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FROM SWEDEN WITH LOVE

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ENERMAX Launches STEELWING

Thermaltake Introduces New

Low-Profile Cooler For SFF Builds
Thermaltake has a new cooler for Intel socket LGA
1150/1151/1155/1156 processors. The Thermaltake Engine
27 1U low-profile CPU cooler balances performance, size,
and acoustics. Its just 27mm high, which ensures clearance
with RAM modules and makes the unit with a 60mm fan
ideal for small-form-factor systems. The cooler has a copper
base, and its fan has a metallic aluminum-alloy structure that
helps pull heat directly from the CPU. The built-in PWM
fan generates little noise (13dBA) and uses 40 fan blades to
keep a large volume of air flowing through the heatsink. That
blade rotation creates a centrifugal force on ambient air while
expelling hot air away from the fan blades. The coolers radial
arrangement with its 129-fin design also works to keep things
cool by minimizing the gap between the fan and the fins,
which helps to more rapidly exhaust hot air.

ENERMAX is launching a new line of microATX cases

that it calls STEELWING. The name derives from the
shape of the front of the case and not from what its made
out of, as the chassis is built from aluminum and a full
panel of tempered glass. The front of the chassis has seven
stacked aluminum plates that protrude like fins on a
radiator. ENERMAX says the fins help to optimize airflow.
The fins also help form the gentle slope at the front of the
case. Inside, the STEELWING has room for graphics cards
up to 290mm in length and CPU coolers up to 80mm
tall. The case places the PSU at the rear alongside the
vertical motherboard. A 120mm LED fan is preinstalled
at the front of the case, and behind it is an HD bracket
that can hold a 3.5-inch drive or a 120mm liquid cooler.
The chassis has three expansion slots. The STEELWING
measures 11.81 x 6.93 x 15.24 inches (HxWxD) and is
available in red or green.

WATCHING THE CHIPS FALL

Here is the pricing

information for
various AMD and
Intel CPUs.

* As of October 2016
** Manufacturers
estimated price
per 1,000

CPU
AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core (Vishera)
AMD FX-9370 Eight-Core (Vishera)
AMD FX-8370 (Vishera)
AMD FX-6350 (Vishera)
AMD A10-7890K (Godavari)
AMD A10-7870K (Godavari)
AMD A10-7860K (Godavari)
AMD Athlon X4 880K (Godavari)
AMD Athlon X4 860K (Kaveri)
AMD Athlon X4 845 (Carrizo)
Intel Core i7- 6950X (Broadwell E)
Intel Core i7- 5960X Eight-Core (Haswell)
Intel Core i7- 6900K (Broadwell E)
Intel Core i7- 6850K (Broadwell E)
Intel Core i7- 5930K Six-Core (Haswell)
Intel Core i7-5820K Six-Core (Haswell)
Intel Core i7-6700K Quad-Core (Skylake)
Intel Core i7-4790K Quad-Core (D.Canyon)
Intel Core i7-4790 Quad-Core (Haswell)
Intel Core i5-6600K Quad-Core (Skylake)

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Released
6/11/2013
6/11/2013
9/2/2014
10/1/2012
3/1/2016
5/28/2015
2/2/2016
3/1/2016
8/1/2014
2/2/2016
5/31/2016
8/29/2014
5/31/2016
5/31/2016
8/29/2014
8/29/2014
8/5/2015
6/25/2014
5/11/2014
8/5/2015

Original Price
n/a
$375
$199.99
$132
$164.99
$137
$116.99
$94.99
$94.99
$69.99
$1723**
$999**
$1089**
$617**
$583**
$389**
$359**
$339**
$303**
$249**

Last Months Price

$229.99
$226.77
$189.99
$134.99
$148.99
$129.99
$99.99
$93.45
$103.99
$66.20
$1,649.99
$1,015.99
$1,091.70
$609.99
$579.99
$389.99
$339.99
$339.99
$304.99
$239.99

Online Retail Price*

$229.99
$189.99
$189.99
$134.99
$148.99
$129.99
$104.99
$94.00
$79.11
$65.11
$1,649.99
$1,015.99
$1,090.70
$609.99
$579.99
$389.99
$349.99
$339.99
$304.99
$239.99

Swiftech Releases Apogee XL2

Western Digital Introduces Its First

SATA SSDs: WD Blue & WD Green
Western Digital is launching its first WD-branded lines
of SATA SSDs. WD Green is an entry-level line aimed at
everyday users. It will be available in 120GB and 240GB
capacities. The WD Blue line is aimed at enthusiasts with
more demanding usage situations and will be available in
250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities. Both lines of SSDs will
have SATA 6Gbps interfaces and come in two form factors:
2.5-inch (7mm) and the more compact M.2 2280. The WD
Blue 250GB drive has sequential read speeds up to 540MBps
and random reads up to 97k IOPS. It has sequential write
speeds of up to 500MBps and random writes up to 79k
IOPS. The 500GB and 1TB WD Blue Drives both offer
sequential read speeds of up to 545MBps and random reads
up to 100k IOPS. These two larger-capacity drives also have
sequential write speeds of up to 525MBps and random writes
up to 80k IOPS.

Swiftech released the Apogee XL2 waterblock and the

IRIS-ECO Multi-function ALED light controller and
PWM signal splitter hub. The Apogee XL2 improves on
the Apogee XL with a fine-tuned flow rate and a tweaked
retention mechanism. The mounting system works with
the most recent Intel and AMD processors. The unit also
has modder-friendly features such as a clear acrylic housing
construction, addressable LED lighting technology, and a
removable front plate for customization. The XL2 comes
with or without the IRIS-ECO Multi-function ALED
light controller and PWM signal splitter, which is also sold
separately. With the controller, you can adjust the tone and
intensity modulation of the addressable LEDs on most
Swiftech enthusiast products. MSRP on the Apogee XL2
with the IRIS-ECO LED light controller is $49.95; its
$44.95 without the controller. Pricing for the IRIS-ECO
starts at $12.95.

EVGA Adding 10 Cards Based On

NVIDIAs GTX 1050 & 1050 Ti
EVGA plans to release 10 new graphics cards based on
NVIDIAs recently announced GeForce GTX 1050 and GTX
1050 Ti graphics processors. There will be five models of EVGA
cards for each of the new GPUs, and they will follow the
companys current naming conventions. In addition to a base
Gaming card, each GPU will have cards with the SC Gaming,
SSC Gaming, FTW DT Gaming, and FTW Gaming model
names. The Gaming card and the SC Gaming card for each
GPU will be compact cards with single-fan ACX 2.0 coolers.
The other four models in each processor line will have more
powerful two-fan ACX 3.0 coolers, which should allow for more
overclocking. All the new GTX 1050 cards will have 2GB of
GDDR5 memory, while all of the GTX 1050 Ti cards will have
4GB of GDDR5. The memory bit width and memory clock
speed on all 10 cards is the same at 128 bits and 7,010MHz.

CPU / November 2016

ACER Adds 24-inch WQHD Model

To Predator Gaming Screen Lineup
Acer has added another model to its Predator line of gaming
monitors. The Predator XB241YU is a 24-inch TN panel with
WQHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440). The screen has a 1ms
response time and a native 144Hz refresh rate that the company
says can be overclocked up to 165Hz. The XB241YU includes
NVIDIA G-Sync. It also has GameView, which lets users
customize settings and save them as gaming profiles that they
can select or change during a gaming session. The screen uses
a ZeroFrame thin-bezel design that will work well for gamers
with multiscreen systems.
The stand for the Predator XB241YU has a height adjustment
span of 5.9 inches, and it can be removed for wall mounting.
The screen includes 2 x 2 W speakers. The Predator XB241YU
is available now and has an MSRP of $499.

HARDWARE MOLE

GAMDIAS Announces Floating

Design Hermes Keyboards

GIGABYTE Refreshing BRIX Line

With Intel 7th Gen Core CPUs
GIGABYTE is updating its line of BRIX compact
barebones systems with Intels newest 7th Generation
Core processors. The company says the update will
give the systems access to the new Intel HD Graphics
media engine and improve overall performance with
4K content. GIGABYTE says the updated BRIX
systems will see as much as 10% better graphics
performance compared to earlier generations. Other
updates include support for HDMI 2.0 and HDCP
2.2 as well as more display outputs. These additions
improve the ability of BRIX systems to handle
multidisplay situations for commercial/industrial
applications as well as in the home.

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

GAMDIAS is launching three mechanical gaming keyboards

this holiday season under its HERMES brand. The new
models are the HERMES P1, the HERMES M1, and the
HERMES E1. The first two are launching as standalone
products, while the HERMES E1 will be part of a peripherals
combination package. The top-of-the-line keyboard is the
P1, with 100% anti-ghosting and full-key rollover on USB.
It also stores six gaming profiles and has full RGB. MSRP
is $119.99. The M1 offers the same look but a reduced
feature set, with seven-color lighting and 21-key rollover.
MSRP is $89.99. The E1 is an entry-level plank with reduced
responsive lighting. It will be packaged with an optical mouse
and a mousepad and priced at $79.99.

Alto Dashboard Gives Users

The Info They Need At That Moment

Study Looks Into Why People

Still Choose Risky Passwords
Youve heard the advice countless times: Use strong, unique
passwords for each application and device you use. But most of us
dont follow that advice, and a new survey conducted by LastPass
and Lab42 looks into the reasons why. The findings are rather
ominous: 91% of us know there is a risk when reusing passwords,
but 61% of us do it anyway, and only 29% of us change passwords
for security reasons. Researchers say the theory of cognitive
dissonance, or performing an action thats contrary to our beliefs,
ideas, or values, plays a role in our digital behaviors. Essentially, we
know its bad for us, but we continue to do it anyway. According
to the study, 82% of respondents know a secure password should
contain a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols; 69%
know it should have both uppercase and lowercase letters; and
67% know a password should have at least 12 characters. However,
47% create passwords with initials, friends, or family names; 42%
use significant dates and numbers; and 26% use pet names.

Alto, which AOL introduced several years ago as a way to

better organize the volume of email we receive on a daily basis,
took a step closer to that reality with Alto Dashboard. Alto
Dashboard treats your email like a database of you; intelligently
analyzing, extracting, and surfacing just the information you
need, right when you need it, said Alto General Manager Arlo
Rose. Its described as a user-friendly guide of the information
users need at that moment. The Dashboard looks at items
such as calendar data, GPS location, shipping information,
frequency of communication, and the relative importance of
an email and presents that information as actionable cards.
Dashboard users can take calendar cards, for example, and
perform actions such as calling for a car to get to the airport
or checking in for a flight. Alto will work with most email
accounts, including AOL, Gmail, Yahoo!, and Outlook, and
will organize your emails from multiple inboxes into stacks
based on content. So, for example, you could have emails
grouped by photos, personal, travel, financial, and social.

SOFTWARE SHORTS

Google System Is A Significant

Milestone In Translation Software
Its been 10 years since Google launched its Google Translate
tool and, since then, the company has been working to
improve machine translation. A new system called GNMT,
or Google Neural Machine Translation, comes much closer to
matching a human translator.
GNMT encodes the words of a sentence as a list of vectors, with
each vector representing the meaning of all words read so far,
according to Quoc V. Le and Mike
Schuster, research scientists on the
Google Brain Team. Once its done
with a sentence, it begins decoding,
generating the English sentence one
word at a time. That decoder pays

attention to a weighted distribution over the encoded language

vectors most relevant to generate the English word.
The result? The GNMT system produces translations that
are vastly improved when compared to previous phrase-based
technologies. In a test of sample sentences from Wikipedia and
news websites, GNMT reduced translation errors by between 55
and 85%. Despite that improvement, GNMT still makes errors
that a human translator would never make, the researchers said,
including dropping words and providing incorrect translations for
proper names or uncommon terms. GNMT is already being used
by Google Translate mobile and
web apps for machine translations
from Chinese to English. Google
will work to roll out GNMT to
more of the 10,000 language pairs
offered by Google Translate.

CPU / November 2016

Google To Start Labeling

Fact-Check Articles

Akamai Releases Q2 2016

State Of Internet Report
Akamai, the giant content delivery network and services provider,
has released its latest State Of The Internet/Security report.
The report shows that DDoS (distributed denial-of-service)
attacks, one of the more serious types of attacks launched on the
internet, more than doubled year-over-year. DDoS attacks were
up some 129% from Q2 2015 to Q2 2016 across sites serviced
by the Akamai network. The company said it mitigated nearly
5,000 DDoS attacks during the second quarter of 2016 alone.
Malicious botnet traffic is also up sharply over the past year. Socalled botnets, or networks of systems infected with malware that
can be automated remotely, are often used to instigate DDoS
attacks. One bit of good news in the report, at least for people
and companies with websites in the United States: although web
application attacks were up 14% globally year-over-year, during
the quarter, there was about a 13% decrease in web application
attacks in the United States.

Everything you read on the internet is true, right? At

some point, each of us has learned the fallacy behind that
statement. Now, Google is working to make it a little easier
to separate fact from fiction. A new Fact Check tag will
help readers find fact checking in large news stories, said
Richard Gingras, Googles head of news, pointing out that
the International Fact-Checking Network and more than 100
sites work to conduct rigorous fact checks, examining claims
around urban legends, politics, health, and the media itself.
Google News determines if an article contains fact checks
by either looking for the schema.org ClaimReview markup
or sites that follow the commonly accepted criteria for fact
checks, Gingras said. Article tags appear in the expanded story
box on news.google.com and in the Google News & Weather
iOS and Android apps, Gingras said.

SITE SEEING

Overcharge Launches
New eSports Streaming Platform
eSports is becoming serious business, and a group of gaming
industry veterans, web developers, and designers hopes to build
on that success with its new streaming and content aggregation
platform, Overcharge.
eSports tournaments are now
selling out major stadiums,
attracting over 10,000 attendees
for major events, and online
viewership is quickly rivaling
that of conventional sports. The
League of Legends Championship
Series, for example, peaked at over
14 million concurrent viewers on

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Twitch alone, said Overcharge founder Stew Houston, who is

an ex-professional Counter-Strike player.
Overcharge takes advantage of the popular Twitch streaming
platform, and the developers describe it as blending Twitch,
Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter into one clean interface
combining theatre-style viewing
with complimentary content
and media streams.
The app serves as a centralized
spot for watching live events and
engaging with other community
members. It runs in browsers, but
the group has plans to soon release
a native desktop application for
Windows 10 and OS X.

Job Of The Month

Activision is one of the five divisions of Activision Blizzard, one of the worlds largest gaming corporations.
The company originally started as a third-party producer of cartridge games for Atari gaming systems
but now produces PC games as well as console titles, and its games include franchises such as Call of
Duty and Destiny. Activision has an opening for a network security engineer at its headquarters in Santa
Monica, California. This person will help design and maintain projects associated with the companys
global network security infrastructure. Applicants must have five years of network security experience
and a BS degree in a technology field. You should know your way around Microsoft Lync and other voice
gateways and have ninja-like troubleshooting skills. CCNP or JNCIS certification is a big plus, and the
more you know about installing enterprise-level security solutions and working with products from Palo
Alto Networks, Cisco, F5, and Juniper, the better. If youre interested in keeping the buses running for one
of the iconic brands in gaming, check out the job details at the site below.
Source: www.activision.com

No Such Thing
As Too Much Screen
Once upon a time, most consumers in the
United States were content to have one screen
in the household for viewing media. Then
came the PC, internet, and mobile revolutions,
and suddenly owning multiple screens so
you could view anything, anywhere became
the new norm. If your home has broadband
access (and most do), then odds are you have
a range of screens and screen sizes to choose
from. According to a study by TDG Research, although the biggest slice of broadband homes own four
screens, the average number of video-capable screens in all broadband U.S. homes is approaching
eight. That means a sizeable number of homes in the 5+ group must have 15 or more screens. This
total includes televisions and computers as well as tablets and smartphones.
Source: TDG Research

53
The percentage of consumers worldwide
who feel anxious when a mobile phone is
not nearby. Many people the world over find
the prospect of being out of contact for any
length of time disconcerting, a condition
known as FOMO, or fear of missing out.
Nielsen

6 million
The number of esports fans in the United
States who do not watch any football,
basketball, baseball, or hockey on television.
Newzoo

41 million
The number of Americans who have had
their identities stolen. Another 49 million
people know someone who has had his or
her identity stolen.
Bankrate.com

430 million
The number of vehicles worldwide that are
forecast to have built-in telematics (wireless
data connections) by 2025.

They Got The Bucks; Guess They Also Got The Time

Navigant Research

Millennials in affluent households spend almost twice as much time online as seniors in affluent
households, according to eMarketer. They also spend about half again as much time online as affluent
Baby Boomers. Polls conducted by Ipsos Connect revealed what most people already suspected: the
younger you are, the more time you spend online, even in households with lots of disposable income.

$3.5 trillion

Source: eMarketer, based on polling by Ipsos Connect

The total amount forecast for worldwide

IT spending in 2017. This amount includes
software, hardware, and services and
represents an increase of 2.9%, or about
$100 billion, over IT spending this year.
Gartner Group

CPU / November 2016

From Sweden With Love

Fractal Designs Josh Smith Talks About The New Define C

: So, Fractal Design just launched the

Define C! Tell us about the newest
case in the Define family.
: The Define C and its smaller
sibling the Define Mini C are
silent cases that were developed to satisfy
the needs of customers looking for a fully
featured case with an incredibly compact
footprint. We have chosen to not only
forgo 5.25 drive bays, but also to remove
some of that space from the depth of
the chassis while maintaining features
you would find in a much larger case.
We have also introduced our new power
supply shroud, answering the call of many
of our customers.

JS

: What were your goals in designing

the Define C, and what would you
say is the ideal build type and/or user for
this case?
: When designing the Define C
series, we focused on efficiency and
optimal use of space. Many cases on the
market today are made to be all things to
all people. However, for many this results
in a chassis full of empty bays, unused
mounts and excess bulk. The Define
Series was created for those who demand a
flexible platform for a powerful build that
wastes no space, and with that in mind
we strived to strike the perfect balance
between capacity and efficiency.

JS

: We love the power supply shroud.

This is the first Fractal Design case to
include one, right?
: Thank you for the kind words
on the power supply shroud! In
terms of a true power supply shroud, the
Define C series is indeed our first product

JS

Advertisement

10

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

line to incorporate such a feature. We

wanted to ensure that the power supply
shroud was more than just aesthetic and
we focused on creating one that was
organic to the full case design, not merely
an afterthought that was slapped into a
pre-existing design.

: Looks like you built in a removable

inset panel toward the front of the
shroud, we assume for folks who want to
install a triple radiator up front?

JS

: That is correct. We designed

the power supply shroud to be as

flexible as the rest of the case. If a customer

wants to install a large radiator in the front
of the case they can do so without needing
to remove the power supply shroud
entirely. Instead of being presented with an
either/or scenario, they are able to get the
full benefits of liquid cooling flexibility as
well as the aesthetic and thermal benefits of
the power supply shroud.

: The vertical SSD mounting panel

that runs across the back of the
CPU cooler cutout in the motherboard
tray is another nice touch that we
noticed first in the Nano S. You must
have gotten a pretty good response to
this feature in the Nano?
: We did, yes, and in keeping
with the design philosophy of the
Define C series, we made it a key point
to incorporate efficient use of otherwise
under-utilized space. This allows the
customer to reap the benefits of a much
larger case in a more compact footprint.

JS

: As with other Define-series cases,

builders can buy a Define C with or
without a side-panel window. Obviously
the tradeoff is aesthetics vs. ambient
noise; about how much difference is there
in decibels between the window edition
panel and the solid panel with sound
dampening on the inside?

: We have actually tested this very

question and we went to the quietest
place on earth (actually validated by its
Guinness World Record) to verify. You can
visit our website to view the full information
(including government-regulated ISO level
testing and the video) we produced with
the Define R5. In short, the answer may
surprise you. The audible difference level
between one of our window panel cases and
one with a solid side panel is on average
less than 1dBA. That will definitely sound
counter-intuitive to some but there are some
compelling reasons behind it. We have spent
years perfecting our designs and our window
design is part of that. Without getting into
too much boring detail, I can say resonance
properties play into perceived noise levels and
that acrylic, glass, and steel all have different
properties. By perfecting our window
panel design, we have been able to give our
customers an option where the difference
between a window panel and a solid panel is
literally up to personal aesthetic preference.
They do not take a noise hit by selecting a
window panel.

JS

: The case comes with two 120mm

Dynamic X2 fans (in white, naturally).
What do the series of notches on each
blade next to the hub do?

JS

: I am assuming that you do not

want me to fill the next few pages

of this magazine with the full answer to

this question! While the full answer may
be beyond the scope of this conversation,
I can tell you that the short answer has to
do with noise mitigation. You can read a
full rundown on our website or check out
our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/
fractaldesignna) for an animated video on
the key design features of the fan design.
The end result, however, is a fan that
creates solid airflow with an incredibly low
sound signature.

: Are you going to follow up with

Define C models in Titanium and
Arctic White? What about a Define C Nano
or Define XL C?
: And now you are going to receive
my standard answer: Unfortunately,
I am not able to discuss products that may or
may not be in development. With that said,
I can tell you that customer demand and
customer feedback are driving forces in our
product development process. The Define
R4 Blackout was created solely by customer
demand. If there are features or products that
people want to see from us, I suggest they
visit our website. On the Contact Us page,
there is an option for Product Suggestions.
Those messages go straight to our product
developers. Let them know what you want
to see and you will literally have a hand in
shaping our future products. I can also tell
you that at launch there will be the Define C
as well as its smaller sibling, the Define Mini
C with mATX support.

JS

: Thanks for your time, Josh. Before

we go, is there anything else youd like
CPU readers to know?
: In all honesty, I would just like to
thank your readers, our customers,
and our fans for their incredible support and
valuable feedback. At the end of the day, we
strive to make great products that people
want to buy, products that improve their PC
building experience. The feedback we receive
is key to that. We pride ourselves on being
the company that listens and we want to hear
what you have to say.

JS

CPU / November 2016

11

. . . this little tike posted

some decent numbers in
our benchmarks . . .

Cubi 2
$499.99
MSI
us.msi.com

MSI Cubi 2
f youre reading this, chances are good
that you already have several dozen
ideas of what a dedicated PC can do for
you, which is why whenever we get in
mini PCs, like MSIs Cubi 2, we dont
dwell much on the market the respective
manufacture is trying to capture.
The headlining feature of the Cubi 2,
like the original before it, Intels NUCs, and
GIGABYTEs BRIX line, is its compact
size. It measures 4.625-inches square and
1.28-inches thick with the standard bottom
plate and 1.68-inches thick with the HDD
bottom plate. The latter has a compartment
that holds a standard 2.5-inch SSD or
HDD.
Under the base plate is a custom
MSI MS-B1421 motherboard, which
features Intels H110 chipset and an
embedded Kabylake-U Intel Core i77500U processor, which has two discrete
cores and HyperThreading enabled for
handling four threads simultaneously. The
chips base frequency is 2.7GHz and it
speeds up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost
2.0. Onboard graphics are courtesy of
Intels HD Graphics 620. There are two
DDR4 SO-DIMM slots and the Cubi
2 supports up to 32GB DDR4-2133
memory, in a dual-channel configuration.
As a barebones system, the Cubi 2 lets
you supply your own storage drive and
memory. For our testing, we used a 32GB

kit of HyperX IMPACT DDR4-2133

and a 240GB HyperX SSD.
Beyond the standard 6GBps SATA port
(with the included mini power adapter and
stubby SATA data cable), the Cubi 2 also
includes an M.2 slot that supports 2242
form-factor modules. A second M.2 slot
comes occupied with an Intel Dual Band
Wireless-AC 3168 module. Wired Gigabit
speed networking is also available thanks to
the embedded Realtek RTL8111H chip.
Such compact systems live or die by their
I/O ports, so we were glad to see that MSI
didnt shortchange the Cubi 2. The front of
the unit features a headphone/speaker line
out jack, a mic jack, a USB 3.1 Gen1 port,
and another USB 3.1 Gen1 port, but with
a Type-C reversible interface. On the back
there are two more USB 3.1 Gen1 ports,
an RJ45 Ethernet port, HDMI out, mini
DisplayPort out, and a DC adapter power
port. MSI includes the 65 watt power
adapter. Theres also a Kensington Lock port
on the side of the Cubi 2.
Although the storage and memory
performance of the Cubi 2 will vary
depending on what you install, this
little tike posted some decent numbers
in our benchmarks despite its low-power
leanings. The integrated fan did get audible
at full load when we were less than two
feet away, but wed classify the sound as
quiet, nonetheless. Although the Intel

HD Graphics 620 isnt much of a gamer,

we did manage to get a playable framerate
in a stripped down iteration of Metro: Last
Light, and a solid 34.38fps in CS:GO,
with the visual settings at High.
If youre looking for an almost Raspberry
Pi-sized PC thatll fit virtually anywhere (it
even comes with a VESA mount), the Cubi
2 is an obvious choice.
BY

ANDREW LEIBMAN

Test System Specs: Color: black; Processor: Intel Core i7-7500U; Motherboard: MSI MS-B1421; GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620; Memory (not included): 32GB
HyperX IMPACT DDR4-2133; Storage (not included): 240GB Kingston HyperX SSD; OS (not included): Windows 10 Pro

12

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

. . . a case fan with a ultilitarian

work ethic and a no-nonsense
visual appeal . . . .

