Features

60 E3 2013 Pictures

Jimmy Thang — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:40:01 +0000

E3 booth babes, booth tours, and more!

We had the chance to check out E3 2013 in Los Angeles, California last week. As expected, the gaming/tech event was a big one with Microsoft and Sony showing off their new Xbox One and PS4 consoles. But it wasn't all about the next-generation consoles. PC vendors such as Nvidia, AMD, Alienware, and Razer were at the expo showing off their latest gaming toys and there were a bunch of PC-exclusive titles at the event.

In our E3 2013 picture gallery below, we'll provide a look at some of this hottest tech, booth babes, and much more. What did you think was the coolest thing at the show this year? Let us know in the comments!

AMD Richland Review

Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:50:42 +0000

Richland review: Even the most diehard fan boy can admit AMD’s not in the hunt against Intel’s top-end processors

That doesn’t mean AMD still can’t give Intel a hard time. While AMD can’t compete with the Core i7-3970X or even the Core i7—4770K, the company’s rush to merge CPU and GPU to make the APU has put more pressure on Intel than Intel would probably want to admit.

AMD’s first Brazos APUs, for example, blew away peoples' sales and performance expectations. Since then, AMD has kept its foot on the gas peddle. While it hasn’t eclipsed Intel’s efficiency per core on the x86 side, the graphics portion of the APUs have always lead Intel’s integrated graphics. The company’s Llano parts have been even more competitive, giving up better integrated graphics and fair x86 performance. From Llano, AMD introduced Trinity and the latest sequel: Richland.

Richland doesn’t bring any fancy new 3D transistors or a fabrication process that’s the envy of the technical free world, but it still offers a pretty compelling message: a high-clocked quad-core chip with graphics that’s surprisingly decent.

Richland Benchmarks

Since Richland rolled out just as Intel’s Haswell hit, we had a nice set of systems all ready to go for direct comparison using the latest graphics drivers and UEFIs. Obviously, we’re not making a direct comparison between the $142 A10-6800K, $122 Core Core i3-3220 and three Core i7 procs, but since we had the numbers, we’re including them to give users an idea of how much they’re missing and not missing by spending twice or three times as much on a CPU.

For our testing, we outfitted three different systems with the same GeForce GTX 580 cards, 16GB of Corsair DDR3/1600 and 240GB Corsair Neutron GTX SSDs. Windows 8 was used for all of our testing.

The Upshot

Obviously, you need to dig into the details of our tests. But rather than having you click around looking for the conclusion, we’ll just put it right here. Our impression of Richland is generally good. The graphics performance obviously schools the Intel parts that we’ve seen. Intel’s HD5000 and HD5200 is another story, though, but somehow we doubt you’ll get those in $140 CPUs.

Richland’s big problem from the enthusiast perspective is that we don’t quite get it. The APU, when rolled into a NUC-sized or HTPC mini PC, is a pretty damned decent story. What we don’t get is why you’d ever build with a Richland in a full-sized FM2 board. Our instincts tells us to suck it up and build on AM3+ with discrete graphics for maybe $75 more. Talking to motherboard vendors, though, we’ve heard FM2 boards in full ATX are overwhelmingly favored by consumers. That tells us that most of the people buying FM2 systems have very tight budgets, and putting out another $75 for a GPU is out of the question. And that's really the magic of the FM2 platform and Llano/Richland.

For those on very tight budgets, Richland does the job and it does it very well. For those of us with a bit more scratch, we think AM3+ or even LGA1155 is the better choice for a full-sized desktop box.

Click the next page for our Richland Benchmarks.

A good GPU test shouldn’t vary much from the CPU, and here we see amazingly close scores despite the differences in clock speeds, core counts and generations of cores. We found similar results in the overall scores in 3DMark11 (incorrectly labeled 3DMark2011 in our chart) as well as for the new 3DMark, so we decided to simply skip those charts here. The results is an overall score, and higher is better.

The story changes when we flip over to physics testing. The test is a theoretical physics test and favors core and thread count. Here’s a first glimpse of the steep hill AMD’s Piledriver cores still face: the dual-core Core i3-3220 is a dual-core Hyper-threaded part without Turbo Boost. That means the A10-6800K’s 4.1GHz to 4.4GHz clock speed and quad-core/shared modules don’t give up much more than the i3. The result is an overall score and higher is better.

Echoing 3DMark11, the new 3DMark also favors the higher core count parts, and we found the A10 and Core-i3 on equal footing, despite one being a quad-core. The results is an overall score, and higher is better.

The popular and free 7-Zip has a built-in benchmark mode that gives approximations of how well a processor would perform in compression duties. Here, the quad-core A10 actually proves itself well against the Core i3-3220 and—surprise—comes amazingly close to the new Haswell chip. A10, pat yourself on the back. The result is an overall score of MIPS, and higher is better.

Cinebench 10 is the older version of Maxon’s popular 3D rendering benchmark. It features the ability to render the test on a single core. This should give an idea of the efficiency of each respective CPU microarchitecture. Sandy Bridge is slower than Ivy Bridge, which is slower than Haswell. The Core i3-3220’s weakness is likely due to its inability run at higher clock speeds than 3.30GHz. Seen in red, the A10 single-core performance could use some help, especially when you consider it’s running at 4.1+GHz. The result is an overall score, and higher is better.

Oh, but those cores in the A10 do pay off when it comes to a multi-threaded workload. The A10 outruns the Intel dual-core handily. Those longer bars? You have to pay for those, buddy. The result is an overall score, and higher is better.

Cinebench 11.5 is the newest version of Maxon’s popular benchmark. The A10 again comes out on top of the Core i3, but the more efficient Intel cores and Hyper-Threading make it closer than you’d think. For those wondering if a 6-core Core i7-3930K is even worth it, look at the hexa-cores’ numbers. If you are getting paid to render out a scene, the hexa-core will save you time and money. The result is an overall score, and higher is better.

POV-Ray is a ray-tracing engine that’s been around the block. It favors core and thread count, and the A10’s quad-cores trounces the Core i3’s dual-cores, despite the presence of Hyper-Threading. Count this as a win for AMD. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

There is an OpenCL version of Handbrake floating around in beta. But for now, we stuck with the public version of the latest build, so you’re seeing purely x86 performance, not GPU performance here. The A10’s quad part comes out on top of the Core i3 dualie, and again, we see the hexa-core part outrun even the new Haswell chip. Did your buddy tell you hexa-core’s are worthless even when you said you intended to transcode a lot of video? He was wrong. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

For our Premiere Pro CS6 test, we take 1080P video shot on an EOS 5D Mk II and export it as a Blu-ray formatted video. All of the encoding here is done on the CPU rather than the GeForce GTX 580, as we want to see CPU performance. Keep in mind, there is a new version of Premiere Pro coming out with OpenCL support rather than pure CUDA. Still, this test is a pure CPU x86 test, and the A10 gets trashed really, really badly. AMD fans will say that’s Intel’s hand in making compilers that gives them the upper hand. We’ll say that whatever the reason is, it’s pretty clear that if you are using Premiere Pro CS6, you need to be running Intel silicon with at least four cores aboard and Hyper-Threading. This is simply horrible performance from the A10 here. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

TechARP’s X264 HD 5.01 is a pretty thread-heavy benchmark that tests how fast a CPU can encode using the free X264 encoder library. It makes two passes for the benchmark, and the A10 and Core i3 are pretty much tied. This test also shows that if you intend to encode video, pay more for your CPU. The results are in frames per second, and higher is better.

