HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016
THE FUTUREFUTUR OF VR COMPUTEX 2016 THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN THE NEW PC HARDWARE STRAIGHT FROM THE SHOW FLOOR 4K GAMING WHAT YOU REALISTICALLY NEED FOR 60 FPS 4K GPU GAMING WAR EVERYONE WINS
HOW AMD AND NVIDIA ARE STREAMING PCS DOMINATING OPPOSITE HOW TO BUILD A STREAMING PC FOR ONLY $500! ENDS OF THE MARKET
NUC ROUNDUP THEY MAY BE SMALL, BUT THE NEW GENERATION NUCS ARE SURPRISINGLY POWERFUL
PRE-BUI T NEW G US! 4K GAMING PC NVIDIA'S NEW RANGE OF 4K GAMING IS AR EALITY, BUT CARDS BENCHMARKEDH D POWER COMES AT A COST AND REVIEWEDE
HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016
Computex 2016 20 Thelatestandgreatestdirectfromtheshowfloor
21 Aorus | 22 Asrock | 24 Corsair | 26 Coolermaster | 28 MSI | 30 In W 34 Asus | 36 Gigabyte | 38 Roccat/Fractal/FSP | 39 OCZ/Crucial | 40
Nvidia 1080 Launch 42 Nvidia dominates the enthusiast market
8 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 12 52 56 64
Hotware Case Modding Streaming PC 4K Gaming The most drool-worthy Stuart Tonks talks case How to build a streaming PC What you really need for 60+ products on show modding in Australia for around $500 FPS 4K gaming 74 52 56 50
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VR Peripherals Case Mod gallery Interviews Industry Update VR is now a reality but The greatest and most We talk to MSI’s cooling guru VR and 4K are where it’s at control is still an issue extreme case mods and Supremacy Gaming HARDWARE & TECH BUYER’S GUIDES
66 SSDs 82 Pre-Built PCs 54 Graphics Cards
PC PowerPlay 9 Ride the Whirlwind
EDITORIAL Holy mother of god, what a month it’s been in the lead-up EDITOR Daniel Wilks to this year’s PCPP Tech Special. Not only did I fly to Austin for [email protected] the GeForce GTX 1080 launch, I then flew to Macau for AMD’s GROUP ART DIRECTOR Malcolm Campbell RX400 series launch, then direct to Computex for four days of [email protected] back to back meetings. Throw in a case of a bizarre and rather TECH EDITOR Bennett Ring [email protected] serious flu that struck the entire team down, and it’s been an SPACE LORD Ben Mansill epic magazine to put together. [email protected] The good news is that there’s plenty of cool info in here, INTERN Lewis Vaughan especially regarding our Computex visit and the new GeForce WORK EXPERIENCE Angus Renton GTX 1080 card from Nvidia. If there’s one thing I noticed on all of these field trips, it’s that Virtual Reality has become the CONTRIBUTORS driving force of the gaming hardware industry in 2016. With two James Cottee, Alex Mann, Terrence Jarrad, Meghann O’Neill, successful VR kits on the market, hardware makers can now see Theo, Morte, Nathan Lawrence, Dan Staines, Dave Kozicki, Joab Gilroy, Katie Williams, Heidi Kemps, Patrick Stafford, a v alid reason for gamers to upgrade, and they’re all jumping Ashley McKinnon, John Robertson, Tavish Forrest aboard the VR train. All of the major manufacturers believe VR ADVERTISING is going to be massive, and when people that smart believe it, GROUP NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER you know they’re onto something. TECH & GAMING Nvidia gave us a stack of info about their new products, yet Cameron Ferris AMD remained extremely tight-lipped at Computex. Thankfully [email protected] the AMD embargo lifted just before this magazine hits shelves, (+16 2) 02 9901 6348 but not in time for us to get hardware samples to test out their M: 0405 356 419 new range. Rest assured, we’ll be doing a full roundup in the ACCOUNT MANAGER next issue of PC PowerPlay. Sean Fletcher If you’re still not a believer in VR, just know that the industry [email protected] is, and we think they’ve got good reason. Today’s kits are (+16 2) 02 9901 6367 brilliant, but they’re still relatively primitive – hints of what’s M: 0402 585 124 on the way next year have us tantalised. Don’t diss it until you ADVERTISING TRAFFIC try, especially with one of the second generation of games on Alison Begg the way. [email protected] In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this year’s PC PowerPlay 02 9901 6346 Tech Special, as it’s taken a monumental effort by the team to PRODUCTION MANAGER Alison Begg pull together after so many product launches in such a short CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Carole Jones period of time. Meanwhile, we’re taking a few days off to enjoy ying with some of this tech, instead of just testing it! SUBSCRIPTIONS Peace out, www.mymagazines.com.au TOLL FREE 1300 361 146 Locked Bag 3355, St Leonards NSW 1590 Bennett “GunSlingerAUS” Ring Tech Editor COVER DISC ENQUIRIES: [email protected] 02 9901 6100
Building A, Level 6 207 Pacific Highway St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Gardiner COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Bruce Duncan
PC PowerPlay is published by nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN: 128 805 970, Building A, Level 6, 207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 © 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed by Bluestar WEB Sydney, Distributed in Australia by Gordon & Gotch. ISSN 1326-5644. The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. All material submitted is at the owner’s risk and, while every care will be taken nextmedia does not accept liability for loss or damage.
Privacy Policy: We value the integrity of your personal information. If you provide personal information through your participation in any competitions, surveys or offers featured in this issue of PC PowerPlay, this will be used to provide the products or services that you have requested and to improve the content of our magazines. Your details may be provided to third parties who assist us in this purpose. In the event of organisations providing prizes or offers to our readers, we may pass your details on to them. From time to time, we may use the information you provide us to inform you of other products, services and events our company has to offer. We may also give your information to other organisations which may use it to inform you about their products, services and events, unless you tell us not to do so. You are welcome 10 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 to access the information that we hold about you by getting in touch with our privacy officer, who can be contacted at nextmedia, Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590
COMPUTEX Hotware
Every year Computex is filled with the latest and greatest PC gear from around the world. While everything at the world’s biggest PC trade show is exciting, many of the products on display are iterations on the same new technology – last year it was motherboards for the new Skylake chipset, and this year the trend has understandably been towards videocards and VR. Even with the prevailing trends there are some products that really stand out from the crowd as being drool- worthy. These are but some of the products (or ideas) that captured our attention at Computex 2016.
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01 InWinAurorafans ^ƏƈƅƆë j Ï #ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë 9 zƈ www.inwin-style.com Ɔ Ƈ ƏƆôƐ ƐƆ ƌƐ ƆƔƅƈƐƈƐƈƈƐƆ ƓƏƋƗè ƄƑƐ 9 zƈ ƑƅƆƗƓƐƅƑƋƗ ƄƆ ƐƆ ƌƏƐƆƐ Ƈ ƋƑƐƈ ƓƆôƒƆƆƆƈ Ƌ ƐƈƌƆê jƆ ƑƏƏ Ƈ ƈƐƆƋƇƈôƐƐƐƌƈƗ ƄƋƓƈ ƈƐô ơƾƠƌƌè ƤƠƠéƾƠƠƠ`^LƍƈƆƏè ƄƑƐ ƐƆ Ɠƕ ƈƐô ƅƆƅƐƆƗ ƗƅƐƏƋƋƆƗƈ ƆƈƑê`ƐƆƏƐƒƈƐƑƆƆƍƏƐƆƇ ƅƐƏƋƋƆƏèƐƆƑƏƏƇƅƄƆƗƈƕƅƈƆƗ 02 ƐƆƐƆƏƆƈƍƑƐƅƄƆƑƆƗƇƏƌƑƋƐƈƍƋƆ ƇêjƆƗƈƕƅƈƈƅƄƋƆƇƆƐƑƏƆG&# ƇƏƆƔƐƏƋƈƐƈƗƐƆƓƋƆƐƈƅƄƆ ƅƐƏƋƋƆƗ ƒƈ ƓƈƏƆƋƆ ƏƆƌƐƆê
02 EVGA DG-87 ^ƏƈƅƆëƾÖÖêÖÖÏ#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë&y1 www.evga.com &y1ƈƍƏƌƐƈƐƆƆƓ#1éƤƏƆƇ ƅƆƄƆƈƗƆƈƆƗƐƆƑƋƐƈƌƐƆƌƈ ƍƋƐƇƏƌƗƑƆƐƐƆƐƑƏƆƇƐƆƈƏƇƋƓ ƗƆƈæƆƄƋƈƈƐƐƌƏƆƆƇƇƈƅƈƆƐƋƕƅƋ ƌƑƋƐƈƍƋƆƏƍƈƅƅƏƗçƄƑƐƓƆƐƈƊƈƐƈƄƆƐƐƆƏ ƑƈƐƆƗƐƄƆƈƋƑƆƏƌ^ ƐƊƐƐƆ ƏƈƆƐƐƈƇƐƆƗƆƈênƋƈƊƆƌƐƅƆè ƐƆƇƏƐƇƐƆ#1éƤƈƓƐƓƑƋƗƏƌƋƋƕ ƄƆƈƗƆèƆƄƋƈƈƐƐƈƐƇƋƑƈƐƓƋƋê jƆƗƆƈƋƊƌƏƆƋƈƊƆƄƏƓƗèƐ ƐƗƏƗ^ èƌƊƈƈƐƈƗƆƋƅƆƇƏƈ ƆƗyƆƐƑƍƏƿƊjyƌƈƏƈê
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08 Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 ^ƏƈƅƆëj Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë Ɔ_ƑƈƆƐ www.bequiet.com/en ƆƐƊƓƇèƅƋƆƏƗ^dnƌƑƇƅƐƑƏƆƏè Ɔ_ƑƈƆƐ 6ƏƆƅƆƐƋƕƌƒƆƗƈƐƐƆƅƆƌƏƊƆƐêjƆƇƋƈƍƇƐƆ ƆƓ#ƏƊ ƆƏƆƈƐƆ^ƏÖƠƠèƋƒƆƋƕèƑƗƆƏƐƐƆƗ ƌƈƗéƈƖƆƗƐƓƆƏƓƈƐƑƆƗƆƏƆƆƇƌƗƑƋƏƈƐƕêjƆƄƆ ƑƈƐƅƌƆƓƈƐƐƆƌƍƆƏƆƗƋƈƗƆƍƆƋèƓƈƏƆƋƆ ƅƏƆƏƇƏ_ƈƐƗƏƗƍƆƗƌƆG&#ƈƋƋƑƌƈƐƈê jƐôƊƈƗƇƅƋêzƐôƏƆƋƋƕƅƋƄƑƐƐƆƅƆƈƓ ƑƆƏƅƌƗƐƆƈƐƆƏƈƏêjƆƌƄƐƏƕƅƄƆƌƒƆƗƑƍ ƗƗƓƐƅƅƌƌƗƐƆƕƈƖƆƇƄƏƗèƏƆƒƆƏƆƗƏƆƒ ƏƆƌƒƆƗƆƐƈƏƆƋƕƇƏƑƆƐƆƐƄƆƅê&ƅƗƏƈƒƆƈƍƋƅƆ ƈƈƗƈƒƈƗƑƋƅƆƐƐƅƄƆƍƋƅƆƗƕƓƆƏƆêMƆƐê
14 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
COMPU
11 Streacom DB4 13 Ventus Z Mouse ^ƏƈƅƆëj Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏëdƐƆƅƌ ^ƏƈƅƆëǀÖêÖÖnd#Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏëjƐƆdƍƏƐ www.steacom.com www.ttesports.com jƆƏƆƏƆƋƐƇƐƑƈƅƆƐƆƌƏƊƆƐƄƑƐ jƐƆdƍƏƐƒƆƄƆƆƅƏƊƈƑƐƌƆ ƏƆƋƋƕ ƋƈƗ ƍƆ ƇƏƑƏƌƆƕèƐƆƋƐƆƐƇƋƆƅƆƇƏƌdƐƆƅƌ ƋƐƆƋƕèƗƐƆyƆƐƑ ƌƈƌƑƆ ƗƆóƐ ƋƊ Ɛ Ƅ ƐƊƆƐƆƅƊƆêjƆ# ƿƈƐƑƈƆƏƅƑƄƆƇ ƆƔƅƆƍƐƈêjƆƌƑƆƑƆƌƆƗƆƈ ƆƋƆƌƆƐ ƇƏƌ Ɛ ƆƔƐƏƑƗƆƗƋƑƌƈƈƑƌƌƈƈƌƋƈƐƇƇƆƐƐƗêƐ ƆƔƅƆƋƋƆƐGƆƒƆƋơƠLƆƏƈƆƇƌƈƅƆèƓƈƐ ƋƏƆ ƆƕƅƌƄ ƾÕƔƾÕƔƾƣƅƌèƐƆƅƆƈƋƕƑƈƐƄƋƆƇƏƌƈƈé9j ƏƆƗƆƈƆƗƐƊƆƆƍƕƑƏƗƅƋ Ɨ ƓƆƐ ƇƏƆƆ ƗƑƏƈ ƌƄèƄƑƐƐƊƐƐƆƅƋƆƒƆƏƓƕƐƐƐƆƅƆ ƌƈêƈƗƆƇƏƌƐƈƏƐƆƏƓƆƋƅƌƆ ƇƆƐƑƏƆè ƐƆ yƆƐƑ ƌƑƐƆƐƍƈƍƆƗƐƆƌƐƆƏƄƏƗèƐƆƏƆ ƋƇƆƐƑƏƆƌƆƏƆƋƋƕƈƅƆƏƗƓƏƆèƈƅƋƑƗƈƒ ƈƐƈƋƋƌƏƆƐƆƑƏƌƈƈƗƆƐƇƈƐƋƋƐƆ #MdÖǀƠƠƋƆƏƆƏƅƍƄƋƆƇƑƍƐơơèƠƠƠ#^9ƒƈ ƅƌƍƆƐƕƑƅƑƋƗƓƐƇƏƅƌƍƅƐèƗ ƇƐƓƏƆƅƅƆƋƆƏƐƈèRƌƏƓƈƐƅƆèƆƓƌƐƐƆƅƐƈ ƋƊƈ Ɨ ƋƋ ƄƑƐ ƈƋƆƐ 6j^ ê ƐƐƇƆƆƋƌƆƓƆƏƆƄƆƐƓƆƆƏƈƈƗƗƏƑƄƄƆƏƈƆƗƑƏƇƅƆè ƍƏƏƌƌƄƋƆ ƌƅƏè ƄƏƗ ƌƆƌƏƕ Ɨ ƌƏƆê 12 Asus Rog Claymore ^ƏƈƅƆëj Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏëƑ 14 Cryorig Ola rog.asus.com ^ƏƈƅƆëj Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë ƏƕƏƈ zƆƒƆôƐƄƆƆƍƏƐƈƅƑƋƏƇƇƐƆƋƐƅƑƍƋƆ www.cryorig.com ƇƑƊƆƕƄƏƗƓƆôƒƆƏƆƒƈƆƓƆƗèƄƑƐƐƆ` zƈƐƋƑƆƏƌ^ ƄƆƅƌƈƌƏƆƗƌƏƆƅƌƌèƈƐ ƋƕƌƏƆƌƕƅƆƐƐêƈƗƆƇƏƌƒƈƋƋƇ ƌƊƆƆƆƐƐƅƆƌƑƇƅƐƑƏƆƏƓƑƋƗƐƏƐƗƆƈƈ ƐƆƇƆƐƑƏƆƕƑôƗƓƐƇƏƌƈƆƗƌƆƅƈƅƋ ƅƆƐƐƅƆƔƈƐƅƌƇƏƐƄƋƕƈƐƐƆƒƈƏƌƆƐêjƆ ƌƈƊƆƕƄƏƗ ƆƏƏƕLƊƆƕæ`ƆƗè ƋƑƆè RƋƈƐƈƇƄƆƑƐƕƅƕƋƈƗƏƈƅƋƅƆƓƈƐƆƈƐƆƏ ƏƓƗ ƋƅƊçèƇƑƋƋ`1 ƋƈƐƈƗMéEƆƕ ƓƗƏƋƑƌƈƈƑƌƇƈƈæƇƏƑƏƌƆƕƓƆƍƏƆƇƆƏƐƆ ƏƋƋƒƆƏƐƆƅèƐƆ ƋƕƌƏƆƐƓƏƆƋƋƕƆƐƐƏƈƅƊ ƓƗèƐƆƋƑƌƈƈƑƌƋƊƋƈƐƐƋƆƐƌƑƅƋƈƊƆƈ ƈƈƐƄê0ƈƏƐƋƕèƐƆƑƌƄƆƏƍƗƅƄƆƗƆƐƅƆƗ ƆƗƏƄƆƄƈƐƑçƓƈƐƆƑƏƌƐƇƈƐƇƑƋƋƈƖƆƗ ƗƑƆƗƆƍƏƐƆƌƅƏƍƗƏƍƋƅƆƗ ƏƍƈƅƅƏƗƈƇƕƑƓƐƐƌƊƆƈƐƏƍƈƅƍƓƆƏƑƆê ƐƆƋƆƇƐƗƈƗƆƇƐƆƊƆƕƄƏƗêdƆƅƗƋƕè jƆRƋƒƆƍƅƆƄƕƑƐƈƋƈƈƒƆƏƕƆƇƇƈƅƈƆƐƅƋƈê ƐƆ ƋƕƌƏƆƅƄƆƕƅƆƗƐ`ƄƏƗƆƗ ƈƋƆơƿƠƌƌƇƍƑƋƋƈƏƐƏƑƐƆƈƗƆƇƐƆƅƆƗ ƌƐƆƏƄƏƗèƍƏƒƈƗƈƊƆƕƄƏƗƏƐƅƑƐƐƐƆ ƄƋƓƐƆƐƈƏƑƐƐƆƐƍêzƆôƏƆƐƑƏƆƓƓƆƋƋƐƈ ƄƈƗƐƊƆƕƇƏƇƅƐƏƋèƄƐè ^nƗ`L ƓƈƋƋƓƏƊƓƈƐƍƓƆƏƇƑƋƏƍƈƅƅƏƗèƄƑƐƈƐƓƈƋƋƗƆƇƈƈƐƆƋƕ ƒƆƏƅƋƅƊƈƗƐƆƋƈƊƆêjƐôƍƏƆƐƐƕƏƗê ƌƊƆƇƏƐƑƈƗƎƑƈƆƐ6j^ ƆƅƋƑƏƆê
16 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
COMPUTEX Hotware
21 HP Omen X ^ƏƈƅƆëj Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë6ƆƓƋƆƐƐ^ƅƊƏƗ www.hp.com jƆRƌƆƈ^ ƗƆƒƆƋƍƆƗƍƆƅƈƇƈƅƋƋƕƓƈƐy`ƈ ƌƈƗê#ƆƈƆƗƌƑƅƋƈƊƆƍƓƆƏƇƑƋƋƍƐƍƓƈƐƑƐ ƅƏƆƆèƐƆRƌƆƈƌƗƆƐƄƆƓƏƋƈƊƆ ƄƅƊƍƅƊèƆƄƋƈy`ƌƆƏƐƆƉƕƏƌƄƆƗ y`ƓƈƐƑƐƄƆƈƐƆƐƆƏƆƗƐ^ ƄƕƓƈƏƆêjƆƇƈƋ ƍƆƅƇƐƆƌƅƈƆƒƆƐƄƆƆƏƆƋƆƆƗƕƆƐè ƄƑƐ ƈƐ ƓƈƋƋ ƇƆƐƑƏƆ ƏƆƈƣƍƏƅƆƏèƑƍƐƢƾ1Ƅ Ɨ1jÖƤƠƏƍƈƅƅƏƗæƍƏƄƄƋƕ ƑƈƒƋƆƐƐƗƆƊƐƍÖƣƠçêjƆƑƈƐ ƗƿêǀƊê6^ƏƆƐƋƆƈƐƆƈƏ ƋêLd9Ɨ ƐƅƄƐƒƆƄƅƊ ƈ ƗƆƒƆƋƍƌƆƐê
s Collectibles: Ultimate Studio ps ƐơƾǀƠnd#Ï#ƈƐƏƈƄƑƐƏë#ƈƆƕ rwars.com ƒƆƐƈƐƗƓƈƐ ƌƍƑƐƆƔ ƐƋƕèƓƅƏƆêƕƓƕèƐƆƆ ƏƆƍƋƈƅƒƆƄƆƆƅƏƆƐƆƗƑƈ ƍƗƗƒƅƆƗƢ#ƅƈè ƅƇƐƆƏƆƍƋƈƅƈƄƆƈƌƗƆƄƕƐƆ ƈƍƏƍƍæƐƆƑƕƓƌƗƆƐƆ ƕƑƅƄƆƑƏƆƗƇƐƆƍƏƆƅƈƈ 19 Ac ê ^ƈƆƅƆ ƋƈƊƆ ƐƆ ƌƆƋƐƕ #ƏƐ yƗƆƏ ^ƏƈƅƆë ƍ www. ƈƒƆƈ ƕƆ ƋƊƈ ƇƏ ƍ Ƌƕ ƗƆƐƑƋƗƉƑƐƊƈ ƐƆê9Ƈ ^ƋƑƈƒƆƏƕƌƑƅƄƑ ƐƐƆè ƇƆƐƑƏƆƐƐƌƊƆƈƐ ƈƍ ƏƆƋƊƈƇƏƇƑƅƐƈ ƇƆƐƑƏƆǀêǀÿƅƏƆƆè ǀƌƆƍƈƔƆƋƇƏƐƇƅ ƅƌƆƏêjƐƍƈƐƋƋƇ ǀƠƠƠƌƄƐƐƆƏƕêjƆ 22 ƑƊƓƐƐƆƌƌƆ ƅƆƐƗƕƏƌƏƆ ƐƆ ƋƈƇƆƍ ƑƋƗ ƄƆ ƈ
20 da Vinci Mini 3 ^ƏƈƅƆëƾÕÖnd#Ï#ƈƐƏ us.xyzprinting.com zƈƆƏƇƐƆ ƆƐ ƾƠơÕèƐƆƗyƈƅƈLƈƈ ƎƑƏƆƋƕƐƐƆƌƌƏƊƆƐêƒƈƋƄƋƆƈƒƏƈƆƐƕƇƅƋƑƏè ƐƆLƈƈƌƆƑƏƆơǀêƣƔơƢêƾƔơƿêƢÿèƄƑƐƢƠüƌƋƋƆƏ ƐƐƆƍƏƆƒƈƑƗyƈƅƈƌƗƆƋèƐƆƗyƈƅƈCƏêƄƑƐƇƇƆƏ ƐƆƌƆƌƑƐƇƄƑƈƋƗƍƅƆǀêÖƔǀêÖƔǀêÖÿêjƆƍƏƈƐƆƏ ƏƆƎƑƈƏƆƅƋƈƄƏƐƈƏƆƌƄƋƕèƍƏƐƆƅƐƈƒƆƅƆ ƐƊƆƆƍƆƒƆƏƕƐƈƇƆƗƐƆƏƆƏƆƑƆƑƌƄƆƏƇ Ƣ# ƍƏƈƐƈƍƐƐƆƏƒƈƋƄƋƆƐƏƑƐƆ ƍƏƈƐƈƓƆƄƈƐƆ ƐƐƏƐƌƊƈƏƈƐƇƇƐƆƄƐê9ƇƕƑôƏƆƋƊƈƐƅƏƆƐƆè ƋƏƆƋƆƆƗ ƌƊƆƏƇƐƓƏƆƗƆƈƆƗƐ ƆƐ ƄƆƈƆƏƈƐƢ#ƌƗƆƋƋƈê
18 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
PCPP AT COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2016 BENNETT RING brings you the latest news direct from the show floor
s the world’s largest PC component along with 4GB or 8GB of memory and Broadwell-E high-end CPU. We should Aconference, Computex is a massive twin USB 3.0 ports. Which basically remind you that the X99 chipset was collection of huge halls jam-packed equates to any mid-range system on first released back in mid-2014, so it’s to the ceiling with the very latest in the planet. not exactly new technology, but there hardware. The theme this year was In terms of actual new products, have been subtle changes that make the impossible to miss, with Virtual Reality the biggie of the show was Nvidia’s latest boards more advanced than their being the focus. From case makers, to new GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080 predecessors. graphics cards creators to motherboard graphics cards, with nearly every GPU Finally, it seemed we couldn’t attend manufacturers, nearly every stand on manufacturer showing off their range. a meeting without the joys or RGB the show had some form of “VR Ready” AMD’s news 400 series of cards were lighting being espoused to us. It appears logo plastered all over the place. nowhere to be seen, which seemed to be that rainbow coloured products, from However, very few of these actually a massive oversight – the official NDA keyboards to motherboards to graphics had approved by Oculus or HTC stamps for these products passes on the 29th cards, are going to be a big deal in the We’d like to – they’re simply claiming that these of June. Why launch one of your biggest coming year. thank Gigabyte components will run today’s VR kits. products just four weeks after Computex After 3 days of back-to-back Motherboards That’s not saying much really, as all – it made very little sense to us. meetings, we think we managed to for sponsoring these kits need are a GTX 970/R9 The other major trend was a plethora cover most of the big ticket items, so our trip to 290 level graphics card, an Intel Core of X99 motherboards, in preparation let’s see what each of the major booths Computex 2016 i5-4590/AMD FX 8350 or better CPU, for Intel’s upcoming release of its had on show.