Silent Wings 3
$22.50
be quiet!
www.bequiet.com

be quiet! Silent Wings 3

or us, the measure of a great case
fittings you choose, vibration will not be
Funseen
fan is to remain silent, reliable, and
an issue.
for a very long time. Oh, LEDs
There are seven blades on the Silent
are fine, but theyre just window dressing
(sometimes literally), and not really a
part of the fan job description. With the
Silent Wings 3, be quiet! has tasked its
talented engineers with pushing these
three features to the extreme. In our notvery-humble opinion, theyve succeeded.
We got two variants of the Silent
Wings 3 in for review, a 120mm unit, and
another 120mm unit with PWM- (pulse
width modulation) control. Both fans
are identical in appearance; they feature
a matte black plastic housing, a matte
black plastic hub and blades, black meshsleeved cable, and a white and orange
be quiet! logo on the hub. Each of the
fans four corners is a slot onto which
you can slide your choice of either hard
plastic fittings that mount with traditional
fan screws, or soft rubber anti-vibration
fittings that mount with plastic washers
and pushpins. The rim of the fan opening
and the center of the hard fittings is also
rubberized, which means no matter which

Wings 3 fans and each one features

unique undulating grooves radiating
outward from the hub. According to
be quiet!, these ridges are capable of
increasing airflow, reducing turbulence,
and silencing excess noise.
Under that plastic logo-emblazoned
hub is a 6-pole copper wound fan
motor with three phases, making sure its
movements are smooth and vibrationfree. At the center of the motor is be
quiet!s fluid dynamic bearing (FDB),
which gives the fans a similar spinprecision compared to ball bearings, but
with dramatically better shock resistance
compared to traditional sleeve-bearings.
The FDB in the Silent Wings 3 features
a fully lubricated shaft, resulting in
reductions in friction, heat, and noise
output.
The quality of the materials, motor,
and bearing arent the only ways the Silent
Wings 3 stands head and shoulders above
most case fans; even the internal fan

controller was chosen because it resists

generating the subtle buzzing noise you
often hear from lesser case fans. The
Silent Wings 3 fans feature an impressive
300,000 hour lifespan (at 25 degrees
Celsius), which translates to an impressive
3-year warranty in real-world terms.
At full load, these fans will spin at
1,450RPMs and generate air pressure of
1.79mm H2O. The 120mm fan equipped
with a 3-pin connector has a maximum
CFM of 50.5, whereas the PWMcontrolled fan with a 4-pin connector
has a maximum 80.47CFM output. As
a refresher, PWM fans speed up or slow
down based on a control signal coming
from the motherboard. The Silent Wings
3 family also features 140mm fans as
well as 120mm and 140mm high-speed
variants that top out at 2,200RPMs and
1,600RPMs, respectively.
If youre looking for a case fan with a
utilitarian work ethic and a no-nonsense
visual appeal, then the Silent Wings 3 is
the perfect candidate.
BY

ANDREW LEIBMAN

Specs (Silent Wings 3 120mm): Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25mm; Speed: 1,450RPM; Airflow: 50.5 to 85.79cfm; Air Pressure: 1.79mm H2O; Noise: 16.4dBA
(at 12V); Connector: 3-pin; Available Colors: Black
Specs (Silent Wings 3 PWM 120mm): Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25mm; Speed: 1,450RPM; Airflow: 50.5 to 85.79cfm; Air Pressure: 1.79mm H2O; Noise:
16.4dBA (at 12V); Connector: 4-pin PWM; Available Colors: Black

CPU / November 2016

13

The Elite series . . . shows

how a great chair can
do wonders for the PC
experience.

Elite OH/EA01/NR
$299
DXRacer
www.dxracer.com

DXRacer Elite Series

raditional office chairs are often onesize-fits-all, but DXRacer knows that
computer enthusiasts comes in all shapes
and sizes. For this reason, the company
offers many different styles of chairs and
tailors each model for a specific height
and weight range. A big part of being
comfortable, after all, is a proper fit.
DXRacers chairs are specifically designed
to support your whole back and neck, so
its important that your frame and head
fit into right spots in the chair. DXRacers
new Elite series chairs are recommended
for people less than 200 pounds and
shorter than 59.
Here at CPU, weve reviewed a few
DXRacer chairs, and the most notable
difference on the Elite series is the
headrest. On many other DXRacer
models, there are two cutouts near the
top of the backrest where you attach a
curved, firm headrest. The headrest on
the Elite series has no cutouts, but rather
two soft Velcro pads where you can attach
a slim cushion that straddles the top of
the backrest. The design provides a wider

area to rest your head, and it might be

more comfortable for those who found
the round headrest too bulky.
The seat padding on the Elite series
is extra firm, thanks to DXRacers highdensity mold shaping foam. The firm
padding helps to distribute cushioning
and promote better posture, because your
posterior wont sink into the seat. To
better support your back, DXRacer also
includes a rounded, firm lumbar cushion.
The Elite OH/EA01/NR features a
red and black color scheme that certainly
looks the part next to a gaming rig. If
youre looking for something a little
more nondescript, you could go with the
OH/EA01/N, which is more of a basic
black that would more easily fit into a
home office environment, for example.
The majority of the seat is covered with a
perforated leather-like vinyl that doesnt
stick to your legs. The backrest cover is
primarily a polyurethane surface that
provides the premium look and feel so
common in DXRacer chairs.

Every DXRacer chair features a variety

of ways to adjust the chair. The five-point
base on the Elite series includes a gas
spring to move the seat height from 12
inches to 16 inches. You can lower the
chairs back angle to 135 degrees, which is
perfect for stretching out your back after a
long gaming session. You can also tilt the
chair from three degrees to 17 degrees, as
well as lock the tilt at the angle you prefer.
DXRacer classifies the Elite series as
an office chair, and we think it does excel
in that role, especially because it doesnt
have the racing style look of the gaming
chairs. The Elite series goes further,
though, and shows how a great chair
can do wonders for the PC experience.
Interested buyers should check that they
fit the chairs height and weight limit
before purchase, because taller persons
may find a different model suits them
better.
BY

NATHAN LAKE

Specs: Cover: Leather style vinyl and PU; Armrest: 3D adjustable; Tilt: 3 to 17 degrees; Back angle: Up to 135 degrees; Accessories: headrest cushion and
lumbar cushion; Chair size: seat width 14-inches, seat depth 22-inches, backrest shoulder width 17.5-inches

14

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

The Platimax D.F. 500W saves

you the time and effort of buying
costly custom cables . . .
Platimax D.F. 500W
$139.99
ENERMAX
www.enermax.com

ENERMAX Platimax D.F. 500W

ew things can ruin the internal
appearance of your case more than
layers of dust and sloppy wiring. The
ENERMAX Platimax D.F. series is
a PSU that helps on both accounts. To
reduce debris, ENERMAX applies its
DFR (Dust Free Rotation) technology
where the PSUs fan spins in reverse for
10 seconds at startup. The reverse rotation
drives away dust thats settled on the
139mm fan, and after 10 seconds, the
fan returns to its normal intake rotation.
For exceptional wiring, all of the cables
are individually sleeved, and ENERMAX
provides cable combs to help you
perfectly arrange bends. Add in the PSUs
completely modular design and you have
no excuses for an ugly rats nest of cables
inside your case.
ENERMAX currently offers 500W and
600W versions of the Platimax D.F. The
500W model that we tested features a
single +12V rail rated for a maximum
current of 41A (up to 492 watts). The
+3.3V rail is rated for 16A, while the
maximum power on the +5V rail drops
to 15A. ENERMAX safeguards the
rails with overcurrent, overvoltage,
undervoltage, overpower, short-circuit,
surge, and inrush protections. As
you might expect, the Platimax D.F.
500W meets the 80 PLUS Platinum

certification. At 50% load, 80 PLUS rated

as 93% efficient, and it was above 91%
efficiency at both 20% and 100% loads.
The SLEEMAX design, ENERMAXs
name for the individually sleeved cables,
is certainly eye-catching, especially when
compared to flat black ribbon cables or
wires grouped together in a single round
sleeve. The soft braided cloth has a
premium quality feel, and the black fabric
features white, rectangular marks for a
standout appearance. When the cables
are neatly dressed with the included cable
combs, the white marks form a decorative
pattern youll immediately notice.
In terms of system connectivity,
the Platimax D.F. 500W provides the
following connectors: one 20+4-pin
main power, one 4+4-pin EPS, four
6+2-pin PCIe, eight SATA, six Molex,
and one FDD. The four PCIe 6+2-pin
connectors are notable, as you could
conceivably power a high-end SLI or
CrossFire configuration. The reduced
power requirements for new GPUs mean
that you might be able to get away with
a 500 watt PSU for an SLI or Crossfire
setup, but its recommended that you
check official power consumption of
your particular build before purchase.
ENERMAXs PSU calculator (www.
enermax.outervision.com/PSUEngine)

tool can help you to determine if youll

need more than 500 watts.
The Platimax D.F. 500W ably
powered our test rig, which featured an
Intel Core i7-6700K, a GIGABYTE
GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming,
and 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LED
DDR4-3200MHz. Under the demanding
combined load of Prime95s In-place
torture test and Unigine Heaven 4.0, the
PSU consistently delivered 330 to 360
watts, while the power factor hovered
between 0.965 and 0.970. Peak power was
380 watts with a power factor of .964.
The Platimax D.F. 500W shows that
ENERMAX is keeping its finger on the
pulse of power users. The dust free fan and
80 PLUS Platinum efficiency are strong
draws, and ENERMAX takes its Platimax
series to the next level by including
individually sleeved cables. Several
other PSU makers offer individually
sleeved cable kits, as well as custom
cable extensions, but its rare for PSU
to have them right out of the box. The
Platimax D.F. 500W saves you the time
and effort of buying costly custom cables
or resleeving system cables yourself
assuming the black and white cables fit
into your builds color scheme.
BY

NATHAN LAKE

Specs: Maximum wattage (continuous): 500W at 40 C; 12V rail: 1 41A; +5V max: 15A; +3.3V max: 16A; Efficiency rating (advertised): 80 PLUS Platinum;
Fan: 139mm; Connectors: 1 x 20+4-pin ATX, 1 x 4+4-pin EPS12V, 4 x 6+2-pin PCIe, 8 x SATA, 6 x Molex, 1 x floppy (via adapter); Warranty: 5 years
Test System Specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K; Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming; GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB DDR4-3200MHz; Storage: 240GB Intel SSD 730 Series; OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

CPU / November 2016

15

. . . especially well-suited for

small form factor rigs.

Pure Rock Slim

$24.90
be quiet!
www.bequiet.com

be quiet! Pure Rock Slim

ith so many excellent options for
The 92mm Pure Wings 2 is a variable
W
small form factor cases, theres a
speed, PWM controlled fan with a
compelling need for cooling hardware
minimum speed of around 500rpm,
that maximizes heat dissipation without
taking up much space. be quiet!s Pure
Rock Slim is a heatsink-and-fan cooler
thats perfectly sized for mini-ITX and
other cases with cramped quarters. The air
cooler stands less than 5 inches tall and
is only 3.8-inches wide. The Pure Rock
Slim also features a 92mm Pure Wings 2
fan that rotates at up to 2,000rpm, yet its
maximum noise level is only 25.4dB(A).
Have you ever seen miniature display
models of an item in a department or
sporting goods store, such as tiny tents
with working zippers and bug screens?
In the same vein, the Pure Rock Slim is
a shrunken down and fully functional
version of be quiet!s Pure Rock air cooler.
But rather than the Pure Rocks four
high performance 6mm heat pipes and a
120mm fan, the Pure Rock Slim boasts
three 6mm heat pipes and a 92mm fan.
Like its big brother, the Pure Rock Slim
features a brushed aluminum top cover
with silver heat pipe caps that enhances
the CPU coolers look inside your case.

according to be quiet!. At the fans

maximum 2,000rpm speed, the Pure
Wings 2 fan produces an airflow of
35.14cfm, which is a fairly impressive rate
for a 92mm fan.
be quiet! CPU coolers typically
come with several brackets to support
all recent socket configurations. On the
Pure Rock Slim, be quiet! opts for a
more basic, easy to install design. There
is a set of push pin clamps for Intel LGA
1150/1151/1155/1156 sockets, as well as
an AMD metal mounting clamp for AM2
(+)/AM3 (+)/FM1/FM2 (+) sockets. The
vast majority of small form factor builds
would utilize one of the sockets, so we
dont have any qualms with less than
universal socket support.
By switching to push pin clamps for
Intel sockets and the metal mounting
clamp for AMD sockets, the Pure Rock
Slim installs just like a stock CPU cooler.
be quiet! also pre-applies thermal paste to
the coolers base. The simple mounting
design eliminates the majority of the

steps you typically have to perform

with a third-party CPU coolerwith
the possible exception of removing the
existing thermal paste from your CPU.
We installed the Pure Rock Slim into a
system with an Intel Core i7-6700K and
GIGABYTEs GA-Z170X-Gaming. At
idle, the stock-clocked Core i7-6700K ran
at 28 degrees Celsius. Next, we simulated
a demanding load by running POV-Ray
3.7, and the Pure Rock Slim kept the CPU
to an average temperature of 67 C with a
maximum heat of 74 C. Under Prime95s
demanding Small FFT test, the CPUs
average temperature raised to 78 C with
a maximum temperature of 86 C. The
temperatures are much lower than what
youd see from most stock CPU coolers.
The Pure Rock Slim is a low cost
($24.90) upgrade over a CPUs stock
cooler, and we think its especially wellsuited for small form factor rigs. The
92mm fans low noise design also makes
this CPU cooler an appealing option for
anyone looking to for an affordable way
to keep noise in check.
BY

NATHAN LAKE

Specs: Materials: Copper (base, heatpipes), aluminum (fins); Fan: 92mm PWM (500- 2,000rpm); Cooler Dimensions: 4.91 x 3.82 x 3.22 inches (HxWxD);
Socket compatibility: Intel LGA1150/1151/1155/1156, AMD AM2 (+)/AM3 (+)/FM1/FM2 (+); Warranty: 3 years

16

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

It looks great, keeps system

noise to a minimum, and
comes with a reasonable
MSRP of $120.

DS 230
$119.99 ($25 for optional acrylic
side panel window)
Aerocool
www.aerocool.us

Aerocool DS 230
ntil very recently, the Aerocool Dead
Silence line of cases consisted of just
two models, the DS 200 and the DS Cube,
in a few different colors. Both cases are
characterized by a smooth, rounded top panel
that curves down into the front panel, both
of which are covered in a soft-touch leatherlike finish. You can get either case with a
windowed or non-windowed side panel.
Now, though, Aerocool has added the
DS 230 to the family, and to say that it
has a distinctive look is an understatement.
The DS 230 comes in blackjust black, at
least for the momentand it doesnt exhibit
any of the soft curves or the soft materials
that dominate the DS 200 and DS Cube.
Its design is angular and dark, accented by
seven-color LED lighting that runs across
the front panel near the top and bottom,
and additional lighting that glows from
beneath the case down onto the pedestal
that supports it in lieu of individual feet.
(Aerocool does offer an optional windowed
side panel for it, though.) You can configure
the DS 230s LED lights to remain set

on any of the available color choices (red,

green, blue, orange, purple, cyan, or white),
and you can have them pulse (breathing
mode). Or, if you want, you can set the
lights to change color based on your systems
current PWM fan speed. In PWM mode,
the lights start at green (fan speeds of 0 to
20%), and then progress to blue (20 to
40%), white (40 to 60%), orange (60 to
80%), and finally red (80 to 100%).
The DS 230s commitment to quiet
computing is clear; our review unit came
sans window panel, and both side panels
are coated by a layer of sound-dampening
material. The front panels ventilation consists
entirely of side-facing and downward-facing
openings, ensuring that all sound emitted
from the forward section of the case is
directed away from the user. The top panel
is sealed up tight as a drum right out of the
box, but it contains a removable panel in case
you want to install a radiator beneath it.
The interior of the case presents a
number of amenities, including built-in fan
and LED boards that connect your systems

lights and fans to the external control

buttons at the front of the top panel. The
DS 230 also provides a steel power supply
shroud that runs from the rear of the case to
very nearly the front, leaving enough room
for those who want to install a radiator and
fans behind the front panel. The shroud
contains slots for power cables, as does
the motherboard tray, and in addition to
concealing the power supply, it also hides
a dual-bay drive cage with slide-out trays
that accept 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives.
(There are also two 2.5-inch drive mounts
on the front of the tray forward of the
motherboard, and a third on the rear of the
tray in the form of a removable bracket.)
The aforementioned motherboard tray
also features tie-down anchor points, so
despite the fact that our model came with
no window, building and maintaining a
clean, neat interior will be fairly simple
in this case. The front and bottom panels
incorporate removable dust filters to help
keep your interior and your valuable
components as dust-free as possible.
Aerocools DS 230 supports graphics
cards up to more than 15.25 inches in
length, supports a 240mm or 280mm
radiator beneath its top panel, and lets you
install radiators up to 360mm long behind
the front panel. It looks great, keeps system
noise to a minimum, and comes with a
reasonable MSRP of $120.
BY

CHRIS TRUMBLE

Specs: Dimensions: 18.7 x 9 x 18.8 inches (HxWxD); Materials: steel, plastic; Motherboard support: Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX; Drive bays: 2 x 2.5/3.5-inch internal, 3 x 2.5-inch; Fans (included): 1 x 120mm front; Fans (optional): 2 x 140mm/3 x 120mm front, 2 x 120mm/140mm top; Ports:
2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, audio I/O

CPU / November 2016

17

The Hellfire is certainly

capable of keeping up with
other PCIe SSDs.
Benchmark Results*

Patriot Hellfire
480GB

CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2

Patriot Hellfire 480GB

has come to admit that SATAchips on both sides of the Hellfires PCB.
Tgoinghebasedtotimecutsolid-state
drives are no longer
Thats not a concern for anyone installing
it as boot drives if you want
one of these SSDs in a desktop PC, but
the fastest system possible. Yes, it feels like
yesterday when we were lauding SATA
SSDs as the long-awaited, lightningfast alternative to hard drives and the
performance bottlenecks they forced us to
endure. Now, the 6Gbps SATA interface
has become a bottleneck, too, leaving
enthusiasts to jump on the PCIe train or
face being left at the station.
This year, solid-state drives that
operate over PCIe/NVMe are out in
force. Manufacturers have seen the light
and have been busy prepping drives to
tempt enthusiasts. Patriot, which has
an established track record in the SSD
industry, first teased its offering at the
beginning of the year during CES. Like
other PCIe SSDs, Patriots Hellfire drives
promised to run laps around SATA SSDs.
Heading into the holiday season, we now
have the real thing in front of us, and its
ready for its time trials.
But first, lets pop the hood and see
whats inside this hot rod. A Phison
PS5007 controller calls the shots, and the
Hellfire uses a complement of Toshiba
15nm NAND. Patriot installs NAND

laptop owners looking for an upgrade

might want to take this into account.
The 480GB Hellfire we reviewed (part
number PH480GPM280SSDR) arrived
in a simple blister pack. Unpretentious
packaging isnt a problem, especially
if it saves us a few bucks at checkout,
but make sure to exercise caution when
freeing the Hellfire from its confines.
The Hellfires feature set is fairly
standard. It offers TRIM support and
advanced garbage collection, as well as
static and dynamic wear leveling. Bad
block management and S.M.A.R.T. come
to the party, too.
To test the Hellfire, we installed it in a
GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming
(with Intels Core i7-6700K) and ran it
through CrystalDiskMark and AS-SSD. In
CDM, the Hellfires performance matched,
if not slightly exceeded, Patriots internal
results, which is always encouraging. At a
queue depth of 1, the drive is plenty fast,
but it really takes off when its able to work
at higher queue depths. The Hellfire is
certainly capable of keeping up with other
PCIe SSDs.

Sequential read

1301

Sequential write

1536

4K read

45.71

4K write

154.5

Sequential read (QD32)

2777

Sequential write (QD32)

1545

4K read (QD32)

721.9

4K write (QD32)

581.1

AS-SSD 1.6.4237.30508
Sequential read

2316.19

Sequential write

1293.81

4K read

53.57

4K write

125.59

4K read (64Thrd)

936.21

4K write (64Thrd)

747.94

*all results in MBps

Patriot sets an MSRP of $319.99 for

the 480GB Hellfire, and the 240GB
version costs $169.99 on the companys
site. However, five minutes of online
shopping will likely lead you to much
lower prices. At the time of this writing,
we were able to buy the 480GB online for
$279.99, and at that price, this PCIe SSD
is one heck of a value.
BY VINCE

COGLEY

Hellfire 480GB
$319.99
Patriot
www.patriotmemory.com

Specs: Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe); Controller: Phison PS5007; Maximum sequential read/write (ATTO): 3,000MBps/2,400MBps; Random 4KB read/write
(aligned): 170,000 IOPS/210,000 IOPS; Form factor: M.2; Warranty: 3 years
Test system specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K; Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming; GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB DDR4-3200; Storage: 240GB Intel SSD 730 Series; OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

18

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

. . . the Define C is far

and away the best Define
model yet.

Define C Window Edition

$84.99 ($79.99 w/o window)
Fractal Design
www.fractal-design.com

Fractal Design Define C

bout 18 months ago, Swedish case
manufacturer Fractal Design unveiled
its Define S, a mid-tower case with
lots of the familiar design elements of
the companys Define series, but with
one distinct difference. The case had
a streamlined interior that moved
away from interior drive bay cages in
favor of more open space for liquidcooling equipment and the like. Fractal
accomplished this by moving mounting
points for 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives behind
the motherboard tray.
Now theres another new addition to
the Define series, and it takes several of
the elements found first in the Define S
and Define Nano S and builds on them
with some great new refinements.
Like many of the cases in the Define
line, the C is a mid-tower that can
accommodate Mini-ITX, microATX,
and ATX motherboards. It also allows
the installation of graphics cards up to
just over 13 inches in length, depending
on front panel fan and radiator configs,

and has no trouble with full-sized power

supplies or CPU coolers, meaning that you
can pack a full complement of high-end
components into the Define C despite the
fact that its a little more compact than the
Define S. (In fact, at 17.8 inches high x
8.13 inches wide x 15.8 inches deep, the
Define C is sort of like a taller version of
the Define S Nano in terms of size.)
The Define C keeps all of your drives
out of sight in part by virtue of its all-new
steel power supply shroud, which extends
all the way from the back to the front
of the case. The shroud is ventilated on
top and also includes a removable inset
panel toward the front that facilitates
the installation of a radiator and fans
behind the front panel when removed.
In addition to keeping things neat
where your power supply and wiring are
concerned, the shroud provides a nice
spot for the cases two-bay 3.5-/2.5inch drive cage. A removable steel panel
that runs behind the motherboard trays
CPU cooler installation cutout lets you

vertically mount up to three 2.5-inch

drives, for a total of up to five drives. (You
can remove the dual-bay cage if you want
and can still install a 3.5-inch drive on
top of the Define Cs bottom panel.)
The motherboard tray is also equipped
with four rubber-grommeted cable
management openings and more than a
dozen tie-down anchor spots, including six
that run in pairs along the recessed left side,
creating a natural channel for all the cables
that run from the front panel and the ATX
power socket side of your motherboard. All
of this adds up to ridiculously easy cable
management, and works in concert with
the power supply shroud to help keep the
interior of your system immaculate.
Elsewhere, youll find the traditional
Define-series design notes, including
the smooth, clean front panel with its
trademark blue LED power/drive activity
light, the baffled air intakes along the
front edges of the left and right sides, the
round chrome and rubber case feet, and
the all-black interior accented by white
fans and expansion slot covers. Theres
also a removable ModuVent panel set into
the top of the case that you can quickly
and easily replace with an included
magnetic steel mesh vent if youd like to
install a radiator (up to 240mm) beneath
the top panel.
Fractal Designs Define-series cases
have been industry leaders for several
years now, and the Define C is far and
away the best Define model yet. Getting a
case designed this well and built with this
level of quality for 85 bucks is a bargain
by any metric.
BY

CHRIS TRUMBLE

Specs: Dimensions: 17.8 x 8.13 x 15.8 inches (HxWxD); Materials: steel, plastic; Motherboard support: Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX; Drive bays:
2 x 2.5-/3.5-inch internal, 3 x 2.5-inch; Fans (included): 1 x 120mm front, 1 x 120mm rear; Fans (optional): 2 x 140mm/120mm front, 2 x
120mm/140mm top, 1 x 120mm bottom; Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, audio I/O

CPU / November 2016

19

. . . an incredibly tiny,
attractive powerhouse
PC . . .

