[H]ard|OCP Week in Reviews

Today is Friday and you know what that means! It is time once again for the [H]ard|OCP Week in Reviews! For anyone that might have missed them, we like to take a quick look back on the hardware evaluations and articles we posted earlier in the week. We kicked the week off with our evaluation of the Corsair HX1000i 1000W power supply, followed by our XFX Radeon R9 285 Black Edition video card review. Finally, we wrapped up the week with a look at the SilverStone Fortress FT05.

[H]ardware Round-Up II

In Win D-Frame Mini

If you like the looks of the original D-Frame (our review here) but want a much smaller footprint, this review of the In Win D-Frame Mini should be right up your alley.

Of all the weird and wonderful cases we saw in 2013, In Win's D-Frame remains most memorable. The D-Frame Mini takes the original design and shrinks it down to accommodate the now popular Mini-ITX form factor. Despite the reduction in size the case can now support cooling radiators and models as large as 240mm, the graphics card length has been extended from 330mm to 340mm, and the chassis can rest on one of six sides rather than just two.

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Windows Update Drivers Bricking USB Serial Chips

What's the easiest way to tell if you have counterfeit chips in your computer? Use Windows Update.

Hardware hackers building interactive gadgets based on the Arduino microcontrollers are finding that a recent driver update that Microsoft deployed over Windows Update has bricked some of their hardware, leaving it inaccessible to most software both on Windows and Linux.

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Intel X99 Motherboard Goes Up in Smoke

As a computer enthusiast, I can honestly say there is nothing worse than this smell. Nothing good has ever immediately followed the smell of burnt electronics.

This morning I woke up bright and early to benchmark some DDR4 memory kits and found myself waking up not to Folgers in your cup, but the smell of burnt electrical after loading the XMP profiles on a memory kit and restarting the system. Let me tell you what happened, the best I can.

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Will Destiny Survive CoD And Halo?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and the next installment in the CoD franchise are going to kick Destiny in its MMO-wannabe nuts....hard.

The Master Chief collection brings with it time-tested PVP with far more customization options, Call of Duty brings with it a fresh take on a game with a well-established fan base, and Far Cry 4 brings with it strong, varied single player. All of them will almost definitely have campaigns that make Destiny’s samey slog look foolish.

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Google Senior VP Falls 26 Miles, Lives To Tell The Tale

It looks like a new world record has been set for falling from really high places.

A well-known computer scientist parachuted from a balloon near the top of the stratosphere on Friday, falling faster than the speed of sound and breaking the world altitude record set just two years ago. The jump was made by Alan Eustace, 57, a senior vice president at Google. At dawn he was lifted by a balloon filled with 35,000 cubic feet of helium, from an abandoned runway at the airport here.

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Quantum Break Demo Walkthrough

Those of you looking forward Quantum Break should check out this sixteen minute gameplay video posted today by the folks at Remedy Entertainment.

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Video Game Developers: What To Do When You Are Laid Off

GameDevTalk has a handy check list of things you should know and things you should do if you've been laid off from your job in the game industry.

I’ve been working as an animator since 1998, and I’ve been laid off from studios of all sizes. I’ve even done some layoffs of my own. I’m still standing and still making games. There’s life after layoff. What do you do if you’re on receiving end of a layoff? Don’t freak out! It’s a very common thing in the videogame industry, much too common.

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Gaming [H]eadlines

SilverStone Fortress FT05

We have just posted our evaluation of the SilverStone Fortress FT05. If you are in the market for a new enclosure, you definitely do not want to miss this review.

The SilverStone Fortress FT05 is a different take on it successful Raven RV05. SilverStone has gotten rid of the 5.25" drive bays and once again rotated the motherboard 90 degrees so that the IO panel points toward the sky. These two things done in tandem allow SilverStone to produce a much better engineered ATX case.

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Why Is This Kickstarter Tanking?

I don't know, maybe people are just a little burned out on Kickstarter right now?

The Black Glove sounds like a game we’d love to play: A surreal first-person adventure from some of the people who made BioShock. But its Kickstarter campaign isn’t working out. Even though it’s had a great deal of publicity, it’s only raised about 20 percent of its $550,000 fundraising goal.

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[H]ardware Round-Up

Cooler Master Nepton 280L

You guys should head on over to Legit Reviews this afternoon and give this review of the Cooler Master Nepton 280L the once over.

Closed-loop (All-in-One) CPU water coolers seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but they’re far from identical to each other. Each cooler will serve its purpose, whether you’re cooling an HTPC or your monster gaming rig. AIO coolers become the ultimate cooling solution to those who want to toy with their system, or just cool it more efficiently than what air can, but don’t really want to mess around with building a custom water cooling loop.

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Sexually Attractive Male Heroes In Games

I guess this is a new twist on the tired, worn out, beat to death topic of sexually attractive game characters.

He is unlikely to be treated as a sexual object with no agency or mind of his own, as many sexy woman game characters are. Wei Shen, like other attractive male protagonists, can be a good looking guy who kicks ass, gets the job done, and never appears to be weak.

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Personal Info Of 850k Oregon Jobseekers Potentially Compromised

Because being unemployed isn't hard enough, the Oregon Employment Department thinks you need to be a victim of identity theft too.

The Oregon Employment Department received an anonymous tip about the existence of the vulnerability and, according to Ken Westin, they reacted by taking down the system on Monday in order to patch it.

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Proof That U.S. Broadband Speeds Are SUPERFANTASTIC!