Pass 2 of the X264 HD 5.01 benchmark favors thread and core count more, so we now see the quad-core A10 outpace the dual-core Core i3 by a healthy clip. The results are in frames per second, and higher is better.

For our Proshow Producer 5 test, we take a couple of hundred images shot with a Canon EOS 5D MkII, create a custom slideshow, and export it to a 1080P video file. ProShow Producer 5 pretty much tops out at four-cores. The A10 is slightly faster than the Core i3 part, but nothing to really text home about. The budget parts do amazingly well on this, considering how much pricier the other parts are in this roundup, which means photoslide show production isn’t something anyone should consider a heavy duty workload anymore. Perhaps ProShow Producer 6 will step it up. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

HDRs are so popular now, it’s a built-in feature on point-and-shoot digital cameras and phones. Those modes are just fakes, though. If you’re going to make an HDR, you need different exposures, which is what HDR Soft’s PhotoMatix does. Favored by HDR experts, PhotoMatix has a batch mode that’s unavailable in the main interface, because it grinds most machines into the ground. It favors core and thread count, and here we see the A10 outpacing the dual-core Core i3. PhotoMatix is also one of those apps that actually show spending more money on the CPU helps. The Core i7-4770K is roughly twice as much (plus some change) as the A10-6800K, and the performance you get is actually the equivalent too. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

Bah, we don’t give a damn that your phone has a 16-megapixel sensor. The future is about Gigapixel, so we used a GigaPan EPIC Pro to shoot 263 images with a Canon EOS 7D and stitched them with Stitch.EFx 2.0 to make a 1.1 gigapixel image. Stitch.EFx2.0 is interesting because the first two thirds of it is single-threaded, with the last third exploiting all of the cores available. It’s a good mix that favors efficiency, clock speed, and core count. The A10’s high clocks and more cores hands the dual-core Core i3 -- a pretty handy defeat which, frankly, gives the even the pricier Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge quad chips a good scare. The results are in seconds, and lower is better.

Click the next page to see some Richland game benchmarks.

For some real-world gaming tests, we ran Hitman: Absolution at 13x7 resolution with graphics quality turned way down. We expected the performance to be pretty uniform, but that didn’t pan out. The A10 actually came in last with the Core i3 running at nearly 1GHz lower clock speed, beating it. It’s pretty clear that Hitman: Absolution likes quad-core parts, and not quad-cores that share resources the way AMD’s Piledriver cores do. These are framerates, and higher is better.

Resident Evil 6 also saw the much higher-clocked A10 lose to the Core i3. It’s not by much, but a loss nonetheless. In reality, the gameplay between the six chips would likely be indistinguishable at 1080p with graphics quality turned up. These are framerates, and higher is better.

Total War: Shogun 2 CPU benchmark shows that pricier quad-cores have a pretty heavy advantage over the budget parts. In budgetland, the AMD chip was again slightly trailing the Intel chip, despite its core and clock advantage. This reminds us of a forum post we read on another site that said AMD’s chips were faster in gaming. Our results, and most of the hardware community, would disagree. These are framerates, and higher is better.

Valve’s particle test was created around the time the Core 2 Quad was released and made to show off a pure CPU-based physics engine. Again, the Core i3-3220 running at 3.2GHz or lower owns the A10-6800K running at 4.1GHz to 4.4GHz. We've seen this particular test favor cache size and memory latency, which is why we think the fat hexa-core part beats even the Haswell chip. These are framerates, and higher is better.

Echoing the Core i3’s prowess at gaming, we ran Dirt 3 at low resolution with features turned down to take the GPU out of the equation. The result was an A10 part that is OK with discrete graphics, but it's clearly trailing a chip that’s clocked almost 1GHz lower. Let's also take a moment to admire the Haswell's thrashing of the other quad parts and the hexa-core chip. These are framerates, and higher is better.

PCMark 8 came out just as we finishing our testing, and rather than being even later with this story, we rolled with our existing PCMark 7 numbers. The test has never particularly favored core counts, and here we see it’s mostly a wash between the Core i3 and A10 CPU. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

Click the next page to check out Richland's integrated graphics.

Haswell Integrated Graphics Benchmarks

AMD fans may be ready to declare non-victory and go home, but let’s now look at where the A10-6800K is made to really live: in integrated graphics.

For that test, we ripped the GeForce GTX 580 card from the systems and compared the respective CPUs on their graphics prowess. The Core i3-3220 represented HD2500, the Core i7-3770 flew the flag for HD4000, and the new Haswell Core i7-4770K shows up with HD4600. AMD’s A10-6800K features Radeon HD 8670D graphics. All three were running dual-channel DDR3/1600 RAM. For those who don’t know, if you intend to run integrated graphics only and want the best gaming performance, pay for the fastest RAM you can afford, as DDR3/1866 or DDR3/2133 will give you nice benefits.

The A10 doesn’t disappoint. It simply destroys the HD2500 and HD4000 graphics. Intel’s new HD4600 gets closer, but there’s no cigar. Maybe HD Graphics 5200 aka Iris Pro will beat it, but we didn’t have it to test. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

This test isolates the graphics, and we again see the A10 make a monkey out of all of the Intel parts. Don’t expect this to change much, either. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

We’re actually running out of things to say, as we really aren’t seeing anything change for the Intel graphics here. Maybe it’s just time for Charlie Sheen to step in with a cliché. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

The new 3DMark actually sees the results close up a bit between the A10 and 4000-series Intel graphics, but the A10 still wins, especially against the HD2500 Core i3 CPU. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

Firestrike is the heavy-duty test in the new 3DMark and is more apt for testing discrete graphics, but it’s still interesting to see the Intel parts lose out to the A10. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

3DMark’s Ice Storm Graphics test is intended for mid-range PCs. Here we see HD4600 close up the distance with HD4000. But again, the A10 reigns supreme. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

The Cloudgate test in 3DMark is aimed at entry-level computing. For the first time, the HD4000 and HD4600 outpace the A10. The reason? The emphasis shifts from graphics performance to x86 performance, when the physics is factored into it, and the Intel chips now come out on top. Still don’t get it? If you’re running a game so old and so graphically easy as say Quake III, the Intel graphics and CPUs can actually be faster due to the better x86 performance. Well, except for HD2500 graphics, which is apparently there to insult or tease you. Hmm, maybe Intel shouldn't be allowed to use the word "graphics" with HD2500. Just as you can't call something "juice" unless there's actually fruit in it, maybe the HD2500 should be the purple-colored drink of the graphics world next to the grape juice A10. These are overall scores, and higher is better.

In the graphic’s only portion of Cloud Gate when physics and x86 is not factored in, the A10 actually pulls even with the new HD4600 graphics. That pretty much tells us that Intel’s HD5000 and HD5200 graphics will be faster—they just won’t be cheaper. These are frame rates, and higher is better.

We ran Hitman: Absolution at 13x7 with the image quality trimmed way low, and we still saw pretty sub-par frame rates. It’s pretty clear that as good as integrated graphics has gotten recently, sometimes you really will need a real discrete GPU. These are frame rates, and higher is better.

Resident Evil 6 is surprisingly difficult on integrated graphics, but we think it’s almost playable at a low resolution. Still, count this as a win for the A10. This is an overall score generated by RE6, and higher is better. For what it's worth: Resident Evil 6 benchmark, can you please stop when you're done, rather than looping over and over again?

We ran Dirt 3 at ultra-low quality and 13x7 resolution. Believe it or not, it looks surprisingly good at that resolution. The Haswell’s HD4600 also motors past the A10 a bit, which might be why Intel keeps showing Dirt 3 in its benchmarks. These are frame rates, and higher is better.

