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For CES each year, I rely on one YouTube channel to report to me new and interesting tech that almost always appeals to me. LinusTechTips has been my guide to CES since 2013, and I also follow him for PAX, E3, and Computex (in addition to his many other wonderful tech guides and overviews). This year, some of the things that struck me were Seagate’s 7mm external USB 3.0 hard drive. It goes well with a trend I found going along with CES this year, thin. The drive itself is 500GB, using a 5mm drive itself, encased in two 1mm steel plates to create a very sturdy, rugged enclosure. Linus even demonstrates dropping the drive from about 5 feet (using Linus, who stands at about 5 feet 6 inches, as a reference), then stating that the reps at the Seagate booth said it could be dropped. He also compares it aside a 2.5 inch internal hard drive, and an (ancient) 5MB hard drive manufactured by Seagate for IBM. Another wonderful find of CES is the collection of devices running processors from Intel’s latest Broadwell 14nm chipset. Now, Broadwell has been known for a fair amount of time now, but it is significantly thinner than the previous 22nm chip found in all processors by AMD and Intel before this revolutionary breakthrough. This year, we had tablets, laptops ranging from productivity to gaming, NUCs, and even a neat little NUC that weighs 12 grams without the heatsink, and 14 grams (2 grams less than a pound) with the copper heatsink. That device in specific can run at clock rates between 1 and upwards of 2GHz. As time goes on, I keep telling myself that this technology really exists, and have to continually do so in order to keep believing everything I see. As always, there are tons of TVs and monitors at CES that again, just blow you away. One TV by LG this year featured a display that is flat when you want it to be flat, and curved when you need it to be curved. The switch is made just by pressing a button. The TV is 77 inches from corner to corner, and by being able to switch from flat to curved and back, tackles the issue Linus has pointed out in one of his TechQuickie channel of multiple people viewing the TV from different angle, seeing potentially distorted picture from not sitting at the very isolate ideal viewing position. Dell also debuted a 5K display that rivals the 5K iMac, and brings the 5K experience to just about any user with the hardware to power the device. The monitor, the Dell UP2715K, can only run in 5K by using 2 DisplayPort cables. No current video card is capable of supporting 5K without running multiple channels, due to limitations that were not further explained. Without researching the matter (because frankly I don’t care, as I don’t have/want/need a 5K display), I can only assume it is because DisplayPort is not capable of putting out enough bandwidth to accommodate for the massive data rate of a 5K image. Yet another sort of cool grouping of tech was the health gear. Only one item the LinusTechTips crew went over that is not unheard of is Razer’s fitness wearable. Because wearables are not new by any means, and Razer has released a newer version of this device, I’m not going to go over it in any detail. Razer previously has the Nabu as their only fitness tracker, but at CES, announced their Nabu X, which (as most second generation devices do) built upon their first device (which in all honesty, was a horrible move for a gaming company… what gamer really needs to track their steps while sitting at a computer playing games?). The first (practical) device I saw in the CES 2015 playlist was the Mionix Naos QG. This mouse now has tracking for things such as actions (clicks/minute), movement data (pixels/second, heartbeat, and skin response. Another thing you can do is integrate this with Twitch streams, so you can display this reading on the screen. This could be pretty awesome when someone is playing horror games or games that have very high stress levels to see when your heartbeat spikes and adrenaline starts pumping. The mouse also features a 16.8 million (if I remember correctly) color LED backlight that can be changed to display your favorite color, but by default, changes color based on your heart rate. The next smart device is the Vector Mouthgard made by i1 Biometrics. The Linus Crew does a fantastic job at demonstrating what this device is meant for. Slick (one of the employees of Linus Media Group) was tackled while being recorded and wearing the mouthgard, and goes to show that, when uploaded to the software on a computer, you can see various measurements, in the form of linear acceleration, rotational acceleration, head injuries, and more. In this case, where Slick was tackled, they were able to tell that he tucked his head down and to the side, and this caused his brain to impact the other side of his skull. As Slick says during his commentary, this can be used to better athletes and help break them of bad habits they may or may not know they have fallen into. Overall, (from what I have seen) CES this year was yet another phenomenal one. Also, please note that the devices that I have highlighted in this post are just some of my personal favorites, or ones that very well fit the criteria of this assignment. Of all the tech channels on YouTube (and we all know there is one metric butt-ton of them), LinusTechTips is easily my favorite. If anyone wishes, down below I will also post the link to the playlist of Linus and the gang at CES 2015. All the videos are well worth the watch.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-Hardware-154106/News/Intel-Haswell-EP-Engineering-Sample-E5-2600-v3-Ebay-1119099/ With Intel rapidly shifting forward their current lineage of 9 series micro-processor (both the haswell refresh & upcoming 14nm aka Broadwell) and motherboards H97/Z97 to online retailers. For a small period of time since maybe February or March there has been a small discussion regarding the upcoming revision of Intel’s highest end platform 2011-3. Having remembered when the Engineering sample of the next revision 2011-3 I decided to research some more and found out that the leaked workstation/server grade Haswell-E CPU had a tremendous 14 core count enabled (so 14c/24hc) of course it being part of the Xeon E5 family had validation to run in any dual socket cpu (only rev.3 due to the change in revision 0 - 3), DDR4 supporting 2133mhz standard, higher levels of cache with the upcoming Wellsburg chipset C610. To be more accurate here is a quote from wccftech Here is a link to it being enlisted on Ebay : http://www.ebay.com/itm/201079451724 To be clear this is the Haswell-EP not EX however it does broaden the gap to understanding that Intel will be pushing the core count for enthusiasts, extreme over-clockers & highly multi-threaded applications. Aside from the latest high-end Ivy-Bridge Xeon E5 2696 v2 which is a 12 core, I've rechecked with other sites & articles regarding the leaked E5 2600 v.3 and boy it’s tough to put my finger on but from but there has been a rumoured 16 and 18 core edition floating around. Mouth watering yet or mybe your mind blown (due to the mount of text)? Unfortunately it doesn't stop here since Broadwell has been delayed to be officially launched in the last quarter of this year in-conjuction with possibly Haswell-E/X99, Intel have working towards their deadline to display early produce of Broadwell-EP. kylke

