Inhoudsopgave van January 2016 - Maximum PC

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES... To SLI or Not to SLI I have a Gigabyte GA-990FXAUD5 motherboard with an AMD FX-8320 processer, 32GB of Corsair DDR3-1600 memory, and two MSI GTX 960 OC graphics cards. My question is whether the two 960s (with 2GB of GDDR5 each) are better or worse than a single GeForce GTX 970 or 980? I use my PC for programs like Excel, and I like to make greeting cards. I do play hidden object games from Big Fish, but they’re not very demanding. I run a DisplayPort cable to my 27-inch Asus VX279 monitor. Let me know what you think. —Ron V THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: With all due respect, Ron, you should probably take one of those GeForce GTX 960 cards out of your PC…

“Its sleek and elegant design, and phenomenal feature set bring it miles ahead of the competition. THIS IS AN INTERESTING ONE. Keyboards (like all peripherals) are incredibly personal. It’s a product that you’re going to spend potentially thousands of hours using. They have to be durable, comfortable, and useful. All key switches aside, it’s hard for us to argue for any keyboard more than the current iteration of Corsair’s K70 RGB. Its sleek and elegant design is coupled with a phenomenal feature set. Dedicated media keys, CUE lighting technology, and BIOS response options bring it leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. As far as keyboards go, it just looks good. It’s not too extreme in any one dimension, and that’s crucial. Yes, we’re PC enthusiasts, and most of us…

Many years ago, the very smart John Carmack said a very silly thing: "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important." That hasn't really been true since games set their sights higher than "save the princess" and "defeat the aliens." In recent years, though, story has been on the rise. The adventure and RPG genres have seen a resurgence, thanks to games like The Walking Dead and Dragon Age. In Mass Effect, give or take one terrible ending, BioWare created one of the finest interactive SF universes in any genre. From indie games to Tomb Raider to Grand Theft Auto, the modern industry badly wants to tell stories. Looking in, that can seem strange. With all…

YOU’LL NEED THIS RASPBERRY Pi 2 The brilliant mini-computer costs under $45. See www.raspberrypi.org. PI MUSICBOX DISTRO Download it from www.pimusicbox.com. WE’VE GOT MUSIC EVERYWHERE. In addition to DRM-free tracks on your hard disk, you’ve probably got hundreds of tracks on Spotify or Google Play. You can bring them all together with the Pi MusicBox distro, which transforms the Raspberry Pi into the ultimate music player. The secret sauce that powers Pi MusicBox is the Mopidy music server, which can fetch music from a variety of sources. The distro couples its powerful underpinnings with a nicely designed browser-based user interface to control playback, and configure other aspects of the distro. In Pi MusicBox, you get a headless media server that can play music from a variety of sources, in all…

IN CASE YOU ALREADY have a capable gaming PC, and don’t want to pony up cash for an expensive Steam Machine for your living room, Valve has made an affordable device for you. The company calls it the Steam Link, and it’s a passport-sized peripheral that allows you to mirror games from your desktop PC using Steam’s In-Home Streaming feature. In terms of tech specs, the Steam Link supports HDMI for a 1080p/60Hz output to your HDTV. The little box measures 4.8x3.6x0.7 inches, and other connections include power, 100Mb/s Ethernet, and three USB ports. We would have preferred four USB ports for more wired controllers, but the Steam Link does enable you to connect up to four Steam Controllers without need for any USB dongles, and the device also plays…

EARLIER IN 2015, Razer launched the Tournament Edition spin of this psychedelic explosion of 16.8 million colors. Building on the 2014 edition of the famed Mamba, the TE featured a brand new Philips 16,000 dpi sensor, coupled with absolute control over your sensitivity settings using single dpi increments, and up to five separate dpi profiles. Unlike the previous edition, the TE variation also came cabled, which was no doubt in part to reduce the frustration of running out of juice midway through a firefight, and having to swap over to the cable mid-game. Just a few months later, and huzzah! We’re witness to the launch of the fullfledged Mamba in all its shiny glory. On top of the new additions found in the TE version, Razer has added an adjustable…

“On the surface, it makes sense to combine the two OSes into a unified platform IN ANDROID, Google owns the most popular mobile operating system on the planet. In contrast, Chrome OS holds a very small share of the PC market. On the surface, it seems to make sense for Google to combine the two OSes into a unified platform, and it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that plans to do exactly that have been in motion for the past two years—but would it really be a good idea? Although it’s early, the unified OS strategy is working for Microsoft with Windows 10. Nevertheless, the consensus from several analysts we reached out to is that Google should keep Android and Chrome OS separate. Christian Kane, an analyst at…