Unlike most shooters, driving games don’t really need high frame rates to be playable. We ran Dirt 3 at 1920x1080 resolution and medium quality to see how integrated parts would run. The A10 and Haswell do OK. In fact, it would likely be pretty playable to most people's eyes. The HD4000 graphics in the Core i7-3770K would be pushing it and HD2500? Forget it. These are frame rates, and higher is better.

We’re still turning our OpenCL testing, but we thought CyberLink’s MediaEspresso 6.7 would be a fair test of the chips’s encoding performance, using the graphics side rather than the x86 side. Intel’s QuickSync has always been pretty fast, and here we see even the lowly HD2500 give the A10 a good run for the money. Interestingly the Core i7-3770K and Core i7-4770K are surprisingly close. HD4600’s graphics should be improved for computing tasks such as encoding, so we suspect MediaEspresso just can’t exploit it yet. The results are in seconds, with lower being better.

Sandra has a GPGPU test. It’s purely synthetic but the results actually mirror the A10’s gaming performance, for the most part. We’ll be adding more OpenCL tests using real-world applications as we move forward. The results are expressed as MIPS, and higher is better.

15 Father's Day Geek Gifts

Paul Lilly — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:14:16 +0000

Tech gifts for dad

Now that Mother's Day is in the rear view mirror, it's time to switch gears and focus on what to give dad for Father's Day to show your appreciation for what he had to put up with all those years, especially if you had a knack for getting into trouble. Maybe as a teen you swiped the keys to his prized Mustang for a night out on the town, only to take a curve too fast and render his pride and joy a hunk of expensive junk. If that sounds at all familiar, getting him a tie or new pair of loafers won't pay off the penance you owe.

Even if you steered clear of sticky situations while growing up, you can probably think of plenty of reasons to prize your pops with a cool gift on Father's Day. Perhaps he taught you to toss a baseball or bought you your first computer. The point is, while you have your reasons for rewarding your dad on his day of special recognition, do you have any gift ideas? Put your worries to rest if you don't, because we do. In fact, we have 15 of them, but you'll have to click fast. Father's Day is right around the corner, so let's get started!

13 Most Anticipated PC Games of E3 2013

Brittany Vincent — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:12:49 +0000

Battlefield 4, The Witcher 3, and more!

The excitement of E3 2013 is heating up and this year is poised to have shocking reveals, next-generation surprises, and amazing PC games. Maximum PC will be at the Los Angeles expo covering the event next week, but we couldn't wait to talk about some of the top-notch games that will surely be there. While we can't preview every PC game at the show, because we're still not 100% sure what's going to be there, we thought we'd select 13 of our most anticipated PC games from the 2013 event.

Is there a PC game that you thought we should have included in our gallery below? Let us know in the comments!

London Comic Con 2013 Cosplay Gallery

Christopher Leddy — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:50:49 +0000

50 cosplay pictures from the London MCM Comic Con Expo

It’s fair to say the cosplay phenomenon has reached every corner of Earth and England bears no signs of bucking that trend. Last week we had the chance to check out London's MCM Comic Con Expo, an event where all things gaming and cosplay collide. We saw tons of costumes from the Mass Effect universe to the myriad champions in League of Legends and everything in between.

Take a peek below to see all of the crazy costumes in our gallery and let us know which cosplay is your favorite!

Note: The preview images may look like we cut off some of the cosplayers' heads so make sure to click each picture to see the full image!

GeForce GTX 770 Benchmarks

Josh Norem — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:00:31 +0000

Nvidia delivers a juiced GK104 in the GeForce GTX 770

Today the embargo lifts on the second GeForce GTX 700 series GPU to be announced in a week's time; the Titan-cooled but GK104-powered GeForce GTX 770. Unlike the GTX 780 announced last week, this card does not use the monstrous GK110 GPU, but instead opts for a highly-clocked version of the GK104 chip found previously in the GeForce GTX 680, GTX 670, and GTX 660 Ti. It's the highest clocked-part of all of those cards though, and also has 7Gb/s memory instead of the 6Gb/s variety found in all the previous Kepler cards, giving it a signficant bump in memory bandwidth.

It also features all the cool features we've already covered in our GTX 780 article, including GPU Boost 2.0 and Adaptive Fan Control. If you haven't read that article, go check it out right here. The GTX 770 will also be offered in both 2GB and 4GB flavors, and Nvidia's board partners will be offering boards that are overclocked even more than the Nvidia reference design as well. The GeForce GTX 770 will retail for $400, though versions that are overclocked or have more memory will obviously cost a bit more, but we don't have the exact prices for you as of press time. Watch this space, as we'll add information about the new cards as it comes in today.

GTX 770 specs

Here are the GTX 770's specs. You will note this is the highest-clocked GK104 GPU to roll off the fab yet, and its memory is also the highest clocked that we've ever seen on a GTX board. And with that sweet Titan cooler, not to mention what third-parties can come up with, you can expect even more overclocking and overvolting goodness. The card is the same 10.5-inch length as the GTX 780 and Titan, and also uses one six-pin and one eight-pin PCIe connector, which is two more pins than what is found on the GTX 670.

How Fast is The GTX 770?

We ran all of our tests on our standard GPU test bench, which consists of an Intel Core i7-3960X CPU, 16GB of RAM and an Asus PX79 motherboard, so this system is no slouch. In our tests we saw what we think is the basic argument for the GTX 770, which is you get GTX 680 performance for $400, which is a great deal. Based on the marketing materials we received from Nvidia prior to launch it seems like the company's target for this card was the HD 7970, though we threw the HD 7950 into our chart too since it was the GTX 670's nemesis. Looking at the chart, all three of these cards - the GTX 770, GTX 680, and HD 7970 GHz are damn close to one another, but the rub is that the GTX 770 is the least expensive, and the most silent, of all of them. The HD 7950 is a lot more competitive though, as a quick check on Newegg shows you can get one for around $300 including Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, and Bioshock Infinite. That's a tough deal to pass up, and we think the GTX 770 will be a bit of a tougher sell for Nvidia than the GTX 780 or the Titan, which for now stand alone as the leaders in their price range. Then there's word of some new AMD cards arriving soon so it looks like the $400 price point is about to get real interesting, especially when prices on the GTX 670 and GTX 680 drop now that the GTX 770 has been announced. Will AMD hit back hard, and will we also see a GTX 760 Ti soon? We certainly can't wait to find out.

FanimeCon 2013: Cosplay Gallery

Jimmy Thang — Wed, 29 May 2013 21:46:59 +0000

60 cosplay pictures from FanimeCon 2013

We had the chance to check out FanimeCon 2013 in San Jose, California this past weekend. While the annual event is widely known as an anime convention, gaming played a huge part of the show. In addition to having an entire expo hall dedicated to video games, there were a ton of game-inspired costumes. Popular outfits this year included the large roster of League of Legends champions to the ever popular Team Fortress 2 classes, and much, much more!

Presented below are some of our favorite FanimeCon 2013 cosplay costumes. Let us know which ones are your favorite in the comments section!

Maximum PC's Geek Quiz 2013

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:33:02 +0000

Measure your nerd knowledge in our 12th annual interactive Geek Quiz!

Since time began, the fittest of any species have found ways to test their mettle in the fiery cauldron of competition. First there was the Olympics, then Jeopardy, and finally – the Maximum PC Geek Quiz. Though you are probably cracking your knuckles, keep in mind that we've designed this timed quiz, not to entertain you, but to destroy you. Yes, those are fighting words. And yes, we mean it. Don't worry – we've made this a fair fight by mixing softballs with knees-to-the-groin-region, so if you're a regular reader of Maximum PC, and don't go running off to your Google mommy, you should come out the other end of this a better man, woman, or child.