GB-BNi7HG4-950
$999
GIGABYTE
www.gigabyte.us

Benchmark Results

GIGABYTE BRIX
Gaming UHD

3DMark Fire Strike

5164

Graphics Score

5900

Physics Score

9402

PCMark 8
Creative Score

4155

SiSoftware Sandra 2016

GIGABYTE BRIX Gaming UHD

n the quest to reduce PC footprint,
PCIe SSDswhile the other slot supports
Icontinually
component and system makers have
both PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs. For
optimized parts and chassis to
personal file storage, there are also two 2.5produce an acceptable gaming experience
from the smallest form factor possible.
GIGABYTEs BRIX lineup has always
been notable for its compact design, but
the BRIX systems never offered much
for gamers, due to the lack of a discrete
graphics card. The BRIX Gaming UHD
changes the game, so to speak, as it comes
with a custom built GeForce GTX 950
and Intels Core i7-6700HQ.
The BRIX Gaming UHD isnt as
compact as the traditional BRIX series,
which generally stand less than two-inches
tall, but the 8.66 x 4.33 x 4.33 (HxWxD)
dimensions of the Gaming UHD are still
incredibly tiny. GIGABYTE also designs
the BRIX Gaming UHD with an attractive
brushed aluminum exterior, topped off
with subtle white LEDs on the lid.
Similar to many other BRIX models,
the BRIX Gaming UHD is a barebones kit
where youll provide the memory, OS, and
storage. Memory-wise, you can install up
to 32GB of DDR4-2133 into the two SODIMM slots. GIGABYTE indicates that the
BRIX Gaming UHD supports Windows 10
(64-bit), as well as Windows 8.1 (64-bit) and
Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit).
GIGABYTE takes advantage of the
taller height on the BRIX Gaming UHD
to include a bevy of storage options. You
can hook up two M.2 SSDs (2280 form
factor)one of which only supports speedy

inch bays that can handle both 7mm and

9.5mm thick drives. Previous BRIX models
had a fairly limited storage subsystem, so
its nice to see that GIGABYTE made more
room for data drives with the Gaming UHD.
The use of NVIDIAs GeForce GTX
950 lets the system support four displays
via three mini-DisplayPort outputs and an
HDMI port. The rear panel also features
two USB 3.1 ports (one reversible Type-C
connector, as well as two USB 3.0 ports
and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
In our gaming tests, the BRIX GAMING
UHD was able to produce better than 30fps
with Metro: Last Light (41.4fps) and Dying
Light (39.9fps) with all settings on High
and a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. Witcher
3 frame rates only hit 23fps, though, so
there are titles where youll need to lower
game settings. Processor numbers were near
identical to laptops weve tested with Intels
Core i7-6700HQ and we didnt see any
thermal throttling during our testing.
Enthusiasts might prefer a beefier GPU
than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, as
its not really capable of delivering high
frame rates with demanding titles beyond
1080p resolution. But if your gaming
tastes skew towards less GPU-intensive
titles (such as DOTA 2 or Path Of Exile),
or you only play at 1080p, the BRIX
Gaming UHD will get the job done. More
importantly, the BRIX Gaming UHD is an

Dhrystone AVX2 (GIPS)

141.57

Whetstone AVX (GFLOPS)

82.19

Multi-Media Integer AVX2

x32 (Mpixels/s)

306

Multi-Media Long-int AVX2

x16 (Mpixels/s)

139.6

Multi-MediaQuad ALU x1
(Mpixels/s)

1.62

Floating B/F AVX/128

(GBps, mem bandwidth)

26.63

CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2
(MBps)
Sequential Read (Q32T1)

542.7

Sequential Write (Q32T1)

238.5

Random 4K Read (Q32T1)

121.9

Random 4K Write (Q32T1)

90.72

POV-Ray 3.7 (Pixels/s)

1446.71

Cinebench 15 (Points)

678

Games

(1,920 x 1,080)

Metro: Last Light (Very

High, 16xAF; SSAA off)

41.4fps

Dying Light (High, AO On,

AA On, Vsync Off)

39.9fps

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

(Vsync Off, Unl. FPS, Ultra)

23fps

incredibly tiny, attractive powerhouse PC

that would make a mini-ITX chassis look
big, by comparison. Anyone with serious
space constraints should take note.
BY

NATHAN LAKE

System Specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ; Chipset: Intel HM170; GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950; Memory: 32GB HyperX Predator DDR4-2133;
Storage: 240GB Kingston HyperX SSD; OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

20

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

This tiny case looks

amazing and will quite
possibly be the last mATX
case youll ever need.

Bullet BH4
$189.95
CaseLabs
caselabs-store.com

CaseLabs Bullet BH4

aseLabs is a family-owned business that
makes PC enclosures in the United States,
and its products have been a fixture among
DIY builders and modders for many years.
We recently had an opportunity to look at the
Bullet BH4, one of three Bullet case models
that CaseLabs launched in the spring, and we
were impressed with its great looks, quality,
and durability right out of the box.
The BH4 is a microATX chassis (its
ever-so-slightly smaller sibling, the BH2 is
a Mini-ITX case, and the BH7 is an ATX/
EATX case), and at less than 10 inches high,
11 inches wide, and 13 inches deep, it has a
tiny footprint. In addition, its surprisingly
lightweight thanks to its aluminum outer
shell. Our unit came with the optional
$20 handles, made from durable black
plastic, that attach to its top panel near
the front and rear. The handles are a nice
complement to the black front and back
panels, and looked great on our BH4s
otherwise Lime green top and sides. (The
BH4 comes in Black, White, Gunmetal,
Tangerine, Lime, or Berry; the last three
colors will bump the cases price up by $10,

but if the Lime green is any indication, they

are all well worth the extra Hamilton.)
As with many mATX chassis, the BH4s
diminutive size does require the use of a nonstandard part or two; youll need an SFX
or SFX-L power supply, and if you install
fans behind the front panel, youll need to
choose a graphics card thats 11 inches in
length or shorterin addition to the mATX
motherboard, of course. But these items
are easy enough to find, and with todays
increasingly efficient CPUs and GPUs, youll
have no trouble assembling a microATX
system thats a more-than-capable gamer.
One other note: in this heady era of toolless cases that let you open, close, install,
and remove without the aid of a screwdriver,
removing 14 screws to open a case is unusual,
to say the least. This was our only quibble
with the BH4, however, and the tradeoff is
a case that is absolutely rock-solid, especially
when fully assembled. Every seam and joint
fits together perfectly, and theres not a rattle,
shimmy or worrying flex anywhere to be
found. You can also get to the BH4s 2.5- and
3.5-inch drive mounts in the compartment

beneath the motherboard tray by removing

a secondary access panel that is secured
by just four screws.
The BH4s interior is arranged to make
the most efficient use of the space possible.
As mentioned a moment ago, your drives
install to the cases bottom compartment
along with your power supply; your
motherboard will lay flat on the motherboard
tray just above this, and above the
motherboard and your graphics card, youll
find a dual 120mm fan mount that you can
use for one or two fans or an AIO liquid
coolers radiator, or that you can remove if
you want, creating a little more space up
top. CaseLabs also sent us the optional light
mounting kit ($14.95), which consists of two
matching bars that attach to the top of the
inner frame when the top panel is removed,
providing the perfect spot for a pair of 12inch LED strips.
In short, theres a lot to love about
the CaseLabs Bullet BH4. This tiny case
looks amazing and will quite possibly be
the last mATX case youll ever need. Its
impeccable, sturdy design makes it well
worth the asking price.
BY

CHRIS TRUMBLE

Specs: Dimensions: 9.5 x 11 x 13 inches (HxWxD); Materials: Aluminum; Motherboard support: mATX; Drive bays: 2 3.5-inch internal, 3 x 2.5-inch; Fans
(optional): 2 x 120mm front, 2 x 120mm top; Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, audio I/O

CPU / November 2016

21

State-Of-The-Art
Standards
Li-Fi

Li-Fi is a technology that is likely to be used in conjunction with Wi-Fi and cellular signals to improve network connectivity.
Image courtesy of pureLiFi

o avoid interference on the 2.4GHz

band, many of the latest wireless devices
and routers are designed to transmit and
receive data over the 5GHz band via the
802.11ac protocol. But what happens when
we fill up the 5GHz band with signals
and data? We could continue to go up the
radio frequency spectrum. The 802.11ad
protocol, for instance, introduces the 60GHz
frequency. But the tradeoff of higher Wi-Fi
frequencies is that they have a shorter range.
At the end of the day, there are only so many
RF bands to go around, and the incredible
growth of wireless and IoT devices makes it
likely that interferenceno matter what the
RF bandwill continue to be a problem.

Necessity being the mother of invention, researchers have developed a way

to transmit network information using
visible light spectrum. Aptly referred to
as Li-Fi (Light Fidelity), the technology
uses LEDs to modulate light intensity. The
subtle changes in light are read as data
by a photosensitive receiver. LEDs are
an ideal option for Li-Fi, because LED
technology already uses a semiconductor
chip to control light intensity. Modern
LEDs can modulate light at high speeds
were talking millions of times a second
to rapidly send along binary code. Li-Fi
might literally light the way to a new
future of wireless network communication.

In The Beginning
Using light as a tool for data communication isnt exactly new. Remote controls,
for instance, have sent binary codes via
IR (infrared light) for years. IR signals
typical carry only basic commands,
such as volume up or change channel,
because IR uses very low-power signals
by design. Too much exposure to IR light
can damage your eyes, and since IR is
mostly invisible to the human eye, its
critical to limit the power of IR devices
to safe levels.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
PDAs and other mobile devices used
the IrDA (Infrared Data Association)
CPU / November 2016

23

During the demonstration, Haas

pointed out the vast differences between
the visible light and RF spectrums: I
compared the radio waves spectrum
the size of itwith the size of the
visible light spectrum. And guess
what? We have 10,000 times more
of that spectrum, which is there for
us to use. The light spectrum would
not be subject to licensing, as is the
RF spectrum, nor would it need to be
restricted to a certain set of frequencies.
The wide spectrum range also offers
Li-Fi room to grow, should devices
begin to fill up a certain part of the
spectrum with signals.

Image courtesy of pureLiFi

protocol to wirelessly transfer data, but

IrDA was quickly displaced by Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth. Range was an issue with IrDA,
as devices typically had to be within one
meter, while the viewing angle was best
between 15 and 30 degrees. Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth, by comparison, offer much
greater range and flexibility. Giga-IR is an
optical communication technology that
showed promise in 2012, but despite the
fast transmission speedup to 100 times
that of the Wi-Fi speeds of the timeit
never materialized for consumers.
Li-Fi is on based on the visible light
spectrum, so the wireless communications
are on a completely different wavelength
than IR. Best of all, dwellings around
the world are already filled with light
sockets, so we have a ready-made way to
distribute Li-Fi signals throughout the
house. Theres more to it, of course, than
just plugging in an LED bulb, but its
certainly handy that the move to Li-Fi
wouldnt mean starting from scratch.

And We Saw It Was Good

In 2011, Professor Harald Haas of the
University of Edinburgh, also co-founder

24

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

and Chief Science Officer of a company

called pureLiFi, did a demonstration
of the technology at a TEDGlobal
conference. The prototype featured a
normal LED light bulb, combined with
some signal processing technology and
a spatial photo detector, to transmit a
high-definition video. You dont notice
the subtle changes in the amplitude that
we impress onto this light bulb, said
Haas during the demonstration. Its
serving the purpose of illumination,
but at the same time, we are able to
transmit this data.
Haas prototype, furthermore, shows
that the transmission can work even with
competing light sources. And you see,
even light from the ceiling comes down
here to the receiver. Haas went on to
say, It can ignore that constant light,
because all the receivers interested in are
subtle changes.
Technically, the lights dont even
need to be bright enough for us to
see. You can dim down the light to
a level that it appears to be off, said
Haas. And you are still able to transmit
datathats possible.

Separating Light From Darkness

Despite the numerous positives of LiFi, there are some negatives that mean
Li-Fi will most likely need to work in
tandem with a Wi-Fi connection. The
most obvious issue is that Li-Fi signals
cant pass through walls or ceilings. For
whole-house connectivity, youd need
to have Li-Fi capable bulbs in most, if
not all, rooms. Outdoor applications
are possible, but rain, fog, and intense
sunlight could reduce the range and
effectiveness of signal.
Line of sight is not required for
Li-Fi, but a direct path provides the
highest data rate. Light propagates
in a significantly more confined way,
as radio waves, says Dr. Anagnostis
Paraskevopoulos of the Fraunhofer
Heinrich Hertz Institute. You may use
reflected light, but after two reflections,
the optical losses are too high for the
required signal quality. On a related
note, he says that For special scenarios,
such as a conference room, you can
design the light spot in a way that
allows separate data flow in separate
room areas.
Li-Fis range limitations do come with
a silver liningthe connection is much
easier to secure than Wi-Fi. Through
well-designed implementations, Li-Fi
can be limited to transmit only within
a few meters of the light source, says
Patrick Connolly, principal analyst at
ABI Research. As a result, VLC [Visible

Light Communications] and

Li-Fi are much more secure
technologies than existing radio
wave technologies.
In environments where
security is paramount, Li-Fi
could be an excellent alternative
for businesses that deal with
confidential information
and want to prevent anyone
f ro m h a c k i n g t h e w i re l e s s
signal. Li-Fi is an interesting
additional technology to
the existing radio wavebased communication, says The visible light spectrum is much larger than the radio wave spectrum.
Pa r a s k e v o p o u l o s . Yo u d o
have a simpler situation when
For bi-directional communication,
capabilities into their lighting as
data security is important, as optical
Li-Fi devices will need a photodiode
standard, meaning building owners
isolation is easier to attain than with
that coverts light into data, as well
that have installed LED lighting can
radio waves, and an optical system
as an LED that delivers network
choose to turn on VLC capabilities at
does not interfere with other existing
communications back to the router.
any stage, Connolly says.
communication systems.
pureLiFi recently partnered with
Once Li-Fi establishes itself, we
Lucibel
to create the worlds first
expect youll start to see devices include
Let There Be Light
i
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l i ze d L i - Fi s y s t e m . T h e
an optical receiver and transmitter
The experts we talked to believe that
LiFi-X
includes
a LiFi-X ceiling access
built into your mobile devices and
adding a data path to existing LED
point
that
connects
to an LED light
PCs. This is a challenge because of
builds will be the easiest way to bring
fixture
and
creates
an
atto-cell that
the expected small form factor, as well
Li-Fi into the household. For ease of
provides
data
within
the
illuminated
as the compatibility with all sorts of
use, Li-Fi LED bulbs could feature
area.
The
LiFi-X
access
point
supports
end devices, says Paraskevopoulos.
Wi-Fi connectivity and serve as access
points. Basically, a company would
just need to replace the LEDs ordinary
driver circuit with one that can receive
Wi-Fi signals and encode the data with
LED light intensity. Because light bulbs
already connect to your houses power
lines, its possible that a powerline
connection may also serve to deliver the
network connectivity to the LED.
At this point, the consumer
i m p l e m e n t a t i o n s a re t h e o re t i c a l ,
because Li-Fi isnt integrated onto any
devices, and the handful of companies
working with Li-Fi are still testing
it out for industrial applications. If
the initial applications take about
two to three years to establish, then
five to six years from now would be
the time for consumer applications,
says Paraskevopoulos. On the plus
side, LED makers have already started
prepping for Li-Fi. Most major
The LiFi-X system includes a Li-Fi-enabled USB dongle (pictured here) and an overhead light.
LED vendors are building in VLC
CPU / November 2016

25

handover, so you can seamlessly switch

among illuminated access points. The
kit, when released, will also include
a Li-Fi USB dongle that allows for
bidirectional communication with
42Mbps uplink/downlink.
With pureLiFi and Lucibel powering
this new generation of data-enabled
lighting, we can now begin to see the
real-life application of this emerging
technology, says Harald Burchardt,
Chief Operations Officer at pureLiFi.
Frdric Granotier, president and
founder of Lucibel, offers similar hope
for Li-Fi: With the integration of
Li-Fi technology in smartphones and
tablets expected within two to three
years, the private individual market
segment will also be opened to us,
he says.

Where Li-Fi Can Be Fruitful

Right Now
Li-Fi will have some initial applications in use cases, where current
RF-based solutions show definitive
disadvantages, says Paraskevopoulos.
Industrial production, logistics, as well
as hospitals seem currently to be the most

interesting ones. Li-Fi is a great option

for environments where Wi-Fi might
create electromagnetic interference with
other technology. Inside an airplane, for
instance, each passenger could have a
high bandwidth connection that wouldnt
create an EMI interference with the
planes radio equipment.
We have seen Li-Fi considered
for V2V [vehicle to vehicle] communications and ADAS [advanced
driver assistance systems], smart cities/
street lighting, and indoor location
applications, such as proximity
advertising in retail, staff management
applications in offices, and asset
tracking in industrial environments,
says Connolly.
The fundamental security of Li-Fi,
of course, is excellent for all kinds of
situations where you want to limit others
access to your network. With minimal
precautions, such as drawing curtains
over windows and closing doors, you can
prevent the signal from leaking out of
a building or room. In a hospital, for
instance, Li-Fi can help to better secure
the wireless medical instruments and all
devices with sensitive patient records.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications equipped a conference room on Mainau Island with Li-Fi.
Image courtesy of Fraunhofer HHI

26

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

A separate access point also comes

in handy if you want to isolate your
connection or a guests connection. With
Wi-Fi, for instance, security-minded
users often create a separate guest
network that has Internet access but no
communication with the main wired and
wireless network, nor the other devices
connected to it.
Another intriguing use for Li-Fi is
underwater communication, because
radio waves travel poorly through water.
Light, on the hand, can penetrate water
for much longer distances and might
enable diver-to-diver and diver-to-sub
communications. Li-Fi might also be
utilized for network communication
in areas where EMI signals could be
hazardous, such as facilities where fuel
is processed. Li-Fi communications
can help to improve worker safety,
because there would be less need for
someone to physically check and
monitor infrastructures that carry
combustible materials.

Dividing The Wireless Waters

A recent report from network giant
Cisco indicates that by 2020, traffic from
wireless devices will account for 66%
of total IP traffic. By contrast, wireless
devices in 2015 accounted for a little
less than half of the IP traffic with a
48% share. The upcoming spectrum
crunch is also expected to be impacted
by several up-and-coming high-networkbandwidth technologies, including 4K
video, virtual reality devices, Internet
gaming, and more general video
consumption on smartphones.
Li-Fi could be a huge boost to reliably
connect IoT devices in the future.
Consider that every room in your
house might include one or more IoT
connections, and its easy to see how
the enormous demand for data would
strain a Wi-Fi network and increase
interference. Wi-Fi will not be able to
service IoT alone, Li-Fi will be a key
complimentary technology, says Alistair
Banham, CEO at pureLiFi.
Todays IoT devices are typically
low-power sensors that dont require

much data, but as the IoT market

g r o w s , L i - Fi c o u l d p r ov i d e t h e
bandwidth necessary for heavier
data transmissions. The world is
demanding unprecedented bandwidth
and data, says Banham. Li-Fi will be
a key component of the 5G framework
that services that demand.

Great Lights To Rule

A few research teams and technology
companies have created some highspeed prototypes that show off just
how fast Li-Fi can be. Last May, a
team of Saudi scientists developed an
LED bulb that could transmit up to
2Gbps. The researchers use perovskite
nanocrystals to quickly modulate the
optical emissions at 491MHz, 40 times
faster than LEDs using phosphorus. In
February of 2015, Oxford University
researchers were able to reach an
aggregate Li-Fi bandwidth of 224Gbps
by transmitting light at six different
w a ve l e n g t h s . T h e O x f o rd p ro t o type, however, required direct line of
sight and the receiver had to be in a
fixed position.
When it comes to wireless speeds
in the real world, we have yet to see
true Li-Fi transmission rates. Li-Fi
circuits are far from optimized, and
for the moment, we lack real-life
implementations in order to better
define the optimization scenarios, says
Paraskevopoulos. For these reasons,
the Fraunhofer HHI has setup a
pilot installation on the Mainau
Island, Lake Constance in the south
of Germany. The Li-Fi installation
is the first outside of a laboratory
e n v i r o n m e n t . Fu r t h e r L i - Fi t e s t
projects are planned for 2016.
The Next Verse
Visual light communications technology has a long way to go before its
installed in our houses and workplaces.
To begin, Li-Fi will likely have to show
its usefulness in industrial environments
where Wi-Fi either doesnt work or
is a poor solution. In most cases, we
imagine that Li-Fi will have to work

Delivering Internet access in-flight might be one of the best uses for Li-Fi.
Bart Sadowski, iStock.com, image courtesy Fraunhofer HHI

Mobile devices will need a Li-Fi sensor and transceiver for bidirectional communication.
Erik Khalitov, iStock.com, image courtesy Fraunhofer HHI

in combination with Wi-Fi. With a

smartphone, for example, consumers
will still want the network connection
to remain active when the mobile device
is in a pocket. Li-Fi alone wouldnt do,

because it would only work when the

smartphone was out and its photo receiver
was visible to a Li-Fi LED. On the whole,
Li-Fi does have a bright future as a
complementary wireless technology.
CPU / November 2016

27

30

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

headline
his months Mad Reader Mod winner comes to us from
Alex FrozenQ Quaintance. (And yes, thats FrozenQ
as in FrozenQPCMods.com. Quaintance is one of
several people whose work has been featured here who took his
enthusiasm for modding PCs and turned it into a business.)
Quaintances mod, Orange Nexus, has a very modern look and
an interesting theme that Quaintance says came from all over.

Life Imitates Art

A nexus is generally defined as a collective of ideas, which is
what this project is all about, he says. I took ideas from various
builds Ive done in the past and combined my favorite parts of
them all into one. Of course, its also orange, which is a color
scheme that Ive always wanted to try out but never could find
the proper hardware to make it work.
For specific designs, I tend to draw inspiration from other
hobbies or designs I find interesting, he continues. When the
build is for myself, I always make sure to incorporate the FrozenQ
signature hex element somewhere within the project. Apart from
that, Im always pulling elements in from other sources. Youll see
resemblances to skins and themes from games I play to parts and
designs inspired by racing liveries and cars in general.
One of our first impressions of Orange Nexus is that it looked
like something you might see in Bungies online FPS Destiny.
Quaintance says, though, that some of Orange Nexus look
comes from the CS:GO AWP Asiimov skin, and yep, thats where
weve seen it. And then when GIGABYTE approached me about

using the X99-Phoenix-SLI motherboard, everything fell into

place, he says. It was like the designers of the board also took
inspiration from the Asiimov skin.

Shop Class Pays Off

In high school, I was always the guy who spent all available
time in the wood/metal shop, working on building something,
Quaintance says. It wasnt long before that translated over to
case modding in 2007 or 2008. I owe a great deal of my skills to
a great set of shop teachers for teaching me various techniques
and processes that I still put to use to this day. Since then, Im
always surprised by how much I learn doing each new build.
Of course, Quaintance has his own shop now. I do a lot
of the planning and CAD design from home, but the actual
physical work happens at the FrozenQ PC Tech machine shop,
he says. Weve got a room full of CNC machines, shop tools,
and work space. Its a modders dream!
Quaintance says hes largely been doing scratch builds recently,
but for Orange Nexus he decided to begin with the In Win
909 and use it as a canvas to showcase his acrylic work. It was
actually a lot of fun, he says. You dont have to worry so much
about structural integrity, since thats already there from the cases
frame. You can just let loose and add things here and there to
make it just how you want it.
And so he did, and it all turned out pretty much the way he
planned, with one exception: Originally, the build was supposed
to be a dual loop, one with white coolant and orange fittings,

CPU / November 2016

31

and one with orange coolant and white fittings for contrast,
Quaintance says. Unfortunately, with the reservoir and pump
combo I had to work with, I couldnt find a space in the case
where they naturally fit and didnt make it look cluttered. So I
had to change it up and do one loop with dual radiators.
Quaintance of course did an amazing job on the rigs
external paint, which as we mentioned above blends elements of
FrozenQ-style and the Asiimov skin theme. Theres also a little
bit of Williams F1 livery going on, he says.
But Orange Nexus is much more than gorgeous paint. FrozenQ
also built a custom shroud to conceal the lower of the two radiators
using matte black acrylic layered with orange acrylic accent insets,
and he created a UV orange acrylic panel that features the logos
of all of his sponsors and is lit by white LEDs. He also attached a
temperature readout that shows the temp at the exhaust fan; this
panel conceals the mods drive bays and their attendant clutter.
In terms of its components, Orange Nexus consists of the
aforementioned In Win 909, as well as an Intel Core i7-6800K,
the GIGABYTE X99-Phoenix-SLI board, 32GB of Corsair
Dominator Platinum DDR4-2666 memory, two NVIDIA
GeForce TITAN X graphics cards, an In Win Classic 900W power
supply, a Samsung 970 PRO M.2 SSD, two Intel SSD 730 Series
240GB drives, and some Ultimate Personal Computers custom
cable extensions. Oh, and of course a custom cooling loop.

The Same & Also Different

Quaintance says this is his 17th case mod, which is fairly
impressive. He also says he has begun work on number 18.
My next build is going to be a microATX system also done
using an In Win case, he says. Im getting parts together

32

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

for it now and hope to have it complete by early December.

Its going to be a lot like this build, but with an entirely
different theme and color choice.

We Want Your Mod

Have a computer mod that will bring tears to our eyes? Email
photos and a description to [email protected]. If
we choose your system as our Mad Reader Mod, youll win
$1,500! (U.S. residents only, please.)

Drop Us A Line Today!

CPU / November 2016

33

Autumnal Rites

LANFest NETWAR 31.0 & LANFest

Sacramento Fall 2016
Its fall, and in addition to the many things we enjoy this time of year (football, cooler weather, Thanksgiving, football, and
football) one of our favorite pastimes is going to LAN parties. Of course, thats one of our favorites in spring, summer, and
winter, as well, but two of our favorite LANFest events took place this past month: LANFest NETWAR 31.0 in Omaha, Neb., and
LANFest Sacramento Fall 2016.

LANFest NETWAR 31.0

The latest NETWAR once again took place at The Mark, an entertainment complex in suburban Omaha, and the event drew 456 registered attendees and an
all-volunteer staff of 14. The LAN began on Friday, October 14 at 7:00 p.m. and ran through Saturday, October 15 at 10:00 p.m. It included tournaments in
League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, and Overwatch, and a CPU case mod competition. Of course, there was also a massive
door prize raffle where attendees had a chance to win some great PC gear.

NETWAR 31.0s Overwatch champs, basking in glorious victory.

The Mark, before (above) and after (right).

34

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

NETWARs bountiful Table OPrizes.

Mod Contest
We had a great time judging the NETWAR 31.0 mod contest. One of our entries, an all-in-one PC/monitor combo, was custombuilt by an attendee named Joshua Judy, who drove 350 miles from Joplin, Missouri, and we saw several really nice gaming rigs.
Our winner was Ben Smits, whose tricked-out Thermaltake Core P5 is immaculate from stem to stern.
Smits gave his Core P5 a killer white paintjob,
installed a great-looking custom cooling loop with
clear tubing and red coolant, as well as some
very cool Crucial Ballistix memory with red LEDs
atop the DIMMs, a gorgeous EK full-cover GPU
waterblock, three-color sleeved power cables, and
a red and white Gigabyte G1 motherboard that sets
it all off perfectly. Smits posed (right) with his mod
contest trophy, courtesy of FrozenQPCMods.