EIGHT GAMES WE LOVED IN 2015 ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST March 11: A challenging and beautiful modern take on platformers. PILLARS OF ETERNITYMarch 26: This RPG was Kickstarted by fans of the old Black Isle games. GRAND THEFT AUTO V April 14: It finally made its way to the definitive gaming platform. KERBAL SPACE PROGRAMApril 27: The quirky sandbox space sim eventually left early access. THE WITCHER 3 May 19: A massive RPG full of action, powerful stories, and political treachery. ROCKET LEAGUE July 7: Rocket-powered cars playing soccer, only much better than it sounds. UNDERTALESeptember 15: Indie JRPG of peace or genocide—you decide! WASTELAND 2: DIRECTOR’S CUTOctober 15: The anniversary update to last year’s Kickstarter.…

Ahh, the sweet twittering of birds singing in the morning—it's enough to elevate the soul. It’s a sound that has provided inspiration for the many generations of humanity that have come before us. But you know what else is inspiring? The sound of a good key switch as it clicks solidly and decisively into place on your new mechanical feat of engineering precision and practicality. A keyboard is more than just a peripheral—it’s a product designed to be the most diverse and wide-ranging in your arsenal. A device devised to grace your fingertips with its silky-smooth ergonomic presence. A gadget conceived to help creativity flow from the deepest and most thought-provoking part of that big lump of mushy goo we like to call the cerebral cortex. It allows those chemical…

TECH PREVIEW 2016: VR AND AR The year in which all our realities could change We’re barreling headlong into 2016, and it’s finally going to be the year virtual reality becomes an actual reality. First and foremost, the technology in the optics, screens, and motion-tracking has advanced to the point where a great experience is now possible. But it’s also important to note that the hardware in our PCs is getting to the point where more and more of us are going to be able to afford the ticket price of a VR-capable gaming rig. So, what are the main contenders for the VR crown? OCULUS RIFT We’ve got to start with the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift. It kickstarted the latest VR revolution, and with the Zuckerberg billions having been poured…

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC JAZZ UP YOUR DESKTOP WITH RAINMETER Bored with the basic desktop setup? Want something more vibrant and useful? Well, a quick and easy solution is the nifty Rainmeter, which adds useful widgets to your desktop. You can enable hyperlinks, search boxes, clocks, weather, RSS feeds, music players, you name it. To install the base program, head to www.rainmeter.net and if you’re looking for skins, try Deviant Art’s Rainmeter section at http://bit.ly/MPCRMSkins. THANKS, WINDOWS 8 Now, I know what you’re thinking: What on earth are you talking about Windows 8 for? But, honestly, if we ignore the massive argument currently going on between the Windows 7 users on one side and the Windows 10 converts on the other, it’s about time we appreciated a very…

YOU’LL NEED THIS WINDOWS 10 Though you’ll find this equally useful if you’re still using Windows 8. ANYONE WHO’S BEEN USING WINDOWS 10 for a while will know the pain of trying to find a particular setting. Anything more involved than changing the screen wallpaper, or turning Wi-Fi on and off again, can be done in any of three places. And the Control Panel, despite its new stripped-back white minimalist loveliness, isn’t always completely helpful when it comes to pointing you toward the settings you need. Wouldn’t it be great, then, if you could gather all the settings together, like cattle in a Texas corral? A single place where you could look for troublesome system settings or motherboard properties. Well, you can. Once you’ve created the God Mode folder, you’ll…

REMEMBER WHEN graphics cards were called video cards, spat out a whopping 256 colors (or 16 or even 4 colors/monochrome if you go back far enough), and occupied a single expansion slot? Sure, smaller cards continue to exist, but it’s been roughly a decade since halo GPUs launched in singleslot variants. Today, just about every GPU in the mid-range or higher performance bracket occupies two expansion slots. This has all been done in the name of keeping things cool and quiet, as larger heatsinks and fans make it easier to keep temperatures and noise in check. And considering that the latest GPUs can require up to 275 watts, that’s no mean feat. Zotac takes things one step further, with its triple-wide GTX 980 Ti Amp! Extreme. There’s only one question:…

