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The PC Gamer Rig part II: Son of the Rig

Adam Oxford at 04:15pm January 21 2012
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Component prices haven’t changed much over the last week, so there’s no changes to the PC Gamer Rig to write about. Instead of taking a few days off from scouring shopping sites, however, I’ve put together something a bit different.

Inspired by Alienware’s launch of its lounge friendly X51 console sized PC and a feature I’m writing for the mag, this week’s post is about a second system I’m going to try and keep up to date: The PC Gamer Media Centre-cum-Occassional-Games-Rig-With-Console-Beating-Games-Ability. Or, as I like to call it, Son of Rig.

Intel introduces overclocking insurance

Adam Oxford at 03:45pm January 19 2012
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Fancy trying your hand at overclocking a CPU but don’t want to risk your precious silicon? Intel may have just the thing for you. The chip giant has announced a new optional insurance policy for Core i-thingumy owners who want to protect their processors.

The new warranty is good for three years and covers a one time replacement of a processor damaged by overclocking. It goes by the name of Performance Tuning Plan, and costs between $20 and $35 depending on which chip you own.

Are Intel planning talking routers?

Adam Oxford at 02:40pm January 19 2012
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Tied of your boringly quiet peripherals? Nostalgic for the days when hardware made a proper noise? Do you long for your SSDs to chirrup like a tape loading ZX Spectrum, or your keyboard to click like an old IBM model M?

Seems you are not alone in your antipathy towards the dull silence of the modern microcomputer. According to a report on New Scientist, Intel has just filed a patent for WiFi routers and dongles that can literally talk to each other.

Alienware X51 is a console sized gaming PC

Adam Oxford at 11:21am January 18 2012
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X51_horizontal side - Lo res

Gaming PC maker Alienware has launched a new desktop with a difference today. Unlike the hulking behemoths of the past, the new Alienware X51 is a small form factor machine, which arrives in a case roughly the size of an Xbox.

The X51 certainly looks the part. Its all corners and curves with a slot loading DVD drive and Alienware’s trademark customisably LED lighting. Prices start at £699 (no US price has been confirmed yet) though, so what’s inside, and is it powerful enough to take on its bigger brethren?

What’s in the PC Gamer Rig this week?

Adam Oxford at 11:46am January 15 2012
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There comes a time for every carefully selected component in the PC Gamer Rig when it’s time to face the big screwdriver in the sky and prepare for replacement. If it’s a part that’s been a stalwart of the Rig for many months, I’ll hunt around the most obscure of online retailers to convince myself it’s still available before giving up and retiring it for something easier to come by.

Especially if it’s something as important as the screen.

Things you could type on one key of a mechanical keyboard before it breaks

Adam Oxford at 04:14pm January 13 2012
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mechanical keyboards

For some reason, the last couple of months have seen a glut of mechanical keyboards pass through the PC Gamer labs. From Razer’s Battlefield 3 branded Black Widows, through Corsair’s elegant Vengeance K60, to Qpad’s MK-85 which arrived on my desk today – if I was any good at planning ahead I’d have organised a group test.

All of the keyboards that have come through lately have had one thing in common – Cherry’s MX switches, which have a light action and that familiar clackety clack sound that evokes an old fashioned typewriter. They come in different flavours – my favourite are the smooth action Cherry MX Reds of the K60 and MK-85 – but they all make standard plastic dome keyboards feel like typing in treacle. If only there was a relatively good value ergonomic keyboard that uses them – I’d struggle to write without the layout of my Microsoft 7000 typist’s friend these days.

Razer’s Project Fiona is a tablet

Adam Oxford at 08:53pm January 10 2012
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Remember Razer teased us with its Project Fiona hardware last week? After literally days of waiting it’s drawn back the curtain to reveal that Fiona is… a tablet.

Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you? Or did you…?

Kinect for Windows confirmed at CES

Adam Oxford at 03:19pm January 10 2012
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Microsoft’s last ever keynote speech at CES last night was definitely more of a whimper than a bang, with a bit of tubthumping for Windows 8 and its phone range, but not a lot of really new stuff to get excited about.