Source: http://www.microcenter.com/category/4294966995,4294964566/Intel-Processors Over at Microcenter the prices of many Intel CPUs seem to have been cut a bit, most likely because of Ryzen, but if you ask me, it doesn't seem to be enough. Why? Let me show you: i7 6950x Original price: $1899.99 New price: $1599.99 i7 6900k Original price: $1199.99 New price: $999.99 i7 6850k Original price: $699.99 New price: $549.99 i7 6800k Original price: $499.99 New price: $359.99 i7 5820k Original price: $419.99 New price $319.99 i7 7700k Original price: $379.99 New price: $299.99 i7 6700k Original price: $399.99 New price: $259.99 i5 7600k Original price: $269.99 New price: $199.99 i5 6600k Original price: $269.99 New price: $179.99 Now some of these price cuts won't be super noticeable; the new prices for the 6950x, 6900k, 6850k, and maybe the 6800k aren't that large, especially considering the prices of Ryzen CPUs, but some of the others are kinda noticeable. The 6700k is now around the same price that an i5 7600k would cost you and the 6600k now costs the same as the 7350k would've cost you. However, I still don't believe these are enough for Intel. The 1800x is very similar in performance to the 6900k yet it's still exactly half the price (fine, it's half a cent under half the price of the 6900k, does it really matter?). The 6850k is still more expensive than the obviously better 1800x, and the 6800k is still slightly more than the better 1700 and the 5820k is only barely under the 1700. The quad core i7s and i5s might be a good deal, but once the AMD Ryzen 5 SKUs launch they'll be in trouble. While these price cuts might make some of Intel's CPUs attractive, for the most part I think Ryzen still has stole all the thunder. I imagine that once Ryzen launches and goes on sale Intel will have to react much more strongly, at the very least with its HEDT CPUs.