20 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 1
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y” category of 1. The 14” Aero 14 sports a core i7 w. and a GTX 970M w range of 2. The X7 DT pyg ged paint features a 17” G-Sync display and hough Gigabyte doesn’t like to Overwatch well before the competition. designs, which we’ll be reviewing in an a desktop GTX 980 Tpromote its Aorus brand closely If you’re after something a little upcoming issue of PCPP. This will be 3. The K7 keyboard with its parent company, the Aorus meatier than the Aero 14, the new X7 perfect for taking into the bush for those has a removable laptops were nonetheless hosted on DT trades mobility for power. It’s slightly paint-ball planning sessions, where a numpad the same sprawling conference table thicker at 25.4mm, which is still by no bright orange chassis is a great way to as Gigabyte’s other laptops. The focus means massive. The 17 inch display is get headshotted faster than you can for this year seems to be gaming on the fully G-Sync compatible, and can crank all say “ouch”! Along with laptops, the new go – laptops that have the grunt to run the way up to 120Hz. This requires some K7 keyboard was shown. This has a with decent performance but without serious horsepower though, so Aorus removable numpad which can be placed breaking your back. has included a desktop GeForce GTX 980. on either side, making it perfect for both The highlight of their range had to There’s even an overclockable K-series lefties and righties. be the new Aero 14, which measures i7 inside, while the mechanical keyboard One final feature promoted at the just 19.9mm in depth. Yet Aorus has should make for a comfy experience. Aorus booth is the inclusion of its managed to pack in some powerful And yes, you guessed it, it’s a fully RGB Hardware Live Stream Engine. Packed hardware into this 1.9kg notebook, with keyboard, as expected. This is known as into the X5 and X7 models, this is an the Nvidia GTX 970M delivering most the RGB Fusion keyboard, and features integrated hardware video encoder of the punch to the beautiful 14-inch per-key, fully customisable lighting. card, delivering much higher quality screen, which has a 3K resolution. Despite such meaty specifications, streaming video than software packages There’s also an Intel 6th Gen Core i7 the entire unit only weighs in at 2.3kg, with lower performance overhead. It processor, suggesting this thing will making it surprisingly lightweight for also comes with a one year sub to XSplit chew through batteries with ease. Yet it such a capable gaming machine. This was Gamecaster and Broadcaster, a tasty has a hefty 94.24W hour battery, which the only laptop at the show to win the little inclusion for Twitchers.
PC PowerPlay 21 COMPUTEX 2016
ASROCK
s one of our favourite motherb 1 Amanufacturers, we were a little surprised at ASRock’s focus on min this year. Having said that, its BeeB was one of the best NUC-like PCs w seen. This year the company launch new DeskMini 110, which uses the form factor – the first time we’d ev of this to be honest. Using an Intel chipset, the motherboard measures inches by 5 inches, making it absolu Yet it can still handle i7 CPUs, provi maximum TDP doesn’t exceed 65W USB 3.0 ports (one Type-C) are inclu well as HDMI and DisplayPort, mak capable little HTPC box. Its other focus was on two new motherboards. The first is the X99 which is aimed at the new Broadwe but with a focus on value for mone a price point of US$219 it’ll be one most affordable X99 boards on the but ASRock hasn’t scrimped on fea 12-phase power design compleme triple PCIe slots, all of which are re 1. The X99 Taichi with steel. Dual Ultra M.2 and anot is one of the M.2 slot deliver plenty of high spee most affordable Broadwell-E boards capacity, while dual USB 3.1 ports on the market Type-C and one Type-A) are also in 2. The Fatal1ty A slightly more expensive X99 b X99 Professional adds Creative the new ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Pro Soundblaster at US $259. It seems to have basi Cinema3 Audio identical specs to the Taichi, apart 3. The DeskMini the inclusion of Creative Soundbla 110 uses the Mini- STX form factor Cinema3 Audio.
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22 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
COMPUTEX 2016
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1. The Bulldog new 1080, while Intel’s premium I7- – we’re not sure why, but as soon as should launch 6700K will handle the CPU load. While they are we’ll have one ready for you. within a few months CORSAIR for $2999 pre-built this is a K-series product, we’d be a Designed to go alongside the Bulldog 2. The Lapdog is an little hesitant to overclock it too much is the Lapdog, a lap-based keyboard and enclosure for a full he highlight of last year’s Corsair given the space premium within the mouse unit designed for couch gaming. sized mechanical T keyboard booth was definitely the Bulldog, a Bulldog. While Corsair recommends its Again, this was introduced at last year’s mini-PC designed to fit inside an AV rack H5SF low-profile CPU cooler, the new show, but still hasn’t been released. It’s below your TV with ease. Sadly it still Bulldog can now also fit in many of the been improved upon again, with better hasn’t launched yet, but Corsair did show company’s All-in-One GPU coolers, cable routing. A large 11-inch by 11-inch off version 2.0 this year, and it’s definitely including the HG10 and H55. Corsair mouse pad is included, while the entire changed somewhat. The new version is promising 4K support with this unit sits on memory foam for comfort. doesn’t quite have the squat, doggy- mini-monster, but given our benchmark There’s room for a K70 keyboard, as looking exterior of the original, and has results with a single GTX 1080, gamers well as a tenkey-less keyboard. We grown slightly in size; apparently it no will have to compromise when it comes tried it out for a few minutes and found longer fits inside a standard AV shelf, to detail settings. that while it’s very comfy at first, it’s which is a bit of a shame. Apparently Once this product has launched, also darn heavy – we’re guessing easily Corsair weren’t happy with the thermal Corsair will then release the DIY over four or five kilograms. We’d urge design of the original, so the new version version, which comes with case, Corsair to reconsider the size and bulk should run cooler and quieter, so we’re Gigabyte Z170 motherboard and of the Lapdog, as currently it feels a happy to compromise on space. Corsair’s very own SF600 SFX power little too big. We were initially informed that the supply, which pumps out a healthy Continuing the RGB theme is Corsair’s Bulldog should hit the Australian market 600W of power, more than enough new range of Vengeance XMP 2.0 in the next few months for a price of for today’s low-energy components. DDR4 certified memory, which has LED $2999, but this will be a pre-built rig At just US$399 this seems like an lights across the top of the DRAM. This including a Gigabyte Z170 motherboard, absolute steal. Sadly, just before going doesn’t require any external cables to CPU, GPU, PSU and storage. That’s not to print, we were informed that review control or power, and will work with bad value when you consider the video samples of the Bulldog would not be Corsair’s Link software. We should point card is planned to be Nvidia’s brilliant available in the near future as planned out that they’re extremely tall though,
24 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 34 5
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so you’ll need to work around this size and ML Pro LED use the company’s 1080 with integrated All-in-One water 3. Vengeance when selecting a CPU cooler. Using proprietary magnetic bearing system cooling. This makes for quieter cooling XMP 2.0 DDR4 has built in LEDs Samsung modules, Corsair claims the to deliver speeds of up to 2000 RPM at and better overclocking. Given the better 4. Neutron most expensive variants should hit the very low noise levels. And guess what – cooling, we expected to see extra power XTI SSDs have lightning-fast speed of 4,333MHz. There they’re all equipped with RGB lighting! connectors, but this card sticks with the capacities ranging up to 1920MB will also be a limited edition version Noticing a theme yet? single 8-pin power connector found on 5. called Dominator Platinum Special Arguably the most interesting product ML Pro LED stock GTX 1080s. Due to launch in Q3 of fans use magnetic Edition, finished in Blackout brushed of the booth was the new Rapid Fire this year, pricing hasn’t been announced bearings to increase speed aluminium or chrome. Apparently only range of keyboards. Using a special yet, but expect it to arrive at a premium. and reduce noise 500 kits will be available worldwide, Cherry MX mechanical key, these lower Corsair is known for its amazing 6. The K70 Rapidfire making this a must-have for modders. the key travel to just 1.2mm, instead of power supply units, so we were is excellent Next to this was Corsair’s new range the 1.8mm or so used by other Cherry surprised at the total lack of any new (reviewed issue 252) of Neutron SSDs, the XTi SATA. With the MX keys. Corsair has the exclusive rights models at Computex. But again we 7. The Hydro GFX GeForce GTX 1080 largest having a capacity of 1920GB. It to these keys at the moment, and they didn’t see too many new cases either, is a collaboration might still be using the standard SATA have both plusses and minuses. At first with the highlight being the Carbide between MSI and Corsair 3 controller, but Corsair is claiming gamers will likely make a few mistypes, 400C. It’s basically identical to the 400C, 8. The Carbide read speeds of 560MB/sec, with right as the lack of pressure required makes but now in white – after speaking to 400C is the 400C, speeds of 540MB/sec. It’s powered by it easier to hit multiple keys at once. several importers, it appears that white only white the quad-core Phison controller, and However, once you’re used to the lower apparently doesn’t sell well compared uses SmartFlush and GuaranteedFlush travel, they can increase typing input to black in Australia. It’ll be interesting tech to ensure no data loss during speeds by around 40 to 50%. This will to see how the 400C white does down sudden power downs. be huge for games that require on high under. High performance fans were all the APMs, such as Starcraft. Tucked away at the back of the rage at this year’s show, and Corsair A nice surprise was the new Hydro Corsair booth was a special NDA room, obviously had to show off its own range GFX GeForce GTX 1080, a collaboration but we unfortunately weren’t allowed – as one of the biggest case makers between MSI and Corsair. Following on to see what was inside – perhaps that’s in the world, they know a thing or two from last year’s 980 Ti card, this year the where all the new PSUs and cases were about case fans. The Corsair ML Pro two have joined forces to deliver a GTX being shown?
PC PowerPlay 25 COMPUTEX 2016
COOLER MASTER The great thing about the rebranding all of its air coolers with the various options is that they fit all MasterAir brand, and they’re all based cases – it’s not like a Master Case on a heatpipe/fan design. The entry level uilding on last year’s Mastercase 3 fan bay won’t fit on the Master MasterAir2 comes with just twin pipes, Bconcept, which allowed users to Case 7. There are already dozens of while the upper end MasterAir4 uses modify and upgrade a single model options for customising these cases, four. It’s a much simpler naming system, of Cooler Master chassis with various from the expected Perspex windows making it easier for users to know optional extras, this year Cooler Master through to silenced panels, but Cooler exactly what they’re getting. launched a much expanded variant of Master is opening up the design of these Our final stop on the Cooler Master the programme. Called MasterConcept, options to fans. The CAD designs for all tour was a brief look at their new range the aim is to allow a vast variety of of its cases are freely available online, of Power Supplies. Once again, changing different computer users to build exactly allowing users to create custom options the branding is key to this year’s the right case for them. Whether it’s that they know will fit. These can then range, with the over-arching name a VR developer who needs a compact be sold independently of Cooler Master, now called MasterWatt. Entry level system they can take to client demos, or Cooler Master will help promote PSUs will be known as the MasterWatt to a video content creator who needs a them via its online store. It’s a fantastic and MasterWatt Lite, while the high giant workstation packing quad graphics concept which we think modders are end 1200W powerhouse is the new cards, MasterConcept now allows users going to absolutely love. MasterWatt Maker 1200. to alter a wide variety of different cases. A new All-in-One cooler was also The main version is the Master Case on-show, called the Liquid Master Pro 5 series, an ATX sized case designed for 240. According to our PR rep, this was regular PC users such as gamers and designed in-house, unlike the myriad 1. MasterConcept is a new approach office workers. A special T version of this of rebranded All-in-One coolers sold to the Mastercase concept comes with a two-tone paint job and under other brand names. Using a handles. Then there’s the Master Case 240mm radiator, there’s also a smaller 2. Master Case 5 T version 3, a Micro ATX model aimed at those 120mm version for those with less 2. The Master who need smaller machines yet which space to play with. Case 5 in various can still handle a full-sized graphics Given the company’s heritage, a booth configurations card. Finally there’s the rather massive tour without checking out a range of 2. The new Master Case 7, aimed at power users new air coolers wouldn’t right, and there MasterWatt power 4 supply range who need all the space they can get. was plenty to see. The company is now
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26 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
COMPUTEX 2016
MSI
ne of the highlights of Computex Owas MSI’s 30th birthday dinner extravaganza. Held in a giant ballroom with around 400 guests, this formal seated dinner was a celebration of the company’s rise from a tiny motherboard titles, which manufacturer to one of the biggest feature much component makers on the planet. As more detailed the drinks flowed, the heads of the visuals than the company toured the room to meet and first generation of greet every guest. We didn’t realise we games. were hugging the founder and CEO until The next model a nearby MSI PR rep quietly mentioned down is the GT73, and in our ear just who they were. MSI claims this is the While the party was massive, we lightest SLI laptop on were at Computex to see MSI’s huge the market. Rather than new range of products, and they were the full desktop GTX 980 not in short supply. This company has parts of the GT83, it instead arguably the biggest range of gaming uses the GTX 980M GPUs, which should notebooks on the market, and we still be more than enough for a smooth were overwhelmed at just how many 90Hz VR experience. Both laptops new models were on display. While support up to three external displays. nearly every vendor at the show was Being bigger laptops, they’re not for promoting the “VR Ready” message, everybody, which is where the MSI was one of the only ones to be new GS63 Stealth Pro might officially certified by both HTC Vive be a better fit. Winner of and Intel as being truly ready for the the Computex Best Choice virtual revolution, and this certification Golden Award 2016 (whatever extended to several of its laptops. that means), it’s apparently the Two such laptops to feature the world’s lightest gaming laptop, tipping 1. The GT73 is the power necessary to deliver the ultimate the scales at a meagre 1.9kg. More 1 lightest SLi laptop in VR performance are the new MSI importantly, it’s incredibly anorexic, on the market GT83/73 Titan SLI, both absolute measuring a mere 17.7mm ultra slim 2. The GS63 is thin and light but still behemoths that follow old-school rules chassis. We love the new cooling control the camera position in games. of gaming laptop design, where bigger is system in use, known as the Cooler We tried it out in Ubisoft’s The Division, better. The GT83 comes packing not one Booster Trinity. Using five heatpipes, yet found it has the same issues as last but two GTX 980 graphics cards, giving over dual thermal modules, it should year’s version. It’s not very accurate, and it more than enough grunt to power deliver relatively silent cooling for the considering most of the action happens 3 even the most demanding upcoming VR i7 6700HQ and GTX 970M graphics in the centre of the screen, where the within the laptop. So despite this being gun pointer is, having to look to the a lightweight gaming laptop, it’s still a edges of the screen means you miss top performer. much of what’s happening. We also Last year MSI showed off a laptop found that the camera would only rotate featuring eye tracking, and this year it 180 degrees. It’s an interesting feature demonstrated an improved version. no doubt, but we just can’t see it being The GT72 uses Tobii eye tracking, that useful for gaming. which is apparently created by the A slightly more useful yet just same company behind the TrackIR as innovative product was the MSI head tracking unit that has been Backpack PC. Designed to deliver an popular with PC simmers for years. untethered VR experience, it’s basically It basically tracks the user’s eye a mini-PC built into a backpack form position, which can then be used factor. Housed inside is an Intel Core to manipulate the mouse cursor, i7 CPU along with NVIDIA’s GTX 980, change active windows and though MSI stayed mum on the power supply. There doesn’t appear to be a power cord though, so there’s obviously a battery. There was also no mention of weight or battery life, but with a backpack of this size it can pack a much larger battery than a standard laptop, 6 5
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so we’re guessing three or four ho shouldn’t be a problem. While we’r not so sure how useful this will be for home users, where the tether o the Rift and Vive aren’t much of a 8 problem, it could be a great produc for larger VR experiences, such as the warehouse-sized Zero Latency 4. The Backpack arcade in Melbourne. MSI will X99A Gaming Pro Carbon, PC is designed for announce pricing and a release dat d the most impressive RGB untethered VR for the backpack later in the year. olution of the show. The 5. The Aegis desktop As well as the Vortex mini-PC wer Gaming Titanium is has a front HDMI port for easy VR we reviewed last issue, MSI debute serious overclockers, but the connection the new Aegis series gaming deskto 4 power Gaming Titanium was 6. The MSI X99A Housed in an aggressive angular ca our favourite, simply for its Gaming Pro Carbon sports impressive with an internal space of just under white design. RGB lighting litres, its unique VR feature is a HDMI Rounding out our visit was the 7. Aimed at connector on the front of the case, As one of the few makers of All-in- viewing of four different versions of overclockers, the Z170A Mpower perfect for connecting your HMD. Built One gaming PCs, we were keen to check Nvidia’s new GTX 1080. The SeaHawk Gaming Titanium with the latest unlocked Intel processor out 2016’s new models. The Gaming was our favourite, as it features an is powerful and elegant and NVIDIA video cards. A nifty button 27 features an I7 CPU with GTX 970M integrated All-in-One water cooler – in 8. The Seahawk GTX on the front called the Dragon OC or 980M graphics, while the Gaming 24 fact, it’s basically identical to Corsair’s is a collaboration automatically overclocks the CPU by 15%, uses an i5 CPU with GTX 960M. Given version, but with different branding. between MSI and Corsair a nice little increase for the simple push the relatively mid-range GPU, the choice Three other variants are also available, of a button. There’s also twin NVMe SSD of a 4K panel is rather interesting. all aimed at various price points – stay drives rigged up in RAID 0, delivering a Dozens of motherboards were tuned for upcoming reviews in the next rather insane read rate of 3300MBps. on show, and one that stood out is issue of PC PowerPlay.
