Computer Power User Volume 11 Issue 12

30 MB·English

by  Sandhills Publishing

DECEMBER 2011 | VOL 11 ISSUE 12
58
Game On
Video Card Buyer’s Guide
76
Chips Ahoy!
CPU Buyer’s Guide
Copyright 2011 by Sandhills Publishing Company. CPUComputer Power User is a registered trademark of Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in
Computer Power User is strictly prohibited without written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST # 123482788RT0001 (ISSN 1536-7568) CPU Computer Power User USPS 020-801 is published
monthly for $29 per year by Sandhills Publishing Company, 131 West Grand Drive, P.O. Box 85673, Lincoln, NE 68501. Subscriber Services: [phone]. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, NE and
additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Computer Power User, P.O. Box 82545, Lincoln, NE 68501.

DECEMBER 2011 | VOL 11 ISSUE 12
Frontside
9 What’s Happening
15 Digital Economy
16 Dream Hardware
Heavy Gear
18 Bulldozer Boards
990FX Mainboards For AMD’s New FX
25 BitFenix Outlaw
28 Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition 25
29 Enermax ETD-T60-VD
30 Aerocool Qs-200
31 Rosewill RHM-6308
32 VisionTek Radeon HD 6970 BitFenix Outlaw
33 Thermaltake Dr. Power II
34 Rosewill RANGER
36 VisionTek PC3-14900 CL10 1866 EX (12GB)
37 CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1000 SE
38 Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM
40 GIGABYTE GA-A55M-DS2
41 Patriot Pyro SE 120GB
42 Coming Attractions
Everything New In PC Hardware
Hard Hat Area
31
PC MODDER
44 MadReader Mod
TRON Lightcycle PC
Rosewill RHM-6308
46 NVIDIA GeForce LAN 6
Battle In The Bay
48 Advanced Q&A Corner
51 X-ray Vision: OCZRevoDrive Hybrid
SSDs & HDDs Join Forces
54 White Paper: XFX HD 6950 DD
Dual Fans Drive Quiet, Cool Performance
33
Thermaltake Dr.
Power II