Hi guys, Just wanted general thoughts, recently purchased a 2620 v4 for a very competitive price ($350), as I wanted a little more "umf" than a 6800k in terms of cores. I instantly semi-regretted the decision since it is the 1st, and bills come on the first as well. My use case: 1. light editing and photowork (but i end up using my macbook pro 15 inch most the time because I am either at work or on the road) Also I realize 6 faster cores would probably beat in Adobe Render times 2. light gaming, don't really have too much time these days, but civ 6 usually. 3. BOINC on cold days my Options 1. Flip it - make about $50 dollars, buy a 6800k 2. use it for a year - buy a 6900k then (assuming prices have fallen down a little due to zen & Skylake E) (this gives me the option to purchase another x99 board to use) I'd prefer to stay on broadwell as I don't really want to stay in the same IPC. Furthermore, I am running a single 1070 (overclockable to around 2100)

I want to build a PC both for gaming and productivity (3D modeling, rendering, design apps, etc), and I'm between these to CPU's, Broadwell i7-6800k and Skylake i7-6700k, the motherboard is an Asus X99-A II, and the GPU is an EVGA 1070, however, I'm not sure which of those CPU is the best option as the broadwell has more cores and cache, but the skylake works at a faster speed.

Hello, im doing my first build and I have everything besides a processor, and i just need to check compatibly. So would Intel Core i7 Broadwell Quad-Core work with HyperX FURY ddr3 1866 ram? Here are the store pages for more information if you need it. RAM-http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104467&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_- CPU-http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117553&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-N82E16819117553&gclid=CjwKEAiAvs7CBRC24rao6bGCoiASJABaCt5DluPrQROswTUOK3eHOO_LBxI-is-BWRyT-qu1V1Eq6xoCXx7w_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds And if they arn't what cpus close to this would be compatible with my ram, Thank you in advance!!

When I bought my current desktop daily driver my plan was to upgrade it to i7-5775C after its release as Broadwell was on the verge, and use an E3-1231v3 in the interim. I specified the H97 chipset for my platform as I want Broadwell compatibility. My supplier cannot source any H97 mobo and upgraded it to a Z97 for me. Hence overclocking came back in the scope for me, and I am running my E3-1231v3 with a 3% BCLK overclock. Broadwell delayed, and it seem to me that this upgrade path is kaput. Now what is my upgrade path? Keep hunting for the elusive i7-5775C, grabbing the i7-4790K and OC the crap out of it, or stick with my interim plan of E3-1231v3 with 3% BCLK overclock as long term plan and call it a day?

Hey everyone and Happy Thnxgiving!! Lets get down to Business, I am having a hard time decided which theme/color colab to go with for my upcoming X99 Rig build, Having hard time because all my choices color wise are so good and I like all of them!! So I'm hoping with your help I can finally settle with a nice color scheme that isn't the typical red themes that everyone and their mother has =) in other words trying to be different and unique. Below I will have my Preferences in order from mostly leaning towards to least moving towards as well as PC Part Picker links for each build. Enjoy and I hope I get some solid feedback since black Friday is in 2 days 1. Silver & White Theme - http://pcpartpicker.com/list/FqH2bj 2. Black & White Theme - http://pcpartpicker.com/list/L6Q6qk 3. White & Blue Theme - http://pcpartpicker.com/list/rDX3m8 4. Black, White & Blue - http://pcpartpicker.com/list/P9zCFd All help is appreciated!!!!

