) and a couple of corner-shots reveal. Expect a fancy new color scheme (probably a combination of gold and black), a new design scheme for the VRM and chipset heatsinks with a glowy "X" sign, the usual plethora of overclocking options MSI packs with its high-end motherboards, and what appears to be an mSATA or mPCIe slot, in one of the pictures. Source

PC enthusiast "Toppc" with the Coolaler.com, with access to a Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" sample clocked to match specifications of the Core i7-4960X, wasted no time in comparing the chip to a Core i7-3970X "Sandy Bridge-E." The two chips share a common socket LGA2011 design, and run on motherboards with Intel X79 Express chipset. An MSI X79A-GD45 Plus, with V17.1 BIOS was used to run the two chips. Among the tests Toppc put the chip through, are overclocker favorites SuperPi mod 1.6, CPU Mark '99, WPrime 1.63, Cinebench 11.5, 3DMark Vantage (CPU score), and 3DMark 06 (CPU score). The Ivy Bridge-E chip outperformed its predecessor by roughly 5-10 percent across the board. In Cinebench, the i7-4960X scored 10.94 points in comparison to the i7-3970X' 10.16; SuperPi 32M was crunched by the i7-4960X in 9m 22.6s compared to the 9m 55.4s of the i7-3970X; CPU Mark scores between the two are 561 vs. 533, respectively; 3DMark Vantage CPU score being 38,644 points vs. 35,804, respectively; and 3DMark 06 scores 8,586 points vs. 8,099 points, respectively. In WPrime, the i7-4960X crunched 32M in 4.601s, compared to its predecessor's 5.01s. Below are the test screenshots, please note that they're high-resolution images, so please open each in a new tab. Cinebench 11.5 SuperPi and CPU Mark 3DMark Vantage CPU Score 3DMark 06 CPU score and WPrime 1.63 Source

ASUS is working on a variant of its ROG Rampage IV Extreme motherboard for people who've had enough with the red+black color scheme. The Rampage IV Extreme Black, as the name suggests, dons a largely black appearance, with hints of dark-gray; use of red is reduced to a minimum. Components like alternate DIMM and PCIe slots use shades of gray to contrast black. It is otherwise identical to the original. The Black variant could be ASUS' competitive offering to EVGA X79 Black. Based on Intel X79 Express chipset, the ROG Rampage IV Extreme Black supports Core i7 processors in the LGA2011 package, up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR3 memory, four-way SLI/CrossFire, and a suite of overclocker-friendly features. There's no word on pricing or availability. Source

They may be titans, but we are Gods. Meticulously engineered for extraordinary DirectX 11.1 performance with 6GB of GDDR5 and two of the fastest GPUs on the planet. The XFX AMD Radeon HD 7990 break records without breaking the sound barrier, thanks to a massive heatsink backed by three whisper-quiet axial fans. Finely tuned for the highest DirectX 11.1 gaming performance, the XFX AMD Radeon HD 7990 and Graphics Core Next is the best solution to prep your rig for extreme performance and blaze through the hottest graphic intensive games of the year. From browsers to image editors, experience faster and smoother performance in everyday apps with AMD App Acceleration. These elements incorporated in the new XFX Radeon HD 7990 allow it to be the top performing graphics card for a long time. No competitor comes close to this performance and if any one wants a true competitive gaming edge, the XFX Radeon HD 7990 is the best and only solution on the planet. And YES. It can run Crysis 3 in 3840 x 2160 with max settings. AMD Radeon HD 7990 Graphics delivers: Dual GPU: Two high performance Radeon GPUs merged into one graphics cards is more than double the performance, the speed, more than double everything. 8.6 Billion transistors, 4096 stream processors and 8.2 teraflops of compute power! 6GB of GDDR5 Memory: 6 GB of memory is the perfect optimal allocation of memory to GPU processing utilizing the 3GB per GPU channel processing performance. Massive Heatsink: The massive full length heatsink spans the entire graphics card from end to end with 5 huge copper heat-pipes and direct copper to GPU design for ultimate heat dissipation and transfer. Triple Dissipation: Whisper-quiet Fan Technology: Three whisper-quiet axial fans gives you ultimate airflow and circulation for extreme cooling while keeping your graphics card optimally quiet. AMD Graphics Core Next: Get ready for next-gen DirectX 11.1 gaming with the award-winning Graphics Core Next, the only architecture for serious gamers. AMD Eyefinity Technology: Built for the ultra-high resolution gaming that only AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology can enable with native support for five simultaneous monitors. Get 8 Games FREE - BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, HITMAN: Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, FarCry 3 Blood Dragon, FarCry 3, DEUS EX Human Revolution - with the purchase of an AMD Radeon HD 7990 graphics card. Games available directly from AMD via approved resellers – check before purchasing that your reseller is an AMD Reloaded approved partner. For more information, visit the product page. Website Source

This morning rumors of two new NVIDIA GeForce Titan GPU's have made their way to our ears. Website 3DCeter.org is reporting that NVIDIA is planning to launch two revisions of its flagship Titan GPU, the Titan LE and Titan II. The new models will bring the Titan lineup to three different units that all share the same GK110 processor with the Titan LE being a slightly underclocked model, that uses marginal chips that didn't make the grade for full-fledged Titan performance. The LE will feature 2,495 CUDA cores across 208 texture mapping units, 5GB of GDDR5, and a peak power consumption rate of 190W, according to the leak. The GTX Titan II is an upgraded model to the now famous GTX Titan and unlocks more of the GK110's power than the stock Titan. The Titan II name is said to change to Titan Ultra on launch and will feature 2,880 CUDA cores across 256 texture mapping units. Clock speed is boosted to 950MHz with RAM staying the same as the stock Titan at 6GB. NVIDIA did not have any comments on the rumors. Source

Is this what Intel's 4th generation Core i7 "Haswell" retail box looks like? That is the question. For the first time in a decade, Intel could use a collage of pictures in its box-art. The running theme appears to be "creativity," with the box asking "what will you make?" You'll also notice that the box-art doesn't feature a small case-badge art. The top half of the front side could be what the badge ends up looking like. A little while ago, Intel made a cryptic Facebook post confirming a series launch along the sidelines of Computex 2013, held between 3rd and 7th June. Source