Judys all-in-one creation impressed from in front (above) and behind

(below), as did this big black and red custom Corsair rig (below right)
and several others.

CPU / November 2016

35

LANFest Sacramento Fall 2016

One of the oldest and biggest LANFest events on the yearly schedule, LANFest Sacramento brought in very nearly 400 gamers for its latest LAN party, which started on
Friday, October 21 and ran through Sunday, October 23 at 6:00 p.m. at Intels Folsom, California campus. Along the way, attendees played Overwatch, Rocket League,
and Counter-Strike: GO tournamentsand raised money for Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, a 170-facility network across the United States and Canada.
Mod contests at LANFest Sacramento are pretty serious business, as evidenced by our top three finalists. All of these are great-looking PCs, but in the end our winner
was a name that longtime CPU readers will no doubt recognize: Brian Boddaker Carter. His purple rose-themed mod, a system he built for his daughter, is truly a
work of art. If you look closely, youll notice that the roses stem is acutally rigid coolant tubing; the petals of the rose hide the systems liquid-cooling reservoir.

Our other top two finalists included a sweet green and carbon-fiber
biohazard-themed mod (below left) and an orange Phanteks mod
with a nice white custom cooling loop (below).

36

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Bullet Storm
CaseLabs Aims To Make Compact Cases Huge
hen we think about custom
cases, usually what come to mind
are towering boxes capable of
holding a staggering amount of hardware
and cooling gear. Gargantuan cases are
also effectively oversized canvases for
modders to paint their masterpieces. Its
no wonder that we find no shortage of
full tower cases from manufacturers.
However, theres a different breed of
power user who relishes in the challenge
of going small. For these enthusiasts, big
builds are boring; theyre more interested
in trying to pack as much power in as
tight a space as possible. Small form
factor systems can be stupendous, too,
but finding the right case to properly
showcase a tiny builders abilities isnt
quite as easy.
CaseLabs wants to lend a hand.
Those familiar with the California-based
company know that CaseLabs has plenty
of experience brewing up imposing chassis.
Recently, though, CaseLabs decided to
innovate by thinking small. The Bullet
family of compact cases gives builders the
opportunity to make a good-looking rig
that doesnt need a lot of space.

Homegrown Ingenuity
Nearly as old as the personal computer,
CaseLabs can trace its roots all the way back
to 1971, when Nixon was President and
Cup O Noodles was born. Back then, the
companys business card read California
Fabrication Company, and its PC case
business wouldnt take flight for several years.
In the early years, CaseLabs wasnt much
different than any other welding shop.
My father, a former aerospace engineer
during the Space Race era, started a
welding shop in 1971, says Jim Keating,
CaseLabs president and CEO. Realizing
that just being a welding business would be
too limited, he expanded into sheetmetal

CaseLabs has made a name for itself by producing some of the biggest, baddest enthusiast cases
around, but the new Bullet series shows off the companys expertise on a smaller scale.

a few years later. Contract manufacturing

has always had its ups and downs, but the
last recession was nothing like we had ever
seen before.
I knew we had to diversify and shared
my fathers vision of someday making our
own product, Keating explains. Having
been in the business since I was 14 and
also being involved in IT for over a dozen
years, I was in a very unique position to
design and build PC cases. Having built
dozens of systems over the years, I had
a long list of gripes about the existing
designs, so in 2010 I started sketching out
my dream case. It was quite different than
most of the offerings on the market at the
time. That case became the Magnum M8.

Designing the Magnum M8, Keating

knew he wanted a case that would be
lightweight yet strong and sturdy; the frame
itself couldnt rely on doors and side panels
for its durability. Keating also wanted his
case to be easily accessible for power users,
letting them strip the case down to its frame
in a matter of minutes, without using tools or
screws. He also wanted the Magnum M8 to
be suitable for any purpose, from watercooled
systems to servers. He developed the Flex-Bay
System to achieve this.

Bullet Factory
Although CaseLabs has plenty of
firsthand wisdom to make great cases,
the inspiration for the Bullet series
CPU / November 2016

39

largely came from attendee feedback

at PDXLAN 27 in February 2016. For
the uninitated, PDXLAN regularly
draws some of the best case modders
in the world, so if someone at the
LAN party has suggestions for a case,
theres a good chance you should pay
attention.
Many of the attendees were familiar
with our larger system cases, Keating
says, but the one thing we heard over
and over again was, I love your cases,
but I dont watercool and theyre too
big, especially for a LAN event. You
guys need to make something smaller.

Keating says that PDXLAN attendees

bemoaned the lack of high-quality
compact cases, something that they
could move from place to place easily
while simultaneously withstanding the
bumps and bruises of LAN party travel.
Knowing how much pride attendees take
in their systems, Keating says he also
sought to give them a case that would
show off the interior components. I
took the challenge and started sketching
up a design, he says. It actually came
together pretty quickly, and by the time
the event was over, I was very close to a
fully functional design.

HAIL OF SPECS

40

CaseLabs Bullet
Specifications

Bullet BH2

Bullet BH4

Bullet BH7

Price

$169.95

$189.95

$229.95

Dimensions (HxWxD, inches)

9.5 x 10 x 13

9.5 x 11 x 13

10 x 13.4 x 13

Materials

Aluminum

Aluminum

Aluminum

Motherboard support

Mini-ITX

Mini-ITX, microATX

Mini-ITX, microATX,
ATX, E-ATX (most)

PCI slots

Drive bays

2 3.5-inch,
4 2.5-inch

2 3.5-inch,
4 2.5-inch

2/3 3.5-inch,
2 2.5-inch

Fan mounts

1x 60mm rear,
2x 120mm top,
2x 120mm front

1x 60mm rear,
2x 120mm top,
2x 120mm front

2x 80mm,
2x 120mm top,
2x 120mm front

Displacement

20L

22L

30L

Weight

6.8lbs.

7.2lbs.

8.8lbs.

PSU support

SFX/SFX-L

SFX/SFX-L

ATX

Radiator support

120mm, 240mm

120mm, 240mm

120mm, 240mm

GPU clearance

11.1 inches

11.1 inches

11.1 inches

CPU cooler clearance

5.6 inches

5.6 inches

5.7 inches

Removable motherboard tray

Yes

Yes

Yes

Included accessories

Anti-vandal power
switch, MDPC-X
sleeved cables

Anti-vandal power
switch, MDPC-X
sleeved cables

Anti-vandal power
switch, MDPC-X
sleeved cables

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

With a preliminary idea in mind

for the new case, Keating returned
to CaseLabs HQ and put the facilitys
machinery to work. On the production
floor, CaseLabs starts with large sheets
of raw materialstypically aluminum
of varying thicknessand then shears
them down to smaller blanks that are
then fed to a CNC turret punch press.
Deburring the processed parts follows,
and then CaseLabs CNC press brake
forms the parts. Some of the parts end
up in CaseLabs welding department, but
most receive threaded steel inserts. Paint
is next; CaseLabs uses powder coating.
Finally, CaseLabs assembles the cases and
sends them out the door.
What makes CaseLabs unique is the
fact that Keating is closely involved
involved in the planning and design
phases. I both design the cases and
do all the CNC programming and
production planning, he says. So,
as Im designing parts, Im also taking
into account what it will take to
actually make them. That allows for a
high level of efficiency with respect to
material and labor utilization and gives
us an important competitive edge.
By keeping all of its manufacturing in
house, CaseLabs maintains control over
the quality of its cases.
Keating brewed up the Bullet over the
course of a LAN party and says he was
happy enough with initial design that it
didnt require many tweaks before being
ready for mass production. He mentions
that the Bullets front panel was spruced
up from the initial model.
The original concept simply had two
120mm fan holes, Keating says, but
once we had the prototype, we realized
that the aesthetics were sorely lacking.
We changed it to the ventilated panel and
removable fan mount which was a better
solution all around.

Building The Bullet

CaseLabs Bullet cases might be small in
stature, but theyre not short on quality. In
fact, Keating made a point of using thick
aluminum to build the Bullets. The cases
outer shell is 2.3mm-thick aluminum. By

One of the hallmarks of CaseLabs cases is how builder-friendly they are, and the Bullet series is no exception. For example, the motherboard tray is horizontally
oriented in the main compartment, allowing fast and easy access to the systems primary components. The motherboard tray is also removable, so installing a
PSU, adding or removing drive bays, and tinkering with any watercooling should be hassle-free, too.

comparison, other manufacturers choose

to keep costs low by using steel, which is
typically only 0.6mm to 0.8mm thick,
instead. Inside, the Bullets structure is
largely 1.6mm-thick aluminum. Keating
says that CaseLabs insistence on aluminum
gives the Bullet cases a few advantages.
The aluminum we use . . . allows our
cases to be very stiff yet lightweight at the
same time. Because we dont have to do
a lot of embossing to keep panels from

flexing, the interior panels have a clean

flat surface that is ideal for modding and
mounting hardware.
Although CaseLabs staff are master
metalworkers, Keating says the Bullet
required them to step outside their
comfort zonenamely, colossal cases
with nearly no size restrictions.
We had to change our mindset quite a
bit when we came up with the Bullet series,
he explains. Typically, we look at how we

can maximize the amount of hardware and

cooling options in our larger cases. They are
built with the necessary room for complex,
watercooled builds. With the Bullet, we
had to think, How small can we go? That
meant forgoing complex loops and even
oversized GPUs and CPU coolers. We
actually reduced their volume quite a bit
during the design process.
Despite the companys intense focus
on materials selection and build quality,
CPU / November 2016

41

and four 2.5-inch drives. However, using

optional adapters, power users can stuff
even more drives into the case. The
BH7, for example, provides lodging for
up to six HDDs or 12 SSDs when drive
adapters are put in play.
Pay attention to the power supply
you must select for your Bullet build.
Although the BH7 is compatible with
ATX PSUs, which the majority of other
cases use, the BH2 and BH4 cases require
an SFX or SFX-L power supply. SFX and
SFX-L PSUs are smaller, but youll be able
to find one with enough juice to power
the parts you put in a BH2 or BH4.

Bullet cases are designed to be compact without a lot of compromises. Even the BH2 Mini-ITX case lets
users install graphics cards up to 11.1 inches long and has room for 240mm radiators.

CaseLabs has an artistic side, as well. At

the time of this writing, buyers can score a
Bullet in one of the following colors: black,
white, gunmetal, tangerine, lime, and berry.
(If you decide on a fruit-flavored color, the
paint job costs an additional $10.)
Consistent with CaseLabs exacting
standards, the Bullet cases are powdercoated, and Keating says his company has
the process down to a science. Every piece
and part that the CNC machines spit out
go through a cleaning cycle to remove
oils and any other contaminants from the
metals surface. CaseLabs then sends the
pieces on their first trip through the oven,
this time in order to quickly dry the pieces
and prevent dust and any other particulate
matter from clinging to a wet surface.
When applying powder with an
electrostatic gun and then curing the
powder in the oven, Keating says that
CaseLabs remains meticulous. Its very
important to maintain a uniform 2- to
3-mil [1 mil equals a thousandth of an
inch] coat to assure the best finish, and that
requires a lot of skill. The parts are then
baked in an oven to melt the powder into
the finish that you see on the final product.
The oven is important, and it really should

42

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

be designed specifically for powder. For

proper curing, the time-temperature curve
is very specific.

Lock & Load

Well aware that not every builder
wants to scale all the way down to a
Mini-ITX form factor, CaseLabs filled
out the Bullet family with three sizes.
The BH2 is built strictly for Mini-ITX
motherboards. The BH4 adds microATX
support to the mix, and the BH7 also
lets power users install ATX and most
E-ATX motherboards. (CaseLabs cites the
ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME, which
measures 12 x 10.7 inches, as an E-ATX
motherboard that will fit in the BH7 and
the Supermicro H8DG6, which measures
12 x 13 inches, as one that wont.) The
larger Bullets have more expansion slots:
The BH4 gives you four, and the BH7
has a whopping seven. The BH2s two
expansion slots are enough for one dualslot graphics card, and the smallest Bullet
nonetheless has enough front-to-back
clearance for a card 11.1 inches long, the
same as the BH4 and BH7.
For storage, all of the Bullet cases let
you install at least two 3.5-inch drives

Mods & Ends

CaseLabs cases are a favorite among
modders, and CaseLabs made sure the
Bullet series is similarly appealing. Much
of that is because of the thick aluminum
used in constructing each Bullet. Keating
says the aluminum lends itself to drilling
and cutting. Modders can also easily
break down their Bullets into individual
pieces, which obviously simplifies the
modding process. Further, if you make
a mistake on your mod, CaseLabs sells
individual replacement pieces.
Enthusiasts who cant get enough LED
strips in their systems will like that CaseLabs
makes lighting mounts as an accessory for
the Bullet cases. The mounts let you install
light strips at a 0-, 45-, or 90-degree angle,
so you can illuminate your rigs interior
exactly the way you want.
Keating explains how the Bullet
Lighting Mount system works: Bullet
was the first family of cases that we came
up with that uses an exoskeleton design,
that is, the frame and external covers
are one in the same. That left no easy
way to mount case lighting unless you
disconnected it when removing the top
shell. We have always rejected that design
shortcut, so we came up with mounts that
attach to the front and rear panels.
Maybe youre not a modder, and
maybe you dont want to become one.
The stock Bullet cases look terrific right
out of the box. If youve been searching
for a tiny house for your components,
these cases make luxurious homes.

A New Spin
On An Old Idea
The REVOLUTION DUO Kicks Your Cooling Up A Notch

REVOLUTION DUO
(700W model shown)
$99.99
ENERMAX
www.enermaxusa.com

hen weve been approached

by readers looking for power
supplies in recent years, weve
been ecstatic to hear fewer questions
about maximum wattage output and
more questions about efficiency, whether
to go fully- or semi-modular,
amperage requirements for
the 12V rail, the drawbacks
and advantages of going
with a single- or multi-rail
unit, or whether a digital
unit is better because you
can switch between the two
at a moments notice. The
answers to these questions
have a huge bearing on
whether you should buy one
power supply or another. But
with the REVOLUTION
DUO, ENERMAX is about
to add a new question you need to mull
when buying a new PSU, and that is,

how will this PSU affect my system

cooling?

A Tendency To Innovate
ENERMAX has been at the business
of building PSUs for 26 years, and the

as it was beige is that this company is

constantly on the lookout for ways to
improve their products. Case in point,
in 1997, ENERMAX came out with the
first PSU with dual fans (Spoiler Alert:
the REVOLUTION DUO owes its
namesake to the fact that
it too is a dual-fan PSU).
In 2000, ENERMAX was
also responsible for kicking
off the trend of coating
the PSU housing with
automotive-grade finishes.
The company is also
responsible for the first full
line of modular PSUs, called
the Liberty. More recently,
ENERMAX released the
first passively cooled digital
PSU, the DIGIFANLESS.
Never one to rest on
its laurels, ENERMAX recently started
looking at case designs that are popular

. . . ENERMAX is about
to add a new question
you need to mull when
buying a new PSU . . .

44

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

one thing that hasnt changed since you

could get a PC in any color as long

The ENERMAX REVOLUTION DUO features an 80mm exhaust fan and a 100mm intake fan that can do a
lot more than just cool its internals.

with enthusiasts and the impressive works

of art that modders are churning out,
and the common theme in many of them
was the existence of a PSU shroud. This
molded plastic or steel barrier is designed
to isolate the heat that the PSU generates
from the rest of the system and also hide
often bland-looking PSUs and the even
uglier bundle of cables that converge at
the front of the power supply. While these
shrouds do wonders for aesthetics, they
can sometimes throw a wrench into your
systems airflow.

Dynamic DUO
The REVOLUTION DUO gets
its name from the fact that it features
a large 100mm fan in the top (or
bottom, depending on the PSUs
orientation in your enclosure) and an
80mm fan in the back. This DUOFlow
technology, as ENERMAX refers to it,
delivers active ventilation to the PSU,
and the rest of your system, effectively
serving as an auxiliary exhaust fan to
dramatically improve internal ambient air
temperatures.
We all know that having one or more
open-shroud graphics cards, half a dozen
SSDs and/or HDDs in a series, and a
multi-core processor that may or may
not be overclocked to within inches of
its MTBF (mean time between failures)
will jack up your system temperatures

fast when youre pushing your system

hard. For those occasions, ENERMAXs
patented FMA (Fan-speed Manual
Adjustment) technology puts the
cooling performance of the PSU, and
your system as a whole, in your hands.
As ENERMAXs Don Hwang, National
Sales and Marketing Manager puts it,
The DUO fan maximizes the capabilities
for dynamic and active ventilation.
With the FMA potentiometer at the
lowest setting, Auto/Low, the fans will
keep the PSU cool and running nearly

silently. Turning the knob to the right

lets you pile on more cooling when the
need arises, and rotating it to the highest
position is enough to quickly evacuate hot
air from any system that isnt equipped
with a PSU shroud, at the cost of higher
decibel operation. According to Hwang,
when the REVOLUTION DUO is
installed in a case that does feature a PSU
shroud, the dual active fan design not
only takes away the PSU internal heat,
but also helps cool HDDs and SSDs
when FMA is set at high.
To i l l u s t r a t e t h e d i f f e r e n c e ,
ENERMAX shows us how fan RPMs
and noise output on a 600 watt 80
PLUS Gold PSU without DUOFlow,
equipped with a single fan, increases as
voltage and load percentages increase. At
20% load (a typical idle workload), the
fan in the non-DUOFlow PSU is only
running at 950RPMs, but its generating
16.6dB. The 80mm and 100mm fans
in the REVOLUTION DUO running
at a 20% load, spin at 1,050RPMs and
715RPMs, respectively. At a more typical
load, with the PSU operating at 50% of
its maximum output, the generic PSUs
fan is now at 10V, 1,480RPMs, and
generating an audible hum at 22.6dB.
The REVOLUTION DUO, on the other
hand, is running its fans on slightly more

With a non-modular PSU, ENERMAX was able to install a large vent adjacent to the bundle of cables.

CPU / November 2016

45

than 6V and keeping the noise output

to a mere 14.5dB. Even under full load,
the PSUs fans are still running on less
than 8V, and generating just 20.9dB.
The fan in that generic PSU under full
load is chugging away at 1,800RPMs and
practically screaming at 27.2dB.
Attentive readers have probably noticed
that even at full load, the fans in the
REVOLUTION DUO are operating at
significantly less than their 12V potential.
The aforementioned FMA knob is what
youll use if you want to push the fans
beyond 1,380 and 910RPMs. When
you do, however, the fans will more than
likely approach or exceed 30dB when
supplied with a full 12V. With the unique
FMA knob, ENERMAX made sure we
could unleash the full potential of the fans
installed in the REVOLUTION DUO.

Better Bearings
When it comes to fan bearings, there
are a few different options. Sleeve bearing
fans tend to be cheaper to manufacture
and operate quietly early in their lifespan.
This bearing type also has relatively low
temperature tolerances, up to 50 degrees
Celsius, and they tend to feature between
30,000 and 40,000 hour MTBF ratings.
Ball bearing fans can be noisier, but they
have temperature tolerances up to 85

The 500 and 600 watt versions share many of the same features with the 700 watt version, just with
fewer PCIe and SATA power plugs.

degrees Celsius and MTBF ratings of up

to 60,000 hours. After extended use, both
of these fan types can get rather noisy,
and for ENERMAX, this just wouldnt
do, especially considering the fact that
the PSU is easily one of the hardestworking actively cooled components in
any enthusiasts system.
E N E R M A X s p a t e n t e d Tw i s t e r
Bearings are made from a self-lubricating
nano material that is engineered to
protect against resistance and abrasion.

A big drawback of traditional sleeve

bearings in fans is the use of oil as
a rotation stabilizer. As in every other
application in which oil is used, the
substance gradually evaporates, and
its viscosity and heat-suppressing
properties change and degrade over time,
which ultimately affects the acoustic
performance of the fan and its overall
lifespan.
Instead of oil, ENERMAXs Twister
Bearing fans use magnets to stabilize the

In Auto/Low mode, the PSUs fans never get louder than 20.9dB.

46

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

bearing, which reduces

friction compared to
oil-based bearings.
Furthermore, the
magnetic fields are
capable of stabilizing
the bearings without
producing excess noise.
As a result, the bearings
in the REVOLUTION
DUO will keep the fans
running quietly for the
life of the power supply.
In raw numbers, that
comes out to an impressive 160,000 hour
MTBF rating and operating temperatures
up to a toasty 105 degrees Celsius.

The Perfect PSU For You

E N E R M A X h a s c re a t e d t h re e
REVOLUTION DUO power supplies
to choose from, a 500 watt, 600 watt, and
700 watt unit, ensuring theres one to fit
nearly any users power demands.
Efficiency is also a big priority
for this family of PSUs. Each unit is
certified 80 PLUS Gold, meaning it is
capable of converting 87% to 92% of
the electricity it pulls from the wall into
usable DC current, within the range
of 20% to 100% load. These PSUs are
also ZERO load ready, which means the
DC to DC converter circuit is capable
of delivering stable output voltage even
when the system demands 0 watts, for
Intels Haswell and newer processors that
support C6 and C7 low power modes.
ENERMAXs SafeGuard features
will give you some peace of mind. They
include OVP (over voltage protection),
UVP (under voltage protection), OPP
(over power protection), OCP (over
current protection, +3.3V/+5V), SCP
(short circuit protection), and SIP (Surge
and Inrush Protection). When speaking
about the REVOLUTION DUOs ErP
Lot 6 2013 support, Hwang muses, Any
kind of new efficiency is a step in the
right direction, as long as it doesnt affect
performance. We couldnt agree more.
For these units, the EU certification
means that they can achieve higher
standby efficiency.

Not all bearings were created equally.

Plugs Galore
This is a non-modular PSU thats
capable of delivering power to everything
you need. The 700 watt REVOLUTION
DUO features the compulsory 24-pin
ATX connector, a single 8-pin (4+4)
+12V CPU plug, four 6+2-pin PCIe
power plugs for up to two enthusiastgrade graphics cards, eight SATA
connectors, 4 MOLEX connectors, and a
single floppy power adapter. The 500 and
600 watt versions of the REVOLUTION
DUO feature the same connectors, except

there are just two 6+2 PCIe adapters and

six SATA connectors.

A Simple Idea, A REVOLUTION

Enthusiasts are all about control
and flexibility, which is why the
REVOLUTION DUO was made with
us in mind. As an ENERMAX power
supply, we get the reliability weve come
to expect, but with DUOFlow, the extra
cooling capacity is a big bonus.

No matter how you orient the power supply in your case, the REVOLUTION DUO from ENERMAX can
have a big impact on your system cooling.

CPU / November 2016

47

Q&A With Anthony Lackey

Portrait Of A Gamer, Streamer

& Modder
Anthony Lackey is a modder whose work has appeared in CPUs Mad Reader Mod feature on two occasions. The first was
when we featured his mod Candy in our October 2011 issue, and again in March 2015 when his Lightning mod made the cover.
We ran into both mods at Portland, Oregons excellent PDXLAN event, where Lackey is a regular attendee.

: You told us several years ago that

your Candy mod was only your
second project. What was the first?
: I did a Thermaltake Armor
build. I stripped the whole case
down and had it powder-coated candy
blue then added a Blue UV acrylic
rad box to the bottom of it. I think if
you dig deep on my YouTube channel
(Elmnator1) you can find it.

AL

Q
AL

: How many mods have you

completed altogether?

: Ive completed five now.

The Thermaltake one, Candy,
White Lightning, an AMD Carbon
Fi b e r Na n o b u i l d , a n d n ow m y
PrimoChill Wet Bench (I call it Grey
Matter). I am still working on the
copper one we talked about before.
Ive worked on it for about two years

Q
AL

: Whats your favorite thing about

modding?

: I love it when a project comes

together and I turn it on for the
first time. Its like a light descending from
the heavens.

Q
AL

: Whats your least favorite part of

every project, and why?

: Probably sleeving. It takes so much

time and you want it to look perfect.
Also, you burn your fingers a lot.

48

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

White Lightning, Lackeys personal favorite among his projects and Mad Reader Mod for March 2015.

Lackeys first Mad Reader Mod winner, Candy.

Lackeys Carbon Fiber Nano mod.

now. It will makes its appearance one

of these days.

Q
AL

: Id probably be riding my
BMX bike, watching TV, and
snowboarding.

: Do you still have Candy?

: Yes. One of these days (soon) I

am going to put it back together
for my streaming box. (I stream on
twitch at www.twitch.com/Elmnator on
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at
7:30 p.m. PST.)

Q
AL

: Where do you get inspiration from

when working on a mod?

: I get my inspiration from all

the other great modders out
there like Brian Carter, Richard Surroz,
and others.

: Of all the work youve done on

custom PCs, what is your favorite
project to date, and why?
: I really like my White Lightning mod. With all the white
and chrome, it just sparkles. I had one
girl come up to me and tell me she
thought it looked like a clean room.

AL

: If you werent a modder, what

would you do with all the time you
spend modding?

AL

: Whats one thing youd like to do

on a mod project that you havent
done yet, and why?

AL

days.

: I havent done anything robotic

yetbut its coming one of these

: We first saw your mods at PDXLAN

events. How many PDXLANs have
you gone to over the years?

AL
Q

: Id add 24-karat gold and

diamonds everywhere.

: Its time for Five Quick Questions!

1) Paracord sleeving or PET?

PET!

2) Power supply shroud or custom

power supply paint job?
Id go with the custom paint job.
3) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
or League of Legends?
Definitely Counter-Strike: GO. I am
an FPS guy.