PC PowerPlay 29 COMPUTEX 2016
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1. The 509 is of the tinted tapered class, this is also brackets, which will come in handy for big, gorgeous IN WIN and surprisingly an option. The PSU case at the bottom some of the larger GPUs now on the affordable is perfect for hiding away the myriad of market. This full-sized tower can also 2. The 303 is subtle, e recently reviewed In Win’s power cables, while there’s also plenty fit an E-ATX motherboard, and there’s elegant and very Wlimited edition iFrame case, a of cable management options. What even room for three separate 360mm budget friendly limited edition $1700 behemoth of was most impress though is the price – water radiators. It’s going to cost a 3. (left) D-Frame which only 500 pieces were being made. at just AU$109, this thing is incredible little more than the 303, at $199, but 4. The 805 Infinity is a case and optical It seems that these ultra-high-end value. We can’t wait to get our hands on even then it’s outstanding value given illusion all in one cases have been In Win’s main stock a sample. the functionality, good looks and build and trade until now, but they’re aiming The next case in the line-up was the quality. to change that with the introduction of stunning 509, which features tempered Finally we came to the blingiest case three new cases, which just happened glass on both the front and side to of the range, the 805 infinity. This has to to be some of the most attractive that deliver a look that would be at home in be one of the most interesting designs we saw at the show. an architect designed mansion. There’s we’ve seen on a case. The entire front The first of these is the new 303, a small amount of brushed panel is a window into a mirrored which has an incredibly elegant and aluminium at the top chamber lined with LED lights. subtle design that stood out from the of the front, where When looking into it, the effect blazing RGB festooned cases featured the drive bay and is like looking into an elsewhere. The front panel is a plain IO ports reside, but incredibly long tunnel black design, with the range of IO ports it doesn’t detract lined with LEDs – you glowing a pale blue. There’s also a small from the look at all. can’t see the interior LED display for showing basic system We’re not so sure of the case at all. information, or a custom icon. However, about the big In Win Again, you’ll need to it’s the stunning tempered glass panel logo on the front take a look at the on the left side that we love the most, though – something product shots to as it just looks so much more classic a little smaller would see what we mean. than boring old Perspex. Removing be more stylish. It’ll be a little more this is as simple as pressing a handle, Removing the expensive again, at revealing the modular interior which side panel reveals $349, but there’s also just happens to be totally tool-less. special graphics 4 nothing quite like it If you’d rather a plain steel side instead card support on the market.
30 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
COMPUTEX 2016
MALTAKE to show off your components entirely, One of our favourite new mice was and the interior is fully modular to allow on show, in the form of the Level 10 M for unique designs. Thermaltake has Advanced. With a 16000 DPI sensor, and RGB. This seemed also provided 3D printing blueprints so it’s got one of the most unique designs recurring theme at modders can create new components we’ve seen – it has to be viewed to 1 s booth, which was to fit inside the case. Due to its shape be comprehended, using much more th all manner of rainbow and thin dimensions, a special L-shaped angular, sharp lines than the usual ponents. Coolest of all – bracket is used to rotate the GPU, and ergonomic, smooth curves of most s new RGB water cooling it also needs an SFX power supply. mice. A range of modded keyboards n the world which includes Thermaltake expects this case to sell were also on show, but these were just he water cooling pipes. for approximately $100 when its hits concepts created by modders. Along ect match for Thermaltake’s Australia with these, around a dozen extremely oloured cooling liquid. Speaking of 3D printing, Thermaltake cool modded cases were on display, as coloured liquids, which also showed off the world’s first fully you can see from our gallery in the back acement after about 3D printable case. The design is freely of the mag. Our favourite had to be the three months, the C1000 should last available from their website – all the tracked robot that was actually remote up to two years, though Thermaltake user needs is a 3D Printer capable of controlled, which included water cooling recommends replacing it after a year. At building it. It’s not exactly pretty, and radiators housed in the tracks. 1. C1000 coolant $29 per litre, it’s rather cheap compared uses an open design making it more Speaking of modders, Thermaltake should last and to the competition. suitable for test benches than gaming also announced a limited edition case retain colour for up to two years Last year’s Core P5 case proved to systems, but it’s a damn cool idea. modding program. On per year, it 2. The Core P3 is be popular, but many modders found it Last year Thermaltake got into a will allow modde dify existing a budget friendly a little large, so this year Thermaltake little trouble with a new range of server Thermaltake t of these cousin to the popular Core P5 introduced the new Core P3. It’s an open cases, with a competing company will then d editions, 3. The world’s frame chassis design – basically there’s claiming copyright infringement. So the and e store. first fully 3D a back plate to hold all your components, company has redesigned them, in the printable case and then a Perspex (or it may be glass, form of the Core WP200 and W200, t 3. Level 10 M we couldn’t tell) window over the top, both massive server cases that s Advanced (reviewed issue 253) held in place by four poles. It’s designed up to 17 drive bays.
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6.8 inch display. Kardon to deliver a quad-speaker resolution of 2880 by 1920, giving it a 1. The Zenbo is our Taking aim straight at Apple’s system. Despite the thin dimensions, 275ppi pixel density, along with a 121% new robot overlord Macbook is the new ZenBook 3, which is key travel is 19.8mm, basically the claimed sRGB space. Impressive. Once 2. The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is thinner, lighter and faster than Apple’s same as a desktop keyboard. With a again Harman Kardon has been bought aggressively priced competing product. With a depth of starting price of US$999, the premium onboard for audio duties, with twin but probably won’t come to Australia just 11.9mm, it’s absolutely tiny, and version doubles this to US$1999. Asus speakers. Internal specs are a Core i7 3. The Zenbook is machined from aerospace-grade claims up to 9 hours of battery life, processor, 1TB PCIe SSD and 16GB of 3 is lighter and aluminium alloy. This is claimed to be but we’d expect the premium version DDR4 memory. Gamers might like to faster than the Macbook Air 50% stronger than the usual alloy used to chew through this a little faster buy the optional Audio Pod, which has in standard laptops. Despite weighing given the powerful CPU yet small form four speakers for virtual surround, while 3. The Transformer 3 Pro is the most just 910 grams, ASUS has crammed factor. Thankfully the new quick charge the ROG XG Station 2 is an external powerful Asus an Intel i7 Processor, 16GB of DDR4 system will charge the battery to 60% in graphics card dock that allows the use hybrid tablet/ laptop yet memory and a PCIe SSD up to 1TB in just 49 minutes. of a discrete GPU for serious gaming.
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34 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 The coolest, yet creepiest, announcement of the Zenvolution event was Zenbo, a small household robot that is basically a computer on 6 wheels. While there was no mention of the hardware within, a demonstration video showed what this US$799 robot will be capable of. Full voice recognition means it can do a variety of duties, but it appears most will need optional extras. It can be used to trigger emergency alerts when elderly or disable people fall over, providing full video to the call respondent. It’s also ready and able to read books to children courtesy of 5 its face, which is actually a small LCD screen. This also makes it perfect for reading out recipes while cooking. A graphics card dock called built in calendar means he can remind the XG Station 3. It’s you of upcoming appointments, not the only company while a built in video phone means he to offer these – the doubles as a communication device. widespread availability of Thunderbolt 3 If you’ve got the right accessories, now delivers the necessary bandwidth Zenbo can be used to control home and latency to allow for these kinds of automation devices, while his built products. in camera acts as a remote security Fans of water cooling will dig the 5. The Swift camera. It’ll be interesting to see just GX800 laptop, which comes with an PG248Q monitor how well Zenbo works when he is external docking station that includes can be overclocked to 180MHz released later this year – right now water cooling, bumping up the 6. X99 Rampage the creepy voice definitely needs to be performance of the laptop when it’s V Edition 10 improved. plugged in at home. ASUS claims it’s th 7. Centurion 7.1 Asus’ other flagship event was its fastest gaming laptop in the world, an gaming headset 8 Republic of Gamers night, where it looking at the size of the water 8. The proof of debuted a range of new(ish) gaming cooling dock, we don’t doubt concept Avalon gaming box products. We loved the proof-of- them. The final standout product concept Avalon gaming box, that builds is the new ROG G31 Edition 10, a 9. The ROG G31 Edition 10 is a a high-end gaming PC into a tiny 20 litre chassis the includes dual mini PC with dual form factor. It’s designed to be fully GTX 1080 GPUs with a 3D vapor- GTX 1080s modular, replacing the usual PCIe and chamber cooling system to keep 10. The GX800 laptop features SATA connectors we now use, making this mini-PC nice and quiet, even external it much easier for beginners to simply when running 4K games. watercooling plug in new components. However, it’s going to take a miracle for the rest of the industry to get on board with this standard. 910 Asus is known for its premium gaming monitors, but they’re going for something a little cheaper with the new Swift PG248Q, a 24-inch gaming display that packs a blazing 180Hz overclockable refresh rate. There was also the new Centurion 7.1 gaming headset, which packs ten discrete speakers into its twin cups – we’ll be most interested to hear how this sounds given that virtual surround headsets tend to offer less distortion. As mentioned with the Transformer 3, ASUS is also launching an external
PC PowerPlay 35 COMPUTEX 2016
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1. GB-BSi5HA-6300 motherboards should seamlessly GIGABYTE stream 4K while another pp, 2. GB-BNi7HG4-950 building highlighted more of their which tend to be announced four to is about the size of t’s not often a booth tour commences peripherals and notebooks. Our tour eight weeks after their desktop launch, 3 stacked NUCs Iat the exact same moment as a 6.1 commenced with the laptop section, but we can expect to see Gigabyte and 3. GB-XD7B0 - a mini PC boasting magnitude earthquake, but that’s how an area where Gigabyte seems to have Aorus laptops powered by GTX 1070M a GTX 970 this year’s Gigabyte tour kicked off. more products than ever before. As and 1080M (we’re guessing those are 4. P57 laptop Their booth is held on the 37th floor expected, many of these were product the product names) in the next few 5. P37 laptop of Taipei’s 101 tower, the 4th tallest updates to existing systems, though months. 6. The Aero 14 building in the world, but thankfully it’s they all seemed to have much improved Next stop on the Gigabyte train was features a QHD built to handle these types of events. cooling systems. As readers of PCPP, its mini-form factor series, known display and 970M It was certainly an interesting start to you’ll know that gaming laptop fan as Brix. These have had substantial a booth tour that was absolutely jam noise is one of our biggest bug-bears, so upgrades compared to previous units, packed with new products. seeing Gigabyte focus on lowering this is all moving to the latest 6th Gen Core The massive booth in the 101 was a real plus. CPUs from Intel. One of our favourite divided into several key areas – laptops, If you’re into super-fast frame rates, picks for a media box is the new GB- you’ll also appreciate the new 120Hz BSi5HA-6300, which uses an i5 CPU. panels that feature on several of the As well as room for a standard 2.5 inch premium models in the range, which drive, it also includes an M.2 SSD socket appear to all support NVIDIA’s G-Synch. for ultra-high speed storage. USB 3.1 Interestingly we didn’t see a single and 3.0 are both included on most of the FreeSync-equipped laptop at the show, new Brix range, with several featuring 6 very surprising given its official support a single Type C connector. Until now in DisplayPort 1.3a. Like every other many Brix units haven’t been able to manufacturer at the show, Gigabyte stream 4K video due to the use of single were very keen to show off their RGB channel memory, but this unit now use keyboards. dual-channel DDR4 2133MHz memory, The new Aero range of notebooks which should make 4K streaming feature a Quad HD display, powered by a breeze. Twin video outputs in the graphics up to and including the GTX form of HDMI and mini-DisplayPort COMPUTEX 2015
7 means dual displays is an option. It’s still no gam machine though, as Intel’s HD Graphics 520 will struggle to run anything detailed. As well as the Brix range, Gigabyte showed o several mini-PCs that aren’t quite as small, but 8 quite the punch. The GB-BNi7HG4-950 is abou the size of three stacked Brix units, with an inte capacity of just 2.6 litres, but can power four 4K displays at 60Hz. This is thanks to the discrete GeForce GTX 950 squeezed inside, which outpu via triple Mini-DisplayPort and a single HDMi 2. output. Twin M.2 slots allow for RAIDed SSDs, a with a single 2.5 inch drive bay. This will be the perfect little powerhouse for those wanting to r retail displays at 4K. Our final fave mini-PC is th GB-XD7B0, which looks a lot like a Playstation 3 small with a 10 litre internal capacity, but packs 6th Gen Core CPU alongside a full-blown GTX 9 It’s the perfect little gaming box to go next to yo TV, but pricing is TBD. As expected, Gigabyte had no shortage of motherboards to show, with a dedicated section to its G1 Gaming range. Nearly all of these were 9 powered by the existing Intel Z170 and X99 chipsets, and several key new features appeared on nearly every board. A new 4-pin LED header means RGB freaks can now hook their third-party RGB 7. Z170X-UD3 Ultra kit directly to the motherboard, and synchronise it 8. X99 Ultra Gaming with every other RGB kit in their PC – the keyboard, 9. The XC700 is mouse, and RAM, though we should point out that Gigabyte’s first ever case Gigabyte weren’t the only company to feature this. In a new move for the company, Gigabyte also 10. Ben Mansill in his natural environment showed its first ever gaming case, the XC700. Yep, 11. GTX 1080 it’s festooned in RGB lights, and uses a full-sized Extreme Gaming ATX design. The tempered glass side panel is a Edition features forward facing HDMI subtle compromise between a bawdy Perspex connectors for easier window and a tinted view inside the case, and the front connections use of this material seemed to be another overall trend of the show. Along with this case, Gigabyte debuted its first ever gaming power supply, the XP1200M. This 1200W monster is fully modular and 10 carries an 80+ rating. Along with the case, these two products suggest Gigabyte it positioning itself as a manufacturer who can deliver basically an entire system, in the same way ASUS’s ROG brand does. Heading to Gigabyte’s other booth revealed one of the most impressive hardware displays of the show. A huge 9 panel screen was connected to a full- motion cockpit with wheel and pedals, along with a Rift headset. As our photos of PCTA Editor Ben Mansill show, it was quite the sight to behold. This was hosted next to Gigabyte’s upcoming range of GTX 1080 and 1070 products, the best 11 of which is the new GTX 1080 Extreme Gaming Edition. As well as featuring a brand new cooler design, where the third fan is mounted underneath the other two, it has one brilliant feature for VR. Twin HDMI 2.0 ports are included in addition to the usual, but they face forwards. This makes it easy to pass them through to forward connectors on the case, positioned perfectly for VR kits. This was the only GPU we saw at the show to include such an innovative feature. COMPUTEX 2016
ROCCAT
occat didn’t have a whole lot to Rshow off that we haven’t seen already, but one product did stand out – the Roccat Suora. Yep, we don’t know how to pronounce it either. At first glance it looks like a relatively standard entry-level product, until we noticed the frameless design. The aluminium alloy housing has no palm rest, and no border around the keys. What good is that, we hear you ask? The answer is simple 1 – cleaning out the keys on this sucker will be a breeze. Simply grab a can of compressed air and spray away, and all that dirt and dust will come flying out. ghosting with N-key rollover support. 1. Suora keyboard 2 It’s fully mechanical, but rather than We’re a little concerned about the price (reviewed issue 253) use Cherry MX switches it instead though – at $169 it’s rather pricey for 2. Kiro modular mouse with comes with TTC Brown, which have such a simple design. exchangable a feel very similar to Cherry MX We also saw Roccat’s Kiro modular side panels Brown. These are guaranteed to last mouse, which is fully configurable for 50 million keystrokes, so don’t worry both left and right handers thanks to its about reliability. Rather than offering a removable sides. It’s even possible to gazillion different colours, the Suora’s change the number of buttons on either backlight is only available in blue, side, from none to two. We love the though it can be run in eleven different Pro-Optic R2 optical sensor, which has an brightness levels. Six macro keys are effective DPI of 4000, making it one of the included, and obviously there’s full anti- highest DPI optical mice on the market.
FRACTAL DESIGN FSP
ractal is one of ritish power supply manufacturer FSP had a number of new Four favourite case Bproducts to show off at Computex, ranging from eco-friendly makers, so it was a power storage to, inverters and new form factor power supplies. shame to see they Looking much like a wheeled suitcases (featuring a couple of big were only showing a red buttons), the Emergy line of products are efficient, fanless single product at this power storage systems that can be charged from mains for use year’s show, which off the grid. has already been on On the power supply front, FSP has two new product lines, the the market for a while Twins Series of redundant PSUs and the Dagger SFX PSU series. now. The Define Nano The Twins series PSUs are designed primarily for home server use S is an ITX case that and feature two hot-swap PSUs. If the primary PSU is designed to have fails, the secondary PSU immediately takes over. The the space inside to PSU also features an onboard software solution host a high-end PC and several LED indicators that will detect with water cooling, and their small up to show how this mini-PC can and identify any problems as they occur. booth was filled with custom- power HTC’s Vive VR kit, yet this The Dagger line of SFX PSUs offers modded versions. In fact, one fickle piece of new technology two models, 500W and 600W, both of was even brought over by their stopped working after just a few which are 80 Plus Gold rated. Promoted Australian distributor, who had to days. We felt no end of pain for as being able to power high-end, bring it on as carry-on luggage. their new global comms manager, VR-ready compact builds, the Dagger Make no mistake, it’s a beautiful who had only been with the PSUs feature fully modular cabling. FSP case, even winning the European company for a fortnight and was has opted for 80mm fans for cooling Hardware Association best-ITX responsible for setting up the HTC rather than the quieter 92mm fans seen case, but it would have been Vive; hopefully his bosses will in many other SFX PSUs. How much nice to see something new. understand that the Vive doesn’t this will affect the noise level is as yet Unfortunately the suite was set always work as intended. unknown.
38 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 COMPUTEX 2015
OCZ all, this warranty lasts an incredible 2 five years, making it easily the best warranty policy in the industry. This CZ only had one major new product has no doubt been introduced for two Oto show off this year, but it was a reasons; firstly, OCZ had reliability ripper. The RD400 is one of the latest issues with its first few generations crop of NVMe SSD drives to hit the of products. Secondly, since being market, and uses a PCIe Gen3 x4 lane bought by Toshiba, we’re guessing to deliver earth-shattering speeds. OCZ OCZ has a little bit more cash behind claims it can hit up to 2600MB/sec read it. Regardless, this new warranty and 1600MB/sec write performance. policy will go a long way to restoring It’s actually an M.2 SSD attached to a faith in the OCZ brand, and the PCIe board, so we’re guessing it can performance of this drive should help probably be detached and used as an put the company back on top of the M.2 drive if necessary, like Kingston’s performance pile. similar product. The product uses Toshiba’s 15nm MLC NAND flash memory with an 1 endurance rating of up to 592TBW (Terabytes Written). But what is even more impressive is the company’s amazing warranty policy, which it calls the Advanced Warranty Programme. If a user finds their drive to be fault, they simply need to email OCZ and the company will send out a brand new product – no receipt necessary. 1. OCZ claims the RD400 can hit Once the user receives the new drive, 2600MB/s read and they then return the faulty drive with 1600MB/s write the included return packaging. Best of 2. OCZ VT180
CRUCIAL
ather than have a booth at the Rshow, Crucial chose to demo its new range of products at a relatively quiet dinner and drinks night at a hotel. The main message is that it is now going to aggressively target gamers, mainly by building products that fit the performance needs of us high-end users. It’s now moving the Ballistix brand into its own category, aimed at gamers, and there were several products carrying this name. A series of high end DDR4 modules were on show, but it’s obvious the company sees the 2666MHz frequency as being the most popular amongst its target market. It will carry speeds up to 3400MHz, but a company rep claimed this would probably make up about 1% Ballistix TX3. This should include a drives, but it’ll be near enough that of all DDR4 sales for Ballistix. These small heatsink, to help get around most users won’t notice in real DDR4 modules will be sold across three the throttling issues that other world use. A live demo showed read different levels. Sport is the base model, NVMe/SSD drives have been speeds of 2397MB/sec, with write Tactical is mid-range, and Elite is for, shown to suffer from. The company speeds of 777MB/sec. That read well, the Elite. is aiming to get aggressive on speed is fine, thought the write The major new product for the pricing, so it won’t quite deliver the speed is well below the 1600MB/ company is its new NVMe drive, the performance of the very best NVMe sec being offered by competitors.
