Blog - Richard Swinburne

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Posted on 19th Feb 2011 at 10:32 by Richard Swinburne with 18 comments

During a brief discussion with Enermax recently, a PR person let slip that the company's planning to launch a new CPU cooler range, which will be based on the principles of vortex generator flow technology, while featuring a couple of Enermax's Twister bearing fans.

Can Corsair Succeed Where Nvidia failed?

Posted on 7th Jan 2011 at 11:10 by Richard Swinburne with 13 comments

Anyone remember ESA? Nvidia's attempt at making the PC platform its own with the 'Enthusiast Systems Architecture' software? The idea was to get other manufacturers to include little chips in their hardware that enabled them to talk to Nvidia's motherboards. Nvidia's ESA software would then report all the readouts: voltages, temperatures, speeds and so in a single, central interface.

The problem? Other companies (mostly motherboard makers) already had their own software, and they were (and still are) key features with which to differentiate and sell their products. They already did most of the same tasks, such as temperature and voltage monitoring, as well as overclocking, even if they lacked the fancy 3D interface.

Sandy Bridge overclocks to 5.2GHz?

Posted on 1st Oct 2010 at 12:36 by Richard Swinburne with 31 comments

Facebook is occasionally a wonderful thing. Gigabyte employee and extreme performance guru, Hi Cookie, posted a rather interesting and cryptic message today on the book of faces, claiming,

'Air cooling 4C/8T 3Dmark vantage Pass by 5.2GHz, hmm...interesting ^^'

The replies immediately alluded to and assumed Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs, as a "SuperPi sub 7 on air" would smash the current world leader on HWBot.

At this stage it's worth noting that nothing has been confirmed by Gigabyte, the Facebook post merely states that something has been overclocked to 5.2GHz and that it rips through SuperPi.

However, given that the GO OC competition is over and Gigabyte, like other motherboard companies, will be beavering away at optimising their LGA1155 motherboards ready for launch, things do certainly point in the Sandy Bridge direction.

Feel free to see the thread below, and chirp in with your own thoughts on the forums.

16-bit Math Processor made in Minecraft

Posted on 30th Sep 2010 at 07:39 by Richard Swinburne with 24 comments

Are you listening, Pig?

Reddit user, 'theinternetftw' has uploaded a video to YouTube showing off his working ALU made in Minecraft from in-game redstone logic. Unfortunately, while it's a working math processor, users need to know binary to read the output since there's no crafting for LCD screen. Yet.

$16-bit Math Processor made in Minecraft 16-bit ALU made in Minecraft$

The video is long, but if there ever was a proper use of the term 'epic', this would be it.

ECS P55H-AK Overclocking

Posted on 26th Sep 2010 at 10:12 by Richard Swinburne with 4 comments

We heard a surprise rumbling from the direction of ECS recently, from its P55H-AK. With a new and rather tasty aesthetic design, and the promise of hitting 5GHz with a K-series CPU got us wondering if ECS had made a board that was.. well, worth buying.

At $300 (it's not yet available in the UK) out of the starting blocks there's already a hefty weight on it for a P55 board, even if it does have extra NF200 and PLX chips to add more PCI Express lanes.

Unperturbed, we still wanted to have a gander at its overclocking capabilities, so we requested a board for a quick test. Once we had it in our mitts we dropped it on the review block (it's a cold piece of granite that bares the scars of previous torture), with a Core i5-750, some 2,200MHz Elpida Hyper and a Titan Fenrir.

Thoughts on Jimmy's Vendetta

Posted on 17th Sep 2010 at 11:06 by Richard Swinburne with 14 comments

I've recently completed Mafia 2 and despite spending far too many hours looking at the benchmarks I decided to grab the Jimmy's Vendetta DLC because I still wanted something more.

I don't know what I really expected, but I think my thick, rose-tinted glasses for the original Mafia created a blind faith that Mafia 2's DLC might offer...something. I'd read it was designed to be more 'Open World', with mission selection instead of the exclusively linear, point-to-point play that Mafia 2's singleplayer forced on you.

I didn't come away thinking Mafia 2 should have been a more open world 'GTA in the 50s' though, because what it needed more than that was a better story. Although Empire Bay was clearly designed with open world in mind, 2K must have dropped it from single player at some point. Jimmy's Vendetta restores the open world, but it'll still leave you feeling disappointed and wanting more because it suffers from many of the same flaws as the original.

You see, Jimmy is even less likeable and relateable than Vito or Joe. He looks like Terry Tibbs, but with the appeal of Teri Hatcher (that link's SFW but not SF-stomach) and the attitude of Mad Max.

Too many cooks

Posted on 2nd Sep 2010 at 11:27 by Richard Swinburne with 25 comments

I never really gave much thought to the continual obsession of branding every possible motherboard feature. Of course I've I noted the new name for a new chip or feature as I do reviews, but that's about it.

Recently though, I sat down and did a very unmanly thing: I read through the manual of the board I was testing. Actually, first I browsed through the motherboard's reviewers guide while Windows 7 installed - these are documents issued to the press to tell us what range of results the company is getting internally from a few standard tests (usually 3DMark of some kind), so we know our board isn't broken. It's also used to highlight how to use the groovy new features.

Once I got reading and quickly got lost among the many, many names the company uses for every conceivable facet of its board design. In fact, after some deciphering, it even appears some features have different names depending on the method in which you use them!

Tags branding, motherboard

What happens if Intel does end overclocking?

Posted on 29th Jul 2010 at 12:42 by Richard Swinburne with 79 comments

I've taken to the armchair looking out over the veranda, scratching my wispy beard while sipping an ice tea. I've pondered long and hard about the consequences of the overclocking restrictions Intel apparently plans for its upcoming mainstream Sandy Bridge CPUs.

The feedback in our news post mirrored my own initial reaction: how dare Intel! How dare they stop us from generating £700 CPU performance from a £150 one?

If Mad Men had computers

Posted on 26th Jul 2010 at 12:50 by Richard Swinburne with 23 comments

Jeffrey Stephenson of Ingrapham fame and more recently the tiny Level 11 reinvisioning of Thermaltakes monstrous Level 10, has now created a deliciously simple and elegant Danish-styled 1960s PC case that's more furniture than electrical appliance.

Computex 2010: AMD, ARM, Intel and the Taiwanese Sony

Posted on 14th Jun 2010 at 12:11 by Richard Swinburne with 12 comments

As Alex did with his Winners and Losers of Computex 2010, it's time to look back and think about some highlights from the show.

For a show perhaps lacking in killer products, there was certainly plenty to think about - I've completely filled my notebook (don't cry, on the upside it's been replaced with a Shrek 4 branded one from Apogee) - so here's what caught my eye at Computex this year.

bit-tech.net

Archive for Richard Swinburne

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Can Corsair Succeed Where Nvidia failed?

Sandy Bridge overclocks to 5.2GHz?

16-bit Math Processor made in Minecraft

ECS P55H-AK Overclocking

Thoughts on Jimmy's Vendetta

Too many cooks

What happens if Intel does end overclocking?

If Mad Men had computers

Computex 2010: AMD, ARM, Intel and the Taiwanese Sony

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