Commemorating the Best PC Hardware

Paul Lilly — Mon, 27 May 2013 17:35:38 +0000

13 hardware components worth remembering on Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day is a time to stop and remember all the men and women who died defending this country, and also to honor those currently serving, putting their lives at risk for our collective freedom. We're always delighted to receive letters and emails from readers in the Armed Forces, and truly humbled and honored that our magazine, website, and podcasts can provide a small mental retreat to their monumental sacrifice. So first and foremost, here's a heartfelt and emphatic "Thank you!" to anyone who has served or is currently serving, from all of us at Maximum PC.

Since this is Maximum PC, we'll do what we do best and stick to the topic of technology. Running with the Memorial Day theme, we've put together a gallery of some of the best PC hardware to serve our needs in the past decade or so. We're not digging deep into history to the days of the Commodore 64, but don't worry if you're a sucker for nostalgia, we have some shoutouts to long-gone hardware that you may not have thought about in long time.

So, without further adieu, let's look back and give thanks to some awesome hardware! Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!

Maker Faire 2013: 50 Pictures

Jimmy Thang — Sat, 25 May 2013 18:50:46 +0000

Pictures from one of the largest DIY conventions in the country

This past weekend Maximum PC had the chance to check out Maker Faire 2013 in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. The event, billing itself as "the greatest show and tell on Earth," is one of the largest DIY conventions in the country and has inventors from all around the globe showing off their latest and greatest doodads. While it is technically an arts and crafts show, technology played a big part of Maker Faire 2013 with inventors showing off everything from interesting PC case mods to robots.

You could really feel the spirit of creativity at the festive event. If you didn't have the good fortune of attending Maker Faire 2013, fret not as you can still see some of the unique devices in our extensive picture gallery below.

What's your favorite DIY invention here? Let us know in the comments!

15 Technology Failures

Mark Pilkington — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:40:03 +0000

Duke Nukem Forever, Windows ME, Google Wave, and more!

Predicting the next big thing is never easy, especially when it comes to technology. It's easy to lose count of the number of times Microsoft or Google have promised to create products that will revolutionize our lives. Granted, occasionally the corporate gurus are right – smartphones and wireless networks being two great examples. But for all the successful launches, there are as many products that don’t quite get it right. It could be a fantastic idea on paper, but when it comes to fulfilling the dream, they become nothing more than technology failures.

Following on from our earlier article way back in 2010 covering the 13 Biggest Tech Blunders of the Decade we bring you 15 more embarrassing tech failures that some companies would rather you forget.

Did you own or ever use any of these tech blunders? If so, let us know in the comments below!

Google I/O 2013: Everything You Need to Know

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:57:46 +0000

Google music streaming service, Gmail improvements, and Galaxy S4 to come with stock Android Jelly Bean 4.2

If you weren't one of the 6 million people who tuned in to YouTube to watch the Google I/O 2013 keynote on Wednesday, don't sweat it, you've come to the right place for an extensive recap of all the big announcements. Some of it you may have already read about here on Maximum PC, such as Google partnering with Samsung to offer a totally clean version of the Galaxy S4 complete with an unlocked bootloader or the introduction of an All Access music service, but we also have some new stuff to share.

Technically the event is still going on -- it's a three-day event -- and while the news keeps pouring in, a lot of what's now being revealed are product statistics and minor software updates, like Heat Maps and Symbols being added to the Google Maps API -- not exactly 'knock-your-socks-off' news. There's plenty of interesting tidbits to share, however, so let's get started!

Android's Ascension

From humble beginnings as an operating system that was originally developed for digital cameras, Android over the past decade has grown into the most popular mobile OS in the world. Just how popular is the open source platform? Google revealed rather early in its opening keynote that Android is now installed on 900 million devices.

"There are over 7 billion people on this planet, so we have a long way to go and we think the journey is just getting started," Google's Sundar Pichai quipped on stage.

What's interesting about Android's dominance in mobile is that it's only scratched the surface of available users. While Pichai may have been semi-joking about getting Android devices into the hands of 7 billion people, Android's penetration in most territories around the world is less than 10 percent, albeit "growing very, very fast."

Underscoring Android's popularity is the number of app downloads to date, which Google pegs at 48 billion. To put that number into perspective, consider that it's just 2 billion shy of Apple, which recently announced 50 billion iOS app downloads.

In just the last month alone, Android users have installed 2.5 billion apps. Beyond bragging rights, all these numbers translate into revenue for developers, who have been paid more money in the last four months than in all of last year. The revenue per user is up 2.5x what it was a year ago. Not too shabby.

Google announced a bunch of new APIs for Android developers as part of a robust update to its Google Play services, including three new Android location-based tools. They are:

A low-power location mode that uses less than 1 percent of battery life per hour.
Geofenching: Lets you define virtual fences around geographic areas, which are triggered when a user enters or exits any of them. Developers can have 100 simultaneous geofences active per app.
Activity Recognition: Uses accelerometer data to determine whether a user is walking, cycling, or riding without tapping into the battery-sucking GPS.

Another new API is one that allows for cross-platform single sign-ons with Google+. The benefit for users is that they don't have to sign into apps separately on different devices, so if you open an app using your Google+ account, you're logged in whether you fire it up on the web, on your smartphone, or with your Android tablet.

Leveling Up Google Play

You'll notice some changes to Google Play over the course of the next few weeks. Google's putting a much bigger focus on movie, music, and book recommendations based on the content you consume and what items prompt your friends to mash the +1 button.

Google Play will also do a better job adapting to whichever device you're using. The same content will be available whether you're viewing Google Play on your notebook's browser or your tablet, but it will be presented differently on each to take advantage of the different form factors.

Google Gets Into Streaming Music

Okay, enough with the APIs, backend infrastructure, and UI enhancements, let's get to the fun stuff. One of the big announcements Google made was its new All Access streaming music service. This is the next logical step in the evolution of Google's foray into music, which began with it offering an online locker for users to upload 20,000 songs of their own that could then be streamed to multiple devices. After that, Google launched a music store, and now this.

For a monthly fee (normally $9.99, though if you sign up by June 30, it's $7.99), you can tap into Google's catalog of millions of songs, but it's more than just that. There are curated playlists by Google's expert music editors and 22 top level genres to sift through, with more to drill into. Best of all, you can immediately start playing anything you see in All Access, as nothing is grayed out.

There's quite a bit of fine grain control, too. Anything you listen to can be turned into a radio station. If you're curious about what the unseen DJ has picked out, you can take a look at the playlist and swipe away any songs you don't want to hear, You can also rearrange the order of songs in your queue.

All Access offers the same features across multiple devices. It's available now with a 30-day free trial.

Samsung Galaxy S4 as You've Always Wanted It (Unlocked)

The other big reveal is the one we talked about at the beginning. Coming soon to Google Play is a special version of Samsung's Galaxy S4 device. Unlike the one that's currently available, this one will ship with an unlocked bootloader. it will also feature a squeaky clean version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, delivering the same software experience that Google ships on its Nexus devices.

Like the Nexus line, this version of the Galaxy S4 will receive Android upgrades "promptly" with every system platform update, which means no more waiting around for weeks and months for your device maker and wireless carrier to get on the ball with the latest version of Android. Speaking of which, it will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile.

That's the good news. And the bad? Well, it's going to cost a whopping $649 when it becomes available starting June 26.

