Larunda

A lot of assumptions being made here.
We don't take money to do reviews. We never have.
We take money to do advertisements, which are never labeled as reviews.
NVIDIA provided the graphics cards (and Cooler Master sent cases and coolers, ASUS sent motherboards, Intel sent CPUs, Kingston sent SSDs and RAM, Swiftech sent water cooling gear) for our editing workstations for product placement in the whole room water cooling series of videos we produced featuring this hardware extensively.
In the grand scheme of things, $6000 of graphics cards (don't imagine that's their BOM cost on them either) is a great deal for 1-2M impressions on a series of videos about using them.. but those videos were NOT a review. They were about a clearly sponsored (we said it was more than once) outrageous project.
As for sending "keeper" vs "loaner" units of hardware, yeah for many products we just don't do loaners anymore, but more than anything else this is to do with me not feeling like it's worth my time to play email tag for shipping labels and spend an hour driving to FedEX and filling out stupid international bill of landing and commercial invoice nonsense over like a $100 item that costs more to send back than to just not bother with anyway.
That and quite frankly even a negative review (for some reason) often generates a lot of sales for the manufacturer.. so as far as I'm concerned they can eat the cost of the item and I'll do whatever I want with it when we're done reviewing it - whether that's continuing to use it personally (Pebble Steel and iPhone 6 come to mind) - or re-visiting it only when we need to re-do our comparative numbers (here's a lesson on why this is necessary and we can't just re-use old numbers)
And on the subject of the Pebble and iPhone 6 - these are both items that were NOT provided by the manufacturer. One was purchased for my own use and the other was provided by a separate sponsor who makes skins for phones (dBrand), but I didn't necessarily mention this at the time because who cares? It doesn't colour my impressions of the device.
Here's an item I wasn't allowed to keep and won one of the two editor's choice awards I've ever given out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1uj6wQTu58
Here's an item was allowed to keep that I ripped apart saying it was worse across the board than the two similar products from other manufacturers that I compared it against: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O1aCNrjV64
Here's an item I was allowed to keep that I basically ripped apart on camera and sent it back anyway because it had so little value to me I didn't even want to give it to a friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3AgcltUM9s
And I could do this all day..
You may notice that most of the items we review we are fairly positive about. There is a reason for this, and it has nothing to do with being paid to review it.
I don't generally bother to review stuff that I already know is stupid junk.
The bottom line is this. You can either trust me or not trust me. Ultimately that's your deal. My job is to do what I do, and the people who recognize it for what it is - my opinion being given to you - will follow, and the others can go find someone who maybe they think "hasn't sold out" but might just "happen to agree with them" to listen to. Enjoy.

Its been posted a lot
and its a GOOD THING
SINCE 75%+ HOME USERS DON"T INSTALL UPDATES EVER, then complain shit doesn't work
 
 
 
SO ITS A SMART MOVE on Ms's part.
Tech Savy people buy WIndows 10pro anyway. 
 
 
 
KEEP IN MIND YOU STILL PICK WHAT TIME IT RESTARTS, it WILL INSTALL but you choose when...Just like it currently is........

Can we stop with buzzfeed titles?

You can disable automatic updates.

You professional career as a CS:GO player has been ruined! Think of the money you'll lose, think of the impact on your life!
 
Or use the latest version of Windows... Windows 8.1, where they completely changed how Windows update works to avoid this problem

One cannot really tell which is better.
Please, don't even bother getting into an arguement.
 
Both are great games with equally bad communities.
Why ?
Super-uber-extra bright colours , free to play, easy to alt-tab, all these have a great effect appealing the really young age crowd.
 
My opinion is to play both of them, for 2 or 3 weeks, and the decision will come by itself.
If you got friends on a side, you will propably end up to that one.
 
Anyway, I've tried both, League caught my attention a lot more, but both are hard to MASTER.
 
Choose your weapon, mute/ignore those who irritate you, and enjoy your game.
 
PEACE

I've played both of them quite a bit, but have a ton more time in LoL. Communities are equally bad. LoL is better balanced by far, but less all-out crazy because of it. I like runes and masteries, makes things more interesting. I think LoL currently has more heroes/champions. I personally much prefer LoL. Both very good games overall though.

An OS is never done... Hell, you could argue no software project is ever complete.

Yisssssss. Less than two week from launch! Can't wait to not have 'Windows Insider Preview' on the bottom of my monitor anymore.

Spotify is love. Spotify is life.

Do we NEED them? Or are they telling you that you need them so you can watch them to feel more cultured? 

Most impulsive buy of 2015.
 
I've finally benchmarked my R9 290 390, and surprise, it performs below my GTX 970, but by how much is surprising.
 
We'll start with standard Fire Strike, nothing special. Just 1080p goodness.
 


 


 
Nobody should be surprised, but I am. The R9 390 is very close to the GTX 970, the combined score is even higher but graphics score is fairly lower. The actual FPS differences are not significant, but what I'm wondering is; What about driver updates? The 390 isn't validated on 3DMark because of the driver, so maybe there are still optimizations to be made. It would be interesting to see at least. OK, moving on.
 