DECEMBER 2011 | VOL 11 ISSUE 12
Loading Zone
85 The Bleeding Edge Of Software
Inside The World Of Betas
86 Up To Speed
Upgrades That’ll Keep You Humming Along
87 Download Manager Matchup
Get Your Files In A Flash
92 Piriform CCleaner 3.10
GiMeSpace Desktop Extender 3D
93 Bitdefender Internet Security 2012
94 Software Tips & Projects
Windows 7 Consoles Made Fun
Digital Living
96 At Your Leisure
PC & Console Games & Gear
102 A Whole New Game
Indie Game Development Explodes
On Multiple Platforms
What’s Cooking 96
106 Technically Speaking
An Interview With
Dr. James Hwang Of Enermax
Back Door
110 Q&A With Paul Jones
Patriot Memory’s CEO Brings The Heat
Infinite Loops
Strange stats and other oddball items from Gotcha.
computing’s periphery 95
Here it is.
Customer Service To make a payment Hours Authorization For Reprints Subscription Renewals
(For questions about your Computer Power User Mon. - Fri.: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (CST) Toll Free: [phone] Toll Free:[phone]
subscription or to place an P.O. Box 85673 Online Customer Service & Fax: [phone] Fax: [phone]
order or change an address.) Lincoln, NE 68501-9507 Subscription Center www.cpumag.com
[e-mail] www.cpumag.com Editorial Staff
Toll Free:[phone] General inquiries [e-mail] Advertising Staff
Fax: [phone] Computer Power User Web Services Fax: [phone] Toll Free:[phone]
P.O. Box 82545 (For questions about 131 W. Grand Drive Fax: [phone]
Lincoln, NE 68501-9507 our Web site.) Lincoln, NE 68521 131 W. Grand Drive
[e-mail] Lincoln, NE 68521
[phone]
COMPILEDBYBLAINE FLAMIG
Zumreed X2
Hybrid Headphones
Do Double Duty
So, you can’t decide whether you want to
bump the new The Gaslight Anthem album
over speakers or keep the musical magic
all to yourself via headphones. With the
X2 Hybrid cans (about $160) from Japan’s
Zumreed, you don’t have to choose. With a
flick of a switch, these headphones let you
Sony Welcomes New Vaio To The Nest move back and forth between speaker and
headphone functionality. The X2 Hybrid’s
Sony’s Vaio S laptop series (starting at $799.99) welcomed a new member to stereo speakers power on 40mm drivers and
the family recently with the 15.5-inch SE, a full-HD supporting model with provide four hours operating life after roughly
1-inch profile, support for up to 2nd Gen Intel Core i7 processors, dedicated an hour’s worth of charging via USB port.
numeric keypad, and Blu-ray Disc drive option. The SE joins the similarly The cans, meanwhile, offer 104dB sensitiv-
equipped 13.3-inch SA. Both models offer AMD Radeon Hybrid graphics ity, 20Hz to 20Hz frequen-
with up to 1GB VRAM and an optional sheet battery that doubles battery life cy response, 32 ohm
(up to 14 hours). Sony also gifted the Vaio SB with a new red color option, impedance, and an
while the Vaio F and Vaio L models now support 2nd Gen Intel Core i7 integrated in-line
CPUs and preinstall Sony Imagination Studio Multimedia Edition software controller. Red,
that includes Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, Sound Forge Audio Studio, white, and black
and ACID Music Studio (a $200 value). The Vaio E (starting at $469.99) and color options are
Vaio C (starting at $729.99), meanwhile, now offer support for Intel 2nd Gen available for the
■
Core i5 and Core i7 processors, respectively. Finally, the Vaio Y (starting at choosing.
■
$499.99) now comes with a black exterior option.
WATCHING THE CHIPS FALL
CPU Released Original Price Company Pricing* Online Retail Price*
Here is the pricing
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 12/7/2010 $265** $205** $189.99
information for AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 4/27/2010 $295** $185** $169.99
various AMD and AMD FX-8150 Black Edition Eight-Core 10/12/2011 $245** $245** $279.99
AMD FX-8120 Black Edition Eight-Core 10/12/2011 $205** $205** $219.99
Intel CPUs.
AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition 5/3/2011 $185** $185** $169.99
AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition 1/4/2011 $195** $175** $159.99
AMD FX-6100 Black Edition Six-Core 10/12/2011 $165** $165** $189.99
AMD A8-3850 Quad-Core 7/3/2011 $135** $135** $139.99
AMD A6-3650 Quad-Core 7/3/2011 $115** $115** $119.99
AMD FX-4100 Black Edition Quad-Core 10/12/2011 $115** $115** $129.99
Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition 2/14/2011 $999** $999** $1,049.99
Intel Core i7-2600K 1/9/2011 $317** $317** $314.99
Intel Core i7-2600 1/9/2011 $294** $294** $299.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 1/9/2011 $216** $216** $219.99
Intel Core i5-2500 1/9/2011 $205** $205** $209.99
Intel Core i5-2400 1/9/2011 $184** $184** $189.99
* As of October 2011
Intel Core i5-2320 9/4/2011 $177** $177** $189.99
** Manufacturer’s Intel Core i5-2310 5/22/2011 $177** $177** $189.99
estimated price
Intel Core i3-2130 9/4/2011 $138** $138** $149.99
per 1,000
Intel Core i3-2120 2/20/2011 $138** $138** $139.99
CPU / December 2011 9
Corsair Brings Liquid Cooling To The Masses
As Corsair’s Ruben Mookerjee aptly states, the company’s “Hydro Series helped revolutionize
the liquid CPU cooling industry by providing the power of liquid cooling in self-contained,
maintenance-free systems.” To that end, Corsair is continuing the revolution via its new
Hydro Series H40 ($59.99), an entry-level, self-contained, closed-loop unit
aimed at mainstream users. Or, as Corsair states, “If you’re not trying to
break overclocking records and you’re just looking for simple and reliable
cooling for your gaming rig, take a look at the H40.” For more experienced
users who have a 120mm fan or two in their personal stock, Corsair also
released the Hydro Series H70 Core ($89.99), which essentially amounts to
■
the Hydro Series H70 but without the included fans.
H a r d w a r e M o l e
HP Holds Firm;
Lenovo Moves
Up Global PC
A Titan Is Born
Shipment Ranks
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is calling upon Cray to upgrade
Move over Dell. Lenovo is the department’s Jaguar supercomputer, currently the world’s third fastest, as part of a recent
now the world’s second-leading $97 million contract awarded to Cray. The new system will be dubbed Titan and will increase
manufacturer where global Jaguar’s current capability of “2.3 million billion calculations per second,” or petaflops, to a
PC shipments are concerned peak speed reaching between 10 petaflops and 20 petaflops. At Titan’s heart will be new AMD
after securing roughly a 13.5% Opteron CPUs (codename Interlagos) that let Titan move from using two six-core CPUs per
share of the global PC market node to one 16-core CPU per node, and roughly 1,000 Nvidia Tesla 20-series GPUs. Titan,
for Q3 2011. Gartner and IDC expected for completion in 2012 and ready for use in early 2013, will sport 299,008 cores
put Lenovo’s growth at 25.2% and 600TB memory. Thom Mason, ORNL director, stated “Titan will allow for significantly
and 36.1%, respectively. Both greater realism in models and simulations and the resulting scientific breakthroughs and
analysts rank Lenovo behind technological innovations will provide the return on this national investment. Discoveries that
■
HP’s roughly 18% global take weeks even on a system as powerful as Jaguar might take days on Titan.”
market share. Surprisingly,
HP experienced 5.3% growth Ultrabook Crush Aside, Intel Still Cares Deeply For PCs
for the quarter despite hinting
in late summer that it might Intel still loves PCs, so stated CEO Paul Otellini at an industry conference in mid-October
sell or spin off its PC business, while simultaneously talking up ultrabooks’ ability to meet consumer and business needs.
an announcement many felt Reportedly, Otellini said PCs currently “are taken for granted to some extent because they
would bolster Dell’s business. are so useful,” adding their evolution has been stunted somewhat in the last few years. Enter
Overall, global PC shipments ultrabooks, the thin, lightweight laptops with touchscreen abilities that Intel is heavily
for 3Q 2011 reached roughly 92 pushing. While Otellini reportedly acknowledged that “ultra-thin today has an ultra-high
million (3.2% growth, Gartner; premium,” the hope is that a $300 million Ultrabook Fund that Intel announced in August
3.6%, IDC), although growth will help bring ultrabook costs down “much faster than we would have seen otherwise.”
fell short of Gartner and IDC’s Intel is expected to release its ultrabook model next year, possibly with Windows 8, which
projections. Acer and Asus round is also due for release in 2012. Otellini stated
out the global top 5, although Intel believes “Windows 8 on Intel architecture,
Acer experienced a significant particularly in ultrabook, will give you the
decrease in growth (23.2%, ultimate experience.” Among ultrabooks now
Gartner; 20.6%, IDC), while available are Asus’ new and gorgeous brushed-
Asus’ growth topped 30%, aluminum Zenbook UX21 (11.6 inch, $999) and
■ ■
according to IDC. UX31 (13.3 inch, $1,099).
10 December 2011 / www.computerpoweruser.com