: I have been to every PDXLAN since

10.5. I am guessing thats somewhere
around 25 of them. Its my sanctuary, where I
go to unwind and be a nerd for a weekend and
unplug from the world.

4) Mountain Mods or CaseLabs?

Star Wars!

AL

: If you could add one thing to your

next mod and money was no object,
what would it be, and why?

CaseLabs.
5) Star Wars or Star Trek?

CPU / November 2016

49

BUYERS GUIDE

A Custom PC Caucus
We Help You Choose Your PC-Elect
Youve got some big decisions coming up and several of the choices could have long-term implications on your life.
On one side, you have the conservative pick, the desktop PC. Its generally more fiscally responsible, though some
candidates are rich, eccentric custom builds. On the other side, the laptop offers you an equal opportunity to use it at
home or on the go. But for some people, theres a question about whether you can trust the laptop to get the job done.
Our buyers guide has some of the best candidates from both sides, and we promise itll be way more fun than the
presidential selection process.
Key Issues For 2016

It wasnt all that long ago that laptop and desktop parts were vastly different from each another. The days of laptops
using extremely cut-down or low-power alternatives while desktop PCs enjoy exclusive access to the highest-end
parts are mostly over. Sure, the chips in a laptop have typically been modified to keep heat in check with cooling
limitations in mind, but the overall gains in power efficiency mean the modifications arent as debilitating as the past.
Many of the notebooks in this roundup, as an example, feature Intels Core i7-6700HQ, a CPU thats similar in design
to Intels flagship Skylake chip, the Core i7-6700K. Both processors feature four cores and Hyper-Threading, and while
the Core i7-6700Ks impressive Max Turbo frequency is 4.2GHz, the Core i7-6700HQ Max Turbo is plenty fast, too, at
3.5GHz. The Core i7-6700HQ also features a similar amount of Intel Smartcache (6MB) to the Core i7-6700K (8MB).
NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 10-Series notebook GPUs are even more impressive when it comes to similarities with GTX
10-series add-in cards. For example, the desktop version of NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 1070 features 1,920 CUDA cores
and core/boost speeds of 1,506MHz/1,683MHz. The notebook version of the GTX 1070 actually has more CUDA cores
(2,048), while core/boost speeds drop to only 1,442MHz/1,645MHz.
The Decision

Despite the similarities in desktop and laptop parts, you still pay a bit of a price premium for laptop portability. If
performance is all you care about, a desktop PC is still the best way to maximize your cash. On the flip side, going
portable doesnt mean that your build wont be able to handle the latest games or multitask at the speeds youre used to.
You just might have to pony up a little extra if you want to trounce a friends desktop PC in benchmark results. Weve filled
our guide with desktop PC and laptops with a wide assortment of prices and configurations. Time to cast your vote.

50

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

GIGABYTE BRIX GB-BKi7HA-7500

$565
www.gigabyte.us
Why Youll Dig It: The barebones kit is based on Intels Core
i7-7500U, which is the fastest of Intels new 7th Generation Core
processors with a 2.7GHz base clock and a 3.5GHz Turbo Boost
frequency. Intel made big improvements to the multimedia rendering
capabilities on the 7th Generation Core chips by providing a
dedicated media engine that supports HEVC 10-bit content. The
hardware-based encode and decode on the Core i7-7500U should
help to improve the appearance of 4K video and speed along other
content creation duties. To fill out the BRIX, youll need to add SODIMM memory (up 32GB of DDR4-2133MHz), system storage (may
include an M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SSD/HDD), and Windows 10.
The miniature system includes both an HDMI 2.0 port and a miniDisplayPort for dual display connectivity.
Who Should Apply: Multimedia enthusiasts who want an
exceptionally compact mini PC for entertainment and everyday use.
CPU: Intel Core i7-7500U
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620
Form factor: Ultra-compact mini PC

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

MSI Aegis Ti-018US

$2,999.99
us.msi.com
Why Youll Dig It: The Aegis Ti-018US is the flagship of MSIs
small form factor desktop lineup, and it features two GeForce GTX
1070 GPUs in SLI. Those looking for a VR system will like that MSI
includes a front HDMI output and several USB ports, including a USB
3.1 Type-C port, so you can easily plug and unplug VR hardware.
The Aegis Ti-018US fills out Intels Z170 platform with an Intel Core
i7-6700K and 32GB of DDR4-2133MHz memory. MSI liquid cools the
processors, and the chassis features separate chambers to cool your
CPU, GPUs, and PSU. The Aegis T-018US should be exceptionally
responsive, thanks to MSIs Super RAID 4 with two 256GB PCIe
SSDs.
Who Should Apply: With a tandem of 1070s, gamers who play
demanding titles, such as the Witcher 3, should be satisfied with the
Aegis Ti-018USs firepower. The fact that this hardware sits inside a
small form factor case makes the Aegis Ti all the more impressive.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB (2x, SLI)
Form factor: mini-ITX, small form factor chassis

CPU / November 2016

51

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

GIGABYTE BRIX Gaming UHD

$999.99
www.gigabyte.us
Why Youll Dig It: Most of GIGABYTEs BRIX PCs arent suitable for
anything but the least demanding titles, such as Counter Strike: Global
Offensive or Dota 2, because the systems lack a discrete graphics processor.
The BRIX UHD Gaming lineup includes an NVIDIA GTX GeForce 950 GPU with
4GB of video memory to boost frame rates, while offering a similar small
form factor design to the original BRIX series. The GB-BNi7HG4-950 is a
BRIX Gaming UHD barebones kit that also includes an Intel Core i7-6700HQ
with a 2.6GHz base clock and 3.5GHz Max Turbo. GIGABYTE installs an Intel
Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 module for WiFi speeds up to 867Mbps. No
storage devices are pre-installed, but options are comparable to some fullsized PCs with dual slots for M.2 SSDs (2280 form factor), as well as two
slots for 2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs. Youll also need to install system memory.
The two DIMM slots support up to 32GB of DDR4-2133.
Who Should Apply: Gamers who like the idea of an ultra compact
system and want the punch of a discrete GPU.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
Form factor: custom small form factor

DESKTOP

XOTIC PC HAVOC
$898
www.xoticpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: The HAVOC is typical of the stylized, elegant
look so common in XOTIC PC systems. For example, XOTIC PC adds
LED fans to the front panel that gently illuminate the chassis. The
HAVOC is based around an NZXT S340 with extremely clean lines
and a big side panel window to show off the internal hardware.
This particular build features an AMD FX-6300 (six core, 4.1GHz)
processor, 8GB of DDR3-1600, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060.
The accommodating interior of the S340, as well as XOTIC PCs
clean wiring work, makes it easy to upgrade components down
the line. When upgrading, XOTIC PC says its smart to contact them
directly, as the company offers discounts on hardware for returning
customers. You can configure the HAVOC for as little as $579.
Who Should Apply: Gamers who want a stylish, mid-tower
build that is light on the wallet.
CPU: AMD FX-6300
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Form factor: ATX, mid-tower

52

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

BUYERS GUIDE

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

AVADirect Avant Garde Gaming PC

$2,735
www.avadirect.com
Why Youll Dig It: The Ultimate configuration of AVADirects Avant
Garde Gaming PC finetunes both the speed and looks of the systems
hardware. For an appearance that matches the systems title, AVADirect
allows you to pick among blue, green, orange, red, white, and yellow
LED packages, as well as custom individually sleeved cabling that can
match or complement the illumination you select. AVADirect boosts the
systems CPU, an Intel Core i7-6700K, by up to 20%. The Avant Gard
Gaming PC is built inside a Corsair Carbide Series 500R, and this midtower chassis is designed for high airflow. For instance, the GeForce GTX
1080 Founders Edition receives some extra cooling via a 200mm fan
on the side panel. Even with 4K gaming and VR duties, the Avant Garde
Gaming PC should have no problem pushing out high frame rates.
Who Should Apply: Gamers attracted to a PC with a sophisticated
look, rather than the aggressive lines and cliche color schemes (one can
only take so much red and black) so common in todays builds.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
Form factor: ATX mid-tower

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

NCIX PC Impact Mini

$949
www.ncixpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: Built inside the mini-ITX Cooler Master Elite 130, NCIX PC offers the Impact Mini in a number of affordable configurations, all
of which start at under $1,000. The $949 Tier 3 configuration includes an Intel Core i5-6400 (a quad-core chip with 3.3GHz Max Turbo frequency), a
factory overclocked ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro memory. For quick load times, the NCIX PC Impact Mini features
a 1TB Seagate SSHD, which is a hybrid drive with large capacity and solid state drive performance. You can upgrade much of the Impact Minis
hardware based on your build preferences. NCIX PC allows you to switch among todays latest GPUs, for instance, as well as a variety of Intel Skylake
processors.
Who Should Apply: Gamers on a
budget who want to balance power with
system size, no matter if they need the
rig to fit on a desk or discretely hide in
the living room.
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400
Graphics: ASUS GeForce GTX 1060
Form factor: mini-ITX, small form factor
chassis

CPU / November 2016

53

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

NCIX PC Impact Tower

$1,699
www.ncixpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: One of NCIX PCs most popular models, the
Impact Tower is the fourth revision of the gaming PC. The default Tier
3 configuration offers great value, as it includes an Intel Core i7-6700,
an ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Turbo, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX
DDR4-2666 memory, and a 1TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD. NCIX PC
installs the high-end hardware into a Corsair Graphite 230T, and the
chassis provides plenty of room to expand your system in the future. For
instance, NCIX PC leaves spaces for extra cooling fans and drive bays.
If you really want your case to look great, you can add a few custom
modifications, such as matching LED strips and LED fans.
Who Should Apply: The Impact Tower and its GeForce GTX 1080
will handle all of todays games and should have you covered for
premiere titles well into the foreseeable future.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700
Graphics: ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Turbo
Form factor: ATX mid-tower

DESKTOP

MSI Aegis-068US
$999.99
us.msi.com
Why Youll Dig It: MSI packs an incredible amount of firepower into
the Aegis-068US. The rig is about half the size of a typical mid-tower
at 14.81 x 6.7 x 17 inches (HxWxD), yet it comes with an Intel Core
i5-6400, an MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, and 8GB of DDR4 memory.
You can customize the look of the system via the systems RGB Mystic
Light LEDs in the front of the chassis. The Aegis also features MSIs
Silent Storm Cooling 2 technology that keeps system noise under
32dB(A) under full load. Silent Storm Cooling 2 is based around a
compartmentalized airflow design with separate flows for the CPU, GPU,
and PSU. Unlike some Aegis barebones options, the Aegis-068US is a
complete PC that includes Windows and everything youll need to use
the system out of the box.
Who Should Apply: The Aegis small footprint is ideal for those
with limited desk space, as well as those looking for a portable LAN PC.
Theres even a handle on the back that makes the system easy to tote.
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Form factor: mini-ITX, custom small form factor chassis

54

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

BUYERS GUIDE

DESKTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

NCIX PC Avalanche
$10,000
www.ncixpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: The NCIX PC Avalanche won Intels Extreme Rig
Challenge. The contest included a large group of boutique builders,
all of whom created $10,000 rigs, and the public could vote on
which build was the best. The Avalanche garnered over 30,000
votes, which topped the second place finisher by almost 6,000 votes.
The custom build features a ton of excellent EKWB components,
including frosted white EK-CoolStream 360 radiators, polished
nickel backplates for the GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition cards,
and premium EK PETG hard tubing. The latter is used to form NCIX
PCs TurboHydro loop, which cools not only the GPUs and the Intel
Core i7-6950X, but also the Intel 750 Series 1.2TB NVMe SSD. The
powerhouse rig features a slew of custom touches, such as handfrosted internal panels, a modified SLI bridge, and a PSU cover.
Who Should Apply: Gamers and enthusiasts flush with cash
who want one of the best PCs money can buy.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6950X
Graphics: ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 (x2, SLI)
Form factor: ATX Full Tower

CPU / November 2016

55

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

AVADirect Avant P750DM2-G

$1,519
www.avadirect.com
Why Youll Dig It: In the market for a desktop replacement
notebook? The Avant P750DM2-G includes the Intel Core i5-6500a
desktop, quad-core CPU with a 3.2GHz base clock and 3.6GHz Maximum
Turbo frequency. In this $1,519 configuration, weve also paired it with
NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of video memory to power a
visceral gaming experience. The VR-ready laptop features a 15.6-inch,
G-Sync display that works with the GeForce GTX 1060 to eliminate
screen tearing. AVADirect lets you choose between 1,920 x 1,080 and
3,840 x 2,160 resolution panels. We also like the Avants P750DM2-Gs
connectivity, as the notebook features a USB 3.1 Type-C port, three USB
3.0 ports, an HDMI port, and a mini-DisplayPort output.
Who Should Apply: Power users requiring desktop-like
performance and notebook portability.
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Form factor (screen size): Laptop (15.6-inch)

LAPTOP

XOTIC PC MSI GT83VR TITAN SLI-024

$4,999
www.xoticpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: Big, bold, and powerful, XOTIC PC helps to get
the most out of MSIs GT83VR Titan SLI. The epic notebook features
two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI, as well as two 512GB PCIe
SSDs in RAID 0 for exceptionally fast load and boot times. XOTIC PC
fills out this system with 64GB of DDR4-2400MHz memory. Did we
mention the Intel Core i76920HQ, which features a 3.8GHz Maximum
Turbo frequency? Gamers should also like the built-in mechanical
keyboard (Cherry MX brown switches) and the 18.4-inch 1080p
display. Want to make this notebook even more distinctive? XOTIC PC
can customize the notebook exterior in a variety of ways, including
paint, a graphic wrap, laser etching, and hydro-dip modifications. If
you dont have your own idea for custom artwork, you can select from
XOTIC PCs library.
Who Should Apply: Power users who dont want to sacrifice
performance when going portable.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6920HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (x2, SLI)
Form factor (screen size): Laptop (18.4-inch)

56

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

BUYERS GUIDE

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

AVADirect Avant P870DM2-G

$2,089
www.avadirect.com
Why Youll Dig It: For some reason, many high-end gaming
notebooks with NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 10-Series GPUs still feature
1080p displays, despite the GPUs capability to deliver high frame rates
at QHD (2,560 x 1,440) or UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolutions. The Avant
P870DM2-G features a 17.3-inch display, and you can choose between
a QHD or UHD resolution panel. Whichever you choose, the built-in
display supports G-Sync technology and up to 120Hz refresh rates,
which should eliminate screen tearing. The default configuration also
features an Intel Core i5-6500, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, 8GB of
DDR4-2133 memory, and a 1TB hard drive. For speedy WiFi, the Avant
P870DM2-G comes with a dual-band 802.11ac network card that also
supports Bluetooth 4.2.
Who Should Apply: Gamers who want a notebook with a highresolution display and a powerful graphics processor.
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Form factor (screen size) Laptop (17.3-inch)

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

XOTIC PC ASUS GL502VS-DB71

$1,699
www.xoticpc.com
Why Youll Dig It: Balancing power and portability isnt easy, and
the ROG Strix GL502, built by XOTIC PC, does an incredible job of
blending the two opposing forces. The notebook is less than an inch
thick (0.94-inches) and weighs only 4.8 pounds. Astoundingly, it also
manages to include some of todays highest-end notebook hardware.
It delivers outstanding frame rates, thanks to the onboard GeForce GTX
1070, while Intels Core i7-6700HQ gets the job done for everything
else. XOTIC PC fills out the ASUS GL502VS-DB71 with a 256GB M.2
SSD, so the notebook will boot up in seconds, while the 16GB of
DDR4-2133MHz memory ensures quick multitasking. Gamers will also
fall in love with the notebooks 15.6-inch, G-Sync panel. The notebook
also features a keyboard with red backlit scissor-switch keys for
tactile feedback.
Who Should Apply: Enthusiasts who want a notebook thats as
well designed for gaming duties as it is for everyday use.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Form factor (screen size): Laptop (15.6-inch)

CPU / November 2016

57

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro-001

$1,549,99
us.msi.com
Why Youll Dig It: Your gaming rig need not be an immobile desktop
PC. The GS63VR Strealth Pro-001 is a powerful gaming laptop with a
15.6-inch panel with a 94% NTSC color range for exceptional visuals
that match or exceed your existing standalone widescreen display.
Fragging at 1080p is no problem for this laptop. It features an Intel Core
i7-6700HQ, NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 1060, and 16GB of DDR4-2400MHz
memory. Sounds a lot like a desktop PC, right? The GS63VR trounces
heat with its Cooler Boost Trinity that features two fans to cool the GPU
and one for the CPU. MSIs cooling wizardry allows the GS63VR Stealth
Pro-001 to boast a slim 0.69-inch profile. The GS63VR Stealth Pro-001
also suits gamers who want to fit the notebook into a multimonitor
setup, as it includes an HDMI 1.4, mini-DisplayPort 1.2, and Thunderbolt
3 port.
Who Should Apply: For $1,549, the GS63VR Stealth Pro-001 is a
solid gaming notebook thats slim enough to take everywhere.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Form factor (screen size): laptop (15.6-inch)

LAPTOP

GIGABYTE P57X v6
$2,199
www.gigabyte.us
Why Youll Dig It: The exterior might look subdued, but the P57X
v6 is all about gaming. You can configure this notebook with either
NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 1070 or 1060, and the $2,199 configuration
includes the powerful 1070. It also features Intels Core i7-6700HQ
and a 512GB PCIe SSD thats four times faster than a SATA SSD. For
mass storage, theres a swappable bay where you can add an HDD or
optical drive. The notebook display is a 17.3-inch, 1080p, matte IPS
panel thats designed to diffuse light and eliminate reflections, perfect
for gaming in a coffee house or on the subway. When playing at home,
you can use the P57X v6s HDMI 2.0 port to play back 4K video at 60
frames per second. To support quick external data transfers, GIGABYTE
provides a USB 3.1 Type-C port.
Who Should Apply: Power users looking for a notebook that can
throw down with the best of them without all the exterior trappings
that make gaming laptops stand out like a sore thumb.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Form factor (screen size): Laptop (17.3-inch)

58

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

BUYERS GUIDE

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

MSI GT73VR Titan SLI-058

$3,499.99
us.msi.com
Why Youll Dig It: The Titan notebook line is one of MSIs most
powerful, and the GT73VR Titan SLI is another masterpiece in the
series of exceptional desktop replacements. The two NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070 graphics cards are the leading actors in this powerhouse
production, yet enthusiasts wont be disappointed by any supporting
hardware characters. Just a few of the notable players include an
Intel Core i7-6820HQ, 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory, and two 256GB
PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 for blazing fast bootup and game loads. The
enthusiast-grade display is a 17.3-inch panel that features a 120Hz
refresh rate and a 5ms response time to reduce screen tearing and
motion blur, ideal for gaming duties. Thunderbolt 3 connectivity allows
you to transfer data at up to 40Gbps, and the port can also serve as a
4K display output.
Who Should Apply: Enthusiasts who want a killer notebook for
gaming and all other kinds of power user duties.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6820HQ
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (x2, SLI)
Form factor (screen size): laptop (17.3-inch)

LAPTOP

BUYERS GUIDE

AORUS X7 v6
$2,699
www.gigabyte.us
Why Youll Dig It: The AORUS X7 v6 is one of the first laptops to be
certified by Oculus for use with the Oculus Rift. To power VR applications
and AAA titles, the AORUS X7 v6 features an Intel Core i7-6820HK, an
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, and 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory. AORUS
lets you overclock the CPU from 3.6GHz to 4.0GHz in one click via the
OC Gauge utility. The X7 v6 features an impressive cooling system that
includes additional air intake vents above the keyboard to better cool
the CPU and GPU. You can also customize the notebooks fan speeds
to match your preferred performance or noise level. Games on the
notebooks 17.3-inch display should look immaculate, because AORUS
uses a 120Hz, QHD panel that supports NVIDIAs G-Sync technology.
Remarkably, the X7 v6 is only an inch thick, so itll easily slide into a
travel or notebook bag.
Who Should Apply: Enthusiasts interested in a notebook that will
power everything from a VR setup to todays most GPU-taxing games.
CPU: Intel Core i7-6820HK
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Form factor (screen size): Laptop (17.3-inch)

CPU / November 2016

59

DESKTOP & LAPTOP COMPARISON CHART

60

BUYERS GUIDE

Desktop

MSRP

CPU

NCIX PC Avalanche

$10,000

Intel Core
i7-6950X

ASUS GeForce
GTX 1080
(2x SLI)

64GB
DDR4-2400

1.2TB PCIe SSD

Intel
X99

EATX
full-tower

MSI Aegis Ti-018US

$2,999.99

Intel Core
i7-6700K

MSI GeForce
GTX 1070 8GB
(2x SLI)

32GB
DDR4-2133

256GB SSD
(x2, RAID 0),
1TB HDD

Intel
Z170

Custom
SFF

AVADirect Avant
Garde Gaming PC

$2,735

Intel Core
i7-6700K

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1080
Founders Edition

32GB
DDR4-2400

250GB SSD,
2TB HDD

Intel
Z170

ATX
mid-tower

NCIX PC Impact
Tower

$1,699

Intel Core
i7-6700

ASUS GeForce
GTX 1080 Turbo

16GB
DDR4-2666

1TB SSHD

Intel
Z170

ATX
mid-tower

MSI Aegis-068US

$999.99

Intel Core
i5-6400

MSI GeForce
GTX 1060 6GB

8GB
DDR4-2133

128GB SSD,
1TB HDD

Intel
B150

Custom
SFF

GIGABYTE BRIX
Gaming UHD

$999.99

Intel Core
i7-6700HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 950

n/a

n/a

Intel
H170

Ultra
compact

NCIX PC Impact Mini

$949

Intel Core
i5-6400

ASUS GeForce
GTX 1060 3GB

8GB
DDR3-1866

1TB SSHD

Intel
H110

Mini-ITX
SFF

XOTIC PC HAVOC

$898

AMD
FX-6300

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1060

8GB
DDR3-1600

1TB HDD

AMD
990FX

ATX
mid-tower

GIGABYTE BRIX GBBKi7HA-7500

$565

Intel Core
i7-7500U

Intel HD Graphics
620

n/a

n/a

n/a

Ultra
compact

Laptop

MSRP

CPU

Memory

Storage

Chipset

XOTIC PC
MSI GT83VR
TITAN SLI-024

$4,999

Intel Core
i7-6920HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1080
(2x SLI)

64GB
DDR4-2400

512GB PCIe SSD

(x2, RAID 0),
1TB HDD

Intel
CM236

18.4 inch

MSI GT73VR
Titan SLI-058

$3,499

Intel Core
i7-6820HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070
(2x SLI)

64GB
DDR4-2400

256GB PCIe SSD

(x2, RAID 0),
1TB HDD

Intel
CM236

17.3 inch

AORUS X7 v6

$2,699

Intel Core
i7-6820HK

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070

16GB
DDR4-2400

512GB SSD,
1TB HDD

Intel
HM170

17.3 inch

GIGABYTE P57X v6

$2,199

Intel Core
i7-6700HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070

16GB
DDR4-2133

512GB PCIe
SSD, 1TB HDD

Intel
HM170

17.3 inch

AVADirect Avant
P870DM2-G

$2,089

Intel Core
i5-6500

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070

8GB
DDR4-2133

1TB HDD

Intel
H170

17.3 inch

XOTIC PC ASUS
GL502VS-DB71

$1,699

Intel Core
i7-6700HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070

16GB
DDR4-2133

256GB SSD,
1TB HDD

Intel
HM170

15.6 inch

MSI GS63VR
Stealth Pro-001

$1,549

Intel Core
i7-6700HQ

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1060

16GB
DDR4-2400

128GB SSD,
1TB HDD

Intel
HM170

15.6 inch

AVADirect Avant
P750DM2-G

$1,519

Intel Core
i5-6500

NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1060

8GB
DDR4-2133

1TB HDD

Intel
H170

15.6 inch

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

GPU

GPU

Memory

Storage

Chipset

Form Factor

Screen Size

Greenify Your PC

readers tend to gravitate

toward high-performance PC
components, and as a result, our systems
burn through more watts at idle than
a typical non-enthusiast PC under full
load. Its true, most of us would wear a
quadruple-digit system TDP as a badge of
honor, but that doesnt mean we should
be content to waste power when were
away from our PCs or performing tasks
that dont require any more electricity
than a large potato could provide. True
to form, were going to show you how
to push your power-saving strategy to
the next level. In addition to the warm,
fuzzy feeling youll get, you can take these
benefits to the bank.

CPU

The Right Tool For The Job

Yeah, yeah, we know this article
is called Software Tips & Projects,
but making sure youre not burning
unnecessary amounts of energy often
begins with making sure youre using
the right hardware. Generally speaking,
the older your hardware, the less likely
it is to support the latest energy-sipping
certifications and standards. Additionally,
technologys relentless march forward,
Moores Law, and the ongoing trend of
making devices smaller and more mobile
have all contributed to an increase in
power-to-performance ratios across the
entire scope of PC components.
For instance, Intels Core 2 Quad
Q6600 processor, which launched in
2007, runs at 2.4GHz with a TDP of
105 watts. A few years later, Sandy Bridge
broke cover with the Core i7-2700K
capable of running at 3.5GHz and a
95-watt TDP. Compare this to todays
Skylake processors such as the Core i76700K, which operates at up to 4GHz
with a 91-watt TDP. There is a massive
gulf between these processors when it

The power and sleep functions of your Windows PC are flexible, with a number of different settings.