CHOICE IS A FINE THING. But in this modern age of economic plenty, it can also be paralyzing. The PC monitor market is a case in point. Right now, you can choose from all manner of screen resolutions up to 4K. Actually, you can even go beyond that, with 5K screens available of late. Or how about a monitor with an ultra-wide panel? Or a curved surface? Or support for stereoscopic 3D? While you’re at it, what about high refresh of 120Hz or more? And don’t forget you’ll want that refresh perfectly synched with your GPU’s output. Once you’ve sorted all that out, you’ll also need to choose a panel type. You know: IPS, TN, or even VA. Also, have you decided whether you need a fully adjustable stand? You…

Although there are tons of Android phones, Google’s Nexus line exemplifies the company’s vision for what a stock Android phone should be. This year, Google has graced us with not one Nexus, but two: the Nexus 5X, the true successor to the original 2013 LG-made Nexus 5, and the larger Nexus 6P, made by first-time Nexus manufacturer, Huawei. While they are made by different companies, they share a number of similarities. Both ship with Android 6.0, code-named Marshmallow, both offer a new fingerprint scanner, and more. But there are some distinct differences, too. Which device is for you? We pitted the 5X against the 6P to help you figure it out. ROUND 1 Design At 5.2 inches, the Nexus 5X’s display is a little bigger than the 4.9-incher of the…

NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A GIANT full-size tower sitting under their desk, but just because you want a smaller system doesn’t mean you have to compromise on performance or quality. Mini-ITX motherboards have been gaining in popularity and features, and with the launch of Skylake, we’re seeing tiny mobos that can give the big boys some much-needed competition. The Asus Maximus VIII Impact may not be the smallest board on the block, but it packs some serious firepower. Take the features list, which includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Mu-MIMO, USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors (plus support for up to six more USB 3.0 ports), four SATA ports, x16 PCIe slot, SupremeFX Impact III audio (ES9023P DAC), onboard debug LED, Z170 chipset with CPU overclocking support, and DDR4 speeds up to 4,133MHz-plus.…

THIS MONTH WE DISSECT... XIFIXIT presents: About iFixit iFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated to helping people fix things through free online repair manuals and teardowns. iFixit believes that everyone has the right to maintain and repair their own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com. BACKGROUND: It’s been a couple of years since Google unveiled its last 5-inch smartphone, the Nexus 5, and a lot has changed since then. One thing remains constant, though—we’re still tearing down Nexuses as fast as they (in this case, LG) can make them! Today, we’re looking at the Nexus 5X. Will the 5X earn the same high marks? Join us round the teardown table as we find out! MAJOR TECH SPECS: • 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexa-core 64-bit processor with Adreno 418…

YOU’LL NEED THIS IZOTOPE RX 5 Buy it ($349) or Try it from www.izotope.com. HEADPHONES OR SPEAKERS You need some way of hearing what you’ve done! FED UP OF AUDIO CHILD’S PLAY? With plenty of freeware tools out there, basic audio editing is a cinch, but what do you do when you need to go further? Want to isolate and remove unwanted sound? It’s possible. Perform futuristic noise removal? There are ways. Rescue a badly damaged recording? Stranger things have happened. You don’t need the best computer in the world to make these things happen, but you do need some sophisticated software—the kind previously dreamt of by intelligence services and shady government agencies. Izotope’s RX package is like Photoshop for audio, and version five has just been released. The tutorial…

LET’S BE CLEAR HERE. We understand not everyone is into overclocking. It can be a daunting, possibly bank-breaking pastime, with the potential to take your hardearned hardware and render it as useful as sunglasses in a thunderstorm. That being said, for those who are looking for the absolute pinnacle of Skylake mobos, those who want the very best overclocking potential, regardless of cost, the Asus Maximus Extreme series should be your first port of call. When we test products—motherboards in particular—we have one specific benchmark that they all need to hit. And more often than not, we are always limited by one common problem: the silicon lottery. Before this, we believed that our Intel Core i7-6700K was limited to 4.8GHz, and no matter what we tried, messing around with every…

WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON... Too Many Choices Help! I am concerned about owning an Intel i7-5960X (LGA 2011-v3). I was ready to invest in LaCie Thunderbolt storage for my Asus X99-E WS, when HDDs sort of disappeared off the face of the earth. So, I instead used the downtime to read up on USB 3.1, PCIe M.2, and Thunderbolt. Well, I learned in your August issue about a possible clash between PCIe-based SSDs and performance graphic cards, which made me question my Samsung M.2 card. And I found an article at MaximumPC.com, “Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 TH Mobo with Thunderbolt 3” (and USB3.1), which got me excited about upgrading, until I verified that it only supports LGA 1151 (Skylake) and not LGA 2011-v3. Have you heard anything about LGA 2011-v3…