Chrome Dominates the Web

As far as Google is concerned, the various versions of Chrome collectively add up to the most used browser on the planet. It's added 300 million active users in the past 12 months, giving it a userbase that's now over 750 million strong, and climbing. Many of those new users are accessing Chrome on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

If those numbers are even remotely accurate, it's easy to see why Google is sticking with its Chromebook platform, which runs the company's Chrome OS. Providing further incentive to push Chromebooks onto the masses is data from Amazon that shows the $249 Samsung Chromebook as being the No. 1 selling laptop for 199 consecutive days.

"It's an ecosystem play and we have many more partners joining our journey," Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pinchai added.

Click the next page to see why you might want to start using Google+

Redesigning Google+

Get ready for a different Google+ experience than the one you're currently used to, assuming you're using the service. To take advantage of widescreen displays and to address the flatness of feeds, Google+ will be switching to a multi-column card design. This will make your feed more visually appealing, and on the backend, Google+ will optionally have the ability to automatically add hashtags. What for? If you spy the Eiffel Tower above, you'll notice there's no mention of what it is. However, Google knows, and if you click the card, it will present related information. Here's a short demo:

Related to Google+, Google introduced Google+ Hangouts for mobile devices during its event. It's a standalone app with a heavy focus on conversations, and it's available on Android, Chrome, Gmail, and iOS. It will keep a history of long-running conversations, though you can turn off the history and/or delete entries you're rather keep private.

Like everything else, there's an emphasis on making Hangouts visually appealing. There might be pictures and videos scattered throughout your long-running conversation, and according to Google, it just "feels alive." Subtle animations show when people join and where they're reading, so that it feels like you're all in the same room together. And of course it's all synced, so if you swipe something away on iOS, it's also gone on your other devices.

Finally, Google is making an effort to make photos less labor and time-intensive by making its data center your darkroom. In other words, the cloud will handle some of the time sucking tasks that are related to cleaning up photos.

It starts with backups, something Google already offers, only now it's giving you 15GB of free unified cloud storage, which you can allocate however you want between Gmail, Drive, and Google+ Photos.

Much more interesting, however, is Google's Highlight feature. If you think about the number of photos you're likely to take on vacation, it quickly becomes a daunting task when you get back home and discover there are hundreds, if not thousands of snapshots to sift through and edit. What ends up happening is you tuck them into a folder telling yourself you'll come back and power through them when you have more time, but that time never comes.

Google proposes it can pick out the best pictures of the bunch for you. Sounds too good to be true, right? Time will tell, but it sounds promising. It's not just a crapshoot wherein Google hopes to get lucky, there's some intelligent sifting going on. For example, Google won't highlight blurry photos, and if it detects duplicate images, it will pick no more than one of them. It also looks for poorly exposed photos and narrows down photos based on other factors, such as whether or not there are people in the picture and if they're smiling. It will even attempt to detect family members, giving those photos a social boost.

A little less interesting is Google's auto-enhance feature, as we've found similar tools to be of limited value. However, Google promises dramatic results using tonal distribution, skin softening, noise reduction, white balancing, red eye removal, and a whole bunch more.

Better Looking Google Maps

Google Maps rocks, that's something most of us can agree on. If you liked it before, you're going to love the new version, which Google rebuilt from "the ground up." Upon logging into Google Maps, restaurants and other places you frequently visit will be highlighted. You can also see more of the map by shoving aside and hiding the sidebar menus. There are Info Cards that provide details about different businesses and locales, some of which even show photos of the establishment you're looking up.

Send Money Through Gmail

Lastly, Google announced that it's folding Google Wallet into Gmail. Now you can send money to family and friends through Gmail, even if the recipients don't have a Gmail address. It's free to send money if you link your bank account to Google Wallet, or if you're using your Google Wallet balance.

In Gmail, just click the dollar sign icon to attach money to your message, and then send away. Some of you will see this feature now, others will see it over the coming months.

If you wanted to check out the entire Google I/O 2013 Keynote, check out the video below.

That wraps up the more interesting highlights of Google I/O 2013. Were you impressed or disappointed by Google's event? Let us know in the comments below!

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

How to Download Without Installing Malware

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:57:43 +0000

A how to download PSA

When the **** did it become so damn difficult to download a program from the Internet? If you've recently tried to grab a screensaver or software utility from the web, you know exactly what we're talking about. Somewhere along the way, the simple act of downloading a program has become anything but easy, even for Internet veterans who aren't easily duped. Many download sites are now designed to test the wits of savvy users and prey on the impatient with link landmines that will blow up your browser with toolbars and other unwanted add-ons. Even worse, you could end up with a malware infection. Should you give up?...

Hell no! Downloading might not be as simple as it once was, but it's far from an impossible mission, convoluted download portals be damned. We'll show you how to wade through the sea of shady links and track down the program you're looking, but it doesn't end there. You also have to be careful when installing an application, as installers sometimes carry adware, especially ones for free programs.

Free download links are often plastered with malicious links and adware

To Click or Not to Click the Big Green Download Button?

When we posted our "20 Awesome Screensavers" article with download links to each screensaver, some readers thought we screwed the pooch and served up malware infected URLs. Rest assured we verified that every screensaver we posted was clean, but actually downloading each one can be an exercise in frustration. Let's walk through the process of downloading "The Matrix" screensaver.

The link we provided jettisons readers to where the screensaver is hosted on CNET's website. Here's what you should see when you navigate there:

CNET's download.com is a popular website so you might not think twice about clicking the Download Now button, but take a closer look.

The fine print indirectly admits to installing adware.

If you hover your mouse over the button, you'll discover CNET is using an ad-supported wrapper. Not all downloads on CNET's website use the ad-supported stub installer, but the ones that do are indentified as such (so long as you're paying attention), both on the green Download button ("CNET Installer Enabled") and via the above pop-up box.

Downloading and installing looks so simple and easy but it's often anything but.

If you choose to proceed, you'll be presented with several attempts like the one shown above to install third-party software in addition to The Matrix screensaver. Simply click the Decline button to skip these offers one-by-one rather than mashing the oh-so-inviting Accept button. If you learned anything at all from mythology, it's that you should avoid being tempted by Sirens, and download sites serve up plenty of them.

Do you really want to install random third party apps?

Some screens are a little trickier than others and offer only two options:

Full Installation (Recommended)
Custom Installation (Advanced User)

When you encounter one of these screens, check the Custom Installation radio button and then deselect any checkboxes asking if you want to install toolbars or other cruft.

The legitimate download button is often the hardest one to find.

If this seems like an unnecessarily long path to the end, that's because it is. Instead of jumping through CNET's third-party hoops, an easier way to grab The Matrix (and similar downloads) is to click on the direct download situated just below the download button. Easy cheesy, right?

This particular link has SEVEN download buttons. Which one is the legitimate one?

Lest anyone think we're picking on CNET, it's actually not that bad compared to plenty of other download sites that make things much harder than they need to be. It's certainly not uncommon to see adware/malware masquerading as legitimate download links. Some are worse than others. In the screenshot above, there are no less than seven links with the words "download" or "driver," but only one of them actually links to the file we're looking for. How can you tell? Once again, hover your mouse over each button/link and see where it points to. If it's a DoubleClick ad or anything similar, then move on to the next one. In this case, the second download button with a right-facing arrow directs us to a URL with the words "ARCHOS-101-XS-Tablet-Firmware-412-Download" contained within. That's the one we're looking for.

Scan for Malware

Virustotal.com is a great tool for sussing out malware

Once you've finally found and downloaded the file you're looking for, be sure to scan it for malware, especially if you grabbed it from a site you've never heard of. Use any on-demand scanners you have installed (such as a daily AV program and/or Malewarebytes), and also upload the file to VirusTotal, a free cloud-based service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs for dirty code.