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Fire Strike Extreme. Maybe kicking up the resolution will favor the R9 390's extra VRAM and bus width?
 


 


 
The R9 390 is falling behind by a few FPS, but is somehow doing better in physics. I mean, I didn't overclock the 4790k between runs, but twice now it's had a better physics score. I dunno, weird.
 
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Let's kick it up a notch; 4K. Maybe this is where we can see the 390 pull ahead.
 


 


 
The FPS differences are marginal now, what I really want to see is crossfire versus SLI now, especially on 4K. Maybe that's where we could see the advantage in RAM and where the 390 might win. Maybe we'll see the 390 win on driver updates. I don't know. It'll be neat to see, though.
 
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Last benchmark, OpenGL on Cinebench 15.
 

 

 
The 970 wins again, but by a hair.
 
Now the interesting thing for me was thermals and audio levels. With the EVGA GTX 970 SSC, I can hear the fans ramp up during benchmarks, but the XFX R9 390 DD has remained consistent in each test. Not dead silent, but still very quiet in comparison to the 970 ramping up. I don't have any professional equipment to test it, but I can say that, while the 390's fans run all the time, they seem quieter than the 970's on load. Oh, and thermals. Interesting stuff.
 
EVGA GTX 970 ACX2.0+
Max Temp in FurMark: 79C
 
XFX R9 390 DD
Max Temp in FurMark: 71C
 
Make of that what you will, but don't forget that the 970 has 0db mode, and FurMark is not a realistic gaming load. Real GPU temperatures are lower.
 
And the unboxing experience.
 


 
Open the box, and we have another box with XFX on it, if you didn't realize who the GPU manufacturer was.
 

 
Open it up some more and you have another box, a warranty information card, and, well... The graphics card.
 

 
Interesting stuff, let's see the accessories. We've got HDMI to DVI (2x), DVI to HDMI, a driver's DVD, and an instruction guide.
 

 
Here's the GPU in the anti-static bag.
 

 
And here's it without the anti-static bag.
 

 
For ports, we have Display Port, HDMI, and two single-link DVIs. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

 
Here's the brushed looking backplate, something even my GTX 970 SuperSuperclocked doesn't have *cough*EVGA*cough*.
 

 
And finally, here's the SN and info on the GPU.
 

 
I've never owned an XFX GPU before, but the unboxing experience was far from impressive. It was black boxes and lack luster accessories I probably won't touch asides from having taken a photo of them. The main attraction is the GPU so I can excuse that. I'll be sure to update with benchmarks and thermals in a short while, I'm excited to see where the R9 390 lands, or if it's just the 290 with 8GB.

So recently, I've been looking for a phone of the around $100 price range where I am, and I came across two options from two of my friends, both of which let me borrow for a while so I can try them out and see which is a keeper. The Samsung Galaxy S3, and the iPhone 4S. So which shall it be?
 
 

 
Now, consideration needs to be taken into how these phones are costing me $100. These are by no means power user phones by today's standards, and my main usage for them is just browsing Facebook, taking a few pictures every now and then, Snapchat, Kik, some web browsing, some YouTube, and most of all a lot of music listening, both locally and over Spotify.
 
Both are running the latest OS versions, iOS 8.3 on the iPhone and Android 5.1.1 on the Samsung. Both were used on Bell Canada. This is the Canadian SGH-I747 (dual-core Snapdragon) version of the S3, not the international I9300.
 
Display and form factor: Samsung Galaxy S3
 
The iPhone 4S's screen may be nice, but I just can't see myself seeing it as acceptable in today's usage compared to the S3 and other, larger smartphones that people have grown accustomed to. Sure, some people may prefer the smaller size of the iPhone, but you'll want at least an iPhone 5 for it to be usable.
 
In modern apps like Facebook Messenger and Kik, you'll only see at most 3 single-line messages between the top of the top of the entry field and the bottom of the title bar when the keyboard is present. When the messages get long you'd be hard pressed to see one full message on the screen at once and it really starts to get on your nerves. The S3's much larger screen is just far less cramped to read off of, and Android often hides the title bar in favor of using the hardware menu and back keys (vs menu and back included as part of the title bar on iOS), giving you even more screen real estate. 
 
Sure the 4S's screen has more accurate colors then oversaturated Super AMOLED, but that alone is not enough to make up for the poor usability experience. The S3 has a larger footprint in the hand and in your pocket, so it's harder to grip the whole thing, however the flat back and edges on the iPhone make it not the best ergonomically to hold, either. 
 
Camera: Draw
 
The S3's camera seems to take the sharper shots (without oversharpening), and takes much better photos in the dark, even if the viewfinder frame rate does noticeably dip compared to the iPhone. However the iPhone often has better exposure in very bright situations which can cause the S3 to become overexposed and too bright or washed out. It also seems to be better for close-up shots. Either is fine for causal social media pictures. 
 
Front camera however, the S3's 720p front-facing selfie camera wins hands down over the iPhone's VGA front camera.
 