PC PowerPlay 39 COMPUTEX 2016
ZOTAC
otac’s focus this year seemed to Zbe mini-PCs, as it had a plethora on display. The Zbox Magnus EN980 is arguably the smallest VR-ready PC we’ve seen, only slightly larger than an ITX motherboard. It’s able to cool the GTX 980 inside by using a custom waterblock connected to a 120mm radiator, an impressive feat for such a tiny gaming machine. As one of Nvidia’s biggest partners, it was no surprise to see Zotac’s version of the GTX 1080 on display, which is called 1 the Amp Extreme. This massive slab of a video card uses a huge triple slot cooler with three fans (yep, RGB lighting and with aircooling instead. Unlike other 1. The Magnus EN980 backpack PC all) along with juiced up power circuitry. companies, which stayed mum about (on that guy’s back) A smaller Amp edition was also on the battery life of their VR backpacks, 2. The Amp Extreme show, which uses a two-slot cooler with Zotac was happy to share details. GTX 1080 certainly looks the business twin fans, yet still includes the improved They think around two hours will be power circuitry. the maximum lifespan, so hopefully it Zotac was another company to show comes with a removable battery. We off its own VR backpack PC, which really don’t think this trend will take appears to be based around the Magnus off for home users – it’s so much more EN980. Thanks to the larger size of the affordable to simply install a rotating backpack, the company has been able hook in your ceiling, yet can see the 2 to remove the water cooling and stick appeal for large-scale VR experiences.
ALIENWARE Graphics Amplifier, an external graph card box. The next product to get a big updat remium gaming PC manufacturer is the beautiful Area 51 triangular PAlienware had four new products behemoth. Now packing Intel’s latest to show off at this year’s show, and Broadwell-E CPUs along with GTX 10 they were all tasty indeed. First on graphics, this is one rig that will shred the sampling plate was the new Alpha the competition. We have no word ye compact desktop. Looking extremely on pricing, but expect to have to sell y similar to last year’s model, it’s now granny into slavery to pay for this bru 60% faster than the previous generation Our favourite product had to be th thanks to the new GTX 960 GPU revised Aurora desktop, which has included within, along with 4GB of shrunk massively in size. Packing the GDDR5 memory. There’s even an option latest Nvidia graphics cards, with up with AMD Radeon graphics, and is also to dual SLI available, it also houses compatible with the new Alienware Intel’s newest CPUs with the option of liquid cooling for severe 1. overclocking. Kingston’s Fury Alienware Alpha and Graphics 1 X memory is included at Amplifier 2400MHz, and there’s space 2. Area 51 for up to 5 drives. We love (exploded) the tool-less design, and RGB 2. Aurora has come doThe wn in size freaks will dig the AlienFX and but still fits top of Alienware Command Centre the like graphics cards, five drives utilities. These allow for fully and the latest CPUs customisable lighting designs and system maintenance, which can be shared with the community.
40 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
NVIDIANVIDIA GTX 1080 GTX 1080 Launch The 1080 is not an evolution, it’s a revolution
he GPU industry has been powerful GTX 960 had a die size of only shaders. The new GTX 1080 actually has Tconstrained by a key technology 227 square millimetres. slightly fewer CUDA cores than the GTX for almost half a decade, which has The good news is that TSMC has 980 Ti, moving down from 2816 in its forced it to make hotter, bigger and finally perfected the move to a smaller predecessor to 2560 in the GTX 1080. more expensive products. The size of manufacturing process. In the case of It’s also got fewer texture units, the part the transistors used in the last few Nvidia’s new Pascal products, officially of the processor that puts textures onto generations of GPUs was stuck at named the GeForce GTX 1080, the 3D planes. The old GTX 980 Ti had 176 28nm for over four years, with several transistors are now just 16nm in size. of these, while the GTX 1080 drops this delays holding back the move to a They also use a new layout called to 160. But the biggest drop comes in smaller process. These transistors are FinFET, which is part of the reason the number of ROPs, or Render Output designed by the folks at TSMC, which they’re able to be so small. Intel was Unit. This is one of the final parts of the stands for the Taiwan Semiconductor actually the first company to use rendering process, and the 1080 has Manufacturing Company. The original FinFET shaped transistors back in 2011, just 64 of these, whereas the GTX 980 plan was to move to a 20nm process, and they’re basically the world’s first Ti had 96. then down from there, but it turned out 3-dimensional transistor. The move It should be apparent that the GP104 to be a much harder task than anybody to these new transistors has allowed GPU at the heart of the GTX 1080 is could have imagined. NVIDIA to release a product that has a a less complex beast than the 980 As a result, when NVIDIA released rather large performance improvement Ti. This is why it only has 7.2 billion new products, which generally over its predecessor, yet in many transistors, compared to the 8 required more transistors to improve ways it’s quite similar to the Maxwell billion transistors of the 980 performance, the silicon die had to grow architecture used in the GTX 980 Ti. Ti. Thanks to the smaller in size. This makes for a hotter piece of Let’s check out what has, and hasn’t, transistors, the die size has hardware, as there are more transistors changed. decreased massively, running, which in turn needs more down to just 314 power to run. It’s also more expensive, KEY SPECIFICATIONS square millimetres, as the size of the chip helps determines At the heart of both Maxwell and Pascal around half that the price. For example, the GTX 980 Ti are CUDA cores, which are basically the of the GTX had a silicon die that was 601 square small processors that handle the job of 980 Ti. It millimetres. Meanwhile, the much less what used to be called pixel and vertex also
42 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 PC PowerPlay 43 NVIDIA GTX 1080
requires much less power to operate, with the Another new feat GTX 1080 having a TDP of just 180W compared empt graphics oper to the 250W of the GTX 980 Ti. Yet the 1080 is compute operation a substantially faster card, so how has NVIDIA which apparently d been able to make this happen? switching. Yep, we what that means THE SECRET SAUCE sounds impressiv By far the biggest improvement between the GTX 980 Ti and the GTX 1080 is the frequency VIRTUALLY UNB of the GPU. It turns out that these new 16nm NVIDIA is bettin FinFET transistors can run much faster than Virtual Reality, a those of the past. The GTX 980 Ti had a base feature that ma speed of 1000MHz, whereas the GTX 1080 VR performanc massively increases this to 1607MHz, a huge Projection, or 60% speed increase. When the card is under speed differen maximum load, it goes into Boost Clock, which a scene needs to b is faster still. The GTX 980 Ti was rated to have Reality or multi-screen setup a Boost speed of 1075MHz, though we often for a GPU to render the two saw it hit 1200MHz in reality. The new GTX views required for VR, one fo 1080 has a Boost clock of 1733MHz, but it can it would have to render the e be pushed much higher with overclocking. We scene twice. However, with managed to obtain a ridiculously fast 2.1GHz SMP, the GPU now renders GPU core speed, which is over twice the base the scene just once, but speed of the GTX 980 Ti. captures the view from two The next area of improvement is memory different viewpoints. Nvidia speed. While initial rumours suggested that the this can improve pixel throug GTX 1080 was going to use HBM 2.0, which is in VR by around 1.5X, with d the second version of the memory type that the geometry throughput. A debuted on AMD’s Fury product, it has instead doesn’t seem to have a com chosen to use a GDDR5X. This is simply a technology, which will put it revised version of the GDDR5 memory used massive disadvantage when on most of today’s products, and thus has a to VR and multi-screen rend similar manufacturing cost. However, it runs at Nvidia is also toying with substantially faster frequencies than GDDR5, sound, using the same ray-t with the memory on the GTX 1080 running at technology used in image re 10Gbps, whereas the 980 Ti had 7Gbps GDDR5 but with audio instead. Calle memory. On the other hand, the memory bus VRWorks Audio, instead of u is actually slimmer on the new card, at just fake effects like pre-existing 256-bits compared to the 384-bit bust of the techniques, it actually physic 980 Ti. This gives the new card a total memory calculates the direction and bandwidth of 320GB/sec, which is actually a of audio just as in the real w little slower than the 336GB/sec of the 980 Ti. it’s currently in a very early f However, Nvidia has also improved the delta incredibly performance intensive. Nvidia had a 38 foot by 8 foot banner with a 100 DPI colour compression technique used in Pascal. a demo machine running with this audio, and resolution. The size of the file was just 1.5GB, According to Nvidia, this has resulted in a it required a dedicated GTX 1080 just for the and allowed viewers to see intricate details memory bandwidth gain of around 20%, helping audio. The company is promising to optimise that wouldn’t normally be visible, as Ansel to narrow the gap between the two. There’s it though, so that these ridiculous hardware increases the level of detail. Because this is more of memory this time around, with the requirements aren’t required. a software feature, it will also be backwards GTX 1080 now carrying a hefty 8GB of onboard compatible with GTX 900 series cards. memory compared to the 6GB found on the DIGITAL ART GTX 980 Ti. A key software feature of the new GTX 1080 GPU BOOST 3.0 is Ansel, which allows screenshot makers to The final new feature of note is GPU Boost freeze games and take manual control of the 3.0, which is why the GTX 1080 overclocks The GTX 980 Ti had a game camera and take screenshots. It also so damn well. In the prior version, the removes the HUD if required, and a range frequency increase was fixed – for example, base speed of 1000MHz, of effects can be applied to the screenshot. you’d set the GPU to always run at 150MHz Obviously it’s up to game makers as to whether over its stock speed, and it would stay there. whereas the GTX 1080 they want to allow Ansel to be used in their GPU Boost 3.0 offers much more granular massively increases this games, as there is the potential for cheating. overclocking, as it adjusts the frequency per The good news is that Ansel integration is voltage point. This means that the GPU will to 1607MHz, a huge 60% incredibly simple – it required just 40 lines of pick the best frequency for a given voltage. code to implement into The Witness, and 150 Finding the right frequency at each voltage speed increase lines for The Witcher 3. point would be a very time consuming affair if
44 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 GTX 1080 Benchmarks HITMAN Benchmarks
4K, Ultra Avg FPS Performance Increase
GTX 1080 49 GTX Titan X 37 32% GTX 980 Ti 36 36% THE DIVISION Benchmarks
4K, Ultra Avg FPS Performance Increase
GTX 1080 45 GTX Titan X 34 33% GTX 980 Ti 34 33% 3DMARK Fire Strike
1080p Score Performance Increase
GTX 1080 17656 GTX Titan X 15334 15% GTX 980 Ti 15340 15% 3DMARK Fire Strike
4K Score Performance Increase
GTX 1080 4998 GTX Titan X 4265 17% GTX 980 Ti 4134 21%
PERFORMANCE we can’t wait to see what the GTX 1080 Nvidia claims that the GTX 1080 is Ti delivers. It’s also very quiet, measuring faster than two GTX 980 cards in SLI just 35dB on our sound meter. mode, but we were unable to test this as we only have one 980. It also RELEASE DATE AND PRICE claims the card is designed for 4K Nvidia has released its own version gaming resolutions, and that 1080p of the card, known as the Founder’s performance is a bit of a waste. As Edition, claiming it is a premium version such we tested our card in our standard with Nvidia’s custom blower cooler. testbench, but ran most games at Priced around AU$1149, it’s certainly 4K. We also used a couple of new not cheap, but when the standard benchmarks as they’re much more chipset becomes available, third party (above) Ansel Free done manually, so EVGA has released demanding than the old ones. manufacturers will likely release cards Camera integration allows in game a new version of its overclocking As you can see from the benchmark around the $950 to $1000 price point photography software called Precision X. This can results, the GTX 1080 is anywhere at the entry level. We can expect to see be set to run a timed test that can between 15% and 36% faster than a GTX even more extravagant versions of the last several hours, finding the precise 980 Ti. And this is without overclocking, cards as well, priced upwards of $1300, maximum frequency for each voltage which should add another 15% or more several of which we mentioned in this point. This was how we managed to hit to performance. We should point out issue’s Computex report. a 2.1GHz overclock. that the 15% difference was at 1080p, It may not be a radically redesigned One final note for users of multiple backing up NVIDIA’s claims that it’s product, but the GTX 1080 brings GPUs. Nvidia now intends that SLI is designed for higher resolutions. Our impressive performance improvements. now focused on twin-card setups, and results also show that a single 1080 The only question now is how close the is dissuading users from three and four still doesn’t quite have the grunt to run impending GTX 1070 is, which is the card setups. A new SLI bridge has been today’s games at 4K with Ultra settings, card that tends to offer the best price/ designed just for the new card, which and maintain a framerate of 60fps. Still, performance benefit. We’ll have more now runs at 650MHz. it’s an impressively fast bit of kit, though details about this soon.
PC PowerPlay 45 AMAMD RX 480 Pola Laun AMD takes aim at the mass mark its new range of RX400 videocards
onsidering it was held just a week much more affordable products. ei Cbefore Computex, AMD’s launch of The most expensive product is the R9 its new 400 series of graphics cards was new RX 480, which has a retail price the a little strange to say the least. Held in of just US$199. While we don’t have Rat Macau, China, the company unveiled its samples of these cards yet, they’re exp new mainstream Polaris architecture, expected to deliver around five teraflops foun yet everything at the event was under of performance, putting them on par prod embargo until June 29th, well after with Nvidia’s GTX 980. This performance with Computex. Why hold an event so close increase is courtesy of several key memo to the biggest PC hardware show of the changes, and the biggest (or should the cl year, and then not show it at Computex? that be smallest?) is the same reason across Whatever the reasons, AMD also Nvidia’s new cards are so fast. AMD 256GB remained relatively tight-lipped on the has finally made the move from a will be t technical details of its new GPU design. 28nm manufacturing process, but one pac Thankfully it shared a little more info rather than use the 16nm process that doubling its new range APUs, so let’s see exactly Nvidia selected, it’s gone for an even the new p what the company revealed at the event. smaller 14nm process. Like Nvidia’s Graphics C transistors, AMD’s are all based on the Thanks VR FOR THE MAINSTREAM 3D FinFET design, a must for such small the RX 480 If there was one key message that transistors. This uses the new Polaris operate, wi came out of the event, it’s that AMD is 10 GPU, which delivers up to twice the great to see aiming to deliver graphics cards with the performance per Watt of the last gen. adopted the necessary grunt to run VR at a fraction AMD would not reveal the speed with Display of the price of today’s products. Three of the new GPU in the RX 480, but a huge range new products in total were announced, it’s expected to be around the 1.2GHz rates: 1080p 2 but they’re all very different to Nvidia’s mark, a surprisingly low speed given 120Hz and 14 new GTX 1080i. Rather than aim at the 1700MHz+ of Nvidia’s new cards. These new con premium power-obsessed users, AMD is Also helping boost performance is the RX480 is also f targeting the mainstream market, with inclusion of 36 compute units, which is when these dis
46 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 PC PowerPlay 47 AMD RX 480
VR is amazing, but relatively few can enjoy it
1.6 B
1.4 B
1.2 B
1.0 B 1.43 billion 0.8 B Just 13 million PCs worldwide PCs 0.6 B this year will have the graphics
0.4 B capabilities needed to run VR 0.2 B Only 1% of the 1.43 billion PCs 0.0 B used globally
Source: Gartner Under embargo until June 29, 2016 at 9 a.m. EST. (above) One of the goals of the RX 480 is making VR more affordable for the masses more common in the market. Obvious of AMD’s new products also support A FreeSync technology, which we’re sur hasn’t seen a major uptake in the mar AMD’s reasoning behind the price of the RX 480 all comes down to whe market is growing. According to a Ma Mercury Research report, more than million gamers will spend between $ $300 to upgrade their graphics card. in stark contrast to Nvidia’s release s of aiming at the high-end first, and th releasing more affordable products. I very interesting to see if AMD’s new pays off, but the company think it’s o winning strategy.
THE NEXT RUNG DOWN Next on the list is AMD’s RX 470, whic apparently “ideal for 1080p” gaming, uses 32 Compute Units. Memory band is 224GB/sec, with 4GB of 7 Gbps GD onboard running over a 256-bit memo It’ll need just 110W of juice to run. Fin there’s the RX 460, the budget level c aimed at eSports users who don’t nee of power. With just 14 Compute Units a much smaller card, hence the 75W p requirement. Memory bandwidth drop dramatically too, down to 112GB/sec the 2GB of onboard memory still runn 7Gbps – it’s the smaller 128-bit mem that is responsible for such a big drop AMD went to great lengths to highlight its APU, which comes in two flavours - Bristol Ridge range will consist of 35W and 15W DirectX 12 performance, an area that Nvidia Ridge and Stoney Ridge. This brings several versions, known as the AMD FX, A12 and A10 barely commented on during its 1080 launch. changes to the design of the company’s APUs, processors. Meanwhile the Stoney Ridge chips In fact, they even showed one benchmark although the use four Excavator x86 Cores is will come in a 15W flavour, and be known as where two RX 480 cards outpaced a single a bit of a disappointment. These are the same the A9, A6 and E2 processors. 1080 – Ashes of the Singularity. That’s not too cores used in the 6th Gen A-Series APU, which shabby considering twin RX 480s will cost you have been shown to be much slower, pound for BETTER ENGINEERING EQUALS BETTER pound, than the cores in Intel’s CPUs. However, PERFORMANCE AMD claims that the Stony Ridge CPU delivers Given that the new APU isn’t a radical redesign Despite AMD’s up to 50% faster CPU core performance over compared to the last APU, how did AMD insistence that its new the previous version of the Carrizo APU. manage to deliver up to 50% better CPU and Depending on which model you buy, various GPU core performance, all while managing to cards are Oculus and versions of these APUs will have differing lower power use by around 12%. numbers of Radeon Graphics Core Next Cores. In the words of AMD, “Engineering HTC certified, we’ve AMD claims the top of the line chips will deliver innovation can overcome thermal, voltage, and got a few concerns up to R7 levels of graphics, good enough for current performance constraints”. But what eSports. According to benchmarks shown at does this actually mean? Well, it turns out the regarding this claim the event, the 15W Bristol Ridge APU delivers company fine-tuned several of the ways its
48 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 at Computex, mit Ridge. With eight n threads, AMD is row the gap between nce and Intel’s, with py p pp y p j t behind Skylake. We’re performance. In the past, CPUs have PC components, the power components all hoping this will be AMD’s next Athlon used Dynamic Voltage and Frequency within each APU have some variability success story, as the CPU wars have Scaling, or DFVS for short, to achieve built into them. AMD’s new system runs been extremely stale of late. this. This always has a serious amount of voltage analysis on the APU when the power overhead, to take into account the part is tested and binned, and the voltage WHERE ARE THE PRODUCTS? various temps the chip may be operating is then logged by the integrated power Despite the introduction of AMD’s at. However, AMD’s new APUs include supply monitors. When the system new APU, we still found it hard to find AVFS, or Adaptive Voltage and Frequency then boots-up and the APU is engaged, AMD-powered laptops on the floor at Scaling. In contrast to DFVS, this uses on- the same voltage analysis is run, and Computex. Perhaps it’s because these die sensors to measure in real-time the a regulator then delivers the same AC chips are still so new that APU powered temperature and frequency of the chip, voltage as observed on the tester. The laptops are few and far between, but and adjusting the voltage accordingly. It’s end result is that power waste from we hope AMD’s new APUs give it a leg apparently not new technology though, the usual over-voltage seen on APUs is up on Intel. A world with only one CPU as it appeared first in the Carrizo APU. eliminated entirely, leading to substantial maker is not a happy place. We also A very cool (literally) feature for laptop power savings. All of these technologies hope to see more info on AMD’s new RX users is the new Skin Temperature are part of AMD’s “25 x 20” project, which 400 series of cards in the near future, Aware Power Management system. aims to increase performance per watt by but sadly samples weren’t available in By embedding temperature sensors 25x within the next five years. time for this issue.
PC PowerPlay 49 INTERVIEW
Vincent Ho MSI Manager Multimedia PM Division
Q: So you’re the guy in charge of coming up with these custom cooling solutions for MSI GPUs? Vincent: Yes
When I was outside it was explained to me that twin fans is a better choice than three fans for reliability but also offers the same cooling. Can you explain more about that? The duo fan is more stable because if we put a three fan the fans have to be smaller because of the size of the system so the noise level will be higher. For cooling three fans need lots of RPM, so the noise levels will be higher. With duo fans we use the ten centimetre fans for the cooling solution. They can go slower so the noise level will be more quiet. For the temperature the 10cm fan delivers more airflow, so the temperature is lower than the three fan.