The cable industry is trying hard to convince everyone that broadband speeds in the U.S. are just peachy and getting better every day.

Once again, the latest survey of the current state of broadband around the globe [PDF] shows that, while improving, the U.S. still lags behind other developed countries, like South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Latvia, and Romania in average broadband speeds and access to decent Internet. But leave it to the cable industry to try to convince America that everything is A-OK, and to try to do so without mentioning that this message is being brought to you by the cable industry.

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Amazon Losses Widen As It Braces For Rocky Holiday Quarter

Not only did Amazon post a larger than expected 3Q loss, the company says its fourth quarter earnings won't be much better.

The company on Thursday posted a third-quarter loss of $437 million, or 95 cents a share, and revenue of $20.58 billion, falling short of analysts' average forecast of a loss of 74 cents a share with $20.84 billion in revenue. More importantly, the company said it expects sales between $27.3 billion and $30.3 billion for the critical fourth quarter, which also misses Wall Street's forecast of $30.89 billion.

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Start Folding With The [H] Today!

This is your end of the week reminder that joining the best folding team on the planet (Team #33) is now easier than ever. We don't give you money to join and we can't promise you prizes or other incentives, we do this simply because it is our passion and that is why we've had the best folding community around...for years. So, if you want to make a difference with a group of people that honestly care about what they are doing, join team Team #33 today.

Folding is a wonderful way to help your fellow man using your spare CPU cycles and now, thanks to the Quick Setup V7 Guide for Windows, it is easier than ever to get started. Remember to put the number 33 in the "team" field and you’ll be folding with the [H]orde in no time! Thanks to all our team members for the wonderful job they are doing.

Microsoft Cloud Strength And Hardware Progress Drive Record 1Q Revenue

Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $23.20 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. Gross margin, operating income and diluted earnings per share ("EPS") for the quarter were $14.93 billion, $5.84 billion and $0.54 per share, respectively. These financial results include $1.14 billion of integration and restructuring expenses, or an $0.11 per share negative impact, related to both Microsoft’s restructuring plan announced in July 2014 and the ongoing integration of the Nokia Devices and Services ("NDS") business.

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Intel Xeon Processors Power New HP Moonshot Offerings

HP today announced two new HP ProLiant Moonshot server cartridges featuring Intel processors. Powered by Intel’s 2nd generation 64-bit Intel® Atom® processor based SoCs, the HP ProLiant m350 underscores Intel’s 64-bit SoC market and technology leadership by delivering the highest density available in the Moonshot family. The new HP ProLiant m710 server features the Intel® Xeon® E3-1284L v3 processor with built-in Intel® Iris Pro Graphics P5200. The products are another example of Intel providing customized solutions for its partners to address specific workloads. Customers can choose from server options that have been optimized to deliver unmatched performance density for workloads ranging from video transcoding and virtual application delivery to static web hosting.

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Generating Sparks From Falling Water

If you've ever wondered how you can generate a 10,000 volt spark using metal tubes and falling water, this video is for you.

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Special Olympics Plans to Engage Video Game Industry

Special Olympics today announced plans for engaging the $100 billion global video game industry in an effort to expand Special Olympics’ global message of inclusion and acceptance for people who have intellectual disabilities. Force Multiply Gaming (forcemultiplygaming.com), a social impact movement and brand of WarpSpeed Innovations Inc. (warpspeedconnection.com), helped identify the opportunity and is assisting Special Olympics in thinking about ways to share its message within the video game industry. Earlier this year, Special Olympics launched a new global "Play Unified" marketing campaign that is inspiring and mobilizing youth around the world to connect on the playing field with people with intellectual disabilities and create more inclusive communities. The campaign is activating millions of Special Olympics athletes, volunteers, and supporters to participate in unified activities around the world including activities in eSports. eSports is a term for organized video competitions, especially between professionals. By engaging with the video game industry, Special Olympics will have an innovative opportunity to further its message of inclusion, diversity, and empowerment by promoting unified play with athletes, eradicating stereotypes, and putting a stop to bullying.

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[H]ardware Round-Up II

The Imminent Death Of The Internet Troll

Raise your hand if you think we will see the end of internet trolls in our life time. Anyone?

In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,849 Internet users, one out of every four women between 18 years old and 24 years old reports having been stalked or sexually harassed online. Two out of five people said they'd been victims of some form of online harassment. And nearly three-quarters of responders said they'd witnessed harassment online.

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AAA Game-File Sizes Are Getting Out Of Hand

Oh come on, you know you secretly love games that require 50GB installs and come with a 40GB day one patch.

The file sizes of video games always seem to get bigger with the move to each new set of consoles, and recent times are no exception. The difference today is that customers are increasingly being asked to acquire entire games straight out of the air instead of from a disc, and the sizes of today’s full-retail games are outpacing some people’s internet connections.

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iPad Air 2 Teardown

The iFixit crew has posted a teardown of the iPad Air 2 this afternoon. What did they find? Tons of hot glue.

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Cool Video of the Day

Trust me guys, this is one of the coolest things you will see all day.

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Fake News Sites Spread Ebola Panic Via Facebook

Why would anyone believe "news" stories on Facebook? Do you know how many times Morgan Freeman has been declared dead on Facebook?

There’s a scary story bouncing around Facebook, accruing hundreds of thousands of likes: the small town of Purdon, Texas, has been quarantined after a family of five was diagnosed with Ebola. The story is a total hoax, put out by a deeply cynical site called the National Report. But to the 340,000 people who saw it pop up in their news feed, it looked real enough to share.

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