Using Virustotal is extremely easy, especially with a browser extension

If you're a Firefox user, we highly recommend installing VTzilla, an official VirusTotal browser extension. The extension adds a toolbar to Firefox, which you can disable if you prefer, as well as a right-click context menu entry to scan hyperlinks with VirusTotal before visiting the site in question.

For further virus protection measures, check out our in-depth virus protection guide. Do you know of any safe downloading tips? Have a downloading horror story to tell? Share them with us and other Maximum PC readers by posting in the comments section below!

Build a PC: Recommended Builds (May 2013)

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:35:56 +0000

Baseline, performance, and ultra PC builds!

What time is it? It's time to build a PC with our Blueprints! This month, we've built three rigs at three approximate price points: Baseline, Performance, and Ultra. Baseline gets you a powerful, no-compromises rig, suitable for gaming and content creation at 1080p. Performance gets you more, and the Ultra is for those who want a killer PC.

These rigs are lab-tested and editor-approved. Feedback is, of course, welcome. Tell us what you think!

Our baseline build represents the minimum level of performance we’d accept on a semi-strict budget (by our gearhead measurement, at least). This month, we wanted to upgrade to an AMD Radeon HD 7870 XT for a graphics boost, but we haven't gotten hands-on yet. The Samsung 840 Pro is our favorite SSD, hands down, and the 128GB version is surprisingly affordable at just over $1/GB, so we’re sticking with it for the time being. RAM prices continue to creep up, so we switched our PSU to the Seasonic M12II 650-watt to help bring the system price back down. That’s less wattage than we were getting from the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W we used previously, but 650W is plenty, even if we eventually add a second video card for CrossFire.

For the Performance build, we upgraded from Intel's Ivy Bridge to its Sandy Bridge-E platform, where we have more PCIe lanes for multiple video cards, and a socket that should see Ivy Bridge-E CPUs through 2014. The Core i7-3820 can overclock using gear or strap ratios, despite not having the "K" that indicates an unlocked clock multiplier. We thought about upgrading the CPU cooler to something with a 240mm radiator, but we wanted to keep the budget under control. The Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W is a good buy at $120. It's a 100W boost over the Corsair HX750 we used previously, and it costs about the same. It's a lot of power, but we’ll need the extra juice if we decide to add another AMD Radeon HD 7970 down the line.

At the Ultra tier, money is of no concern, so we upgraded our case to the Corsair 900D. We love the Cooler Master Cosmos II that has been part of this build since we started this column, but it can't mount a 420mm radiator, and we want that option for the future. The Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1,200W is a 150-watt upgrade from the Thermaltake ToughPower Grand we were using, and it's about the same price while offering comparable quality and features. We also updated the CPU cooler from the Corsair H100 to the H100i since it produces less noise and lower temperatures, and offers software control over pump and fans speeds. On the GPU front, we considered swapping the GTX 690 with the slightly faster Radeon HD 7990, AMD’s new fl agship dual-GPU card. But at press time, the card was still experiencing frame latency issues, and the company only had a “prototype” fix for it that wasn’t final. We’re confident AMD'll lick the problem eventually, but it's hard to say when, so for now we’ll stick with the GeForce GTX 690.

Computer Cases Roundup

David Murphy — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:39:27 +0000

7 computer cases reviewed: Cooler Master HAF XB,Thermaltake Soprano, Corsair Carbide 200R, and more!

If you thought that the only innovation in modern chassis design was the (long-awaited) switch from USB 2.0 ports to USB 3.0 ports at all price levels, you haven’t seen anything yet. The cases in our roundup this time around really run the gamut of features: From inexpensive cases that attempt to deliver a lot of functionality without fattening up the price tag, to simple-looking chassis that hide a wealth of must-haves, to some of the most eye-opening cases we’ve seen – that don’t quite stack up once you look beyond their crazy offerings. In other words, it’s a typical computer cases roundup.

Just to lay out our criteria a bit, here are some of the elements we’re typically looking for when we run the magnifying glass over a computer case: Features that take time and effort out of the installation or upgrade process, like screwless drive bays. Minimal annoyances – like having to snap off a case’s entire front panel just to remove its drive bay covers. Adequate cooling, ideally positioned such that one’s hard drives, video cards, and general motherboard area all receive a steady stream of air. And, of course, strong cable management: Nobody likes to open up a case and find a Medusa.

Beyond that, the great computer case race is anyone’s to win. As for how each manufacturer balances “cool” with “functional,” you’ll have to read on for all the gory details!

Cooler Master HAF XB

Don’t call this case “stumpy.” It bites.

Cooler Master’s HAF XB computer case is a hybrid design that attempts to kill two PC birds with one stone: An open-air design for system builders who want to be able to swap out their components like a pit stop, and a standard, covered chassis for those who like having four walls and a roof around their system’s precious parts from time to time. For the most part, it works—but we would have love to have seen a few tweaks to make the system even easier to use for the frequent parts-swapper.

The cube-like case leaves little room for error. Its 17.5x13x16.5-inch size split into a top and bottom half on the inside: Your ATX, Micro-ATX, or Mini-ITX motherboard rests up-top—pray you don’t have a huge cooler overtop your CPU, as you get just under six and a half inches of vertical space (from the silicon on your motherboard) to play with if you have any intention of attaching a 20-centimeter fan to the case’s top. The bottom portion of the HAF XB is where you’ll precariously thread your 7-inch-or-shorter power supply; connect up the case’s two front hot-swap bays; stuff your optical drive in one of the case’s two, tool-free 5.25-inch bays; or slap some SSDs in the four additional 2.5-inch bays provided.

It’s not very often you see a manufacturer going for the fabled, “cube design,” but this is not your standard case by any stretch of the imagination.

As for the hybrid bit we previously mentioned, Cooler Master has designed the open-air case to work just like that, with the case’s sides and top bare to the world. However, when you want to transform the chassis into a normal, box-like enclosure, you just need to reattach the case’s sides and top with the provided thumbscrews.

While the process is certainly easy for those who have ever screwed in a side panel before (that’s most of you reading this), we wish that Cooler Master could have used the kind of thumbscrews that remain attached to the case (or panel) after you’ve loosened them. Losing those at a LAN party would be a real nightmare. That, or Cooler Master could have used quick-snap latches instead – an even stronger match for this Transformer of a computer case.

The beauty of Cooler Master’s split-insides concept is that you only have the annoyance of stringing cables around the lower half once. Most of the parts you’ll likely manipulate sit up top.

The case gives you a lot of expandability for its size— including room for seven PCIe devices in all and videocards up to 13.1 inches in length—as well as two USB 3.0 ports on the front and two beefy, 1,800-RPM, 12-centimeter fans directly behind that for air intake. If you’re crazy enough to try water-cooling given the tight confines of this chassis, it does support a single 24-centimeter radiator on the front if you first remove these fans in addition to a single 12-centimeter radiator on the case’s rear. While indentations on the rear of the chassis indicated a place where tubing could have been threaded, Cooler Master oddly omits any rubberized holes for doing so.

The Cooler Master HAF XB isn’t for beginners. You’re going to get to pretend you’re a surgeon when you try to thread wires around the inside of this tight chassis, even given the HAF XB’s system-builder focus. It’s still a compelling case for tinkerers that comes with plenty of useful features, and one that’s worth looking into for those afraid to (or uninterested in) making the switch to a fully open-air design. Just don’t try to water-cool it.