Battery: Samsung Galaxy S3
 
Both phones are on their original batteries, I've used both phones plenty today, and actually used the S3 more heavily then the 4S. The S3 is at 79%, the 4S is at 52%. Nuff said. As usual with iPhones, standby time is better, but really either of these at this point in their battery age will require charging every night anyways. For people who aren't satisfied with one charge, the S3 allows for easily swappable batteries to get you right back up to 100% in seconds, whereas the iPhone has to be plugged in, and although it charges fast, it's still not 0-100 as real quick as just swapping batteries. 
 
Connectivity: Samsung Galaxy S3
 
The S3 with it's LTE cellular connectivity, dual-band Wireless N and NFC definitely win over the 4S's 3G cellular connectivity, single-band Wireless N and lack of NFC. Even on 3G, the S3 is still faster, being capable of 21Mbps network speeds compared to the 4S's 14Mbps. 
 
OS: iPhone 4S
 
Let's be realistic, if I was comparing the two as-is I'd give it to the S3 as I use it with AOSP 5.1 Lollipop. However to the masses, they'll be using 4.4.2 KitKat with TouchWiz on top. Not only does this add more bloatware and cause for slower feeling UI navigation, there's just some features that Android took from iOS and added to Lollipop that make life so much easier, like notifications on the lockscreen. The S3 will not be updated officially past KitKat, while the iPhone 4S is confirmed to receive the upcoming iOS 9.
 
Many people do prefer the customization and more open access of Android, but it's just not worth it over iOS for TouchWiz. However on the other hand with a custom ROM updated to the latest version of stock Android, there are many reasons why the S3 would be the winner instead. 
 
But even with iOS's victory, two words have to be said: FUCK ITUNES
 
Performance: Samsung Galaxy S3   Although I said that there wasn't going to be too much performance-oriented comparisons, some people still want to play some casual games on their phones and for this the S3 definitely wins. Even in simple games like Crossy Road, ZigZag and Jelly Jump there was noticeable lag on the 4S that wasn't present on the S3. And in games like CSR Racing and Nitro Nation online, the stuttering was to the point where I didn't even want to play it on the 4S, while I could definitely live with what was there on the S3.    Little things: Samsung Galaxy S3   There's just those few little things that are present on the Galaxy S3 that I can't help but realize make a big difference when switching over to the iPhone. The LED notification light, MicroSD expansion slot, open file system access, easily accessible SIM card that doesn't need a paper clip... just little things that make life easier with the S3.   Conclusion:   So which phone is more worth your ~$100? Definitely the Samsung S3. Sure it might not be fancy all-metal-and-glass or have an Apple logo on it, but it's just an overall much better experience if you're looking for something cheap that gets the job done. Especially if you're able to install a custom ROM on it and rid yourself of TouchWiz. And it seems like iPhone 4S sell for slightly more then S3 do where I am, so with a deal you might actually save yourself a decent amount going for the S3 as well.

Not good with camera. CM Storm Quickfire TK with CherryMX Blue, got it for $70 over 2 years ago.

 
and my 14 years old Razer keyboard with a CherryMX5 White-to-Grey switches.

Yep, that link kirby sent you has an outline of all the required components. Don't sweat it though, your edits are now pretty good.
 
I find its better to kindly let the OP know when they miss something. Since, the alternative is a mod simply locking the thread, and then you don't even learn what you missed.

Do you have a deathwish for your computer? Because that is how you kill your computer.

STEALING? YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THE DAMN THING YOU BUMBLING IDIOT

Did it last year on a new EVGA 780 6GB with Amazon (who ship direct to Oz, no forwarding req.), saved a couple hundred versus local pricing.
Looks to be the same difference again with the 980ti,
 
East coast Oz pricing is also a it cheaper, so I either need to pay for shipping anyway, or cop the additional markup of local WA retailers.
Lack of stock availability is another big reason I buy from overseas.

Every time some new piece of technology comes out in Australia, there is always one person who complains about the lack of "equality" pricing against the Australians.

Australians get paid more than Americans. Australians pay more for technology than Americans because we import off them.

Australians have a much higher standard of living compared to Americans. (Hello? Free health care?) for example.
 
I dare any Australian that complains about the lack of equality to go on a US Tech shopping site, buy a 980Ti, ship it to a US mail forwarding service, then ship it to Australia and see how much better off you are.

For example: Buy a 980Ti off NCIXUS.com ($649) then ground shipping to ShipIto.com ($9.95) then pay the mail forwarding centre ($1) then pay for the USPS postage over to Australia (~$75)

649+9.95+1+75 = $734.95

Convert that to AUD (@$1.29) = $948.78

Hey! Look at that. You saved $100, wasted a week (or more) waiting for the damn thing to arrive and imagine if you need to send your card off for warranty. 

TL;DR: Why the heck is this in the News sub forum?!

shouldn't you make yourself a picture?

I don't see this thread going anywhere good. Locked.

This thread should be renamed to The Witch Hunt........

Weow! Now ranked 980th on the LTT F2H team
 

i didnt get a space cookie when I joined -.- clearly this is just another example of early backers being put at a disadvantage