Hibernate can be a useful way to save energy without losing your place.

comes to raw performance, and power

consumption has declined.
The disparity between the performance
and energy consumption of older and newer
graphics cards is even more pronounced. We
recently retested the SAPPHIRE Radeon
R9 290X Tri-X OC, a card described as

having a 300-watt TDP when it came

out in late 2013. The new SAPPHIRE
NITRO+ RX 480 8GB OC card is
listed with a 225-watt TDP. In our tests,
these cards were evenly matched in our
current suite of benchmarks. Although a
lateral upgrade like this may not net you
CPU / November 2016

61

Try a few different sleep timer settings until youve found the one that works the best for you.

any perceptible performance advantage,

the power savings are substantial, and the
difference between the heat output and
fan noise also make the RX 480 a superior
option compared to the R9 290X.
Even among LCDs, modern equipment
gives you a lot more for your money and
power budget. For example, an IBM
ThinkVision L200p monitor, with a
manufacture date of 2004, consumes
65 watts at typical use. Compare that to a
modern 4K display such as the ASUS
MG28UQ, which is optimized for gaming
and is bigger, brighter, more vivid, and better
in just about every imaginable way, yet it
consumes slightly less power, at 62.9 watts.
Most enthusiasts cringe at the thought
of giving up a desktop PC for a laptop,
but hear us out. If your PC is getting a
little long in the tooth, swapping it out for
a mobile PC can really put a dent in your
annual energy consumption. Even high-end
desktop-replacement laptops have aggressive
power-saving capabilities that make them
preferable to desktop PCs in terms of raw
power consumption. If you do decide to
go down this road, however, be prepared to
spend a lot more money up front.

Out With The Old

The single biggest way to slash the energy
your PCs consume is to eliminate one or

62

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

For instance, processors with more cores

can disable unused cores to save energy,
but single- and dual-core processors will
either not do this, or do it less frequently,
resulting in more energy being spent at
idle. SSDs are more energy efficient than
HDDs, and larger-capacity HDDs are
typically more energy efficient than lowercapacity drives. We all know that CRTs
are real energy hogs, so if youre still using
one, its time to spring for a slim LCD.
Many organizations let you donate
computers and components that are in
good working order. Recycling your old
electronics is a good way to responsibly
retire components you no longer need.
Case in point: the Environmental
Protection Agency reports that for every
million laptops recycled, we save the
energy-consumption equivalent to a years
worth of electricity for 3,500 United
States households.
If youre curious about nearby recycling
facilities, the Consumer Technology
Association has a website that lets you
input your ZIP code to pull up a directory
of manufacturer, retailer, and certified
eCyclers. We found three eligible recyclers

more of the PCs from your fleet. Despite

what some gadget manufacturers would
have you believe, tablets and smartphones
are not capable of replacing PCs en masse.
That being said, any PC that you use
for little more than streaming video and
music, light web browsing, and email can
be effectively replaced by
a more energy-efficient
smartphone or tablet.
If you have separate
gaming and work PCs
in your home, consider
combining them. You
can create a dual-boot
setup to keep the file
systems separate. If you
have a PC you have not
used for a few months,
chances are good that
its a device you could
live without. Selling
the parts or system as
a whole can net you
some spare cash that
you could devote to an
upgrade or two.
Speaking of upg r a d i n g , t h e re a re Theres a good chance you live near an electronics recycler; the
some PC components Telecommunication Industry Associations E-cycling Central web page
that are more energy can help you find one.
efficient than others.

within a five-mile radius of our office

by visiting bit.ly/2es8Hi7, scrolling down
to the green Recycle Electronics search
box, and entering the ZIP code. Another
good resource is the Telecommunication
Industry Associations E-cycling Central
web page (www.ecyclingcentral.com), which
lets you search a directory of e-recycling
programs by state.
Before recycling or disposal, its
important to perform a factory reset on
mobile devices or use a secure erase utility
to scrub the hard drives or SSDs in any
PCs or laptops. And no, merely deleting
your sensitive files and documents is
not sufficient. Two freeware file-deletion
utilities weve used are File Shredder
(www.leshredder.org) and Eraser (eraser
.heidi.ie ). Both are capable of erasing
whole hard drives or individual files and
folders safely and permanently using a
variety of algorithms to overwrite your
data with random characters, all zeros,
or other information. If youre willing
to spend a little on a file shredder that
has earned the U.S. Department of
Defenses seal of approval, check out
WhiteCanyons WipeDrive ($29.95; www
.whitecanyon.com).

Energy-Consumption Myths
Before we start slashing power
indiscriminately, lets debunk a few
myths. If you have a screen saver
enabled, you probably already know
that youre not really doing your wallet
any favors. If you use an LCD monitor,
then theres no risk of burn-in, or the
appearance of a ghost image stuck
permanently on your screen, which is the
primary reason screen savers gained such
popularity in the world of computing.
Graphically-intensive screen savers can
even end up burning more energy than
just letting your system go idle.
Another commonly held belief about
PCs is that the startup and shut down
processes consume an inordinate amount
of energy, so its best to simply leave them
on perpetually. Although there is a spike
in clock speeds, voltage draw, fan RPMs,
and overall energy consumption during
these brief periods, its nothing compared

to the energy you waste leaving the system

idle for hours on end.
Weve also heard that the startup and
shutdown processes can be particularly
harsh on components, and in order
to ensure PCs continue to operate
reliably for years, its best to leave them
running 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. Although this may have been
the case back in the days of mainframe
computers, this is no longer true. Most
modern components are built to be able
to run nonstop for weeks or months at

commonly do. Overclockers should be

aware that adding voltage and excessive
heat to your components effectively
voids those impressive MTBF numbers
attached to your parts.
One excuse people use for leaving
a PC on and running all day is the
need for remote access. Most modern
motherboards with built-in NICs have
Wake-On-LAN settings, which allow
PCs to be turned on remotely via a
magic packet, which comes across the
internet or local network using the target

Wake-On-LAN isnt the only way you can get remote desktop to function when your PC is asleep.

a time, but they are no less tolerant of

multiple daily shutdowns and startups.
Components are actually tested for on/off
cycle tolerances or hours of continuous
operation, and most can handle tens of
thousands of cycles and millions of hours
before theres a chance youll encounter
an unexpected issue. Generally speaking,
your components will last long enough
that youll be ready to upgrade to
something newer and faster long before
the part actually fails. If you want specific
numbers, look for your components
MTBF (mean time between failures)
ratings. Although not all components
list this specification, SSDs and HDDs

computers MAC address as a road map.

Wake-On-LAN settings can be enabled
and used to wake the PC from a very low
power state, which is the next-best thing
to having the PC completely shut off.
Some systems can also perform the same
function without the need for a magic
packet, using Address Resolution Protocol
offload and Neighbor Solicitation offload,
which are built-in features of most NICs.
These protocols are typically enabled by
default, but you can check for yourself
in Win10 by navigating to Control
Panel, Network And Internet, Network
Connections and right-clicking the
network adapter, clicking Properties, then
CPU / November 2016

63

The Power Options Advanced Settings dialog box

gives you some helpful advice.

clicking Configure. Click the Advanced

tab on the Ethernet Connection Properties
dialog box, then scroll to ARP Offload
and NS Offload, respectively, to ensure
they are both enabled. These two settings
let you access your PC remotely using its
IP address, even when the PC is in Sleep
mode. For more information on how to
enable a remote connection in Windows,
visit Microsofts site at bit.ly/29lBAgZ.
One myth that has a kernel of truth is
that the Sleep and Hibernate functions
of PCs can cause erratic behavior, lead to
BSOD crashes, or simply fail to operate
as expected. Low-power states have come
a long way, and with so many variables,
its true that theres a lot that can go wrong
when entering or resuming from Sleep
or Hibernate modes. Problems include
unexpected waking, peripherals failing
to respond following a wake event, USB
storage devices losing connection, and
more. Today, however, Windows and your
motherboard (specifically, the BIOS) do
a much better job communicating what
should and should not happen when
entering or exiting a low-power state. If
problems do arise, there are a handful of
ways to address the situation.

Fixing Your Insomniac PC

Some common problems that can
prevent a PC from properly entering

64

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Sleep mode include having a file open

or other USB device is the culprit.
over a network connection. If you step
Another neat trick you can perform with
away from your system and Microsoft
this utility is to display a list of every
PowerPoint is in Presentation mode,
device that can wake your PC. To do this,
your system will not properly go to sleep,
type powercfg devicequery wake_armed
which is by design (for a good reason).
and then press ENTER. This is one way
Theres also a chance that a program or
to narrow your search for a Sleep-modeeven a poorly designed background app
disrupting component.
is keeping the processor busy enough that
the system doesnt actually enter an idle
Windows Ways To Conserve Energy
state. With Group Policy, network admins
There are a lot of settings you can
can also whitelist certain programs to
tweak from within Windows to reduce
override Sleep mode.
the amount of energy your system is
Sometimes your PC will go to sleep
sucking from the wall. When you click
readily, but resuming promptlyor at
the Start button and click the Power
allis the issue. Windows Vista users
icon, there are generally three options:
who have not updated to at least Service
Shut Down, Restart, and Sleep. The first
Pack 1 report this is a common problem.
two are self-explanatory, but when you
If the BIOS cuts the power being sent
choose the third option, Sleep, what
to USB ports for certain peripherals,
does that actually mean? According to
moving the mouse or pressing a key may
Microsoft, Sleep mode puts the PC into
not wake your PC from sleep. The same
a very low power state after saving open
problem can affect systems connected
applications and data stored in memory.
to peripherals via Bluetooth. The fix
Incidentally, those familiar with the term
for these problems usually lies within
standby will find its functions mirrored
the BIOS, but because every BIOS is
in Sleep mode.
different, theres no easy tutorial here.
At idle, our high-end test system
Usually the pertinent settings reside in
consumed about 115 watts. When we
Power or Chipset menus. Sleep mode
put it into Sleep mode, the system power
problems can also arise because of generic
consumption dropped precipitously
or outdated drivers that are incompatible
to 7.6 watts. Waking up the PC was
with Sleep mode. In these instances, a
as simple as touching a key on the
fix is usually as simple as
installing the latest driver
for the device in question.
With regards to power
management, one of
the most useful tools
in Windows is actually
only accessible from the
Command Prompt. If
youd like to determine
why your PC unexpectedly
woke from Sleep mode,
for instance, press the
Windows key + X, click
Command Prompt, type
powercfg -lastwake, and
then press ENTER. If
USB root hub appears as
the source, for instance, The Powercfg command lets you take a closer look at the devices
then you can reasonably disturbing your PCs sleep.
assume a mouse, keyboard,

the screen after 10 minutes, Sleep mode

after 30 minutes); Power Saver (shuts off
the screen after 5 minutes, Sleep mode
after 15 minutes); and High Performance
(shuts off the screen after 15 minutes and
never enters Sleep mode). By clicking
the Change Settings Plan hyperlink, you
can use the drop-down boxes to alter the
durations as you see fit.

The Device Managers mouse and keyboard

Properties dialog box lets you enable or disable
wake capabilities.

keyboard. In a few seconds, everything

was right as we left it, ready to pick up
where we left off.
When laptops are in Sleep mode
(by default, many laptops go to sleep
when you close the lid), the energy
consumption can eventually deplete the
battery, but the system will save your
work from volatile memory (RAM) to
nonvolatile storage (an SSD or HDD)
and shut down before total power loss
occurs. Desktops also support a similar
feature, and in Win10, its called Hybrid
Sleep. This is enabled by default, but you
can disable the feature from the Control
Panel, Hardware and Sound, Power
Options, Edit Plan Settings, Advanced
Settings menu.
This complete shutdown with RAM
backup consumes almost no power and is
referred to as Hibernate mode. Windows
PC and laptop users can manually initiate
Hibernate mode, and even add it to
the power options you access from the
Start menu, but because it saves open
applications to hard drives or SSDs,
resuming from Hibernate can take a good
deal longer than resuming from Sleep.
To quickly access the Power Options
menu in Win10, press the Windows
key + X and then click Power Options
from the shortcut menu. There are three
power plans here: Balanced (shuts off

Building A Better Hibernate

When Windows Vista came out,
Microsoft added a Hybrid Sleep function,
which writes the contents of RAM to the
hard drive or SSD but puts the system to
sleep afterward instead of shutting down.
Past implementations of hibernation
have earned a bad reputation with some
PC users because the process of saving
the hibernation file could consume large
amounts of storage, depending on the
amount of RAM installed and in use
when operation initiates. To help solve the
problem, Microsoft enabled hibernation
file compression in Win7, by default set to
75% of the total physical memory.

To add Hibernate as an option in

the Start menu, press Windows key +
X, click Power Options, and then look
to the checkboxes at the bottom of the
dialog box. By default they are greyed
out, but you can add/remove checkmarks
beside each option by clicking the
Change Settings That Are Currently
Unavailable hyperlink. Now just check
or uncheck the boxes to configure your
list of power options. You can also use
the drop-down menus on this page to
configure the behavior of the Power and
Sleep buttons.
Back on the main Power Options
menu, click Create A Power Plan from
the list of hyperlinks in the top left to
open a quick little wizard that lets
you make your own plan. In the Edit
Plan Settings page, you can also click
the Change Advanced Power Settings
hyperlink to get a much more involved
series of settings, letting you tweak the
hard disk shutdown timer, the JavaScript
timer frequency performance in Internet
Explorer, USB selective suspend, and

Fast Startup can make a big difference in the amount of time it takes to get back up and running.

As of Win8, Microsoft has added

support for multicore processors to
further improve the function of PCs
as they resume from hibernation.
Hybrid boot, or Fast Startup as its
currently called, alters the way the
Shutdown button works by effectively
hibernating the user session by closing
running applications and logging out
the user. This shrinks the size of the
hibernation file considerably and lets
the system boot up faster than it could
from a traditional shutdown. When
in Hibernate mode, our test system
consumed just 3.7 watts.

much more. Using this function gives you

an impressive amount of control over how
much power your system consumes in a
variety of scenarios.

Become A Low-Power User

There are plenty of good reasons to
reduce your energy consumption.
Thankfully, modern hardware and
Win10 work well together to make it
easy to rein in your equipment. Best of
all, the methods we described above let
your system spin up quickly, so youre
never left feeling underwhelmed by your
computing experience.
CPU / November 2016

65

Inside The World Of Betas

OPEN WHISPER SYSTEMS SIGNAL PRIVATE MESSENGER 0.25.3
henever we power users strike up a
conversation with people who dont
share our passion for all things tech, one
of two facetious questions often follow:
So, whats it like to live in your parents
basement after all these years? or Do you
really think the government is reading your
email? Clearly, weve all received an answer
to the second question, with incidents like
Yahoo!s admission of creating a program
that lets U.S. intelligence agencies scan
hundreds of millions of emails sent using
its service. So, maybe paranoid power users
have enjoyed the last laugh, but if you
want to get serious about securing your
communications, you may want to take
a look at Open Whisper Systems Signal
private messenger.
Signal keeps your conversations locked
down. By using end-to-end encryption,
no one can pry into the messages you
send and receiveand that includes

Signal Private Messenger

0.25.3
Publisher and URL: Open
Whisper Systems; https://
whispersystems.org
ETA: TBD
Why You Should Care: Signal
is committed to keeping your
conversations secure.

Open Whisper Systems. Like every other

competent messaging platform, Signal
will also happily send media files (images,
audio, video), as well.
Signal lives primarily on your smartphone, either as an iOS or Android app,
but this year Open Whisper Systems has
extended support to PCs, too, in the form
of a Chrome web app. Once installed,

Signal easily syncs with your phone using an

onscreen QR code (which means you must
download the app for your phone), and from
there youre able to communicate securely
with your contacts via your PC. The Chrome
app maintains the mobile versions clean and
simple interface, so longtime Signal users
should feel right at home sending encrypted
messages from their computers.

TYPORA 0.9.21
he Web is clearly a lot different now
than it was 20, 10, or even five years
ago, but beneath all the hottest design
trends and techniques you can still count
on the same basic building blocks. HTML
is now old enough to order a glass of wine
with dinner, and the old soldiers have it
down cold. For beginners, though, we
think an approachable HTML editor can
be an invaluable addition to your toolbox.
Although theres no shortage of options,
Typora could have what it takes to be your
next HTML hero.
Typora prides itself on being unpretentious. Its key selling point is a seamless
live preview that dispenses with things
like the mode switcher, syntax symbols of
markdown code, and other distractions.
Instead, you can focus on producing content.
With Typora, you can insert things such
as images, tables, code fences, etc. so easily
it almost feels like youre cheating. Then

66

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Typora 0.9.21
Publisher and URL: Abner
Lee; typora.io
ETA: TBD
Why You Should Care: This
HTML markdown editor
should appeal to beginners
and pros alike.

again, thats the genius of the program. Its a

minimalists dream come true.
By default, Typora saves your work as
an .MD file, but it can also export to
.PDF or .HTML (with or without styles).
If you also install Pandoc, Typora can
also export to a variety of other common
formats, including Microsoft Word,
OpenOffice, EPUB, and more.

In the latest beta, Typora receives a few

improvements to the way it handles images.
Now, users can insert an image from a local
file, even dragging and dropping multiple
images at once. Linux support was recently
added (in addition to Windows and Mac
OS X), so if youve been looking for a new
HTML editor, you really have no excuse to
not give Typora a try.

Upgrades Thatll Keep You Humming Along

No-nonsense utilities highlight this months lineup of updates. Power users that regularly use PuTTY (or KiTTY) and/
or have an unhealthy number of networked drives should find WinSSHTerm and Network Drive Control, respectively,
interesting. Also this month, Amazon has updated the firmware for several generations of its Kindle e-reader.

SOFTWARE UPDATES
CleverFiles Disk Drill 2.0.0.268
When disaster strikes your data, Disk
Drill is ready to answer the call. Its armed
with multiple recovery algorithms, so it can
comb through NTFS, FAT32, EXT, HFS+
and other filesystems with ease. With the
release of version 2.0.0.268, Disk Drills
Deep Scan function recognizes a big batch
of new file signatures, such as PSAFE3, GPX,
and SQLITE. There are several performance
improvements, including increased recovery
speed and better scanning. Disk Drills UI
receives a few touch-ups, too.
www.cleverles.com
EyePower Games Ink2Go 1.7.10
Youre not still relying on the Print
Screen key and MS Paint for making screen
annotations, are you? Stop it. Then check out
Ink2Go, which lets you scrawl all over active
programs and then save your annotations
as an image or video. A single bugfix that
resolves a particular crash issue when the
program launches is the reason that version
1.7.10 exists, but a pair of September updates
added a handful of new capabilities. Now,
you can add different styles (axis, grid, lines)
to Ink2Gos whiteboard, and multitouch
touchscreens are now supported, though only
on Windows 10. The earlier updates also
included a new 12-color palette and improved
text quality for the programs text tool.
ink2go.org
Ignite Realtime Spark 2.8.1
Seeking to occupy the niche market of
businesses and groups seeking an opensource, cross-platform, instant messaging

client, Spark can join forces with Ignite

Realtimes Openfire server to create a secure
IM platform. The key feature that this update
adds is the ability to disable TLS hostname
verification, a response to login issues created
when Spark 2.8.0 was released.
https://www.igniterealtime.org

iSkySoft iTransfer For Windows 4.0

Last month, we introduced you to
iMobies AnyTrans, for transferring
files from iPhone to PC; this month, its
iTransfers time to shine. Formerly known as
TunesOver, iTransfer adds Android devices
to the mix, letting you transfer music,
photos, contacts, and more from PC to
iDevices and Android devices, from an
Android mobile to an iDevice, and so forth.
One particularly nifty feature added in
version 4.0 is the ability to root an Android
device with a single click. The software is
now able to organize photos by album and
date, as well.
https://www.iskysoft.com
Network Drive Control 1.10
This handy utility lets you take command
of how Windows maps network drives to
your system. (Consider one set of mapped
drives when your laptop is connected to your
home network, and another set of drives
when you connect to a work network.) This
update, released a little over a month after
Network Drive Controls first birthday,
adds a Clone + Edit Drive button, which
the developer says will simplify copying a
drive under certain conditions. There are
also security improvements to a couple of
the programs functions. Make sure you
update Network Drive Control on all of your

systems, however, as earlier versions wont

be able to recognize any drives mapped with
version 1.10.
www.michaelburns.net/Software/NDC

PSt Freeware WinSSHTerm 1.6.0

PuTTY and KiTTY are indispensable
power user tools, and WinSSHTerm helps you
take them with you. The portable app gives
you a PuTTY or KiTTY interface so you can
access remote systems using SSH. Released
earlier this year, developer PSt Freeware has
been updating WinSSHTerm at a furious
pace, often releasing multiple new versions
per month. Version 1.6.0 gives users a couple
of new toolsthe options Custom Path and
Cmd-line Args. When the former is enabled,
WinSSHTerm will automatically change the
directory to the specified path after login. The
latter lets you execute a command file or set up
SSH port tunneling.
winsshterm.blogspot.com

DRIVER BAY
Amazon Kindle Oasis
(8th Generation) Firmware 5.8.5
Amazon recently updated the firmware
for several generations of its Kindle e-reader,
so be sure to check for an update even if you
dont own a Kindle Oasis. If you like manga,
youre going to love this new firmware, since
it increases the Kindles performance with the
Japanese comics and graphics novels. When
reading manga on an updated Kindle, you
should notice faster page turns, as well as
snappier zooming and panning. Minor tweaks
to the Settings menu design and Library View
round out this new firmware.
www.amazon.com
CPU / November 2016

67

AI & Art
How Computers Are Helping Redefine Creativity
or decades, scientists, researchers, and
some of the worlds brightest minds in
general have pondered and pursued the
potential of enabling computers to think
like humans. Its only been relatively
recently, though, that AI-fueled tools
have started experiencing mainstreamlike use among business and general users.
Today, when Siri helps us locate a nearby
gas station, increasingly more people are
understanding that AI is at work. The same
is true when Amazon Echo orders us more
diapers, Skype translates a conversation
from one language to another, Facebook
offers to tag people in a photo were about
to post, and machine learning helps a
business scour its mountains of data to
predict its customers behaviors. Soon, when
were riding in autonomous-driving cars, AI
will be involved there, too.
Interest in AI for another group of
people extends into an arguably more
philosophical space that seeks to explore
how AI is already and could continue to
turn convention on its head by altering
long-standing beliefs, ideals, practices, and
processes that humans hold dear. A specific
example is how AI is and will continue
to upend how humans have traditionally
thought about and approached art and
creativity in a broader sense.
Already, artists, scientists, and those
who consider themselves both are
experimenting with using AI to create
original artwork. Theyre also collaborating
with AI in various artistic ways, including
to uncover creative ideas they likely
would have never discovered alone. Not
unexpectedly, a long list of possibilities,
questions, concerns, and arguments have
risen from such exploration, not the least
of which revolves around the question of
whether a machine devoid of emotion can
create art. Can a computer learn, possess,
and exhibit the taste, intuition, influences,

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November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Can a computer create original art? Thats one of the many questions and arguments that came out
of The Next Rembrandt project, which used AI to study the entire body of work from the Dutch master
Rembrandt and then produce an original painting in his distinct style.

nuance, subtlety, dimension, reflection,

soul, and other characteristics it takes to
create art? Additionally, what does it say
about humans when a machine does create
a painting, song, story, image, fashion
design, and other piece of art that does
move them to actual sadness, anger, joy,
wonder, or even shock?
The following explores various realms
where AI and art are intersecting and the
inspiration, controversy, and mystery
thats being born as a result.

Music To The Ears, Or Not?

One of the most notable recent
examples of AI and art crossing paths
involves software called Flow Machines,
which Openculture.com describes as
an artificial intelligence-driven music
composer that analyzes composers
styles and then creates new works from
that data. Sony CSL Research Lab
researchers recently used Flow Machines
to compose two pop songs that it released
for public consumption in September.
Titled Daddys Car and Mr. Shadow,
both songs are expected to be included
on albums of AI-composed tracks set for
release next year.
The CSL Research Lab states that Flow
Machines learns music styles from a huge
database of songs its tied to. That database
reportedly contains about 13,000 lead
sheets, which essentially outline a songs
harmony and melody. The software then
uses unique combinations of style transfer,
optimization, and interaction techniques
to compose a song in any style that its
directed to. Daddys Car, for example, is
composed in the style of The Beatles, while
Mr. Shadow patterns the styles of Irving
Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin,
and Cole Porter. (French composer Benoit
Carre contributed the lyrics, arrangements,
and production to both songs.)
A natural question that arises when
listening to the tracks is whether they
sound like something a human wrote.
Opinions vary on this. Openculture.
com says yes but notes that those
looking for a true glimpse of the future
should wrap their ears and sanity
around Mr. Shadow, which it depicts

Robot, Meet Canvas

How does someone with a passion for painting and technology combine the two as a way to
explore the artistic potential that technology possesses? If youre Andrew Conru, you stage
the RobotArt Contest and challenge teams to create something visually beautiful with a robot.
Specifically, that means devising a robotbe it an arm, drone, Roomba, or other form factor
that can use physical paintbrushes, paint, and canvas (not a printer) to create an original painting
or one that re-interprets another image.
Conru, a Stanford University Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, is also an amateur painter. In addition
to noting that one of the first signs of human culture is humans expressing themselves with images,
he writes that fundamental to the RobotArt Contest is the belief that creativity and expression are
emerging in unexpected ways from our relationship with technology. His aim is for the contest
to advance this relationship over a five-year period in terms of fostering innovation in AI, image
processing, and robotics. 2016 marked the contests first year of competition.
Conru believes present timing for a robot art contest is ideal because robots are becoming
more commonplace and advances in AI, including image processing and object recognition, are
enabling the software that controls robots to think in ways similar to humans. A side benefit is
that engineering grads dont often get to take art courses, he states. Students quickly find that
science and engineering share many of the innovative problem-solving skills used by artists, such
as balancing details and abstraction, looking at reality in different ways, and planning steps that
build on each other to become greater than the sum of the parts, Conru writes.
Last year, 16 teams from seven countries entered 70-plus paintings, which professional artists,
critics, technologists, and thousands of online voters judged. TAIDA, a team from National Taiwan
Universitys International Center of Excellence in Intelligent Robotics and Automation Research,
won the contests $30,000 top prize for its robots portrait of Albert Einstein. This year, teams are
competing for more than $100,000 in prizes. Winners will be announced May 15.