Cooler Master HAF XB

Hot-swap drive bays, easy-to-access motherboard maintenance, excellent cooling

Removable panels need more than thumbscrews, tight chassis for huge CPU coolers and basic PSU installation

$99, www.coolermaster.com

CoolerMaster Scout 2

Cooler Master makes it easy to carry this case around.

There’s no doubt in our minds that the design of Cooler Master’s Storm Scout 2 chassis is going to draw eyeballs. On the outside, it’s a beautiful case – punctuated ever-so-slightly by red LED fan viewable through the case’s windowed side panel and ever-so-dramatically by the case’s unique, rubber-coated steel handle up top.

Looks can be deceiving. From the outside, this case is a winner. But from the inside, we’re a bit skeptical.

The case’s inside is less eye-catching. We love the three screwless 5.25-inch drive bays that merely require you to flick a switch from “open” to “lock” to secure your components in place. However, we’re a little turned off by the flimsier rails that Cooler Master delivers to secure up to seven, 3.5-inch hard drives in place; drive trays would have been better. Additionally, four of the drive bays have to go if you’re using a video card that’s larger than 28.7 centimeters in length – and there’s no easy way to just pull them out sans screwdriver.

Thumbscrews are your new friends for the case’s seven PCIe expansion slots, and you’ll have to install both standoffs and screws for your motherboard. That said, the Storm Scout 2 makes cable management easier with the five holes (three rubberized) Cooler Master cuts right into the motherboard tray–though they could have been a little bigger.

Our biggest problem with the Storm Scout 2 is its cooling—not due to its potential, as the case supports up to nine fans in total (a mix of 12- and 14-centimeter fans, but mostly 12-centimeter). Rather the case ships with just one fan preinstalled: The aforementioned 12-centimeter LED fan on the case’s rear. You can toggle the light on and off, as the flames shooting out from your hot components will be all the dramatic lighting you really need.

Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports adorn the case’s front, which you can hide with a little pull-down cover if you so desire. It’s another one of the many tricks Cooler Master stuffs into the Storm Scout 2’s hat; we just wish we could have some more fans, too.

CoolerMaster Scout 2

Super-mobile case, easy cable management and good connectivity

Poor prebuilt cooling (one fan!), requires sacrifice of drive bays for larger videocards, flimsier rails for hard drive installation

$99, www.coolermaster.com

MSI Stealth

You’ll love this case’s color scheme, we promise

Were there an award for “best case color scheme,” MSI’s Stealth computer case wins by a mile from its lovely black and light-blue-accented aesthetic. As for the case’s design, however, MSI packs in a few problems to balance out the good bits.

Just wait until you pop off the side of this chassis: a pretty world of black and blue awaits you.

We never thought we’d have to struggle so much with this case just to get a simple optical drive secured into one of its three free bays. That involves popping off the front panel just so you can remove the 5.25-inch bay covers–annoyance number one–and then somehow use the case’s big, blue locking mechanisms of fail to roughly secure your drive in place. Spoiler: They not very secure.

MSI does provide full trays for the four hard drives the case supports, which alleviates our frustration somewhat. It also packs two graphics card stabilizers right above that–a fun and quasi-useful addition that allows the case to support video cards up to 31 centimeters in length, but some extra 2.5-inch bays might have been more useful in general.

What the case lacks in big, fat cable routing holes (you get four small, thin ones), it makes up for in the ludicrous amount of space between the rear of the motherboard tray and the case’s right side panel. You could hide a garden hose in this case, not just your power supply cables.

A single 12-centimeter fan in the front balances out a similarly sized blue LED fan in the front, positioned directly next to the hard drive bays. On the top of the case’s front are two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a special USB port that dovetails with your MSI motherboard’s “SuperCharger” functionality for speedy device charging. If you haven’t drunk MSI’s Flavor Aid, however, it’s just a standard USB 2.0 connection. Great looks, polarizing design: The MSI Stealth chassis leaves us feeling a little blue.

MSI Stealth

Lovely aesthetic, plenty of room for huge videocards, front-panel connectivity with an MSI-themed bonus

Videocard stabilizers seem silly, horrible 5.25-inch bay locking mechanism (and installation process)

$99, us.msi.com

Click the next page to check out our new kick-ass best-of-the-best case!

ThermalTake New Soprano

A soprano could sing inside of this case and you’d never hear it.

Find a chassis that successfully combines practical noise dampening, useful features, and cooling can be a bit of a needle in the haystack sometimes—but in this case (pardon the pun), that’s Thermaltake’s New Soprano. The solid construction of this chassis creates an upgrading or installation experience that’s free of frustration. Our only complaint with the case, if you could really call it that, is that it lacks pizazz.

This case might look fairly simple on the outside, but it has just about everything you’d ever want or need. Trust us.

That said, give us function over pretty lights any day.

The jet-black exterior of the case uses a front-panel door to create a sleek, uncluttered aesthetic by allowing you to hide your components when you aren’t specifically using them. The door doubles as an excellent noise-dampener and, we argue, a heavier-than-you-might-expect blunt object for use when squaring off against midnight intruders or zombie hordes.

Two USB 3.0 ports sit alongside two USB 2.0 ports on the top-front of the case; we’re even more enthusiastic about the built-in hot-swap hard drive docking station for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives that Thermaltake’s constructed on the top of the chassis itself. It’s a delightful and unexpected addition to the case that brings a lot of additional connectivity without harming the case’s overall look or feel.

On the inside, Thermaltake uses four simple locking mechanisms to keep your 5.25-inch device held tightly. Installing an optical drive requires you to remove the drive bay’s front panels— easily done without having to rip off any part of the case’s front. Four screwless hard drive trays rest behind the case’s secret weapon: A huge, blue-LED, 20-centimeter fan that delivers plenty of air over your drives without blowing out your eardrums to do so. Above the primary 3.5-inch bays rests a single additional 3.5-inch drive bay and a single 2.5-inch bay for your solid-state needs (both not screwless). Thermaltake positions the thumbscrews for the case’s seven expansion slots on the exterior of the case. While that saves you a little room on the inside—giving the case space for a video card up to 12.2-inches in length—it also means that it’s really hard to actually use your fingers to tighten or loosen the screws.

Thermaltake pulls out all the stops to make it as easy as possible for you to install or upgrade parts—minus the expansion slots, which will require a screwdriver.

Motherboard standoffs are built directly into the case–an excellent touch that saves would-be system builders a bit of time and hassle. A huge hole on the upper half of the motherboard tray exposes your CPU area for easier installation of aftermarket coolers, and that’s joined by five other holes on the tray itself (four rubberized) for cable management. There’s plenty of room between the rear of the tray and the case’s right side panel, even including the acoustical foam that Thermaltake’s attached to the panel to give your ears a respite.

The only other fan in the case is a single, 12-centimeter exhaust fan attached to its rear, and the only other fan you can install beyond that would be an optional 12-centimeter intake fan on the case’s bottom. That’s the trade-off of having a “sound-proof” rig: more potential for heat. However, Thermaltake’s done a masterful job of addressing this issue while building out a case that’s packed with just about everything you’d want to have—assuming you care more about function than flash.

Thermaltake New Soprano VO900M1N2N

Good cooling, great soundproofing, mostly easy installation, slick aesthetics

Expansion slots a little fussy with thumbscrews, case isn’t extraordinarily “flashy”

$119, www.thermaltakeusa.com

Xclio Touch 787

Meet the future, and the past, of cases.