Hello, I have tried using my current profile on two separate versions of bios, two separate windows installs on separate drives and still no results. The cpu core voltage is detected but no extra clocks and my cpu no longer even hits 3.8ghz. Specs 500GB M.2. / 500GB Sata SSD used in testing i7 6800k (On Custom loop with 560Mm rad for itself.) GTX980x2 ASUS Sabertooth X99 EVGA 2133Mhz ram 16GB OC: 4.00GHZ 1.25V CPU Core

“Intel has finally released new microcode updates to address the Spectre Variant 2 flaw in the older chips that triggered its across-the-board halt on early fixes for the vulnerability.” The support article indicates that the KB4074588 update requires an up to date antivirus software, the bundled one from MS seems to be okay. Just switched on my main machine as I knew there was an Intel patch forthcoming. After a restart, obviously required, the KB4074588 update now regards Nvidia drivers as not compatible with WX because they are not being verified on the Windows store. In case you may have noticed, there is a slight annoyance with MS updates, this is because I spent all of 2015 after an update, not being able to connect to my network attached storage, a store-bought DNS-320L! Then following that in 2016 my machine could not communicate with its installed DWA-548 wireless N PCIe adapter card. For six months I needed to rely on my physical wired backup connection to get internet access. No wonder my WX Alienware 14 hangs and does not want to open its downloaded Nvidia drivers…they are not verified on the Windows store…smeg! Links: Intel's Spectre fix for Broadwell and Haswell chips has finally landed from zdnet.com Meltdown/Spectre fix needs antivirus software from Threatpost.com Microsoft Support for KB4074588 update from support.microsoft.com Aditional reading Remarks from Pedro Hernandez at eweek.com

Hi, so I was thinking of an upgrade to replace my i5 4460. I don't really need to buy a whole new mobo or ram, they work just fine. Is it worth upgrading to a better Haswell or Broadwell i7 CPU? If yes, could you recommend one under...160 euros(about $200)? I do mainly programming, gaming and regular work.

As the title says. I'm really curious about this. For example, when would it make sense to get a 6800k (broadwell-e) over a 6700k (skylake)?

I'm looking into an lga 2011v3 editing rig and noticed the E5-2620v4 and the E5-1630v4 are roughly the same price. Now I know the rule of thumb is "more cores=better", but by MY logic, half the cores but almost double the speed should cancel out in multi threaded apps, right?

Hey guys, So I am looking to upgrade my current Mobo, Processor, and Ram, but I am not sure with what processor to go with. Currently, my processor is an i7 4790k Devils canyon with an AsRock z97x Mobo, and I am going to gift that to a friend for his birthday. I want to jump to at least a 6 core processor as I do alot of video editing and would like the hyper-threading of an i7. Do you guys have any suggestions on Skylake or Broadwell, and which i7 I should be looking at (preferably a K model unless intel really does lock down overclocking) Was eyeballing http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117649 What do you guys think? Thanks in advance! Brian

I'm always craving to get the most performance out of the hardware that I bought. I keep looking for possible ways to improve the thermals and with that the performance of my CPU, GPU and RAM. Anyway, I'll just get to the point here. Are there any special or non special ways to substantially improve performance anywhere in my system, especially the CPU department? Disclaimer: I find delidding a bit too tricky. Thanks in advance.

I'm planning to build a gaming pc this june/july, when the gtx 1070 (and possibly a polaris card in the same price range) come out. I was planning on getting the build with the i7 6700k, but I've been starting to think about how close the newer intel cpus are to launching. Should I be worried about the next generation of intel cpus coming nearly after june/july? Do you think it will come during this time frame? Would it be a major difference? I have been waiting for a long time to get this build, but maybe it might be slightly foolish to get the build right before the new intel cpus come out. Please let me know what you all think.

It seems I've got a little confused regarding what order this stuff goes.. Ivy Bridge e.g. 3770K Haswell e.g 4770K Devil's canyon e.g. 4790K (Broadwell here??) Wait...why no 5770K..? Skylake e.g. 6700K Kaby lake? So where does Broadwell E, Broadwell EP and Haswell E fit in to this?