Except, perhaps, one thing. Kinect for Windows has been confirmed for an official launch on February 1st. It brings the firm’s console flavoured motion and voice controller to the desktop proper, with a few tweaks to the original design to make it more desktop suited.

Roccat rocks up in US

Adam Oxford at 09:43am January 10 2012
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German gaming peripherals manufacturer Roccat is to launch its wares ‘Stateside this week, bringing its keyboards, mice and headsets to a US audience. It’s currently showing off what it has at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and says it’ll begin shipping via Amazon in February.

What then, American readers, can you expect? A fair few pieces of Roccat kit have passed through PC Gamer’s seaside lab in the UK over the last couple of years, and generally scored well.

New year, new Rig

Adam Oxford at 03:00pm January 7 2012
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Looking to build yourself a new gaming PC for the top titles of 2012? Sadly, January sales don’t really affect PC component prices. If anything, things are a little bit more expensive than they were in mid-December. Memory is a little bit cheaper than it was, but most other components have gone up a little bit.

Even so, and with big news like Intel’s Ivy Bridge and more affordable Southern Islands graphics cards on the horizon, now’s as good a time as any to start upgrading your system.

Plantronics reveals GameCom 780 7.1 headsets/GameCom 380 headsets

Chris Comiskey at 10:49pm January 6 2012
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Plantronics met with PC Gamer today to talk about their new headsets, the USB 7.1 Dolby Pro Logic II GameCom 780 (and their lower-priced stereo GameCom 380, with analog jacks rather than USB). The 780 and 380 are both set for US release on January 15th. At launch, they’ll be available at retail in Best Buy stores nationwide, or—if you prefer shopping via mouse and keyboard—you can snag ‘em online through Plantronics.com/us or Amazon.com. The 780 will set you back 80 clams, while the 380 will cost you $50. Read on for more details!

CTA launches US Army brand peripherals

Adam Oxford at 02:35pm January 6 2012
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throatmic

Branded peripherals rarely have much to offer over the cheaper versions of the same kit without a special logo, but when they come with official endorsement from a power as high as the US Army, surely they must be worth considering? That’s what CTA Digital is hoping to convince us with its new range of gaming gear which comes decorated with the registered trade mark of the larger US fighting force.

Razer to reveal “Project Fiona” at CES 2012 next week

Tom Senior at 02:25pm January 5 2012
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It’s not simple, delightful, or even magical, but it is called Fiona, and Razer say that it will bring an “all new form factor” to PC gaming. The mystery product will be revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012, which starts next Tuesday.

There’s speculation that Project Fiona could be Razer Switchblade thingy, which was shown as a concept design at CES 2011. The keys on the Switchblade are supposed to act as windows to a second screen beneath, allowing the layout to change depending on the game you’re playing. It also has a touch screen interface, and is teeny. Let this very serious man tell you all about it.

Crucial’s Ballistix Tracer RAM relaunched

Adam Oxford at 11:15am January 4 2012
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ballistix tactical tracer

The days when flashing LEDs were confused for some sort of style statement by component manufacturers are for the most part behind us, but there is one piece of illuminated kit that was worth indulging in. Crucial’s Ballistix Tracer RAM graced any PC with its activity lights, which strobed on and off along the length of a DDR2 module to indicate activity.

After a brief haitus which began after the introduction of DDR3 – in the UK at least, it looks like the older style Tracer modules have continued to be available in the US – Crucial is relaunching its Orac-inspired RAM, and about time too.

Did Bulldozer just get better?

Adam Oxford at 05:45pm December 19 2011
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Remember the lacklustre performance of AMD’s much vaunted new Bulldozer CPU architecture? Turns out the difficult launch and grilling the chip got in reviews may not have been entirely down to the limits of the hardware.

Launched as the AMD FX brand a month or so ago, Bulldozer performance was behind what most pundits were hoping for. Apparently, some of that is due to Windows not supporting new features that Bulldozer introduced. And now there’s a patch that should help.

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