This kills us—it absolutely kills us. The Xclio Touch 787 has one of the most innovative, fun-to-use, Star-Trekian features we’ve ever seen on a case. And the substantial air-cooling on this case feels just a few miles per hour short of a category four. It looks good; it’s one of the few cases that we actually really enjoy interacting with on a daily basis.

Words fail us. The touchscreen controls on this case must be seen to be believed.

But why, oh why, does Xclio have no idea how to build hard drive mounts?

Allow us to explain. The single most noteworthy and compelling feature of the Touch 787 is—as the name alludes—the giant touch-sensitive panel on front of the case’s top. It looks as if it was ripped out of a standard Star Trek: TNG episode, and it functions about as well. After wiring up the panel with a standard Molex connection, you can tap its huge, circular buttons to turn the case’s fans on and off; adjust their speeds to low, medium, or high; turn the fans’ lights on and off; or lock and unlock the panel itself (to prevent accidental bumping).

Call it gimmicky if you want, but the responsiveness of the controls – and pretty blue lighting when you’ve activated an option – is just downright cool. Unfortunately, Xclio seems to have spent most of its R&D on this case on just that— the panel. Or perhaps the fans, as this system comes with no fewer than ten 12-centimeter fans in total: One on the case’s rear, two on the top, one in the front, and six (!) on the case’s side panel. Cooling overkill? Yes. We appreciate the enthusiasm, but one large fan on the side panel (for example) could have pushed plenty of air at a lower RPM and noise level.

All the standard features on this case are the same as what you’d expect to find in this price range: Cable mounting holes, motherboard tray cutouts behind the CPU, locking mechanisms for the case’s three free 5.25-inch bays, et cetera. We’re not going to waste words going over these, simply because the design of the case’s 3.5-inch bays—or lack thereof— presents a critical flaw in any user’s enjoyment of this wind tunnel of a chassis.

It’s too bad that Xclio didn't put some more thought into this case’s internals. As is, they’re not very good.

To access the case’s two actual hard drive bays, you have to unscrew and take apart a stupid bar of-sorts that runs vertically from the case’s bottom to just under its 5.25-inch bays. Upon further inspection, however, Xclio actually wants you to mount your drives to this bar as well, just floating out there in mid-air. Presumably, Xclio wants to put nothing between the intake fan and your system’s motherboard, but it’s a bad design concept that’s ugly for cable management, annoying to work with, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever: It’s the very definition of, “If it ain’t broke…”

If it wasn’t for Xclio’s choices in designing its mounting “system” for hard drives, we’d consider this case–loud and over-the-top as it might be–to actually be something worth considering if for nothing else than its uniqueness. The more we think about it, however, the more Xclio’s design decisions tease the idea that they don’t actually know how to build a functional case, just a really cool-looking one.

Xclio Touch 787

Amazing touch-panel controls, good cable management, more cooling than you’ll ever need.

Very loud, horrible design for hard drive mounting, plenty of wiring to manage even before you put any parts into the case.

$149, www.xclio.com

Click the next page to read reviews on the budget computer cases.

The Battle of the Inexpensive Cases

Want a case on the cheap? Be sure you don’t get what you’re paying for…

Here we go—a descent into the budget barrel. It’s understandable that you might be a little concerned about the quality of offerings you’re going to see in the sub-$100 case market. You have every right to be: Just go to your local geeky retailer of choice and check out some of the horrible cases on the shelves that get offered up at rock-bottom prices. We wouldn’t want to put our worst enemy’s motherboard into those; why should you install yours?

Of course, you can find some real diamonds in the rough, but you’re definitely going to have to do a little digging to uncover quality, inexpensive cases – especially given the sacrifices manufacturers typically have to make in order to hit these low price targets. We’ve dragged up two of these budget cases to show you just what we mean by the differences you’ll find at this end of the spectrum: Take a look!

Antec One

This case might be inexpensive, but there’s so much more Antec could have done

One… singular sensation is not this chassis. The mid-tower Antec One feels a little flimsy in a few areas, which otherwise detracts from some of the better elements in this ultra-inexpensive case.

The Antec One comes with three 5.25-inch bays that use pre-attached locking mechanisms to keep your devices all snug and attached. However, this is the kind of case that requires you to pop off the entire front panel in order to remove the grilled covers over the empty bays— be careful with that, as we definitely broke off some of the tabs on these covers when trying to remove them ourselves.

The Antec is light enough that you could probably balance it on your fingers and spin it like a basketball. (You-Tube that, if you try).

Antec positions the entrance for the case’s five 3.5-inch bays on the opposite side of the chassis–the right of the case, if you’re looking at it from the front, rather than the left. This decision boggled us at first, but the more we thought about it, it makes sense: You would have to pop off both sides of the case anyway were you to install the drives from the left side of the chassis (using the provided rails) and this method allows Antec manages to build in some additional space for much-needed cable management. It’s just a little weird at first.

The case’s seven expansion card brackets don’t come with screws pre-installed into the case; a bit of an annoyance for those looking to ensure that the flimsy tabs stay on at all times. We do, however, like the recessed side pane that sits behind a huge hold cut out for the top half of one’s motherboard: Cable-management and CPU cooler installations are a breeze.

Antec slaps two 12-centimeter fans in the top-rear corner of the case; none over the hard drives. You get two USB 3.0 ports on the case’s front; that’s it. That’s the Antec One: A price-conscious chassis that’s good in a pinch, but could be a lot better.

Antec One

Hard drive bay design is odd at first, but functional; screwless 5.25-inch bays; good cable management

Lacks screws on PCI brackets, no cooling on hard drives, frustrating 5.25-inch device installation

$49, www.antec.com

Corsair Carbide 200R

It’s not “super” inexpensive, but it’s worth saving pennies for

Delightful. Truly delightful. That’s the best way to sum up Corsair’s sub-$100 Carbide 200R mid-tower chassis. It’s roomy, it’s well-designed, and—most importantly— it doesn’t invite any annoying features or ill-designed elements along for its inexpensive ride.

The Carbide 200R doesn't win huge points for its looks, but there's a lot going on inside this chassis for its low price.

All of the Carbide 200R’s drive bays are completely screwless, a wonderful touch for those looking to make modifications to their system without busting out the tool kit. Popping off the flat, solid panels covering the case’s three 5.25-inch bays is easy and destruction-free— almost as easy as it is to slide and lock up to four 3.5-inch hard drives into the case’s left-facing bays. You can use screws to attach up to four 2.5-inch drives into a provided internal enclosure if you really don’t want your solid-state-drives to jiggle.

Motherboard standoffs are built directly into the Carbide 200R: Just slap down your board, grab a few screws, and you’re set. Five different cable routing holes cut directly into the tray make it easy for you to hide your ugly wires, and a large area cut out behind the top of the motherboard tray speeds along the (often agonizing) process of aftermarket CPU cooler installation.

The case comes with a single 12-centimeter fan in the rear and the front. While we would have preferred that the front fan was placed to push some air over your hard drives, at least it’s able to direct much-need cooling on your video card (up to 11.8-inches long). You can also stick up to five additional 12- or 14-centimeter fans around the case’s top, side, and bottom, as well as one more 12-centimeter fan in the front (covering your hard drives).

The case comes with two USB 3.0 ports on the front—more importantly, popping off the front panel to do any modifications to the Carbide 200R doesn’t result in a tangle of wires coming with it. It’s these little touches, and more, that make this case such an inexpensive delight.

Corsair Carbide 200R

Plenty of drive bays, lots of options for additional cooling, a great emphasis on reducing the amount of screwdriver time needed

Front preinstalled fan could have pushed more air over the hard drives directly, 2.5-inch bays still require screws

$60, www.corsair.com