Do the 1080 or 1070 have any special requirements for cooling? How does it compare to Maxwell? I think they are similar. With media management the GPU temperatures go With duo fans we use the ten centimetre lower so we can gather more boot clock for the same requirements from the Maxwell. fans for the cooling solution. They can go With the new Pascal die size we had to slower so the noise level will be more quiet change the architecture to account for the die size getting smaller and smaller. The heat pipe is a bit different. With the new You also have an all-in-one closed Would the 1080 benefit from having architecture we can put more and more loop card. a closed loop water system? heat pipes ion the same area, so we can We have the 980Ti Seahawk with a The water system would get a lower get a lower temperature with the heat pipe water cooling solution by Corsair. The temperature, but for noise level it would technology. The FinFet is different, so we number one water cooling solution be this (fans). Some people want to use can it (the Maxwell cooling solution) Torx worldwide by branding is Corsair, and are the latest technology in their system, Spin 1.0, and this (Pascal cooling solution) graphics cards are number one worldwide. so some fans might pick up the water is Torx Spin 2.0. It has a totally new fan The last generation, the 980Ti was a solution. Some people might want to and we have a patent on the fan, so by number one seller in the UK, Australia and use overclocking and some might prefer comparison the new fan delivers 20% the United States, so with the 1080 we’re fans. There’s different more airflow and the noise level is d segments. With water at least 15%. Because of the new FinF cooling, it’s easier now and the new technology the cooling for fans to assemble it. noise level are improved by about 22 In previous generations, everybody wanted water Does the 1080 or your cooling but it was hard cooling design have any to assemble by yourself, type of idle mode for when so we created this new you’re in Windows desktop? product for the end user When the GPU temperature is abo making it easier for users MSi’s 980 Ti Seahawk, with 60 degrees the fan will start spinnin water cooling by corsair to assemble at home.
50 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
TONKA TOUGH Stuart Tonks may not be a household name, but he is arguably Australia’s premier modder, creating PC builds that are both stunning and functional. We caught up with Stuart after Computex to talk to him about modding in Australia, what inspires his builds, what advice he can give up and coming modders, and more.
PCPP: How did you first get involved in Australia and have Australia recognised modding? What drew you to it in the as a modding country. As much as I As much as I admire those first place? admire those who do scratch builds. who do scratch builds. I feel Tonks: Funnily enough I never actually I feel scratch builds won’t introduce set out in case modding from the start. newcomers to modding. They are just scratch builds won’t introduce I first took over GGF Lan Party about 6 too hard and take too long. Hence why years ago. I ran the event with a bunch most of my builds are quite simple but newcomers to modding of friends for about a year but decided look great. This encourages anyone to I wanted to offer more at each event. jump in and try their own build with the This is when I had the idea to have a few likes of painting, vinyl work, custom systems on display. The next event saw acrylic panels and so on. a budget and extreme rig on display for gamers to test out and play around with. Where do you start with a new build? Then from there on it grew. Each event Do you come up with an initial concept having more systems on display and and then get parts, or does the concept then they eventually turned into modded come from the available parts? systems. Now my case modding has This is a tough one. It all depends on really picked up and as of the last 2 years the job, timeframe and parts for the build. it has been non-stop venture for me. If I have plenty of time and lead time, I can plan the build out. If there is zero lead There seems to be two streams of time I normally design while I’m building. modding, the elegant and practical modding that you do and the Does the fact that you do a number of extravagant scratch builds and full PC sponsored builds limit your creativity in conversions. What inspires you in your any way or do you like working within approach? the confines of a commission? You can clearly see from my builds I guess it really depends on the that I go with the clean, looks awesome sponsor and what they’re after. When on your desk approach. My main aim it comes to creating a build for a case from day one is to bring modding to sponsor I tend not to hack up the
52 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 case too much. I do this as I still like to The Australian moddin showcase the case they have provided. to be very small, with o y No point showcasing a case from a names getting any form of exposure or vendor that doesn’t even look like the recognition. Why do you think this is? original model right? If it’s not for a case Modding in Australia is still new. It’s vendor I can be a bit more creative and going to take some time to get Australia really showcase the item the mod is on the modding map. We really just promoting. don’t have the events the likes of USA and other countries have to showcase What type of tools do you use for your our talent at. I do feel in the past few modding? years Australia has done really well. When it comes to tools, I use very We’ve had an Australian represent the basic hand tools. The most advanced tool Thermaltake Casemod Invitational each I have would be my table saw. I mainly season out of the 3 so far as well as use this for cutting down large sheets of other Australians being represented in acrylic. Other than that my top 5 tools other competitions as well. would be a jigsaw, files, vinyl cutter, sandpaper and a heat gun. How important is company/ manufacturer sponsorship in fostering a How do you fund your projects? robust modding community? Getting in to modding can be quite This is one of the number one tough and you’ll never find yourself aspects to form a strong solid modding getting sponsored builds with no history. community. If there is nothing to work I’m lucky enough now that I have quite a your way up to it’s nearly impossible large track record with builds, events and to introduce new modders in to this videos that most of my builds now are community. It’s kind of like eSPORTS. fully sponsored. This also makes sense as You want to work your way up to most of the time I don’t end up keeping compete in competitions and showcase the final build. your work. If the sponsors aren’t there CASE MODDING
along the way, it’s going to be very hard in the long run.
Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into modding and system building? Are there any techniques for keeping budgets low you can share? Yes there’s plenty of things you can do. My number one tip is to get some builds under your belt. These builds don’t have to be killer $10,000 builds. It’s more about the case mod than the hardware. It’s never a good idea to start sponsor hunting with no background or prior modding history. If you’re struggling with funds for your first builds, you don’t need to buy the latest and greatest. Second hand parts are just as good as new. This includes hardware, tools and materials. Always try new concepts out on old cases. Just head to the tip and grab what you want. If it doesn’t turn out, then there’s no loss. When it does come the time when you want to pursue some sponsors, it’s great to have some exposure opportunities for them. I would suggest creating a Facebook page or other social media channels. This gives potential sponsors an idea that you’re serious about what you’re doing.
Are there any pitfalls prospective modders should keep an eye out for? I would recommend starting of small and work your way up. I see so many times where a relatively new modder drops everything to pursue his dreams. Being a successful modder is one of the hardest hobbies around. To turn it into a business is even harder. Even I mod as a hobby as there just isn’t enough full time work in Australia to turn it into a business. But for me it’s all about having fun which is why I want to keep it as a hobby.
Any advice for any modders out there who may be looking to turn their hobby into a more commercial venture? As I mentioned above. It’s very, very hard to start turning modding into a source of income. It can be done but takes years of establishing yourself and becoming your own brand.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? I’d just like to add that modding is all about having fun and getting more out of your PC. Whether it’s modding your case, peripherals or anything really. Remember to look up to modders that inspire you rather than trying to out mod them.
54 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
STREAMING Building a Budget Streaming/ Steam PC For a little money you can take your PC to the loungeroom
here’s no denying that Valve’s Steam Link is a fantastic little device Tfor the price, but it doesn’t actually do a whole lot more than stream your PC games from your main PC to the TV. And even then, it has some serious issues with playback at high detail and framerates, especially when trying to render better visuals. Still, for the price it’s hard to beat, but if you want a tiny PC for the living room for media and Steam game streaming, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more. Notice we said a little bit, as it should be possible to build something for around $500 or so, and it’ll do a heck of a lot more than the Steam Link. What follows is our guide for building a budget Streaming/Steam PC, and the various configurations that are available.
room for a full-sized ATX power supply, which is a >STEP 1 major issue for other smaller cases. Built around the Mini-ITX form factor, it has twin expansion Choose your chassis slots, and our favourite feature is the use of sound dampening material throughout, making it one of The very first decision you’re going to have to the quietest mini-PCs on the market. make is what kind of chassis you’re going to use. Your final option is totally different to the other If you want your Streaming box to fit inside a two – buy a NUC-style PC. If you’ve got the cash, standard AV stand, you’re going to need a Home Intel’s new Skull Canyon is basically all you’ll need Theatre PC Case. These tend to cost around to do the job, but it’s not cheap. We’d recommend the $100 to $200 mark, and use the Mini-ITX starting off with a more affordable bare-bones standard sized motherboards. One that we find NUC, such as the ASRock BeeBox. We recommend to be a ripper is the Silverstone ML07 HTPC case, this as it’s one of the few that can handle 4K video which retails for just $85. For such a small case, playback without stuttering – and this is all due to it’s surprising to see that it can house some of the the use of dual channel memory. Thankfully we’re larger GPUs on the market, thanks to the use of a now seeing this feature roll out across competing proprietary PCI-E Riser, and there’s even space for NUCs, such as Gigabyte’s range of Brix units. a water cooler. If you don’t mind going for something a little larger that can sit to the side of your TV stand, a Mini-ITX case might do the job, and provide a little more room. By being larger, they also tend to be quieter, a very important quality in this kind of machine. Our favourite case in this category is the Fractal Design Define S Nano. Priced (top) Fractal Design Define S Nano (above) ASRock BeeBox; (left) Silverstone ML07 at around $110, this case has enough
56 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 your Steam games at maximum >STEP 2 without any hitching or stutter AMD also claims it’s ready to r The CPU video without issues. The max TDP of 65W isn’t too bad, so a Opinions vary wildly here, but we air-cooler should keep it tame. think AMD’s existing range of APUs If on the other hand you deci are perfect for this kind of machine. go with an Intel CPU, we’d recom They have much better integrated something along the lines of th graphics performance than Intel’s Core i3 6100, which has a simil chips, and when it comes to decoding of $160. It’s only a dual core chi a video stream, you don’t really need the inclusion of Intel HD Graphi the power of a discrete graphics card. means it can deliver smooth 4K On the other hand, we don’t want playback. It’s also a very low po anything too hot in our mini-PC, as chip, requiring a mere 51W to o it will cause fan noise to become an Still, we think the AMD APU is t issue. As such, we recommend AMD’s overall solution here. mid-range APU, the AMD A10 7860K, If you’ve chosen the NUC rou which retails for around $150. This stuck with the CPU the manufa quad core chip runs at a top speed of chose for the box. Ensure the C 3.8GHz, which is more than enough can handle the necessary perfo for an HTPC, but it’s the inclusion of for 4K video playback – it shoul the Radeon R7 graphics that makes clearly labelled on the box. If it can do (above) The AMD A10 this the one to watch for. With eight that, it can handle your Steam games includes integrated Radeon R7 graphics; (left) The Intel GPU cores, it should easily stream with ease. Core i3 is very low powered
SO-DIMM DDR3 is >STEP 3 required for NUCs The motherboard
If you’ve gone for the NUC route, you don’t need to worry about a motherboard, but the other two chassis options will likely require the purchase of a Mini-ITX motherboard. However, some mini-PCs already include this – for example, Corsair’s upcoming Bulldog will include a Gigabyte Z170 board inside. We’d recommend going with the cheapest option you can find that has certain features, but one core decision is going to come down to which CPU you use. Obviously, if you’ve chosen the AMD route, you’ll need an AMD >STEP 4 compatible board, and vice versa. A key feature to look for on these Memory boards is the video output – obviously you want something (above) Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/AC mini ITX that is compatible with your TV. The latest spec is the HDMI motherboard; (below) As mentioned earlier, dual channel 2.0 output, which delivers 4K @ 60Hz, though you’re more The Corsair Bulldog memory is an absolute must if you likely to find DisplayPort 1.2 instead, which does the same want smooth 4K video playback. job (1.3 is even better, as it’ll do 4K at 120Hz!). Ensure your Thankfully it doesn’t actually TV or AV receiver is equipped with the relevant option. need to be that fast – even DDR3 As for sound outputs, if you’re using an 1333MHz should do the job fine. AV receiver, HDMI should be all you need. Buy the cheapest kit you can find. However, older sound systems require Bear in mind that if you’ve bought a either S/PDIF or analogue connections for barebones NUC, you’ll also need to each of the surround channels. Check your buy memory, but it’ll need to be of TV and sound system’s needs and choose the SO-DIMM form factor, to squeeze the right board for the job. inside such a small little case.
PC PowerPlay 57 STREAMING >STEP 5 Cooling and Noise
Nobody wants a mini-PC under their TV that sounds like a hair- dryer every time it starts decoding an intensive video stream, but it’s one of the biggest issues with these PCs. Their tiny size makes airflow a real issue, requiring the use of small but high-speed fans that buzz like a hive of bees whenever the PC gets busy. Thankfully, there are several solutions to this issue. The first is to layer the case with sound absorbent material, which can be picked up from PC DIY shops for a few dollars a metre. Layer each side with this material and the Decibels will drop immediately, just be sure not to cover up any cooling vents or air inlets. The second solution is to use a silent air-cooler on the CPU. These tend to cost a little more than standard air coolers, but they’re designed to dissipate heat at much lower fan speeds. They’re also known as low-profile coolers, as the small cases they have to fit into mean they have to be much lower in height. One such example is Noctua’s NH-C14. It might seem relatively tall at 130mm, but it should fit into most mini-PC cases with ease. Best of all, it’s whisper quiet, but you’ll pay for this with a high retail price of $110. All-in-One water coolers are also available for these small builds, but we’ve found they can get rather loud when confined to such small Noctua’s NH-C14 spaces. For the ultimate in silence, a hand-crafted water cooling loop is expensive but is the go, but this obviously increases the price and complexity of the whisper quiet build exponentially.
>STEP 6 Storage
Do you want your Streaming box to double as a media device, or are you happy to let it stream all of its video off your local PC or NAS device? If the latter, we’d recommend going with Ethernet connectivity if possible, especially if you’re going to be streaming 4K video. We’ve found Wi-Fi to be incredibly unreliable as more people start using it in their homes, leading to interference, even when the distance between our router and streaming box was just five metres (and two concrete walls). This was found when using either the 802.11ac or 802.11n modes, and don’t even ask what happens to our Wi-Fi signal when we use the microwave or other devices on the 2.4GHz spectrum. Given the incredibly cheap price of drives these days, we’d recommend installing a large mechanical hard drive into your streaming box, so that you can store all of your media locally, negating the need for a high-speed network to get 4K video playback working smoothly. A 2TB Toshiba drive will only cost $90, and provides plenty of space A 2TB Toshiba for your totally legally downloaded collection drive will only set you back around $90 of Game of Thrones off Apple TV.
58 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 >STEP 7 Power Supply
The final step in our interior build is the power supply. If you’re lucky enough to have gone for the small mini-tower that can fit an ATX power supply, you’re going to save a good chunk of cash as you can pick from a wide range of PSUs. For a system of these specs, we think 300W is plenty, which you can pick up for less than $50. However, if you’ve gone for an ultra-slim system to fit in your AV unit, it’s likely you’re going to need a special SFX power supply. These ultra-small models are actually becoming extremely powerful now, with models offering up to 700W of power, but again we think 300W is enough. SilverStone’s ST30SF 300W PSU SilverStone’s ST30SF is just $65, so it’s not a major price 300W PSU can push all the power you’ll need hike up from existing ATX supplies.
>STEP 8 Peripherals
Ok, so you’ve got your beastly accuracy of a mouse in the form factor streaming PC set up and good to go, but of a control pad, but a lot of users find it you’re going to need a couple of extra hard to use. In their circumstances we’d things to make the most of it – namely recommend the Xbox One Controller Wireless dongle. t if you want to get really serious couch-based gaming, nothing a mouse and keyboard controller. it’s possible to pay stupid amounts (top) Corsair’s Lapdog fits a full sized mechanical keyboard; (above) pboards that host a mouse and Roccat’s Sova features a built in oard, we’ve found it’s just as easy to keyboard; (left) The Steam controller your own. Simply buy a laptop- is an excellent PC peripheral t that has an extendable mouse n the right hand side. Select an priately sized gaming mouse If you follow our guide, you and then use glue to stick it to the should have an extremely p mouse pad. Voila, you’ve got an powerful streaming PC that is mely light, comfortable lapboard for capable of handling 4K video, than $100. Steam streaming, and media However, if you’d rather buy one, streaming, for around the $500 ere are several models due to hit price point. It’s a big leap up from he market soon. Corsair’s lapdog the price of the Link, but we s as huge as it is heavy, while think the ability to run so many Roccat is offering a free Kova more applications thanks to aming mouse with pre-orders of Windows makes this an upgrade ova lapboard. that is easy to justify.
PC PowerPlay 59 NUC CRACKER Tiny PCs can be deceptively powerful. BENNETT RING
Asus VivoStick PC TS10 A PC the size of a pen PRICE www.asus.com.au
t’s hard to believe that we can now buy TV via a HDMI port on one end. We’re 1080p, as well Iwhat is basically a full-featured PC that pretty sure it’s only HDMI 1.4a, so no as run various low- is only slightly larger than a high-lighter, 4K for this thing. Despite its tiny size, performance Windows apps but that’s exactly what the TS10 is. It it also includes a micro USB port for on their TV. BENNETT RING may not have the fastest specs around, power, plus a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port. but when it comes to a simple PC to plug Bluetooth 4.1 means you can connect a into the side of your TV for basic media wireless mouse and keyboard for ease of SMART BUY streaming duties, this thing is magic. control, and it can even be controlled via www.pcpowerplay.com.au Tucked away inside this tiny stick your SmartPhone. There’s even enough t7FSZDIFBQ VERDICT: is Intel’s Atom x5-Z8350 extreme power within to stream Xbox One games t5JOZ low-power CPU, along with 2GB of to another device in your house. t(SFBUDPOOFDUJWJUZ LPDDR3 at 1666MHz. There’s only Did we mention it also comes with PQUJPOT 32GB of eMMC storage for long-term Windows 10 pre-installed? Yep, this t-PXQPXFSFE$16 It’s incredible to see what file storage, but this thing is designed this is incredible value, not to mention t/P, Asus has packed into such to stream thanks to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi incredibly small. Perfect for those who a tiny package. The perfect 9 that’s built in. It plugs directly into your need a streaming device to handle budget streaming device. Intel NUC6i7KYK Redesigned for gamers PRICE www.intel.com
s the inventor of the NUC form be installed, while twin M.2 slots allow Afactor, Intel knows a thing or two for twin SSDs in RAID 0 mode, but you’ll about these products. It’s latest version have to buy these separately. is a huge departure from earlier models Four USB 3.0 ports are included, as though, adopting a much more aggressive is Intel’s 802.11ac solution. This thing look than its predecessors, not to mention can handle 4K video with ease thanks far more powerful specs. to the powerful CPU and HDMI 2.0 and At its heart is Intel’s latest 6th Mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. Bluetooth Gen Core i7-6770HQ processor, with 4.2 will handle your input devices, and t7FSZGBTU$16 VERDICT: integrated Iris Pro Graphics 580. Intel there’s even an IR port if you’d rather t3PPNGPSQMFOUZPG3." claims this is fast enough for casual use a remote. The inclusion of a TOSLINK t 5XJO . TMPUT games like CS:GO, but the inclusion of a output is handy for older audio systems. While this thing is stupidly Thunderbolt 3 port means you can plug There’s no doubting this thing is t 0WFSMZ FYQFOTJWF fast and well-featured, in an external GPU accelerator for true powerful and well-featured, but it does t/PNFNPSZPSTUPSBHF it’s simply priced too high gaming desktop performance. Up to feel rather overpriced given the lack of JODMVEFE compared to other similar BENNETT RING 7 32GB of DDR4 SO-DIMM memory can memory or storage. NUCs
60 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 ASUS VivoMini UN65H Middle of the pack in every way. PRICE www.asus.com.au
elcome to one of the more Waffordable units in Asus’ range of VivoMini PCs. It’s smaller than most NUCs, measuring 13cm x 13cm x 5cm, so will still easily fit next to your TV. It’s available with a range of Intel processors – the i7-6500U, i5-6200U or i3-6100U. The variant at this price uses the i5, which is a very capable processor and includes Intel’s HD Graphics 520. Asus claims this is 4K ready, This is a barebones kit, which means but it seems as if this is only via the no storage or memory is included. Up to full-sized DisplayPort output. There’s 16GB of dual channel DDR3 SO-DIMM also HDMI, but Asus makes no mention can be installed, while there’s space for of it being version 2.0, which we’re sure two types of long term storage. A single they would if it was. The inclusion of a t4PMJEQFSGPSNBODF VERDICT: M.2 slot delivers high-speed file loading, 4 in 1 card reader is handy, as it allows t%FDFOUWBMVF while there’s also room for a large 3.5- for extremely cheap expansion of the t7FSZTNBMM inch mechanical drive, a nice inclusion internal storage. There’s nothing really This barebones unit for those looking for a very cheap file revolutionary about this NUC – it’s a t/PUIJOHSFNBSLBCMF is just a little, well, server. 802.11ac means it can also patch solid, middle of the range offering that BCPVUJU boring really. There’s into your Wi-Fi network to hit up your delivers decent power at a decent price. nothing special here BENNETT RING 7 NAS if you have one. totakenoteof. Asus VivoMini VM65N Power in a mini-PC PRICE www.asus.com.au
ow this is more like it – the other NASUS VivoMini didn’t really turn us on, but the VM65N is a much more impressive beast. It’s much bigger, measuring 19cm x 19cm x 56cm, but even then it’s still nothing compared to Mini-ITX build. Available with two flavours of CPU, either Intel’s 6th Gen Core i5-6200U or or twin 2.5-inch drives. There i3-6100U, the version we’re reviewing doesn’t appear to be any M.2 ports here uses the more powerful of the two. though. What’s most remarkable is that ASUS A stack of I/O options are included has managed to squeeze a discrete – quad USB 3.0, twin USB 3.1, one GPU inside this box. It may only be an TOSLINK, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. Nvidia GeForce GTX 930M with 1GB Again, we’re guessing that you’ll need to of dedicated memory, but you can be use DP for 4K, as there’s no mention that guaranteed of rock solid 4K performance the HDMI port is version 2.0. t%JTDSFUF(16 VERDICT: as a result. It might be a little pricier than the t1PXFSGVM$16 Once again this is a barebones competition, but the inclusion of a t)VHFSBOHFPG*0 system. You can install up to 16GB of discrete GPU and so many USB ports PQUJPOT DDR4 SO-DIMM in dual channel mode, makes this thing worthy of its higher t/P)%.* This powerful NUC while there’s plenty of space for extra cost. In fact, we’d argue it’s probably t4MJHIUMZCJHHFSUIBO comes packing the good storage. The unique removable drive better value than Intel’s new NUC. NPTU /6$T stuff, but you’ll pay a BENNETT RING 9 cage can house either twin 3.5-inch little extra to get it all.
