As we have talked about several times in recent weeks, in the month of April Microsoft plans to release to all users who now use Windows 10, the expected by many Creators Update, which, as it has been speculated for some time, will come full of new features.
A good part of these have been already revealed thanks to the users participating in the Insider program of the firm and have already been commented, although one of the latest to arrive at the mentioned program is precisely one of the more interesting new features to a good part of the community. Microsoft has been aware that its latest version of Windows is already preferred by most PC gamers around the world, and they wanted to go a step further.
A new year has just begun that will undoubtedly be plagued with technological developments, new releases and countless applications that we’ll try to keep you updated of at all times. We will talk about many different categories, but, inevitably, one of the most important sections will be dedicated to the privacy and security of computers and antivirus.
With the arrival of a new year, cyber criminals will try to “surprise” us with new ways of accessing our data either through the various forms of malware that you can find today or through some new technologies. However, to fight against all this, the different companies specialized in everything computer security related try to keep our PCs updated, in order to stay one step ahead of these computer criminals, something that is extremely difficult.
With its Apache Pro GE72VR, MSI is introducing another new gaming notebook outfitted with the newest hardware to its lineup. Inside we find a current generation Intel Core i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 16 GBs of RAM and a lot of storage space. This configuration is sure to guarantee high FPS and a smooth gaming experience. The gaming happens on a 17,3” Full-HD display and the SteelSeries keyboard with its programmable backlighting which is typical for MSI.
Price-wise, the MSI Apace Pro GE72VR plays in the under-1500$-league.
Display
This MSI gaming notebook sports a large 17,3” display with Anti-Glare coating and True-Color-Technology. The Wide-View-Panel also allows for very good viewing angles. It offers a 1920 x 1080 pixel (Full HD) resolution and an average brightness of 244cm/m2.
Tesoro, who have established themselves as a manufacturer of gaming-peripherals wants to break the Gaming-Chair market. Their debut offering carries the name Zone Balance, is designed like racing car seats and tries to appeal to the gaming crowd with its seat comfort and low price of 220$. We test this new piece of gaming furniture in our lab and tell you if Tesoro has put out a real bargain.
It is now two years ago that racing car styled office chairs have marketed towards gamers have become a trend. A trend which carries on till this day. The market surveys confirmed that these chairs outfitted with integrated arm and body support are ideal not only for your posture while gaming, but also make a great and comfortable chair for everyday office use.
With its new Leadr, Roccat is launching its attack on the wireless sector. To aid it in that cause, it has been armed with the brand new Owl-Eye sensor that sports a whopping 12.000 DPI resolution as well as a lift-off sensor. The Hamburg based company is entering the 2,4 GHz game pretty late and thus has to compete with products like the Razer Mamba and the Logitech G900. But they have some aces up their sleeve in the form of Shark-Fins and X-Celerator-throttles. The Roccat Leadr in its first hands-on review. By Benjamin Kratsch.
Design wise, the Roccat Leadr borrows from the Tyon and brings with it all of the Tyons strengths: Good ergonomics, decent size, and a whole load of features. It offers an impressive 14 buttons, among which is the iconic shark fin, the “Hamburger, the X-Celerator thumb switch, and the thumb button named “Easyshift-Plus”. Roccat are staying true to their “more is more” philosophy with this one and keep including lots of buttons and controls on their mice whereas Logitech, for example, stripped down their G900 to only six buttons.
We were not able to have too many sessions with the Leadr but we found that Battlefield 4 fans will almost certainly be excited about the return of the X-Celerator as an alternative method for flying planes and helicopters. This feature is also available for controlling gun on tanks in Battlefield 1 while driving. It can also be used for switching between ducking and crawling without having to play finger-twister on your keyboard. If you want to make reloading feel more tactile and want to be less reliant on your keyboard you can also assign that task to the X-Celerator switch. You have to be careful though because if you simply let the switch snap back to the middle position it is likely the also trigger whichever command you assigned to the other direction.
At this year’s CES in Las Vegas, Asus introduced the GL553V, a 15,6” entry-level gaming notebook. Inside it sports a lot of current technologies including the Nvidia GTX 1050 and the new Kaby Lake generation Intel Core i7 processors. Find out what this little guy can do in our in-depth review of the ROG Strix model.
What’s Inside?
With the ROG Strix GL553VD, Asus is specifically targeting those users who don’t want to spend 2.000$ or more on a gaming laptop. This gaming laptop has only recently been introduced at the CES in Las Vegas and our test configuration comes in at 1.299$. For those who have a little less cash at their disposal, a base model for 1,099$ is also on offer.