A team from National Taiwan University won

the top $30,000 prize in the 2016 RobotArt
Contest with its portrait of Albert Einstein.
Now gearing up for the 2017 competition,
the contest challenges teams to create a robot that in turn creates beautiful art.

as much odder than Daddys Car

because of its mix of country twang,
Daniel Lanois-style ambience, along
with a vocal that sounds like a corrupted

audio file. Many YouTube viewers

comments arent as positive, including
one who wrote, Let us all welcome
our off-tune and tone-deaf overlords.
CPU / November 2016

69

Using visualization techniques, Google set out to understand and visualize how neural networks
complete complex classification tasks. An unexpected but fascinating result of the research was the
beautiful art that the system created. About 30 artworks created using the system sold for tens of
thousands of dollars at a charity auction.

Complex.com, meanwhile, described

Daddys Car as very reminiscent to
The Beatles but more derivative than
revolutionary. Complex.com did hail Flow
Machines as already representing a huge
achievement in the burgeoning world of
AI, citing it as a useful tool that could aide
composers in creating new music.
The UK startup Jukedeck is already
offering a service online thats similar,
albeit in a scaled-down manner.
Essentially, the companys service enables
a user to create a unique, royalty-free
track that he can use in a video, website,
podcast, or other form. The user simply
selects a musical genre, a mood, and a
time duration for the song. Jukedecks
technology, which combines AI and
music composition data, does the rest.
Specifically, the company states that

70

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

it is training deep neural networks to

write original music, so that you can
make customized tracks at the touch of
a button. Our system learns how to write
music, chord by chord and note by note.
John Supko, a composer and associate
professor and director of graduate studies
in Duke Universitys Department of
Music, says some people are disturbed by
the idea of what he and probably others
have called computational creativity.
In 2014, Supko and Duke Professor Bill
Seaman released an album of 26 classical
tracks they created by collaborating
with software called bearings_traits
developed by Supko. They think that
such work augurs the death of warmblooded, human musical activity, he says.
Paranoid ideas about what technology
will do to the artsand to society
have been around forever, and well be
encountering them more and more in the
future as AI gets better.
Supko sees the work hes doing as
creating a tool that helps him write music.
But a tool does not predetermine its use,
he says. A good composer will use any

tool to make good music. And there will

always be bad composers who find ways of
writing bad music with the same tools.

But Is It Art?
Some of the most intriguing,
controversial, and notion-challenging
work happening currently concerning AI
and art involves paintings and images.
The Next Rembrandt project is a good
example. Here, a computer system
using deep-learning algorithms and
facial-recognition techniques created an
original 3D-printed portrait of man in
17th Century clothing in the style of
Rembrandt. The system, in fact, learned
Rembrandts style by studying his entire
body of work (more than 300 paintings)
down to the pixel via high-resolution
3D scans and digital files fed to it by the
projects leaders.
One aim of enabling a computer
to produce an original painting that
follows Rembrandts style was to fuel
conversation about the relationship
between art and algorithms, between
data and human design, and between

Composers + Computer = Musical Collaboration

In 2014, The New York Times named s_traits one of the years best
classical albums. Notably, the albums 26 tracks came from three minds:
two human and one artificial. The humans were John Supko, Ph.D., a
composer and associate professor and director of graduate studies for
Duke Universitys Department of Music, and fellow Duke Professor and
media artist Bill Seaman. The artificial mind belonged to bearings_traits,
software developed by Supko.
Essentially, the s_traits tracks came about
by bearings_traits scouring a database
that Supko and Seaman filled with 110
hours of audio, including field recordings,
acoustic and electronic instruments, voices,
analog and digital noise, and more. Using
algorithms, bearings_traits combined
various sounds to create raw compositions
that Supko and Seaman collaborated on,
polished, and completed. We spoke with
Supko about collaborating with AI and more.

Q: What initially motivated you to collaborate with computers?

JP: When I started to take notice of some of the unexamined
assumptions I make in my work as a composer, I wondered
what kind of music would arise in a creative process where no
assumptions were made. Computers are ideal for this type of
experiment because they only do what we tell them to. I can
ask the computer to compose music
1,000 different ways using the same
materials and then pick the results I
like best. If I were to try making 1,000
versions of the same materials by
hand, at some point (probably relatively
quickly), I would start repeating myself
or lose interest. By working with the
computer, I have access to musical
possibilities that lie outside the limits of
my imagination.
Q: What has bearings_traits taught
you about creativity you wouldnt have
discovered alone?

Q: Engineer serendipity and

generative music are terms youve
used. What do those mean to you?
JP: One way to describe creativity is that
it involves making surprising connections
between seemingly unrelated things. Arthur
Koestler famously called this bisociation.
By giving the computer an enormous amount
of sound materials and programming it to
select and combine them in unexpected
ways, I hope to increase the likelihood that
something magicala serendipitous musical
discoverymight occur.
The term generative music was made
famous, if not coined, by Brian Eno in his
work from the early 1990s called Generative
Music I. The usual definition is music
thats created by a system of some kind,
not necessarily a computer, and intended
to be different in each performance or
hearing. I have been working with these
ideas for the past 10 years. Im interested
in the idea of music that is not dependent
on a paper score, in music that evolves
from performance to performance, but
that nevertheless somehow still retains a
recognizable identity.

Music composer and Duke University Associate

Professor John Supko developed software called
bearings_traits that he and fellow Duke Professor Bill
Seaman collaborated with to create an album of original
songs that The New York Times dubbed one of the best
classical albums of 2014.

JP: In developing bearings_traits,

I first had to think about my own
personal, very human creative process.
Before I could attempt to program the
computers musical creativity, I had to
understand what was involved in my
own. As a result, I learned a lot about
myself as a composer, such as whats
important to me in a piece of music,
what I dont care about, where I have
difficulties, and so forth. Im not sure
that I would have undertaken such
deep level of self-examination had it
not been for the prospect of creating an
artificially intelligent collaborator. I
also learned to be wary of what I wished
for: As bearings_traits began to output
stranger and stranger material, I found
it difficult at first to imagine a context
for it, how I might integrate it into the
fabric of a larger composition. I was
never interested in simply accepting
the systems output as a finished piece.
I consider the computers work as a
starting point with the potential of
leading me into uncharted territory.

CPU / November 2016

71

At the DeepArt website, a user can upload a photo to let the websites algorithmic system analyze it and
create artistic images of high perceptual quality.

technology and emotion. Unveiled in

Amsterdam in April, the portrait did just
this. Bas Korsten of ad agency J. Walter
Thompson Amsterdam, one of the
projects sponsors, stated, All I can say
about the outcome is that I see a person.
Not a computer image. For me it shows
that this marriage between data and art is
still in the honeymoon stage. Conversely,
The Guardians Jonathan Jones blasted the
effort as a horrible, tasteless, insensitive,
and soulless travesty of all that is creative
in human nature.
A n o t h e r p ro j e c t t h a ts s t i r re d
considerable conversation involves
visualization techniques that Googles
AI research team created to help it
understand and visualize how neural
networks execute difficult classification
tasks, as well as to improve network
architecture and check what the network
has learned during training. Upon
applying the techniques, the researchers
discovered they led the AI to produce
beautiful art, which Wired.com
described as showing us the dreams of a
machine. The art, which some depicted
trippy, surreal, and eerie, prompted
the researchers to question if neural
networks could benefit artists as a new
way to remix visual concepts or possibly

72

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

even shed a little light on the roots of the

creative process in general.
Programmers and artists showed so
much interest in the AIs creations that
Google made its source code, called Deep
Dream, freely available to others. Since
then, artists, programmers, scientists, and
many others have experimented with
the code to create their own art. Further,
websites and apps have emerged to let
users do the same. In February, 29 neural
network-generated artworks stemming
from the Deep Dream project and code
raised a reported $84,000 at an auction

for the nonprofit Gray Area Foundation

for the Arts.
Another endeavor called DeepArt comes
from a group of German researchers. Their
effort uses an algorithm to analyze photos
that users upload to the DeepArt website
and then applies a style of a notable
artist (Picasso, van Gogh, etc.) that the
user selects to the image. In a paper titled
A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style,
the researchers detail their artificial
system, which is based on a deep neural
network that creates artistic images of
high perceptual quality. The system is
described as using neural representations
to separate and recombine content and
style of arbitrary images, providing a
neural algorithm for the creation of
artistic images. DeepArt offers to generate
free 500- x 500-pixel images or higherresolution renderings for a fee.

Yes, HAL, AI Is Making Movies

From Metropolis to Ex Machina,
movies have been incorporating AI into
their stories for decades and often not in
the most flattering of light. Although using
AI to actually help produce movies has a
much shorter history, a few recent attempts
demonstrate some intriguing possibilities.
Among these examples is Sunspring, a
sci-fi short film made for the recent Sci-Fi
London 48-Hour Film Challenge.
Starring Thomas Middleditch of
HBOs Silicon Valley, Sunspring
didnt exactly knock viewers over with

Shot for the recent Sci-Fi London 48-Hour Film Challenge, Sunspring is a short film starring Thomas
Middleditch of HBOs Silicon Valley. An AI system referred to as Benjamin wrote all the dialogue and
stage directions that the actors followed.

The Best Paintings Ever? A Computer Knows

You dont have to be an art historian to hold opinions about paintings,
including how creative and influential you consider them to be.
That said, we generally do grant art
historians a degree of authority on such
matters. As Slate.com writes, It takes
a trained eye to assess all the different
components of a painting, and its even
more difficult to amass the knowledge
needed to put that work in historical
context. Historically, only humans have
possessed that trained eye, but that
could be changing.
Last year, Rutgers University
researchers Ahmed Elgammal and
Babak Saleh created a system that
uses AI (specifically machine vision
and learning) to determine the most
creative and influential paintings ever.
The system did so by inspecting about
62,000 paintings created during a 550year span. Using what the researchers
dubbed the most common definition
for creativitymeaning an emphasis
on the paintings originality and lasting
influencetheir algorithm went to work.
What the system largely came up with
were paintings that art historians have

also singled out over time for their creativity and influence. These include
Pablo Picassos The Young Ladies of Avignon and Edvard Munchs
The Scream. Elgammal wrote that the
results indicate humans are no longer
the only judges of creativity. Computers
can perform the same taskand may
even be more objective. The algorithm,
for example, drew its conclusions without
any encoded knowledge about art or art
history. Instead, it relied on visual analysis
and the time period in which the artist
created a work.

Two researchers from Rutgers University fed a system

using AI more than 60,000 paintings from about a 550-year
span. Using an algorithm the researchers developed, the
system determined the paintings it deemed most creative
and influential. Edvard Munchs The Scream was one.

its qualityqz.com writes that its like

watching a cross between a Shakespeare
play and a Bad Lip Reading video
but the fact that AI wrote all of the
films dialogue, stage directions, and
even lyrics to a main song got plenty of
peoples attention. Ars Technica hosted
the films online debut and wrote that
despite sounding like a typical sci-fi
B-movie (complete with an incoherent
plot), knowing that a recurrent neural
network was at work makes Sunspring
fun to watch. That neural network, by the
way, gradually came to request that others
refer to it as Benjamin.
Benjamin learned its craft by analyzing
to the letter dozens of sci-fi screenplays
fed to it by Sunspring director Oscar
Sharp and collaborator Ross Goodwin,

a New York University AI researcher.

Eventually, the AI learned to imitate
the structure of a screenplay and began
spitting out stage directions and wellformatted character lines. Sharp and
Goodwin told Ars Technica they believe
theres something magic about what
theyve created with Benjamin. Theres
truth to what they say when watching
Sunspring. Despite some definite flaws,
Benjamin accomplishes what good sci-fi
movie dialogue should: leave the viewer
feeling unsettled and questioning what
exactly is going on.
Another project thats using AI in a
moviemaking sense comes from Greenlight
Essentials, which created a system that
dissects movie plots in order to match
them to audience taste. This includes

Elgammal stated that the research

shouldnt be perceived as AI potentially
replacing art historians one day or that
computers are better at determining
a works value than a human. The
ultimate goal of research in AI is to
make machines that have perceptual,
cognitive, and intellectual abilities
similar to those of humans, he writes.
We believe that judging creativity is a
challenging task that combines these
three abilities, and our results are an
important breakthrough: proof that a
machine can perceive, visually analyze,
and consider paintings much like
humans can.

spotting the correct plot patterns that map

successful movie box-office performance.
Greenlight Essentials is using the
technology in its upcoming horror film
Impossible Things, which the company
launched a successful Kickstarter campaign
to help fund. Greenlight Essentials states
that the film, which will begin shooting
this spring, is the first to use AI to help
with storyboarding and plot twists and
ensure theres a demographic market to
make the final cut a hit. By having AI
take a co-writing credit, it also marks
the next step in human-computer
collaboratively created original content,
the company adds.
Reportedly, Greenlight Essentials
AI can suggest specific actor types to
help sell the film, suggest plot and cast
CPU / November 2016

73

combinations, and help target the right

The process involves the researchers using
Smith writes it wasnt surprising the
market. For Impossible Things, that
Kinect devices to capture the moves that
system choose moments for its trailer
market is females 25 years and younger.
human dancers make while dancing with
that other Morgan trailers didnt.
CEO Jack Zhang, who created the
VAI. Those moves are projected in the form
Additionally, IBMs trailer only took about
of an avatar onto custom projection panels
software, stated that the AI indicated that
24 hours to complete, much shorter than
located inside a 15-foot-tall geodesic dome.
matching audience taste would require
the weeks a human would typically require.
A virtual representation of VAI dancing is
making a horror movie that featured a
Reducing the time of a process from
also projected on the panels, thus a human
ghost and family relationship and
weeks to hoursthat is the true power
dancer can react to VAIs moves to improvise
piano and bathtub scenes in the trailer
of AI, Smith states. The combination
his own, such as pumping his arm when
to increase the chances the audience will
of machine intelligence and human
VAI pumps its virtual arm.
like it.
VAI analyzes its dance partners
One mainstream example
moves and uses its dance
of AI helping craft cinema
vocabulary to decide its next
comes from Morgan, which
step. The vocabulary, or episodic
20th Century Fox released
memory, includes experiences
in September. Because the
of how people previously danced
plot centers on a robot with
with VAI. Overall, project leader
advanced AI turning against
Brian Magerko states that using
humans, the studio thought it
AI as a creative collaborator is
fitting to ask the IBM Watson
rare. As computers become more
team to use AI to create a trailer
ubiquitous, we must understand
for Morgan. What resulted
how they can co-exist with
is what John R. Smith, IBM
humans. Part of that is creating
Fellow, writes is the firstthings together.
ever cognitive movie trailer.
Dartmouth College is another
An early challenge in making
educational institution exploring
the trailer was deciding how
AI and art. The colleges Neukom
to teach the system what Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a virtual
Institute for Computational
scary is exactly, something dancer called VAI (virtual artificial intelligence) that learns to improvise its
Science sponsors an ongoing
tricky considering that scary own dance steps by observing the dance steps of human dance partners and
Prizes in Computational Arts
means many different things building up its own dance vocabulary.
competition for students that is
to different people. Further,
essentially variations of the Turing Tests. For
the researchers knew the AI had to create
expertise is a powerful one. This research
something that a majority of viewers would
2016s contest, contestants had to create a
investigation is simply the first of many
deem frightening and suspenseful.
program that could produce a short story,
into what we hope will be a promising area
IBMs researchers ended up using
sonnet, or dance-DJ set that a majority of
of machine and human creativity.
machine learning and experimental
judges (which include professional writers,
The Dance Of The Digital
Watson APIs to train its software on the
media members, and online voters) would
For some, dance is the living
trailers from 100 horror movies. They
believe a human created. Although no entry
embodiment of art. When done well, dance
segmented out individual scenes in
succeeded entirely, about 40% of a combined
can convey emotion and demonstrate the
each trailer to create moments, which
online and live dance audience did vote two
artists skill, intention, strength, and more.
the system ran visual, audio, and scene
different AI-created DJ sets as stemming
Dance can also be improvised, a trait that
analysis on to spot people, objects,
from humans.
a group of Georgia Institute of Technology
scenery, ambient sounds, shot locations,
Daniel Rockmore, a professor of
researchers took into consideration when
lighting, and image framing. All that
mathematics and computer science
creating a system that can control a virtual
helped it understand which scenes are
who headed up the competition, told
dancer named VAI (virtual artificial
suitable for horror/suspense film trailers.
Inverse.com that he doesnt rule out the
intelligence). By watching humans dance,
The software then analyzed Morgan
notion that computer-generated music
VAI has learned to improvise its own moves.
in its entirety, noting 10 moments
could become a dominant genre one day.
The more it watches, the better its dancing
it considered worthy for the trailer. A
If, for 50 years, the only thing people
gets and the larger its dance vocabulary
resident IBM filmmaker then arranged
ever listened to was computer-generated
becomes. That vocabulary represents VAIs
and edited the moments to output a
music, anything that a human generated
foundation for future improvisation.
complete trailer.
might feel foreign, he reasoned.

74

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Game Of The Month

Yeah, we know you have blogs to post, video to encode, reports to write, and code to compile. We do,
too, but you have to take a break once in a while (and maybe blow some stuff up). Thats why each
month we give you the lowdown on what to expect from the latest interesting games.

And The Cats In The Cradle

And The Chainsaw Gun
BY CHRIS TRUMBLE

$59.99 (PC, XOne) ESRB: (M)ature

Microsoft Studios gearsofwar.com
As in the case of other types of fiction media, sequels in videogames
tend to have pretty mixed results. There are lots of really good game
sequels out there, but for every success story, there are several others
that were disappointing for one reason or many. As such, we didnt
assume Gears of War 4 would be good, despite the fact that Gears of
War 3 was the best Gears yet when it launched five years ago.
But Gears of War 4 is, in fact, a better game than all its predecessors, for
several reasons. First and foremost, it has a better story. Gears 3s story
was pretty great, but by the time Epic and Microsoft brought writer Karen
Traviss in to gussy things up, the first two games and their fairly spotty
narratives were firmly ensconced, limiting what Traviss could do with
protagonist Marcus Fenix and his not-so-merry band of Gears.
This time around, Marcus world (Sera) is a very different place, and
Marcus himself is a different person. (Well, hes still largely a monosyllabic
rage monster, but the creative team has managed to give him a hint of an
introspective side, and it works.) But more importantly, Marcus is no longer
the lead character in the Gears of War saga. As youve no doubt gleaned
from the excellent commercial spots, Marcus has passed the mantle of
World Savior to his son, J. D. Fenix, who inherited his fathers physique and
martial prowess but also has a sense of humor, no doubt from his mothers
side of the family.
At the outset of Gears 4, a quasi-new threat to humanity has arisen, and what
begins as a simple supply raid quickly escalates until J. D. and his friends Del

and Kait are neck-deep in a fight for their lives, and the lives of pretty much
everyone else, too. Thanks to the pre-launch ads, its also not a spoiler to talk
about how cool it is that the game incorporates Marcus in the story, as well.
Yes, I know what I just got done saying about J. D. being better, and I stand by
it. But after playing through the first three Gears titles, its hard not to have a
soft spot for the old lug. Plus, the father-son dynamic between Marcus and
J. D. is part of what makes Gears 4s story so compelling.
Anyway, the storys great. Also, this game is the first Gears title for
Xbox One and for PC, and it looks every bit the part. Regardless of your
platform of choice, Gears 4 looks amazing. Crisp color and textures and
fast, fluid motion are everywhere you look. The campaign is incredibly
entertaining, multiplayer is back and is as salty as ever, and Horde mode
is back (Horde 3.0 this time) and is just as addictive as in its predecessor.
Microsoft and developers The Coalition added classes into the mix, as
well as a card-based skills and appearance customization system that is
strongly reminiscent of that in Halo 5; Captain Obvious would like to point
out this probably isnt a coincidence.
So, to recap: The action and story are great, whether you play alone,
with your friends, or with complete strangers. This game is also one of
Microsofts new Play Anywhere titles, meaning that if you buy it digitally,
you can play on Xbox and on your PC without having to buy it twice, and
your saved games will cross-populate via the cloud, so you can switch
platforms and pick right up where you left off. Getting this much quality
entertainment for $60 is probably illegal in some states.

CPU / November 2016

75

Pushing The Pedal

Down Under
BY ANDREW LEIBMAN

$59.99 (PC, PS4, XOne) ESRB: (E)veryone

Turn 10, Microsoft Studios www.forzamotorsport.net

Dont call Forza Horizon 3 a racing game. Yes, racing is a big part of the
game, but you can do so much in addition to racing that defining Turn 10s
latest open-world car fantasy game by its genre feels a bit like calling
Skyrim a sword and shield game or Metal Gear a killer robots game.
In Horizon, youre the festival boss charged with setting up a sprawling
multilocation music and automotive festival. This time around, youre
in the series most exotic locale yet, Australia. And if your imagination
immediately conjures up visions of catching air off massive desert
dunes, slaloming through trees in rainforests, splashing through
flooded roadways in swamps, burying the needle on gently winding
coastal roads, and threading through high rises in Surfers Paradise,
then youre on the right track.
When I think of other open-world driving games, the first title that
springs to mind is Criterions fantastic Burnout Paradise from 2008.
In almost every way, Forza Horizon 3 manages to top that game.
First of all, as a Forza game, there are 350 real cars, trucks, buggies,
truggies, utes, and more. Turn 10 is a Microsoft Studios developer, so it
comes as no surprise that Halos iconic Warthog is in the game. To the
developers credit, the Hog is just as much fun to drive as I hoped.
When you start playing, opening up the map for the first time evokes
the same feeling as playing an Assassins Creed game, or any openworld Ubisoft game for that matter. There are icons everywhere. As
you earn fans for performing PR stunts; winning races; catching air off
danger-sign jumps; completing bucket-list challenges; and setting new
records in speed zones, speed traps, and drift zones, new festival sites

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November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

and expansions become available. Unlocking these peppers the map

with even more objectives.
Its easy to feel overwhelmed, but if youre looking for the quickest path
to unlocking everything, tell Anna, your onboard GPS assistant, I need
fans. Shell set a route to the nearest opportunity, and you dont need to
ace the objective every time to get a beefy clump of new fans.
Horizon 3 is a game that successfully taps into the car fanatic in all of us.
You wont be thrilled to get behind the wheel of every car, but you can make
a surprising number of those that pique your interest competitive in virtually
any class using a dizzying array of upgrades. Sim fans will appreciate the
nine tuning categories you can use to tweak your car for each outing or
create the perfect all round tune for dominating multisurface rally contests.
For those who prefer arcade-style racing, there are lengthy descriptions of
each setting and a real-time simulator to help you get your feet wet.
In Horizon 3, a vast majority of the content is gated by XP and skill
points, and earning both can be done as readily in free roam as in races
and other events. My favorite part of the game is climbing behind the
wheel of my black 69 Camaro Super Sport Coupe, with rally springs and
dampers of course, and bouncing across the desert as fast as I can to
rack up skill points. Drivatars (AI racers algorithmically trained by your
real-life friends) are back, and rewards in Forza Horizon 3 come thick and
fast. Oh, and the game looks stunning on PC, in 4K.
If you were looking for a modern arcade-style racer thatll put a smile on
your face from beginning to end, buckle up. This is it.

Space-craft Your Spacecraft

BY VINCE COGLEY

$24.99 (PC, Early Access) ESRB: N/A

Reverb Triple XP osirisnewdawn.com
You know the old adage, Give an astronaut a planetary rover, and
hell be able to traverse long distances in a matter of minutes; teach
an astronaut to build his own planetary rover, and hell spend the next
week gathering up the necessary resources to do so. No, doesnt ring
a bell? Maroon yourself on Osiris: New Dawns Proteus 2, and youll
learn soon enough.
Survivalcraft games are now an established genre, with titles such
as Rust and ARK: Survival Evolved leading the way. Whereas ARK
goes prehistoric, Osiris flings you forward in time to 2046, when the
breakthrough creation of the near-lightspeed fold engine has made
interstellar travel possible. Youre officially part of the U.N.E. (United
Nations of Earth) colonization team sent to the Gliese 581 system
(which really exists, so props to developer Fenix Fire Entertainment for
doing its research). Things go wrong, as things normally do, and youre
forced to make an emergency landing on the surface of Proteus 2 with
nothing more than a handful of survival items, a couple of guns, and
your trusty inflatable dome kit. From here, youll chisel your way to a
flourishing space colony.
We got our hands on an early access copy of Osiris: New Dawnthe
full game is tentatively planned for release sometime next yearand
although much of the game is still under development, its crafting
system is already reasonably fleshed out. Survivalcraft veterans should
find Osiris crafting system relatively uncomplicated and approachable,
but that doesnt necessarily mean that building your exoplanetary
home away from home is easy. More advanced structures and items
require rare minerals that might be miles from your base, and in the
beginning that means youre walking. And walking. And walking.
Osiris is a fairly grounded game: Bag space is limited, and the game
wallops you with a movement speed penalty for cramming too many
heavy rocks in there. As a result, gathering resources is initially a

time-consuming affair. Thats not a drawback, necessarily, because

building your first spaceship should feel like a momentous achievement.
Remember those guns? Youll need em, because Proteus 2 is crawling
with hostile fauna. (In truth, monster density and intensity are settings
you can adjust when creating your own personal Proteus 2.) The alien
monsters we encountered reminded us of the ravenous bugs from
Starship Troopers. Most are easy enough to avoid if you wish to leave
the local wildlife undisturbed. But if a particularly bloodthirsty alien
monstrosity gives chase and you dont want or need the target practice,
be prepared for a dogged pursuit. It feels like you have to run halfway
across the planet before monsters leash back to their original location.
The world Fenix Fire Entertainment has created is superb. Proteus 2
is reminiscent of Mars but has its own distinct personality. Weather
effects and a day-night cycle are well executed; add a haunting score,
and Osiris: New Dawn has an atmosphere that is at the same time
bleak and wondrous.
You can tackle the unforgiving landscape of Proteus 2 by yourself
in single-player mode, or you can rally a crew and build a colony
cooperatively (or competitively, as Osiris offers PvP servers, too).
Its clear that Osiris: New Dawn is far from finished. Most importantly,
Fenix Fire has yet to complete the rest of the planets in the Gliese
system (which will make building and flying a spaceship even more
satisfying). All of the survival elementsfood, health, weapons,
monstersseem like they need more depth, and while the games
crafting system is already pretty good, we think theres room to grow.
That said, the building blocks are in place for Osiris: New Dawn to be a
sensational game. Youll want it on your 2017 radar.