PC PowerPlay 61 NUC ROUNDUP Gigabyte Brix S GB-BS A very fast brick PRICE www.gigabyte.com.au
his is one of Gigabyte’s top-of- Tthe-line Brix units, as you can see one filled with the included from the price. It’s also so new that we Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. couldn’t find it on sale in Australia yet, There’s space inside for ju but it should be in stores by the time one 2.5-inch hard drive, but you read this. So what makes that price no external card reader to b point justifiable? storage any more. Audio ou Let’s start with the 6th Gen Core limited to a single stereo mi I7-6600 CPU, which tops out at 3.4GHz. once again you’ll have to use This packs Intel’s HD Graphics 520, surround sound. so can easily handle 4K video. Sadly it To be frank, at this price w still doesn’t bloody have HDMI 2.0, so a little more. When compared to the t1PXFSGVM$16 VERDICT: you’ll need to use the mini DisplayPort Asus VivoMini VM65N it’s simply lacking t7FSZTNBMMGPSNGBDUPS output to get 4k @ 60Hz. The fact that in value, though it is quite a bit smaller. t2VJFU it also runs dual-channel DDR4 memory Still, without a discrete GPU, space means it’ll slay 4K video, but this isn’t for twin drives or TOSLINK out, this t-BDLT)%.*PS At over $100 more than included. Neither are any hard drives. expensive Brix S doesn’t quite match up MFHBDZBVEJP the Asus VivoMini VM65N, Instead you’ve got the option of filling to the competition, especially as it costs we think the Brix S comes BENNETT RING 7 both M.2 slots with SSDs, or keeping more. off as second best.
Gigabyte Brix GB-BACE-3000 Kingston is back in the game PRICE www.gigabyte.com.au
f you’re looking for the most affordable Video I/O ports Ibarebones NUC in town, you’ve come are rather limited to the right place. This little tacker is too, stuck with a extremely underpowered compared to single HDMI 1.4 and the other players, but it’s also less than VGA out. Thankfully two hundred bucks. As a result, don’t the USB options are much expect it to handle high-speed tasks, better, with four USB 3.0 ports. but as a basic media box it’ll do a decent There’s also a Micro SD card slot enough job. for easy storage expansion. Audio Powering this mini-PC is Intel’s out is limited to a simple 3.5mm stereo SMART Celeron N3000. It mightn’t be fast, but mini-jack, so you’re going to need to use BUY www.pcpowerplay.com.au it sure is quiet. There’s just a single SO- HDMI to deliver surround sound to your DIMM memory slot, with a maximum home AV system. t4VQFSDIFBQ VERDICT: capacity of 8GB, but it’s empty when As you can see, there’s not a lot of t7FSZRVJFU you buy the machine. There’s also an hardware here… and that’s the point. t(PPESBOHFPG64#QPSUT M.2 slot, but it comes pre-filled with It is super affordable, and is great as a Wi-Fi card – a rather nice inclusion a Netflix/Media streaming box. Forget t4MPX$16 at this price. If you’d rather stick with about 4K video or Steam streaming t -JNJUFE TUPSBHF PQUJPOT normal storage, there’s space for a though, as it’s just not powerful enough. t/P,TVQQPSU If you build it cheap, BENNETT RING 8 single 2.5-inch drive, and that’s it. they will come.
62 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
4K GAMING
64 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 4K Gaming – What you need to know Every tech vendor seems to label their products as being “4k ready” but what do you really need for smooth 4k gaming?
K gaming has been the buzzword standards surrounding this ultra-high a whole lot of pixels – 8,294,400 per 4in the gaming hardware sector for resolution gaming? screen refresh to be precise. Considering over a year now, and it’s obvious why. that most games are designed to be Throwing so many pixels on screen at WHAT IS 4K? run at 60Hz, this means a 4K gaming once needs an awful lot of hardware The exact definition of how many pixels machine has to pump out 497,664,000 performance, and manufacturers are makes up a 4K screen depends on which pixels per second, a massive increase always keen to get people to buy the industry you talk to. In the cinema, it’s a over the 124,416,000 required to run a most expensive hardware possible. full 4096 x 2160 pixels, which is where 1920 x 1080 display at 60Hz. It should We’ve been hearing claims of 4K-ready the 4K name came from. This gives it an be pretty obvious that this needs some gaming machines for a while now, but aspect ratio of 1.9:1. However, TV and serious hardware to run. in reality most struggle to maintain computer display manufacturers have Due to the high number of pixels playable framerates, especially when a slightly different definition of 4K. The required to run in 4K, the HDMI 1.4a the action gets accepted resolution in this market is output found on most video cards hot and heavy. 3840 x 2160, giving it an aspect ratio simply isn’t up to the job. The first video So what do you of 16:9, which is what the majority of output that delivered the necessary really need for 4K games and TV content is created in (in bandwidth for 4K video was DisplayPort, gaming, and what TV-land, it’s often referred to as Ultra and the latest version 1.3 enables are some of the High Definition instead of 4K). That’s still 4K resolution at 120Hz, which would
PC PowerPlay 65 4K GAMING
4K HORSEPOWER The number of 4K notebooks we’ve seen powered by GTX 970M class GPUs is absolutely absurd, as there is no way a GPU of this specification can deliver anything like playable performance at 4K resolution. We should point out that the CPU of your gaming machine has very little to do with 4K performance – it’s all about the GPU. A healthy amount of system memory will also go a long way, as storing those huge 4K textures requires abundant space; we’d suggest nothing less than 16GB. Where your 4K performance really comes from is the GPU though, and there isn’t a single graphics card on the market that can deliver 4K performance at a minimum of 60Hz while running at Ultra detail. That’s right – there’s not one card on the market, and that includes the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080. Most cards can handle 4K video playback without much effort, but rendering 3D game graphics at this resolution is an entirely different issue. If you’re happy to lower your detail settings to medium, a couple of GTX 980s should do the job, but because of the higher resolution you’ll notice these lower detail settings. Nope, you’re going to need at least two GTX 980 Ti cards, possibly three, to hit playable 4K performance with a minimum frame rate of 60Hz. You’re talking over $3000 in GPU hardware just to enable 4K, and that doesn’t include the cost of the larger power supply, motherboard and case you’re also going The Asus PB287Q is one of the best gaming to need. Thankfully this issue shouldn’t exist for 4k screens on the market much longer, as there are two solutions – one here already, and one just around the corner. basically require a supercomputer to run. This is suffer from aliasing due to the lower number of NEW GRAPHICS CARDS because it has an extremely high throughput of pixels, which is why 4K is a much more relevant As our GeForce GTX 1080 review shows, this 32.4 Gbit/sec. HDMI 2.0 also now supports 4K technology for gamers. However, we still think card comes relatively close to delivering 60Hz resolution, though its throughput of 18Gbps is it’s really only of much use if you’re using a playback in today’s 4K games. This is why much lower than DisplayPort, so only delivers screen that is 27 inches or larger – the more we’re sure two of them will do the job nicely, as 4K at 60Hz. Finally, the new Thunderbolt 3 affordable 24 inch 4K panels that are coming SLI usually delivers around a 70% performance connection can also be used to power a 4K out are simply too small to make that much of increase. However, it’s only a matter of time display, but these are rare indeed. a difference. Bigger is definitely better when it before Nvidia releases the GTX 1080 Ti, and comes to 4K gaming, with 32 inches being our given the speed boost between the 980 and 4K DISPLAYS recommended size. 980 Ti, we think that the GTX 1080 Ti should Many critics often cite the fact that at most With larger sizes, come large prices. The normal viewing ranges, the difference on a cheapest 32 inch 4K screen on the market is standard 50” TV between 1080p and 4K is currently the Benq BL3201PT, which retails You’re talking over almost imperceptible. You can read lengthy for $1349. It’s not the best for gaming though, $3000 in GPU hardware articles online explaining exactly why this is, with a 4ms grey to grey time, which equals but the difference becomes noticeable as the motion blur. For a true gaming 4K screen, you’ll just to enable 4K, and screen size increases above 80 inches or so. need to look at something like the beautiful This makes 4K an incredibly exciting technology Asus PB287Q. This 28 incher has a 1ms grey that doesn’t include the for projectors, but sadly 4K consumer projectors to grey response time, and can be had for just cost of the larger power are still extremely expensive, with the cheapest $710. That’s rather darn cheap for such a large, model in Australia selling for over $20,000. crisp display, but the real cost of 4K Gaming supply, motherboard Unlike TV viewers though, PC gamers sit isn’t in the display – it’s in the hardware much closer to their screens. Our screens also required to drive it. and case
66 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 mpany’s 28” 4K panel, which However, by far the biggest issue ems a little odd given that with 4K gaming actually has nothing Sync modules are rumoured to do with games – it’s desktop use in nly cost around US$100 to Windows. While Windows 10 itself has 00. sliders to control the size of various ync 4K monitors are few icons and options, the vast majority of ar between, but they do applications available for the platform st. Viewsonic’s XG2700-4K is do not. Most applications running in 7 inch 4K display featuring 4K mode have tiny interfaces that are ’s FreeSync technology. It a nightmare to use, and it’s a problem S panel with a maximum that doesn’t seem to be going away very of 60Hz, though FreeSync quickly. It’s for this reason that we often y works between 40Hz and 60Hz, find notebooks with 4K panels so hard a limitation G-Sync doesn’t suffer to use, and actually recommend the card on from. There’s just one small problem lower resolution versions. Trying to read ket to happily with this screen though – it’s currently a 4K interface on a 13 inch display is a 4K gaming. It’s rumoured not on sale in Australia. However, a fantastic way to introduce eye fatigue. e a 3840 CUDA cores, a huge quick Amazon search reveals it can be increase over the existing GTX 1080, purchased for US $600, which should THE 4K FUTURE and it’s also possible that it will run the make it considerably more affordable Despite the existing issues with 4K, Two GTX 1080 in SLI all but guarantee new HBM2.0 memory type. than the ASUS offering. there’s no doubt that it will become 60+ FPS 4k gaming Meanwhile, AMD has a product in the the standard resolution in upcoming at Ultra settings pipeline that is currently codenamed 4K ISSUES gaming platforms. Heck, even Sony’s Vega. While its recent 400 series products So, you’ve decided to build a mega-rig, new PlayStation 4K will play games at are aimed at the mainstream, Vega is have bought a mental new 4K display, 4K resolution, but it uses trickery to do most definitely not. With an incredible and want to start gaming. Hold up for a so. Instead of rendering the games at 4096 stream processors, somewhere second – there are problems associated full 4K resolution, it takes their existing between 15 and 18 billion transistors, with 4K that we haven’t mentioned yet. resolution and then simply upscales HBM2.0 memory and built on a new The first and most obvious is that it, which won’t look anywhere near as 14nm process, it should definitely give some games simply don’t offer 4K good as true 4K rendering. the GTX 1080 Ti a run for its money when resolution as an option. This is becoming There’s also the benefit that 4K it comes to 4K gaming. Either way, we’d less of an issue as the standard resolution basically negates the need recommend on holding off on building a becomes more popular, but often users for anti-aliasing. When your pixels are rig for 4K until either of these products will need to hack config files to open up this small, the jaggies we’re all used are released, and can’t imagine the GTX the higher resolution. This in turn can to disappear, which helps to lower 1080 Ti to be too far away lead to other image quality issues. the workload on your GPU. We’re also Then there’s the problem of game seeing the introduction – finally – of the EXISTING SOLUTIONS HUDs. With 4K being so rare, most 4K Blu-ray standard, which will drive There are already two solutions on games don’t have an option to a massive uptake in 4K TV displays. If the market that will deliver smooth 4K change the size of the HUD. We’ve and when 4K projectors finally become gaming, provided you’ve got a system run several games in 4K mode and affordable, they’ll offer the ultimate in that can do 4K at around the 40 to 45 found the interface to be almost so bigscreen gaming, with nary a pixel to be fps mark. Both G-Sync and FreeSync tiny that it was basically unreadable. seen. Meanwhile prototype VR headsets deliver smooth gaming performance at Thankfully more games are starting to are already in existence that have 4K these framerates due to the way they incorporate interface-size sliders, but screens… per eye. Yep, that’s a massive synchronise the screen refresh to the it’s still a rarity. 8K of pixels right there, which is about graphics cards frame output. the amount necessary to remove Unfortunately, 4K monitors with the visible pixel structure today’s this technology are extremely HMD’s suffer from. expensive. Finally, as PC hardware gets One such display is the ROG faster, we’ll have $400 graphics SWIFT PG27AQ from Asus. cards that can run 4K with ease. So It’s a 27 incher IPS panel with the future for 4K really is looking 4K resolution and a maximum bright, but we’d caution against refresh rate of 60Hz. The pixel rushing in now – give it at least response time of 4ms isn’t six months to see how Nvidia and amazing, but the inclusion of AMD’s new products shape up, G-Sync means this should tie and preferably a year or two for nicely with a GTX 1080 to deliver the crazy prices to drop. smooth 4K gaming. There’s The ROG SWIFT But by then everybody just one small problem – it’s PG27AQ features will be talking up 8K, incredibly expensive. At $1349 G-Sync but costs and the whole cycle will almost twice as much it’s almost twice the price of the as the Asus PB287Q begin anew.
PC PowerPlay 67 PRE-BUILT 4K SYSTEMS So just what does it take to buy an off-the-shelf PC that is ready to run games at 4K, with Ultra Detail, at a minimum frame rate of 60fps. The first answer is money, cash money, and lots of it. These mega-beasts are not cheap. Secondly, you need a PC-builder who has the knowledge to build such a specialised system, as it need to be uber powerful. We put the call out to a handful of local PC builders to supply 4K-ready systems, yet only two were able to get us these mega beasts. Let’s see what these 4K ninjas can do.
4K Benchmarks METRO LAST LIGHT SHADOW OF MORDOR 3DMARK Fire Stike Ultra
Min FPS Avg FPS Min FPS Avg FPS Score
PLE Overt 25 56 PLE Overt 44 55 PLE Overt 5181 Scorptec Battlebox 35 83 Scorptec Battlebox 73 106 Scorptec Battlebox 9125 PLE Overt Beautiful build, but where’s the SLI? PRICE $6499 www.ple.com.au
e’d just returned from Computex heat from the PSU dissipates straight default clock speed, and most games Wwhen writing this article, and had upwards. only utilise a maximum of four cores at seen some incredibly beautiful builds Gigabyte’s mighty Gigabyte X99 the moment. during our week there. So when we slid Phoenix SLI X99 motherboard provides 32GB of Geil Luce memory is also open the right side of this case and saw the central backbone of this unit, and included, and we were a little surprised a tastily hand-crafted water cooling it’s a $500 ripper. They’ve needed to to see that PLE has kept it at the stock loop and custom-build that was on par use such a powerful board to tame speed of 2400MHz. Having said that, with some of the best of Computex, the brand new Broadwell-E Intel Core memory overclocking can introduce we couldn’t help but be impressed. The i7 6900K CPU. This is an eight-cored stability problems, so it was probably good folks at PLE certainly know how to behemoth with Hyper Threading, and a wise decision. The OS is included build with the best of them, which helps runs at a base clock of 3.6GHz. Boost on Intel’s beautiful 750 series drive, justify the rather stratospheric price speed is slightly faster, at 3.8GHz, but which uses NVMe to triple the speed point of this PC… and yet it’s missing that simply wasn’t good enough for the of standard SATA drives. It’s a 400GB one crucial element that we think true folks at PLE. They’ve pre-overclocked model, which is plenty for your top 10 4K gaming needs. the CPU, which we’ll talk about when we or so games, but there’s also another PLE has chosen to use Corsair’s get to the performance numbers. With 4TB Seagate Barracuda within for excellent Carbide 600C case. This uses a huge cache of 15MB, this is not one longer term media storage. Everything a unique inverse design that places the cheap chip, costing around $1650 at the is powered by Corsair’s RM850x 850W power supply at the top of the case, time of print. Having said that, we still PSU, showing how remarkably power tucked away in its own little box. Not think the four-cored Skylake makes for efficient a machine of this power is. only does it make the machine look a better all-round gaming CPU, as it’s Where things are a little mixed is neater, it helps keep it cooler, as the got architectural improvements, a faster the choice of graphics card. Don’t get
68 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 us wrong, we love the Nvidia GeForce Sadly CPU-Z and GPU-Z both didn’t content creators who need all those GTX 1080 included within, and PLE has show the pre-overclocked settings cores – gamers would be far better removed the stock cooler for a water PLE had put in place, but a quick email served saving a grand on the cost of block. However, for true, smooth 4K confirmed that the Gigabyte software the CPU, and pumping it into another performance we think two of these had defaulted both back to their normal GTX 1080. Knowing how reactive the are necessary – as you’ll see, one just speeds. Unfortunately, as our tests good folks at PLE are, they’ll probably doesn’t cut it for 60fps, ultra detail at confirmed, they’re just not up to running now offer this kind of specification, 4K. We’d have preferred to see PLE today’s more demanding games with a but until then, the Orange gets a use a Skylake processor instead of the minimum of 60fps. They come close, but 10/10 for looks and build quality, but Broadwell-E and go with dual 1080s throw something even more demanding doesn’t quite live up to the 4K promise. instead – we think the performance like Hitman at them and the single GTX BENNETT RING would have been much better. 1080 will struggle. What we do approve of is the There’s no denying that the build beautiful build quality within. Everything quality of this machine is exceptional. is colour coded to be orange and white, However, we think the use of the t"NB[JOHCVJMERVBMJUZ VERDICT: and it looks beautiful. The GPU has an Broadwell-E CPU is a mistake for t)BOECVJMUXBUFSMPPQ EKWB clear water block, while the twin gamers. It might look and sound t%FDFOUQBSUTTFMFDUJPO As the benchmarks XSPC radiators keep everything quiet impressive on paper, but today’s show, this beautifully yet cool. However, there was the slightly games generally use four cores at t#SPBEXFMM&JTBXBTUF built machine just perceptible sound of the fluid running most, and the Skylake architecture is GPS HBNJOH doesn’t have the guts to through the system, but it’s insignificant both faster when it comes to IPC and t0OMZPOF(59 do 4K at Ultra settings 7 over the sound of a game being run. frequency. Broadwell-E is better for with a minimum of 60Hz.
PC PowerPlay 69 PRE-BUILT 4K PCs
Scorptec Battlebox 1080 SLI Gaming PC Utilitarian, but oh so powerful PRICE $4999 www.scorptec.com.au
he differences between the for gaming. This might only have four Where this machine really TScorptec and PLE systems could Hyper Threaded cores, but it has a not be more profound. PLE has Turbo speed of 4.2GHz. The fact it’s a shines though is the use of dual delivered a system that has had K-version also means it’s overclockable, maximum care and attention put into though Scorptec has chosen not to do Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 the build quality of the interior, creating so. They’ve strapped a Corsair H115i a piece of art that any case modder Liquid Cooler to the CPU, keeping it Founders Editions would be proud to show off. On the at ultra-low temps without so much other hand, Scorptec has focused on as a whisper from the huge radiator 3.0 ports waiting for your devices. By pure power, with a relatively simple mounted at the top of the case. In a going with this more affordable CPU interior. It’s well-built, but not in the nice little touch, the water block has a and motherboard choice, Scorptec has same league as the PLE when it comes custom Scorptec H115i cap, showing easily shaved $1000 off the price of to sheer bling. And yet the Scorptec off the builder’s brand. Tweakers should the system compared to PLE. Yet as system is the only one of the two that be able to squeeze another 300MHz out the performance numbers show, this is truly capable of 60Hz minimum Ultra of this chip without too much difficulty CPU is more than powerful enough gaming at 4K, because of their clever thanks to the water cooling solution, to whip the PLE’s system’s butt. And component choices. They’ve focused improving performance even more. It that’s because today’s games don’t on the bits that matter – the GPUs – might not be as impressive as the hand- need more than four cores, reinforcing rather than the bits that don’t. crafted water cooling loop that makes our opinion that the new Broadwell-E Opening the side of the case reveals the PLE a masterpiece to look at, but it CPUs are a waste of money for gamers. a clean, if unremarkable style of build does almost as good a job. Memory is handled by Corsair’s quality. All of the cables are nicely The CPU is housed in a Gigabyte Vengeance LPX DDR4 sticks, with two tucked away, and the use of green GA-Z170X Gaming 6 motherboard, 16GB sticks running at the sweet spot braided power cables gels nicely with one of the finest Z170 boards on the of 2666MHz. the green LED lights on the three case market. We especially like the high-end Samsung’s Samsung 950 PRO fans and water cooling radiator. onboard audio of this motherboard, not 512GB is used for the primary OS and At the heart of the system is to mention the overabundance of I/O games storage, and it’s connected via a Intel’s i7 6700K, our favourite CPU connections, with a plethora of USB high-speed M.2 with NVMe connector.