Computers and mobile devices need two main types of memory in order to operate correctly and to store the data that they work with. These two types of memory are known as RAM and ROM, and we are going to analyze in detail each of their differences and in what way each one stands out.
RAM
The first one is RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory, and as its name indicates, constantly changes its content. This is usually the second component with most memory on our device, after the hard discs or SSD, followed by the graphics cards. RAM is used to store the programs and data that the CPU is using in real time, hence the term ‘Random Access Memory’.
Two months ago we explained how to compress files, particularly how compression works for several files, including images. This is something that’s been gaining importance in the last years, especially in big companies like Google or Facebook, since images just keep getting larger, and they are doing it at a faster pace than any company’s servers and hard drives, so compressing is a must.
The best options to compress your photos
It’s common to rely on websites to perform these functions, but if we don’t have a fast internet connection the process can be too slow. We also have Windows’ Paint or Photos, which compress the file of an image 20% if we save them, and in Paint we can even edit their size. The problem is that they barely have any customization options.
Many, many times in this website have we talk about power supplies and each time, we have mention rails as something common without going to deep about them. Well, that ends with this article in which we are going to explain what rails are, how they affect PC performance and if it’s better to choose a power supply with a single and powerful rail or one with several.
In this article we’ll try to be as comprehensible as possible for people who don’t have any electronic or electrical notions, so we warn you if you do have this knowledge don’t be alarmed by seeing how rough this explanations are, since our aim is for this to be completely understandable for every user, having in mind that the purpose is to help choosing which option is more convenient whether a single rail or a multi rail power supply.
What are power supply rails?
First of all, let’s explain what a rail is. Rails are the channels through which the power supply feeds electricity to all the components in our computer. Generally we just talk about +12 V rails since these have the bigger impact in the computer but power supplies have also rails in the +3,3V y +5V channels of course.
Single Rail vs Multi Rail
Each rail of the power supply has an overcurrent protection (OCP) and is limited to one OCP per rail, this way if our power supply relies on just one +12 V rail, it will have one OCP as well. This means that everything we plug into the power supply will have the same rail and therefore just a single protection, so if any problem were to happen and the power supply protection fails, every component connected would be at risk.
In the other hand we have a multi rail power supply, which will have an OCP in each rail. So, not only can we divide the current by components (for example, on one rail the motherboard and processor, video card in another, and in a different rail hard drives) but also if something fails not every component will suffer the consequences, just the ones connected to that rail.
Pros and Cons
We’ll start by saying that you should not be alarmed; modern power supplies have lots of safeguards no matter how many rails they have. The first advantage of having a +12 V single rail power supply is that you will be able to feed more alternating current, and as you know, specially video cards need a minimum of intensity to work. For example a GTX 1080 NVIDIA graphic card needs a +12 V rail not only to provide certain power but also to supply a minimum of 30 amps of intensity.
Today Intel is launching its new line of desktop Core processors – the so called “7th generation” Kaby Lake line. As we have previously mentioned, the innovations in CPU technology offered by these new chips are pretty limited, the major innovation is their increased operating frequency.
The Core i5 and Core i7 Kaby Lake range is composed of:
i7-7700K : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 4.2-4.5 GHz, 91W, 339$
i7-6700K : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 4.0-4.2 GHz, 91W, 339$
i5-7600K : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.8-4.2 GHz, 91W, 242$
i5-6600K : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.5-3.9 GHz, 91W, 242$
i7-7700 : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 3.6-4.2 GHz, 65W, 303$
i7-6700 : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 3.4-4.0 GHz, 65W, 303$
i5-7600 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.5-4.1 GHz, 65W, 213$
i5-6600 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.3-3.9 GHz, 65W, 213$
i5-7500 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.4-3.8 GHz, 65W, 192$
i5-6500 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.2-3.6 GHz, 65W, 192$
i5-7400 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.0-3.5 GHz, 65W, 182$
i5-6400 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 2.7-3.3 GHz, 65W, 182$
Compared to the previous line of processors, we can see an increase in operating frequency of between 200 and 300 MHz thanks to the “14nm+” technology Intel has incorporated into the new chips and all for the same price as the older generation. For all practical purposes however, due to the novelty factor and the absence of non-official suppliers, we can expect a temporarily increased retail price. It should be noted that these processors officially support DDR4-2400 RAM whereas the previous generation is limited to DDR4-2133, except when overclocking with the Z chipset – in which case they easily exceed DDR4-3000.