I'm rather torn between going with a 6700k or a 6800k for my next build which I will be starting as soon as the GTX 1070 launches. Mainly because I can't choose between the Z170 and X99 platforms. Any opinions? (Yes I am fully aware that the 6800k hasn't launched yet)

I am looked at getting a new CPU for my Z97 build and I thought it might be a good idea to get a broadwell CPU since they have better integrated graphics and a smaller fin-fet process. But the C instead of the K confuses me. Is it overclockable?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-xeon-e5-2600-v4-broadwell-ep,4514.html#xtor=RSS-100 So with intel releaseing these chips, are we gonna get to see 44 cores and 88 threads of rendering on that new server Linus is deploying??

Hey guys, I want to build a PC for video post-production and other creative work with Adobe CC. Just some basic Components: 16GB Corsair DDR4, 250GB Samsung SSD, MSI GTX960 4GB, etc. I can choose between a i7 6700K and a i7 5820K. The price difference between the version with 6700K and Z170 Motherboard and the version with 5820K and X99 MB would be about 100 Euros (120 USD, 150 CAD). What are the pros and cons of which version and is it worth it to use the 5820K? How much does the performance increase? Thanks for your answers and sorry for my bad englisch, i am from Austria (no kangaroos).

Right now they are still about the same price as Skylake but when do you think they will drop in price? I have an i5-4690K that I am starting to feel the pain of only having 4 threads with multitasking. A lot of crashes while trying to stream to twitch, record, and game. I have a better system but I am doing to mods on it right now and I would like to have two running systems that can do that.

Yes I know. Skylake is superior, Broadwell is useless, the IGP is terrible (just not as terrible as...), and etc... But I'm in possession of a genuine i5-5675c and I'm kinda interested to see how it will work out. I have found no useful benchmarks on both the CPU and GPU besides the usual skimming by Tom's Hardware. I haven't seen Linus benchmark of the Broadwell processors (give me a link if I missed it), and since I have one I figure I'll see what it's capable of when the motherboard arrives (It's a long story). I just wanted to know if anyone out there has any useful advice or experience with these CPU's. Also, any benchmarks would be helpful, especially with the IGP vs Discrete. FYI: The system isn't going to be a traditional "gaming" rig, just an entertainment computer for my wife, but may be used in older titles, or lower-resolution games like Minecraft, Oblivion, or Civilization 5.

Greetings. Intel's Skylake CPUs with their HD 530 iGPUs are yet to match the astounding results handed in by the Iris Pro 6200 integrated graphics seen on some Macs and mobile CPUs, and only two desktop CPUs- The i5 5675C and the i7 5775C. Since they perform on par with their Haswell counterparts and can even be overclocked. The Iris Pro 6200 Graphics have also been known to far outperform intel's new HD 530 iGPU as well as the on-die R7 graphics from AMD's Kaveri and Godavari A10 APUs. Does this make them the ideal solution for a video editing rig that is also capable of light gaming? Not that I'm looking to build one- I'm just curious. Regards, Aereldor.

I'm looking for some opinions on what I should build. I don't need a graphics card as I've already got a 980ti for my current system. A few requirements: Budget of $1400 (before taxes and shipping) I want to be able to upgrade this system periodically for the next 4 years, so I want SLI compatibility while using an M.2 solid state drive. I will be buying an Asus PG279q in April so I need to be able to do 2k gaming at 60+ fps. Compatibility with the Samsung 950 pro at full speed. I will be overclocking the system. My main question here is should I build an X-99 system or a Z-170 system? I haven't done a ton of research yet, but I won't be building my system until late in January so I've got time. Things I've considered: X-99 from what I've seen is still faster given the current 6 -core 5820k, and Z-170 has very limited availability of 6700ks available in any case. Z-170 offers a higher long term pay off as I would be able to upgrade to a newer processor down the road a couple of years, and from what I've heard Skylake is much better for overclocking and single thread performance. I would happily take any suggestions into consideration and I would greatly appreciate a motherboard/processor recommendation for 2 way sli and m.2 usage. A full build would be amazing, but I don't expect anyone to waste that much time. Thanks guys!