70 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 There’s also a secondary mechanical drive used for your media files and less important games, in the form of a Seagate 2TB drive. Everything is housed in Corsai massive Obsidian 750D Airflow e case, and Airflow is the right wor use here. Scorptec has installed huge Thermaltake Riing 14cm RG static fans along with a fan contr Under load it’s a little noise thank of these fans (there’s six in total look at. This review has reinforced what you include the radiator), but this pp we already knew – that even a single be tamed with the various fan control even more. Our final test, Metro Last GeForce GTX 1080 simply isn’t good options. Powering it all is Corsair’s Light, showed a 48% improvement in enough for true 60Hz 4K performance; reliable RM850x PSU. average F PS, though even the Scorptec you’re going to need two of these bad Where this machine really shines wasn’t quite fast enough to hit 60fps boys if you want to bring that 4K screen though is the use of dual Gigabyte minimum – we think this is more of a to life. BENNETT RING GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Editions, loading issue at the beginning of the and it’s here that Scorptec made the benchmark though. t5SVF,QFSGPSNBODF VERDICT: absolute right call. 4K is all about GPU, It might not be as fancy as the PLE t(SFBUQSJDF not CPU, and our performance numbers system, but considering it’s $1500 t1FSGFDUDPNQPOFOU Scorptec wins thanks back this up. As you can see, the cheaper and between 50% and 93% DIPJDF to its clever selection Scorptec machine outclassed the PLE in faster, there simply is no competition as t"MJUUMFOPJTZXJUIGBOT of components, every way. It was 76% faster in the 4K to which is the better machine for those POGVMMMPBE delivering true 4K Fire Strike Ultra test, and a whopping who want a 4K box that actually does t/PUUIFQSFUUJFTUCPY performance for just BSPVOE 10 93% faster in the Shadow of Mordor the job, and isn’t simply gorgeous to five grand.
PC PowerPlay 71 GALLERY MSI a Comp 2016 A closer look at the updated laptops
1. The GT83 sports dual desktop 1 GTX 980 cards 2. The GT73 features two GTX 980M cards 3. The GS63 contains a Core i7 and a GTX 970M but thanks to clever cooling is only 17.7mm thick and weighs a slight 1.9kg
2
3 GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ Motherboards
x16 x16 x16 InntelUSBB3.1w 3.1 with Premium 3-Way-Way PCPCIex16 x Triple NVMe PPCIe SSDs
Poowew r Delivery Multi-Graphics Support in RAID 0 Support
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Triple NVMe PPCIe SSDs USB 3 wwith Pre 3 Ie 166
Pr / / Dual Hybrid Fan NVMe U.2 M.2 PCIe Support
Headers Dual Armor with Ultra Durable™ Design
ea ers
Dual Hyybbrid Fan
www.gigabyte.com.au *Features may vary by models. *The above photos are for reference only. INDUSTRY State of Industry It’s a good time to be a part of the PC master race
o be frank, this is Tone of the most >CPUS exciting years in PC hardware history in There is finally hope in sight that Intel’s recent memory, and utter dominance over AMD’s CPU core it’s been driven by two performance will come to an end with the major product announcements. In case Consumer Virtual upcoming release of the AMD Zen core you hadn’t noticed, the PC gaming Reality is now an architecture. Unfortunately it’s not expected actual reality industry has gone Virtual Reality crazy, to arrive until late 2016/ early 2017, but it’s with the launch of two successful VR a huge redesign of the cores used in today’s kits in the form of the Oculus Rift and AMD CPUs. It aims to improve performance HTC Vive. It turns out these are just two via several key design changes. Firstly, it’s The 10 core Broadwell-E is powerful but of many – at Computex, I discovered aiming for high Simultaneous Multithreading bested by Skylake in gaming performance there are over 100 new Head Mounted throughput. Secondly, a new high-bandwidth, Displays (HMDs) in development in low-latency cache should provide a shot in the arm. It’ll be using the same FinFET China. Sure, most of these will probably transistor design currently used by Intel, and performance is claimed to be suck, but there’s real potential here for extremely close to Intel’s latest Skylake cores. It’s being designed by Jim Keller, the some killer products to land soon. same engineer who brought us the Athlon XP and Athlon 64, two products that The other major new product launches gave Intel a nice black eye. Leaks are touting a 40% performance improvement per are two new GPU architectures from clock, a massive increase compared to the 5 to 7% Intel seems to think is ok. AMD and Nvidia, both driven by TSMC On the other hand, Intel has two new CPUs up its sleeve. The first, and the one finally being able to hit their 16nm/14nm which dominated Computex, is the new Broadwell-E chip, and to be honest we’re a FinFET manufacturing process. It’s taken little unexcited about it. Based on the Broadwell architecture released in 2015, it’s a this transistor company almost half a huge multi-cored version of this consumer-level chip. We’re expecting a ten-cored, decade to hit this target, after years of Hyper-Threaded chip, which is fantastic if you’re a video editor or CAD designer. delays, which has held both GPU makers AMD look to However, squeezing so many cores into a chip leads to thermal issues, so don’t back from faster, more energy efficient be seriously expect very high frequencies. From what we’ve read, base frequencies will start designs. This goes to show that as the re-entering the at a mere 3GHz, so this chip will probably be actually worse than a much cheaper CPU race manufacturing processes get smaller, the Skylake CPU when it comes to gaming. So far, so meh. problems associated with making smaller Of a little more interest is the new Kaby Lake transistors get exponentially larger, so processor, designed to replace the Skylake. in the near future we’re going to have Thankfully it should still support the Socket to come up with some unique ways to 1151 interface of Skylake, yet it seems to be get around the issue. Heck, the FinFET coming with a new chipset in the form of the design of these new transistors was first 200 series, with increased I/O performance. proposed sixteen years ago, showing Apparently it’ll be backwards compatible with how long it takes an engineering concept today’s 100 series boards. As for performance to become a reality. Without further improvements, expect the usual 5% to 10% that ado, lets take a look at the state of the Intel offers with each new generation – here’s hardware industry as it stands in 2016. hoping AMD’s Zen can surpass this.
74 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 S
ead this, AMD’s rather weird June announce it’s new RX400 series uld have passed, so we can finally w at the recent Macau launch. In for the company, it’s aiming at the and foremost with these three new VR-ready performance at sub US$199
contrast to Nvidia’s approach with TX 1080, which will ship for around ng 40% more performance than a a is aiming for the hardcore users To see AMD and Nvidia take such proaches for the first time will be AMD has a dedicated se tactics will work best? AMD claims roadmap to high end GPUs he current PC gaming market has the Nvidia launched with their n VR, so is focusing on the remaining high end card and will roll out budget options later ange. According to their stats, 84% of the gaming market buys cards that are between US$100 and US$300, so their sub US$200 cards should hit the sweet spot. Yet in the past AMD cards have usually been cheaper than Nvidia’s, and still don’t sell as well. Nvidia has already announced the GeForce GTX 1070, which has a US price of US$449, and there’ll inevitably be a GTX 1060 on the way. Also, Nvidia’s proprietary Simultaneous Multi-Projection technology gives it a huge leg-up when it comes to VR performance; we’re talking double the speed of an AMD card. >MOTHERBOARDS AMD isn’t just focusing on the mid-range though, with its Vega architecture due late this year. Using The big focus on motherboards this year are affordable X99 boards HBM2.0 memory, it won’t be limited to the 4GB of last for the new Broadwell-E processors; at least that’s what we seemed year’s Fury, and it’s rumoured to use around 15 billion Affordable to see at this year’s Computex. And the key feature on these new transistors, making it by far the most complex GPU on X99 mobos for boards is the widespread adoption of USB 3.0 and 3.1, not to mention Broadwell-E the market… well, until the GTX 1080 Ti launches. Thunderbolt 3. It’s now basically impossible to find a motherboard seem to be Whatever happens, this year is a very interesting a big push that doesn’t have one of these ports on it. HDMI 2.0 is also going to one for the GPU wars; here’s hoping AMD can reclaim become a mainstream feature, ready to deliver 4K resolution at 60Hz Kaby lake some of the ground it’s lost over the last few years. As motherboards to all those 4K TVs that are now starting to sell so well. one vendor at Computex said to us “If the new RX400 should offer Intel’s new 200 series chipset should land by the end of the year, cards don’t sell, AMD could well be doomed”. faster I/O in time for its new CPUs. One key new feature will be support for performance Intel’s 3D Xpoint memory architecture. Intel claims this will enable solid state storage that has throughput and write durability up to 1000 times higher than flash memory, while latency is ten times lower compared to NAND SSD over NVMe.
PC PowerPlay 75 INDUSTRY
The introduction of VR has been extremely exciting, and yet we wonder if the industry is getting a little bit too excited.
PCIe 3.0 DDR4 x4 or NVMe NVME SSDs will have read times The last major area of change in PC components this year of around While M.2 drives are now hitting the masses, this year should 2600MB/s is DDR4. Now that it’s the norm with Intel’s 6th Gen Core see the adoption of the next iteration in solid state drives processors, prices have plummeted. It’s now possible to pick NVMe. This stands for Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller up a 16GB kit for around $80. The race is now on to increase and is a total redesign of the way today’s SSDs work. M.2 the speeds of these kits, and we’ve seen speeds of up to drives still use instruction sets designed for our old spinning 4000MHz already on the market. The question is whether mechanical drives, but NVMe is instead optimised for today’s or not these speeds are really necessary – in a recent test Flash-memory based SSDs. The improvements in speed are we found almost no difference in the vast majority of games incredible – with read times of around 2600MB/sec, and write between DDR4 2400MHz and DDR4 3600MHz. Only a tiny times of 1600MB/sec, these are blazingly fast drives. You’ll minority of games with memory issues, such as Fallout 4, be able to mount them in a standard PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, or use a noticed any perceptible increase in speed. So unless you’re special NVMe plug that will ship with certain motherboards. wanting to set some world records, or just show off that you have the fastest memory around, we’d suggest sticking DDR4 speeds are with DDR4 2666MHz, which seems steadily increasing to be the sweet spot in price at the but 2666 MHz seems Conclusion to be the sweet spot moment. The introduction of VR has been extremely exciting, and yet we wonder if the industry is getting a little bit too excited. high, yet AMD premonitions n VR units in of gamers in ew years. Don’t ong, we love ology, but we going to take er to hit those mbers, and in makers might d by the lack of ted.
76 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
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Ryan Psaila & Jason Harp Company directors at Supremacy Gaming
t’s possible to hire a game server from Ione of many companies in Australia, but it can cost big bucks depending on how many players are going to be using it. Also, you lose a lot of control when doing so. So why not host your own? We spoke to Ryan Psaila and Jason Harp, both company directors at Supremacy Gaming, an organisation which runs their own server farm, to find out just how to go about it.
What servers do you run? Supremacy: We run 6 x Hardcore BF4 servers on a commercial dedicated server host, but we privately host 1 x ARK Evolved, 1 x CS:GO and 4 x Minecraft servers
What hardware does each box require, and how many server clients can each handle? Our commercial BF4 server is dedicated to our servers and allows us a maximum of 300 player slots that we can distribute the cap of 40Mbps upload that is currently into servers to meet our community needs. For our private hosting we run an HP Gen8 available, this greatly limits the maximum v2 server. The server itself is capable of capacity of player slots we can offer running all of the existing servers with physical memory and CPU power to run many more, however our limiting factor What kind of ISP would you suggest community, if the community wants to is the upload bandwidth that is currently to those who want to host their own try a game, and we can host it, there is no available with residential fiber plans. servers? extra cost to see if it is something we want An ISP that provides excellent support to continue. What’s the most important facet as issues arise at all times of the day and when hosting servers? night, also a strong connection to where What’s the biggest challenge with Uptime availability, and the quality of the the servers are hosted. I also wouldn’t running your own servers? connection for a lag free user experience. recommend trying to run multiple servers Unfortunately the Australian gaming on anything less than NBN or fibre as the community is quite immature compared How many players would use your main requirement for the server is a good, to the northern hemisphere, so DDOS servers each month, and how does stable upload speed. attacks are seen as an acceptable action, that equate to hosting costs? this requires the best protection you We have had over 36,000 unique players Why do you run your own servers? can afford and constant awareness of visits on our BF4 servers. We estimate The main reason to run our own servers potential attacks. Another factor as around 2000 to 5000 individual players per is to save on operating costs for servers mentioned before is the cap of 40Mbps month on our servers which justifies our that may not be as popular as some of upload that is currently available, this large investment costs for the dedicated the larger games. We currently save well greatly limits the maximum capacity of server over individual paid instances. Our over $200.00 per month in equivalent player slots we can offer. private servers have less of a turn over server costs from a commercial provider. as they are more specific games that are It also allows great flexibility in the requested from our community members. game choices that we can offer to our
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hen it comes to gaming, there the way from $1139 down to $175 to PRICE COMPARISON Wis one component that takes see just what you get for your money. precedence when it comes to power – Unfortunately AMD’s new RX400 series $AUS your graphics card. With most CPUs now couldn’t make it in time, but we’ll be hovering around the 3.5GHz to 4GHz doing a full roundup of them in the next Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 $1139 range, and system memory between 8GB issue of PC PowerPlay’s standard edition. ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti $899 and 16GB, your graphics card is arguably In the meantime, let’s see just how far MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt. $779 the single most important piece of the your dollar will stretch, starting all the ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X $540 pie for game performance. We’ve taken way at the top of the pile, with Gigabyte’s Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White $249 a look at six different price points, all beastly G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 1080. PowerColor R7 360 $175 GPU Benchmarks METRO LAST LIGHT Benchmarks SHADOW OF MORDOR Benchmarks
1080p Ultra 1920 x 1080, 4xMSAA, Ultra Detail Min FPS Avg FPS Min FPS Avg FPS
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 41 141 Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 100 161 ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti 12 105 ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti 71 105 MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt. 41 123 MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt. 81 131 ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X 42 89 ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X 67 99 Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White 28 49 Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White 28 43 PowerColor R7 360 15 27 PowerColor R7 360 12 30 3DMARK Firestrike 3DMARK Firestrike Extreme (2560 x 1440)
Score Score
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 16812 Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 9304 ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti 12611 ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti 6499 MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt. 14717 MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt. 7829 ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X 11579 ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X 5829 Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White 6277 Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White 3183 PowerColor R7 360 3847 PowerColor R7 360 1802
82 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 1080 The new king of the crop
PRICE www.gigabyte.com.au
elcome to the current king There are several key reasons, but the factory overclocked to hit 1936MHz Wof GPUs, Nvidia’s brand new biggest is the huge boost to the GPU when using its VGA-EXTREME GeForce GTX 1080. Based on its new frequency. While the GTX 980 Ti had a overclocking software. Unfortunately Pascal architecture, it’s actually quite base speed of 1000MHz, the GTX 1080 we couldn’t verify this – we installed the similar to the older Maxwell architecture ramps this up by 60%, to 1607MHz. latest version of both this and GPU-Z, in many ways. The main difference is The Boost clock, which is the speed but GPU-Z showed the stock speed of a process shrink; whereas the 980 Ti the card runs at under load, is even 1784MHz. was stuck on a 28nm process, the new faster, up from 1075MHz to 1733MHz. As the benchmarks show, this card Pascal chips are being built on TSMC’s Overall we’re looking at a 70% boost isn’t that much faster at 1080p, which is long overdue 16nm FinFET process. in frequency, thought the cut-backs in why we included the Fire Strike Extreme This reduction in transistor size brings other components means we won’t see test, which runs at 2560 x 1440. It’s several advantages. For starters, Nvidia a 70% boost in overall performance. here that we can start to see the can cram more transistors into a smaller This card also utilises the new performance boost, and this will only piece of silicon, making it cheaper to GDDR5X memory, which runs at increase as the resolution increases. As produce (eventually). Secondly, they 10Gbps. This compares well to the one of the more affordable GeForce GTX require less power to run, by about half 7Gbps of the GDDR5 used on the GTX 1080s on the market, and with such an in fact. But where these transistors 980 Ti, though the memory bus width excellent factory overclock, Gigabyte really shine is in their speed, as you’ll has dropped from 384-bits to 256-bits. has once again produced one of the best see in a moment. The total amount of onboard memory versions of Nvidia’s products. BENNETT As far as specs go, compared to has also increased, up from 6GB to 8GB. RING the 980 Ti, the GTX 1080 has actually Gigabyte’s take on the GTX 1080 had several key areas cut back when includes its new Windforce Stack 3x compared to its predecessor. The total 100mm fan cooling system, which number of CUDA cores has dropped seems a little louder than the standard t#JHQFSGPSNBODFCPPTUBU VERDICT: from 2816 to 2560, while the number of blower used on NVIDIA’s Founder’s IJHISFTPMVUJPO texture units has also decreased, from Edition, measuring 45dB under load t2VJFU This is an exemplary 176 to 160. The biggest drop though is during 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme test. t&YDFMMFOUGBDUPSZPWFSDMPDL version of Nvidia’s the number of ROPs, falling from 96 in It’s still by no means annoying, and will t&YQFOTJWF newest chipset, the the 980 Ti to 64 in the GTX 1080. So why be barely audible inside a case. A single t#JH GeForce GTX 1080, is the 1080 up to 40% faster than the 8-pin power plug is used to supply with an excellent 10 980 Ti, especially at higher resolutions? power, and Gigabyte claims that it is factory overclock.
PC PowerPlay 83 GRAPHICS CARD GROUP TEST Asus 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti Goodbye 980 Ti, Hello GTX 1070 PRICE www.asus.com.au
hen this card was first Designed specifically for Our benchmarks show that this card Wintroduced, it simply blew power users and overclockers, is around 17% slower in the Fire Strike the competition away. Offering Asus included special features Extreme benchmark, with the gap most of the performance of a GeForce for lovers of liquid nitrogen. An widening to 20% in the Shadow of GTX Titan X, it shaved a solid $500 off LN2 mode switch allowed severe Mordor benchmark. the price point. Sadly it’s now basically overvoltaging, while the memory At the time of its release, this was obsolete thanks to the introduction of defroster feature helped to keep the the GTX 980 Ti to own if you wanted Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 1070, which memory defrosted when required. If the very best card on the market. Sadly can be bought for just $769, a solid things went pear-shaped, a safe mode it’s now a victim of the killer of all saving of $120. The good news is that button reset the VBIOS back to default technologies – time. The good news is Nvidia has announced price drops for settings. The Asus logo on the side that Asus has a range of GeForce GTX the GTX 900 series, so we should see lights up to show the load that the 1070 and 1080 cards on the market, the price of this card drop in the near card is under, with four different colour and we can expect the advanced future… hopefully. values depending on just how hard the features of this card to make it into At the time this card came out, it card is being pushed. Extreme quality their prestigious version of their new was the fastest GTX 980 Ti product control, with GPU binning, ensured only products. BENNETT RING on the planet. Asus had endowed it the best components were used on this with 14-phase Super Alloy Power II, collector’s edition. which apparently delivers 30% power As a result of these improvements, noise and 5 times greater durability. Asus was able to deliver a huge 26% The beautiful custom cooler came in increase on the Base clock of the custom black and gold, making it stand card, and that was before tweakers out from the pack, and delivered 30% squeezed even more out of it. The better cooling performance while being Boost clock increased even more, up t"NB[JOHCVJMERVBMJUZ VERDICT: three times quieter than the reference from 1075MHz on reference cards to t*OOPWBUJWFPWFSDMPDLJOH cooler designed by Nvidia. We measured 1367MHz. Despite having more CUDA GFBUVSFT Asus really needs to shave it at 42dB while under load, which isn’t cores than today’s GeForce GTX 1070, a couple of hundred bucks quite as impressive as Asus claims, but with 2816 compared to just 1920 in t4MPXFSCVUNPSF off the price of this card we should point out we were testing in the newer card, sadly the GeForce FYQFOTJWFUIBOB(F'PSDF for it to compete with the a heated study to handle Melbourne’s GTX 980 Ti GPU just can’t keep up as (59 stunning new GeForce GTX 7 freaking cold winters. the clock speeds simply aren’t there. 1070 range.