CPU / November 2016

77

World War Wow

BY CHRIS TRUMBLE

$59.99 (PC, XOne, PS4) ESRB: (M)ature

EA Games www.battlefield.com

EA Games just launched Battlefield 1, the latest FPS from Swedish

studio DICE, and its kind of a big deal. Although big-studio World
War II games are extremely common (in fact, the Battlefield series
began with a title called Battlefield 1942 back in 2002), World War
I games are a little less so. After spending some quality time with
Battlefield 1, its not entirely clear why.
First things first: Because its an EA DICE game, Battlefield 1 contains
a ton of gameplay elements that will be very familiar to fans of the
series, and it has an interface thats more than a little similar to that
of the recent hit Star Wars Battlefront, another DICE-developed title.
The big draw in Battlefield 1 as in past Battlefield games is obviously
multiplayer, and Battlefield 1 has plenty of that. Players can choose
from several game types (Conquest, Domination, Operations, Rush,
War Pigeons, and of course Team Deathmatch) and can either jump in
to the most convenient game using BF1s Quickmatch function or set
up a detailed game search with a variety of filter settings to get just
the experience theyre looking for.
Battlefield 1 gives you access to huge 64-player battles that
are chaotic and a lot of fun, or you can take part in smaller
operations. Its all a blast, and the game also has a pretty
compelling single-player experience, which isnt always a given
for games that are primarily driven by online multiplayer. Rather
than serving up one big campaign, BF1 lets you sample lots of
kinds of WWI warfare in lots of places via six separate stories
where you play the role of several characters in distinct areas.

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November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Play as an American pretending to be a British RAF pilot on the

Western Front, take up with the Harlem Hellfighters in France, be
an Australian message runner at Gallipoli, fight side by side with
Lawrence of Arabia, and more. Each story is made up of multiple
segments and provides hidden stuff to collect, frantic combat, and
cool set-piece sequences that do a nice job of keeping the game
fresh from start to finish.
As in the past, multiplayer lets you select a role, or class, that to
an extent shapes the way youll play by defining your characters
strengths and weaknesses. You can select Assault, Medic,
Support, or Scout, and there are also spawn-based classes that
you choose by selecting a vehicle to spawn into/onto. Finally,
there are pickups that appear on the battlefield periodically that
give you access to several elite classes, similar to the way you
can become Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Battlefront by grabbing
a power-up when it spawns.
BF1 shows off some pretty impressive production values: its music,
voice acting, and sound effects are incredible across the board, and
it looks great, too. Control is mostly very good, although there are
times where it feels a little slow or unresponsive.
Nitpicks aside, Battlefield 1 is a pretty solid offering. If you are
looking for a new FPS and want something besides modern spec
ops games or sci-fi shooters, EA DICE has put together a set of
experiences that feel familiar yet are off the beaten path.

Q&A With Stephen Machuga

Using Video Gaming

To Help Veterans
Steve Shanghai Six Machuga knows firsthand how much videogames can mean to veterans serving overseas and those whove
returned home. In 2003, while serving in the war in Iraq with the Armys 2nd Infantry Division, Machuga and his buddies received
care packages from those back home. Although thoughtful, some of the loot wasnt exactly a great fit for young soldiers looking to
fill the boredom that came with downtime. Take, for example, a crate of used romance novels Machugas unit received but ended
up using for target practice. Such experiences drove Machuga to found Operation Supply Drop in 2010 and then the non-profit
military charity Stack-Up.org in 2015, where he now works full-time.
Stack-Up.orgs calling card is delivering Supply Crates, or care packages full of game consoles, games, and other nerd goodness
to United States, NATO, and ANZAC veterans and active-duty personnel serving in combat zones or humanitarian missions or
recovering in military hospitals. The organization also operates Stacks in about 35 cities in which military and civilian volunteers
work together on local events. Further, the charity provides deserving vets with VIP-like Air Assaults experiences at E3, PAX,
Comic-Con, and other gaming events. We spoke with Machugawho left the service in 2006 as an army infantry/intelligence
officer before working for the government as a counterterrorism analystabout Stack-Up.org and its Veterans Are Our Mission,
Gaming is Our Passion focus. (You can read our entire conversation at www.computerpoweruser.com/23814 )

enter a room.) Theyre small, fire-teamsized elements of volunteers getting out

and doing various things throughout
the community. Weve done 52 or 53
different volunteer events throughout
the course of the year, whether it was
just people getting together to help
other military-support elements or our
guys getting out to do things together.
It gets veterans out from behind their
consoles and game screens and gets them
to interact with each other and spend
time interacting with civilians and nonmilitary personnel. Those are the big three
programs we have for the charity and
what weve been doing this year.

: Whats the primary aim of

Stack-Up.org? Why did you start it,
and who is its focus?
: Stack-Up.org is a military
charity. We support veterans
through video gaming, and we do that
several ways. We have our Supply Crate
program, which is the first of our missions
where we box up games and gear and
everything a unit needs to play games
while theyre either overseas or recovering
in military hospitals and things like that.
Our second program is our Air Assaults
program where we fly deserving or
disabled veterans to events such as E3,
PAX, and Comic-Con. We show them a
VIP time, get them out, and let them see
theyre not alone out therethat theres
a whole universe of gamers. I know the
first PAX I went to, I thought I was alone
out there, and then I went to a PAX and
was like, Oh my god, I didnt know all
these people existed. It was amazing. So
its being able to show veterans that just
because theyre getting out of the service,
theyre not alone, and we have them be a

SM

VIP for the weekend. Thats a huge piece

of why we do this.
The final mission we have is The Stacks
program. Its our volunteer component
where we have local veterans across 30some Stacks of volunteers. (A stack is a
single-file formation that an assault team
creates along an entryway or doorway to

: Did you have those three

components of Stack-Up.org in
mind from the outset, or did they fall in
place one after another?
: They absolutely fell in line one
after another. Originally, I started
doing this back in 2010 as I was helping
out a buddy of mine. He was my driver
in Iraq. He got out of the military back in

SM

CPU / November 2016

79

2006, and like a lot of veterans who kind

of fumble around when they get out, they
feel like they dont have much of a home
in the civilian sector, so they end up going
back in [the military]. And as soon as he
went back in, he was immediately shipped
off to Afghanistan. So he knew I had
some contacts in the games industry and
said, Hey, can we get an Xbox out here?
Were going crazy. Theres nothing to do.
Can you get us some stuff? So I reached
out to some of my contacts in the games
industry, and the level of support was
surprising. We didnt expect to get the level
of support we did.
We ended up getting way more stuff
than we could possibly send to my
buddy. And, of course, when you send
something like $2,000 or $3,000 worth
of games and gear to one guy overseas,
the next thing you know, the guys around
him are asking, How can we get in on
that? So we turned around and ended
up sending more stuff out. More and
more requests were coming in, and we
were getting more and more stuff from
developers and publishers wanting to
help out. It became like, OK, theres a
thing here. Thats how it all started, and
then the Air Assaults program came later,
and obviously the most recent one is our
Stacks program.

: How do units and veterans make

a request for a Supply Crate, and
what does a typical crate include?
: If people want to make a
request, they can head to our
website, Stack-Up.org. Theres a request
page there if you or someone you know,
a loved one, is overseas or recovering in
a military hospital or is just having a bad
go of things. For instance, we had a guy
who did three tours in Afghanistan. He
came home and ended up getting shot
in the head during a home invasion and
had his Xbox taken from him. So it was
like, Yeah, I think we can get him an
Xbox. So there are definitely situations
where guys are back home and request
our support, and were willing to help out
if the need is great enough.

SM

80

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

Generally speaking, you can expect

at least one console. A lot of whats
happening is everybody is going to the
current generation of consoles: Xbox
Ones and PlayStation 4s. So were getting
a glut of Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s.
The troops are requesting the latest and
greatest, and we want to do that for them
because that was a major part of why I
started this. Civilians back home were kind
of boxing up whatever they could find in
their attics and sending it over and saying,
Well, Im helping the troops. Well, its
like, OK, this is dusty garbage you found
in your attic. The analogy I like to use is
the fifth-grade canned food drive where
some fifth-grader runs home, sifts through
the pantry, grabs a dented can of yams,
and says, See, I helped. And the next
thing you know, you have 26 dented cans
of yams. Are you really doing something
the troops appreciate? When they ask for
an Xbox One, we dont want to give them
a Sega Master System and say, There you
go. Good luck. When they send in a
request, we try to fill it out the best we can,
but we will also probably include last-gen
consoles, as well.
Well also include a pile of whatever
games we can come across. Usually we
get good deals from our partners, or they
just donate them outright. Headsets.
Peripherals. Controllers. Copies of
gaming magazines. Anything you
can think of. Boxes of Cards Against
Humanity or whatever you would think
would be cool to open up and just be
blown away by one of these crates. And
thats the objective here. When that
crate is opened up overseas, we want
people to just step back and say, Geez,
look at this. This should be a gamechanger over there. When they get one
of these things, it should be something
they remember always. Guys overseas
get a lot of donations. They get boxes
full of wet wipes, cookies, and its like,
This is nice, and thank you. But
were looking to change the morale of
a unit while theyre deployed forward,
and its absolutely critical that we keep
guys happy and healthy over there while
theyre deployed.

Q
SM

: Where do you get the gear and

games you give veterans?

: Ubisoft is a huge partner.

We would not be where we
are now without Ubisoft. The company
nominated us for its Humble Bundle at
the beginning of the year, and the money
that was raised during that has funded us
through the year. It has been absolutely
critical to the birth and the health of this
organization. We end up buying a lot of
stuff on wish lists. Whatever shortfalls Im
not able to fill on wish lists, we just go
out and purchase outright.

: You posted a letter on your website

where you describe how gaming
helped save your life after returning
from the Iraq War. Can you explain
how that was?
: Video gaming has always been
the through line of my life, no
matter what I was doing, whether I was in
high school, going out on dates, college,
basic training. It was always, OK, at the
end of the day, Im going to come back
home and play some videogames. It was
always the through line of my life. So
when I deployed forward to my multiple
deployments, video gaming was the thing I
always came back to at the end of the night.
Theres the iconic picture of me sitting on a
crate getting ready to deploy forward, and
in my right breast pocket you can see the
outline of a Nintendo DS poking out of it.
Im dressed in full battle rattle and theres a
Nintendo DS. It was that and Final Fantasy
Tactics that was my jam back then.

SM

When I went to Iraq, I was with one

of the first Stryker brigades deployed
forward, so we were getting pushed all
over the country to provide support. We
were the brand-new, shiny toys that the
government wanted to sort of get out there
in the middle of all these fights. So we
were doing a lot of driving on highways,
and during these drives one of the things
you have to remain watchful for is that
insurgents like hiding explosives in piles of
trash along the side of the road. If youve
been over there, imagine theres no real
waste management, and people just throw
trash all over the place. There are piles
of trash everywhere. And every now and
again, one of them would just explode.
There would be wires coming out of it and
some guy with a cell phone 30 meters away
would start running. That was something
we were constantly on the watch for.
When I got home, I was having some
real issues. My big thing was trash days. It
was Tuesdays. So I would leave the house,
and of course, there would be piles of
trash all over the place. Of course they
were well aligned, and there werent wires,
but my brain would just kind of seize up.
It was like, I know Im back home, and I
know none of these are going to blow up,
but Im still just finding reasons for me
not to leave the house. It would expand
to the point, Oh, Im just not going
to leave the house this week, or, I just
dont feel like leaving. It was becoming
an issue. I was having some real problems.
I was going through a deep depression
and nothing was pulling me out of it.
I got home shortly before the release
of World of Warcraft. The original
game. That game is the thing that
turned it around for me because I was
so entrenched in that game and the
community that was built around that
gamemy little raiding groups and this,
that, and the other thingthat the next
thing you know Im rushing on Tuesdays
during trash day to grab some food and
run back in real quick because I had to
get back for a five-man we had penciled
in at 2 p.m. or something like that. It was
a whole different experience. Over time,
things just kind of subsided. I still have

my issues to this day, but its nowhere

near the level. Im in a much better place
thanks to video gaming. A lot of guys
go to drugs or alcohol or prescription
medication to numb all that pain or take
them out of things. Thats what gaming
did for me. It took my brain and focused
it on something else as opposed to a panic
or anxiety that you get.

: What are you working on for the

future with the charity, including
for Veterans Day?

and take a look at what were doing and

look at our programs. Generally, just raise
awareness of what were doing, as well.

: What kind of gamer are you

personally. What are you into?
What genres do you gravitate to?
: I was a huge League of Legends
player. Im talking playing the
game for years trying to climb out of Bronze
into Silver. Just recently, Ive kind of fallen
out of it because I dont have time to keep

SM

A lot of guys go to drugs

or alcohol or prescription
medication to numb all that
pain or take them out of
things. Thats what gaming did
for me. It took my brain and
focused it on something else.
: Veterans Days is coming up.
We have a Call To Arms event.
Were going to be taking over Twitch
headquarters Nov. 11, taking over all the
programming for the day. Were going to
be the worlds first virtual reality charity
livestreaming event on Twitch. Were
working out the talent as far as who is
going to be showing up for it. I think
its going to be the Attack of The Show
guys. Theyre driving down from LA to be
part of this. Were partnering with Oculus
for the event. And then all weekend long
over the course of Veterans Day were
going to have charity livestreaming
events. People are coming out to support
by doing charity livestreaming events
through our Tiltify platform page. That
is our big push, to get people to come out

SM

up with all the patches and all the different

changes. Im more aboutbecause the
charity takes up every single moment of my
daybite-sized experiences like Dead by
Daylight, Evolve. Im going through a lot of
the regular games. I blasted through Gears
of War last week, and Im working on Mafia
III. My best experiences are those that get
me back to my inbox as quickly as possible.
I play a quick 10- or 15-minute match, and
Im like, OK, I got my little adrenaline
rush, now I can get back to work.
And League of Legends is not that game.
Thats at least an hour out of your day
where you have to sit down and say, OK,
Im going to take this hour out of my day
and play this match, and I hope it goes well
and that no one dares to be a jerk and make
it a terrible experience.
CPU / November 2016

81

Look For CPU At These LAN Parties

11.04-05.16

11.12-13.16

Afterlife LAN
Springdale, AR
www.fslan.com

Catacombz
Eldorado, IL
www.catacombz.com

11.04-06.16

11.12-13.16

JGL 4.0 Fall LAN Party

Jackson, TN
www.lanreg.org/jgl/Fall2016

Parlor City LAN

Bluffton, IN
parlorcitylan.org

11.04-06.16

11.18-20.16

LAN In The Highlands

Latrobe, PA
www.clubconflict.com

2016 Winter
San Diego LAN-A-THON
San Diego, CA
www.SanDiegoLAN.net
/LANaThon.html

11.04-06.16
Maryland LAN Gamers
Greenbelt, MD
www.marylandlangamers.net

11.04-06.16
PDXLAN*
Portland, OR
www.lanreg.org/pdxlan/pdxnov2016

11.11-13.16
LANFest Northwest Fall 2016*
Hillsboro, OR
lanfest.intel.com/events/northwest-2016

11.11-12.16
Legendary LAN Fall 2016
Harrisburg, PA
legendarylan.com

11.12-13.16
BoilerFrag 9.0
West Lafayette, IN
pugg.org

82

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

11.18-20.16
PONG
November LAN
Menomonie, WI
pong.uwstout.edu

11.18-20.16
TurkeyCon 2016
Columbia Station, OH
www.turkeycon.com

11.19.16
LAN Ho!
Tampa, FL
www.facebook.com/events/192051067863785
/#sthash.SXESr65I.dpuf

11.19.16
Oklahoma
Gamers Group
Oklahoma City, OK
www.okgg.org

Across The Nation& Beyond!

* Event scheduled to include a CPU case mod contest

11.19.16

12.31.16

Underground Gaming
Ashland, OH
www.facebook.com/groups
/UGGeSports

Winter WonderLAN
Ashland, OH
www.facebook.com/groups/UGGeSports

11.19-20.16
Windy City LAN
Chicago, IL
www.windycitylan.com

11.25-27.16
LANified! 25: Colossal
Calgary, AB
www.lanified.com/events/details/22

12.03.16
Christmas SAN LAN
San Antonio, TX
www.sanlan.org

12.03.16
KCGame On 72
Kansas City, MO
kcgameon.com

12.09-11.16
LANFest InfernaLAN Fall 2016*
Puyallup, WA
lanfest.intel.com/events/infernalan-winter-2016

12.17.16
Oklahoma Gamers Group
Oklahoma City, OK
www.okgg.org

12.17.16
Underground Gaming
Ashland, OH
www.facebook.com/groups/UGGeSports

01.20-22.17
FADECON
Garland, TX
www.fadecon.org/next-event

01.21.17
Oklahoma Gamers Group
Oklahoma City, OK
www.okgg.org

02.16-19.17
PDXLAN 29*
Portland, OR
www.lanreg.org/pdxlan/pdx29

02.17-19.17
PONG February LAN
Menomonie, WI
pong.uwstout.edu

02.18.17
Oklahoma Gamers Group
Oklahoma City, OK
www.okgg.org

03.03-05.17
RGBLAN
Philadelphia, PA
www.rgblan.org

03.18.17
Oklahoma Gamers Group
Oklahoma City, OK
www.okgg.org

Would you like us to help promote your next LAN?

Give us a call at 1.800.733.3809
Well be glad to consider your event
CPU / November 2016

83

 Available

in 3 sizes: mITX (SFF), mATX, ATX/SSI-CEB.

shells available in SIX different colors!
Options: Dual windows, handles, light bars, and more!
Compact chassis perfect for LAN parties!
All-Aluminum construction starting at just $169.95!
External

www.caselabs.net

Q&A With Patriots Roger Shinmoto

VP Of Product Development
Talks Next-Gen Viper Peripherals
surround headset to this line, as well. These
products were produced with the serious
gamer in mind, but we wanted to make
them affordable, as well. We are also going
to be launching a high-end line of products
consisting of the V370 RGB 7.1 virtual
surround headset, our V570 FPS + MMO
hybrid mouse, and our V770 full-spectrum
RGB keyboard. These products will include
features for the most demanding gamers.

: Patriot unveiled its first lineup of

Viper gaming peripherals last year
at Computex, correct?
: Yes, thats correct. We showed the
V760 keyboard, V560 mouse, and
V360 headset at Computex last year and
launched the products in Q4 of 2015.

RS
Q

: And now youre expanding the brand

to include three more headsets, two
more mice, and two more keyboards. So its
probably safe to assume that the response to
the original Viper products has been good?
: I think our products have been
well received by the market overall.
A lot of research went into specifying a
feature set that we thought gamers value
most in terms of performance and style.
The Viper brand was originally established
through our development of high-performance memory kits for gaming PCs. Weve
been at it for a lot of years, and I think
people know us more for those products.
We wanted to demonstrate we have that
same level of commitment to produce highquality peripherals as well, and I think weve
gotten off to a good start.

RS

: What would you say youve learned

about the peripherals market that
you maybe didnt know prior to the
launch of the Viper line?
: Not all gamers are created equally,
nor do they have the same preferences when it comes to their gear. Some
gamers prefer a keyboard that utilizes a
Blue mechanical switch for a clicky tactile
feel, while some prefer a quiet Brown or
Red switch, or a Green switch for quicker
response. Some people prefer a mouse
designed for a palm grip, while others
prefer one designed for a claw or fingertip

RS

86

November 2016 / www.computerpoweruser.com

grip. We learned the importance of letting

users have flexibility to adjust settings on
their peripherals to suit their individual
preferences. Its a lot to consider when
developing the spec for a product. Honestly,
the learning never stops.

: Will the new products replace the

original Viper headset, mouse, and
keyboard, or will those remain parts of
the Viper family?
: The new products will be offered
in parallel with our current lineup.
We are going to launch a line of entry-level
products to suit the budget-conscious or
casual gamer. This lineup will consist of our
V330 stereo headset, V530 optical mouse,
and the V730 backlit mechanical keyboard.
These products will have a solid feature set
without breaking the bank. We are going
to continue to produce our current lineup
of products, including the V360 7.1 virtual
surround headset, V560 laser RGB mouse,
and the V760 full-spectrum RGB keyboard.
We will be adding the V361 7.1 virtual

RS

: Lets talk about the new products

a bit, starting with the headsets.
The current Viper headset, the V360, is
a simulated 7.1 surround sound headset
with USB interface, LED lighting, a
foldable mic, and Patriots UBR (Ultra Bass
Response) system, and its current MSRP
is $39.99. How will the V330, V361, and
V370 each differ from this model?
: The V330 is a stereo headset with
a foldable mic and 3.5mm audio
jacks. It will come with a Y splitter for use
with mobile devices or consoles. It will share
a newly designed housing with our V361 and
V370 headsets. The V361 will have the same
specs as the current V360 but utilize the newly
designed housing. It will still have the foldable
mic, UBR system, and red LED illumination.
The V370 will be a 7.1 virtual surround
headset with a folding mic, UBR system,
and RGB LED illumination and will share
the new housing design. The big difference
in the new housing is the more subtle LED
illumination and a contoured, form-fitting
headband design.

RS

: And will users be able to control the

V370s RGB lighting from within the
Viper software?
: Yes, we will be offering downloadable software specifically developed
to customize the lighting effects on the V370.

RS

: The V530 is a high-performance

4,000dpi optical mouse with value
in mind. It will feature customizable LED
color profiles and seven programmable
macro keys and will have a comfortable
design with large PTFE glide pads for
smooth movement. The V570 is where
we tried to be a little innovative. It is a

: The V730 keyboard is an

entry-level RGB LED keyboard.
It will have some very nice features,
including Kailh Brown switches,
an aluminum chassis, an integrated
palm rest, and onboard customization
options. There is no software necessary
with this keyboard; its a great plugand-play solution. The V770 is a 108key, full-spectrum RGB keyboard with
Kailh Red switches, dedicated macro
and multimedia keys, volume wheel,
USB and audio pass-through ports,
aluminum chassis, and removable
magnetic palm rest. Our Viper software
will allow users to manage LED settings,

Patriots V370 headset.

The V570 gaming mouse.

Patriots new high-end keyboard, the V770.

12,000dpi laser mouse with full-spectrum

RGB capability that can be used as an
FPS or MMO mouse, depending on
gameplay. It will feature a sniper button,
customizable RGB color profiles, 13
programmable macro keys, an adjustable
weight system, zero delay, and ceramic
footpads for maximum glide performance.
We will offer downloadable Viper software
for setting up macros and managing the
RGB functions.

macros, and profiles. Its our top-shelf

keyboard, and we have made it as
feature-rich as we could.

Q
RS
Q

: OK, lets move on to the new mice.

The V560 has a 12,000dpi laser
sensor, customizable RGB lighting, nine
programmable buttons, adjustable weight,
ceramic footpads, and two grip options. It
also retails for $39.99. How will the V530
and V570 be different?

RS

: Of course, we need to talk about the

keyboards: The V760 is a mechanical
keyboard with Kailh Brown keyswitches,
an aluminum body, a detachable magnetic
palm rest, full-spectrum RGB LED backlighting, 103 programmable keys, media
control keys, and five profile control keys.
It has an MSRP of $119.99. What will the
V730 and V770 bring to the table?

RS

: Why did you choose to go with Kailh

Red switches for the V770 vs. the
Brown switches in the V760?
: We used the Kailh Red switches
on the V770 to offer a keyboard
with a switch that has a lighter feel and is
a little quieter. We also know how popular
the MX Red switches are with gamers
and wanted to offer a keyboard with a
comparable switch. From user feedback,
we hope to learn about their preferences,
which may influence development
decisions of future products.

RS

: Can you point to new features on

any of the upcoming Viper products

that Patriot decided to add because of user

feedback from the V360, V560, or V760?
: I think the V770 keyboard is
the best example where we took
advantage of user feedback to develop the spec.
We noted that the onboard volume control
and Red switches were nice features to have.
We added the pass-through audio port based
on users comments, too. The V360 and the
V560 were pretty successful for us right out
of the gate, but we took it upon ourselves
to redesign the headset to establish a family
look and to launch a hybrid mouse design
as something a little more innovative. I guess
time will tell if we made the right decisions.

RS

: When can we expect to see the new

models available in stores and online?
: We are targeting Q1 2017 for the
launch of all new products.

: Is there anything else youd like

readers to know about the upcoming
members of the Viper gaming line?
: Patriot has built a reputation
for developing quality, highperformance gaming memory over
the past 25 years and has a solid
track record for service and support.
Patriot Viper is a well-respected,
award-winning brand worldwide.
We are committed to developing
Viper peripherals to meet those high
standards our customers have come to
expect from us.

RS

CPU / November 2016

87