84 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition Our favourite mainstream card
PRICE www.msi.com
SMART BUY www.pcpowerplay.com.au
elcome to the best value MSI hasn’t factory a mere 18% slower in the Shadow of Wmainstream card on the planet, overclocked this Mordor test. Considering the price Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 1070. The version of the is 32% cheaper, and some folks are 670 and 970 were both our favourites GTX 1070, sticking with the exact same reporting overclocks in the region of in the last two product lines, offering frequencies as Nvidia’s reference design 2GHz, this card is without doubt the much of the performance of the more – they’ve saved those factory overclocks best value offering for performance expensive 680 and 980 but with a for its GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G, which users who don’t want to spend over a considerable price saving, and the new has a top factory overclock of 1797MHz grand. In fact, buying two of these will GTX 1070 is no different. Priced at just in Boost mode. That’s not exactly huge offer an amazing performance increase $779 yet delivering performance that compared to the Founder’s Edition, but compared to some of the premium outstrips a Titan X, this is the card to we’re sure it’ll overclock even better GeForce GTX 1080s on the market, for buy if you’ve got $700 waiting for a GPU once tweakers get their hands on it. around the same price. upgrade. 8GB of GDDR5X is included, but it’s So there you have it – welcome to PC As expected, this is simply a cut-back only clocked at 8Gbps compared to the PowerPlay’s favourite new performance 1080. The total number of CUDA cores 10Gbps of the 1080. However, it runs product for those who don’t have wads drops from 2560 in the GTX 1080 to over the same memory bus width of of cash to burn. We can’t wait to see 1920 in the 1070, while the number 256-bits. As this is a Founder’s Edition what some of the other variants of of Texture Units takes a dive from of the GTX 1070, MSI has had to use the GeForce GTX 1070 have to deliver. 160 to 120. Surprisingly the number the exact same Founder’s Edition cooler BENNETT RING of ROPs remains the same though, found on all cards with this branding, at 64. Like the GeForce GTX 1080, which is Nvidia’s custom aluminium the new GTX 1070 is built on those blower design. Under load we measured zippy, power efficient 16nm FinFET 45dB of fan noise, which basically silent transistors, and it’s here that it gets once tucked away in a tower. t(SFBUWBMVF VERDICT: a huge speed boost compared to its Due to the lower specs, this card only t$MPTFUP(F'PSDF(59 predecessor. The GeForce GTX 970 draws a mere 150W of power, which is QFSGPSNBODF had a Core clock speed of 1050MHz, simply incredible given the performance. t1PXFSFGGJDJFOU This is our new favourite whereas the new card bumps this up As you can see, it shredded through t4UPDLTIPSUBHFTEVFUP GPU at PC PowerPlay, by almost 50%, to 1506MHz. The Boost our benchmarks. It was just 15% slower QPQVMBSJUZ and we can’t wait to see clock has also been pumped up, from than the GTX 1080 in the demanding what other vendors do 10 1178MHz to 1683MHz. Surprisingly Fire Strike Extreme benchmark, and with this chipset.
PC PowerPlay 85 GRAPHICS CARD GROUP TEST ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X Time will tell
PRICE www.asus.com.au
t’s very hard to the 275TDP of this power-hungry price. It’s around 20% slower than the Irecommend a product beast. Known as the DirectCU III GTX 1070, yet 30% cheaper, making it when a replacement series is thermal cooler, it makes this card rather damn good value. Even at higher just around the corner, but when extra-long, at 30cm. You’re going to resolutions of 2560 x 1440 it’s only it comes to the R9 390X, we think it’s need plenty of space for this sucker. It’s 25% slower than a GeForce GTX 1070, probably going to outdo the new RX 480, also a little loud, hitting 47dB during which is right on point given the price albeit it at a slightly higher price. This is our audio test. Packing a huge 2816 of this product. because the R9 390X has 44 Compute Stream processors, 176 Texture units Speaking of which, we can expect Units compared to the 480’s 36, and and 64 ROPs, this is a rather potent the R9 390X to drop even lower in price AMD doesn’t seem to be able to manage product for the price. All of this power once the new RX 400 series comes out, the same incredible frequency increases is fed via one 8-pin and one 6-pin which will make it a killer product for as Nvidia’s new Pascal range. We’re power plug. around the $500 price point. Our only expecting to see the RX 480 with a Core Asus has endowed this card with concern is how hot this thing gets – clock speed of just 1266MHz, which has 8-phase Super Alloy Power II, which with a TDP of 275W it needs a louder a boost speed of 1050MHz. The RX 480 refers to an advanced power design cooler and will definitely heat up the also only has memory bus of 256-bits, over AMD’s reference. And yet it’s only inside of your case. But at the $500 compared to the ultra-wide bus of 512- had the slightest of factory overclocks, price point, this card is the one to get. bits on the R9 390X. On the other hand, upping the Boost clock from AMD’s BENNETT RING the RX 480’s memory will probably be 1050MHz to just 1090MHz here – clocked faster at 8Gbps, versus 6Gbps that’s well under the usual increase we on the R9 390X, so the difference in expect from the premium Strix brand. performance may not be great. Back when this card was released, But enough crystal ball gazing – having a backplate was rather unique, just what do you get with the Asus but it’s become pretty stock standard t(PPE TPMJE7BMVF VERDICT: Stix Radeon R9 390X? Well, as many these days, though not so much at this t#SJMMJBOUCVJMERVBMJUZ Asus fans will already know, the Strix price point. It was also the first product t4PMJEQFSGPSNBODF branding is the cream of the crop for on the market to use twin 10mm When it comes to the Asus, so you’re getting their premo heatpipes, but we’ve seen others since t/PJTZDPPMFS $500 or so price point, version of the R9 390X. This is a huge then with this world first. t3VOTIPU the R9 390X is the card card thanks to the whopping triple As far as performance, goes, this t)VHF to beat, and this premium 8 fan cooler, necessary to get rid of card isn’t too shabby at all for the version is one of the best.
86 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White Mutton dressed up as lamb PRICE www.msi.com
t’s probably going to be quite some decent range of graphics Itime until Nvidia releases its GeForce outputs are included, with GTX 1050, so in the meantime the older triple DisplayPort 1.2, Dual GeForce GTX 950 is the sweet spot Link DVI and a single HDMI for gamers. Yet, this version is hard to port. This is a HDMI 2.0 port, comprehend – with other GTX 950 cards which makes this a decent card selling for $210, the extra $40 doesn’t for a HTPC, but it lacks the HDR really get you a whole lot. And at this support of today’s newer cards. price, $40 extra is definitely something Given that $200 versions of the buyers are conscious of. GTX 950 also overclock to these Compared to other cards in Nvidia’s levels with ease, we’re not sure the 25% its hands when AMD’s new range, this thing has quite a low count of increase in price is really justified. In fact, RX400 series arrives. With CUDA cores, at just 768. It’s also only got it’s even possible to pick up a GTX 960 think the RX470 in particular 48 Texture Units, with another 32 ROPs. for the same price as this card, which will be the prime competitor, as the prices There’s only 2GB of onboard memory, makes absolutely no sense at all – why should be similar but the performance with runs at 6.6GHz over a 128-bit would you pay the same price for a significantly higher. BENNETT RING memory bus. Galax has given this card a significantly slower product? However, t-PPLTQSFUUZ VERDICT: decent factory overclocking, increasing the performance really isn’t too shabby t3FMBUJWFMZRVJFU the Core clock from 1024MHz to for such an affordable card. It delivered Until we start to see huge 1203MHz. The Boost clock has also been relatively playable performance in our price drops on Nvidia’s given a bump, rising from the reference game benchmarks, and should deliver t4BNFQSJDFBTB(59 budget range of cards, of 1188MHz to just 1405MHz. Even the oodles of performance for less demanding t".%TOFX39XJMM products like this make no memory has been overclocked, but only games like CS:GO and DOTA, but it’s going EFTUSPZUIJT sense in the face of AMD’s 5 by the tiniest amount, up to 6.73GHz. A to have some serious competition on new RX400 range. PowerColor R7 360 Patience, grasshopper. PRICE www.powercolor.com
ometimes you just can’t afford the “Radeon R7 Series Replacement Sbest, and the games you play don’t Optimised for e-Sports gaming”.I need all that much power. This is where they’re saying out loud, chances a sub-$200 cards are extremely popular, they’re on the money. especially amongst e-Sports players and But until we actually get an RX4 those on a budget. However, once again our hot little hands, let’s see what we’re forced to gaze into our crystal replacing. This card comes with jus ball to see how AMD’s old R7 series will of onboard memory, so it’s obvious compare with its new RX400 range, but not aimed at high-resolution gamin unlike the R9 390X, we think the R7 360 In fact, even 1080p is probably a bit Given the lower TDP of is probably going to be decimated by the a struggle for this sucker. With a me the card, the overall size of the card is new competition. 768 Stream Processors, 48 Texture quite surprising – it’s not long, but it is It has but a mere 12 Compute Units Units and a tiny 16 ROPs, it’s obvious high. A single fan is tasked with taming within, with a Turbo speed of just that this the bottom of the stack for the 100TDP, and it measured in at 1050MHz. Compare this to AMD’s new AMD. There is one benefit to this – it rather noisy 48dB during our load test. entry-level card, the RX 460. It has 14 only requires 100W. That used to sound BENNETT RING Compute units, which has a base clock pretty impressive, until you realise the t"GGPSEBCMF VERDICT: of 1000MHz. The memory bus width replacement RX 460 will only need 75W t-PXJTIQPXFSVTBHF is identical, at 128-bits, but the RX of juice, making it perfect for thermally Another one bites the 460 increases the memory speed from limited HTPCs and mini-PCs. dust thanks to a new 6.6Gbps to 7Gbps. Even AMD is being Given its age, the lack of HDMI 2.0 is t"WFSBHFQFSGPSNBODF generation of cards on open about the RX 460 being the better to be expected, but you’ll still be able t"CPVUUPCFPVUDMBTTFE the way – hold out for card, with a quote from their recent to power 4K TVs via the DisplayPort CZ 39 the RX 460 instead of 5 RX 400 series PowerPoint deck saying connector. There’s also Dual Link DVI. buying this el cheapo.
PC PowerPlay 87 VR PERIPHERALS Virtual Insanity The headsets are here, but real VR still requires more
88 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 n case you hadn’t noticed, the PC IMPROVED HEAD to “pathologies in the developing visual Ihardware industry has gone nuts for MOUNTED DISPLAYS system of children” according to a group Virtual Reality. It’s banking massive While there’s no denying that today’s of Stanford University researchers. amounts of marketing money behind Vive and Rift are both impressive, Thankfully there’s an answer that the concept, not to mention a bit of they’re a long way from being perfect. delivers true depth, and it’s called a 4-D R&D, in the hope that it will finally give Several major issues stand out that stop Lightfield Display. A realworld 3D object everybody a reason to upgrade their them from delivering a truly perfect emits light rays in a variety of directions, PC hardware. This year’s Computex VR experience. The first, and most and this is called a lightfield. The eyes was absolutely dominated by VR-ready obvious, is resolution. Both units deliver then use these lightfields to see which signs, with every single major vendor a resolution of 2160 x 1200, split down objects are further away than others. pushing the message that their gear is the middle to give each eye 1080 x 4-D Lightfield displays mimic this by the best for VR. 1200. That sounds extremely sharp for overlaying two semi-transparent LCD More importantly, there’s also the such small displays b t th ’ h il b kli ht d th th fact that the release of the HTC Vive magnified via the sp both headsets. As a easy to see the pixe as well as the black between each pi The only ans to higher reso and there are prototypes in has already d 5.5” panel wi of 3840 x 216 density of 806p increase over the today. Yet even that be enough to totall Some ocular scienti perfectly replicate t today, each eye will and 40K screen – this is Oculus decades away at least. In the meantime Rift have let’s just be happy with the upgrade to proven 4K and then 8K, though we should bear that VR in mind the hardware requirements that is finally a will drive with it. viable concept. A way to solve this hardware power Both excellent issue could be the use of a technology VR kits in their own called foveated rendering. By tracking right, they’ve shown where the eye is looking, the game that when done well, VR can engine only needs to render the most deliver an incredible experience, detail at the centre of the screen – it can in the near future, as they’re already in 4-D Lightfield exponentially more impressive than the use Level of Detail tricks to lower detail prototype stage. Displays realisticly mimic how light entertainment experiences of the past. away from the center of the screen. There are other obvious issues bounces from objects It really is that good when the game is Another issue that today’s HMD’s to solve, such as lighter headsets, in the real world made right – and we’ve only seen the struggle with is faking distance. removing the tether and wider first gen of games, which are all simple In reality, our eyes are constantly fields of view, but these are all experiments to see what works. It’s the readjusting to different depth cues, but relatively easy to fix compared to the next few generations of games that will when using an HMD, we’re stuck looking aforementioned issues. really show off the potential of VR. at a screen that is at a fixed point in And yet, while we’ve got two good space. There are various tricks that can OMNIDIRECTIONAL TREADMILLS kits on the market, there are a host of be used to simulate depth, but they’re One of the key reasons people feel ill VR issues that need to be solved using basically hacks. Binocular Disparity in a Virtual Space is the lack of real different peripherals to deliver an even gives each eyeball a slightly different motion. While the eyes and brain can more immersive experience. We’re here view of the world, and the brain then see that the player is moving, various to touch on a few that we’ve seen in processes this to give the illusion human sensors don’t measure any the flesh, as well as a few that are in of depth. Motion Parallax, Binocular motion. For example, one primary experimental form. It’s going to take Occlusions and Vergence are all other system is the vestibular system, many years to solve some of these techniques that we can use to fake a chamber filled with fluid in the problems, while other solutions are just depth, but they’re a far cry from the real inner ear which acts basically like an around the corner. world. In fact, apparently they can lead accelerometer. If this doesn’t detect
PC PowerPlay 89 VR PERIPHERALS
movement in the fluid, yet the eyes do, it can lead to simulation sickness. Valve has solved this issue handily by introducing room-scale tracking, where the player can walk around a room-sized VR space. However, what if you want to play The Witcher 3, where you can run across miles of landscape rather than a small 2.5m x 2.5m room? It’s here that several options are available, and the most likely of these are omnidirectional treadmills. As the name suggests, this is simply a treadmill that lets the player run in any direction. It sounds simple, but building a treadmill that supports 360 degrees movement is anything but. One solution is to cover the base in tiny ball bearings, but this is as costly as it is tricky to use. The only retail VR omnidirectional treadmill on the market at the moment is the Virtuix Omni. For US$699, you get a large platform that the player is strapped into. The base is a 360 degree dish made of rather smooth plastic, and the player wears special shoes with a VR backpacks allow slippery base. Sensor pods mounted for untethered VR on the top of each shoe track your feet with the drawbacks of weight and battery life movement, and it’s possible to walk, run, turn and even crouch. VR BACKPACKS to walk untethered. Both HP and Unfortunately the only unit we saw We first saw custom VR backpacks had built their VR backpacks as a (thanks to the peeps at www.merkava. last year when we checked out the computers shaped as backpacks com.au) wasn’t in operation due to early brilliant Zero Latency warehouse- whereas Zotac simply stuffed a software, which only supported a single sized VR experience in Melbourne. into an existing backpack. Only Zotac title, but it’s looking to be the most An empty warehouse served as the would go on record regarding battery affordable and workable omnidirectional playing space, while each player had life, stating around two hours was the treadmill to hit the market. to wear a VR headset and carry a fake expectation. Virtuix Omni sounds like a character weapon to blast through the virtual With most of these backpacks from Asterix zombie apocalypse. Over the course weighing around the 5kg mark, we can’t of the experience, and by using clever see them taking off for home users in navigational cues, players end up the near future. There’s also the issue walking over a kilometre, so there’s that by making you totally untethered, obviously no way a tethered VR HMD you’re going to need a much larger play will work in such an environment. space to take advantage of the freedom Even when using the HTV Vive in offered by these backpacks. In the room-scale mode, getting tangled up meantime we’d suggest a much simpler in the tether that links the headset to solution for the HTV Vive – simply the PC is a common problem, though drill a rotating hinge into the ceiling of it does get easier as you become more your roof, and mount the tether there. experienced with it. There is a solution Problem solved for less than $20. though, in the form of a wireless VR headset, but that seems to OCULUS TOUCH be a long way off given the By far the biggest advantage the HTC bandwidth requirements. Vive has over the Oculus Rift at the In the meantime, several moment is the inclusion of two motion companies have created wands, which allow the user to interact VR backpacks, and there with the virtual world through natural were several of these arm movements. In comparison, the on display at Computex. Rift’s Xbox One controller and Oculus These are basically Remote are primitive substitutes that mini-PCs mounted into a make it feel like you’re in the world, but backpack with an independent not part of it. Thankfully I got to recently power supply, allowing the user try out the Rift’s new Oculus Touch
90 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016 Oculus Touch controllers feel natural despite the odd shape shape. While the Vive’s controllers If there was one issue with the 30 games, with a promised “Spring” feel very much like Wii-motes, the Touch controllers, it’s that there are release date. No word yet on pricing, extremely strange design of the Touch two buttons in close proximity to the though we’re guessing somewhere feels much more natural. It’s more like trigger. I found that I often accidentally between US$199 and US$299 should you’re holding a pistol in each hand hit the wrong one when keep it competitive with the than a large remote control. A second spell-casting, but HTC Vive. camera is included just to track the I’m guessing Touch controllers, which Rift calls constellation tracking. It seems to be much better at tracking the rotational The HTC Vive status of the player’s hands, and Controller comes overall accuracy in general seems packaged with better than the Vive. In fact, it seems the Vive it can even track different gestures, a feature we haven’t seen on the Vive. For example, when playing Insomniac’s The Unspoken, various hand gestures would conjure spells. From there it was possible to launch them at the other player, and the accuracy of each pitch was remarkable. Luckily this ex- baseball player had his fireballs landing right on target within seconds. There are also rumours that the inclusion of a second camera will give Rift room-scale tracking. In fact, it already almost has this ability, though the use of a single camera means it only works in a trapezoidal shape. By adding a
PC PowerPlay 91 VR PERIPHERALS
(main) The Teslasuit is a hybrid wetsuit, MoCap and TENS (inset) The FeelReal mask turns VR into Smellovision
THE WEIRD AND THE WILD engineers talking about this kind of In the far future, the plan is The aforementioned devices are already technology already. in prototype form in one shape or another, One product already in existence to tap directly into the brain’s but there are plenty of other devices is the Leap Motion. This tiny sensor being planned to take VR to the next level. can accurately track finger and hand electrical network, totally One of the most difficult is mimicking placement, and is meant to be a mouse replacing the real world the sense of force we feel when pushing replacement. However, many savvy VR against things, and there’s a company users have figured out that if you stick who is planning to use electricity to it to the front of a VR HMD, it does a comfortable wearing a HMD half filled trick our body into feeling this. Tesla pretty good job of measuring finger with water is going to be. Interestingly, Studios is designing two versions of movement in a way that the Touch this product is designed to work with all the Teslasuit, the Pioneer and the and Vive wands can’t. However, the existing HMDs – it basically clips over Prodigy. The first has 16 individual current version isn’t designed for this, them, instead of replacing them. points of feedback across the upper so the range is limited, but the company and lower body, while the latter has appears to be developing a new version ONWARDS AND UPWARDS 52. Made from washable neoprene, with VR specifically in mind. If you think this sounds exciting, there the suit is lined with conductive thread There are also a wide range of VR are some radical technologies already that tricks the muscles and sense of gloves being developed, which will also being experimented on in laboratories touch using neuromuscular electrical track the user’s finger movements. around the world. One of the most stimulation. Basically, it uses tiny shocks Hopefully they fare a little better than promising is the ability to beam the of electricity, in the same way those Nintendo’s Power Glove. Another range of image directly into the user’s eye, rather workout devices do, to trick your body products aim to recreate the smells of the than having to use a screen, and it’s into feeling feedback. real world. The FEELREAL is a VR mask rumoured that the incredibly clandestine The company promises that this that includes an odor generator with Magic Leap will use this technology. can simulate a wide range of different seven removable smell cartridges that In the far future, the plan is to tap experiences, such as bullets hitting are interchangeable depending on which directly into the brain’s electrical the player, being touched on the skin game you’re playing. It also has twin fans network, totally replacing the real world and even changing weather effects inside to generate the sensation of wind, with the virtual. It’s all very Snowcrash, courtesy of temperature control. There’s while twin vibrating engines can make the and a looooong way off, but if somebody even a mo-cap system built in, so your entire unit shake – perfect for generating is thinking about making it, have no in-game avatar perfectly mimics what a virtual earthquake. There’s also twin doubt that one day it’ll be created. In the your real body is doing. If it all sounds hot-air microheaters for presenting meantime, let’s enjoy Day 1 of the VR a little ambitious, we’d have to agree, those virtual desert environments, while revolution, and watch in excitement as and it doesn’t appear to have met its an ultrasonic ionizing system produces it improves in leaps and bounds faster Kickstarter goal. Still, it’s good to see water mist, though we’re not sure how than anybody could have expected.
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GALLERY COMPUTEX CASE MOD SHOWCASE
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