Thread: Anandtech News

Late last year Intel came to us with an interesting proposition: using Haswell CPUs and Intel SSDs, we had to come up with four of our best system builds. Each build would be targeted at a slightly different type of user and budget, but all are aimed at folks looking to overclock. With the component list assembled, Intel went out, got all of the parts we selected and agreed to give away the bundles to AnandTech readers.
With the hectic holidays and CES our giveaway schedule was interrupted but we're back and have 2 more builds to give away. These systems are purely parts bundles, you'll have to assemble them yourself. Literally everything here was picked by Jarred and Ian as what they'd build if given these budgets.
For the third post Intel wanted to see what we'd do with a Core i7 aimed at gamers. Our last machine ended up around $1600, but as we move into Core i7 territory all of the components see a bump bringing our total up to $2030. This makes our gaming configuration something a little more standard for a generational PC update.

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With the ups and downs of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin now part of the zeitgeist; notable trends are starting to happen.  The software is being probed more and more for weaknesses (such as the recent Mt.Gox issues), and the prices of scrypt mining hardware such as AMD GPUs are going through the roof in the US, at one point hitting $900 for an R9 290X, but quickly dropping to $700 – still well above the MSRP at launch.  We have reported on motherboards from ASRock and Biostar being released specifically for coin mining, probing the market to test for volume.  Many system integrators (like SCAN or OCUK in the UK) will also sell you a fully built system designed to mine coins.  Naturally the next progression is chassis production.
Up until this point, finding ways in which to place your GPUs can be tricky – this is especially true if you are in a limited space environment.  Many enthusiasts in this area will look at multiple things – initial price of hardware, coin production, and throughput density (GPUs in a motherboard/case).  At least three of the regular editors here at AnandTech are casually involved in mining to various degrees of success, including me – I am running a few systems at around a dozen cards, which can be quite noisy and generate some heat.  There are others who take it to the extreme, and will run hundreds of GPUs. 
Building a setup for mining cards can be difficult.  Cases cause heat to build up, but are more stackable than open-air setups.  There is also an issue of noise and heat direction – finding a source for that cold air and somehow getting rid of the hot stuff.  For those that monitor the mining forums, there are many fixes to this issue – some home brew, some involving Ikea, others with elaborate shelving units on wheels, and the crate method (examples of each).
For users without the time to invest in case design, Red Harbinger is testing the market with their new mining chassis, the DopaMINE:

Red Harbinger is known in case design circles for some innovative products, such as The Cross Desk (a £1200 desk claimed to be ‘the last desk you will ever buy’), and the DopaMINE is the latest thought from the small outfit.  This product is to initially be crowd funded – many of the companies making mining-specific products are often wary about sale volume, so this is a good way to complete orders before production starts.
The DopaMINE is designed to be a six GPU, one motherboard + dual power supply case, capable of being stacked as well as providing sufficient airflow.  The chassis will support mini-ITX all the way through to E-ATX, have three 120/140mm fan mounts on the bottom, and has 685mm x 508mm x 305mm dimensions.  The chassis will come in black, with a limited edition run in white as well.

Red Harbinger are also promoting the chassis as a test bed / open-air chassis, which can be repurposed as a compute machine if the bottom falls out of scrypt mining.  The early bird versions are currently $200 each, with the main run will cost $250 – this includes shipping within the US, add $50 for international shipping.  In a field where saving a few dollars here or there makes a big difference, the DopaMINE is perhaps expensive as a case, but it does condense systems into easy-to-handle units.

On a closer look it might seem that stacking the machines might be pointless if the heat from one set of miners is used to cool another set.  Ideally there needs to be some cross airflow left/right as well as bottom to top, and as I was discussing with Ryan earlier, blower GPUs might work best.
As this is a crowd-funded project, there is no guarantee that the goal will be reached, but it will be an interesting marker for mining chassis from other companies.  Red Harbinger is currently looking at an August estimated delivery date, with a $20,000 goal to be reached by April 4^th.  I put an order in for a white one – at the very least I should be able to condense three of my chassis down to one, or I will put it to work for compute.
Source: Indiegogo

Gallery: Red Harbinger tests the Cryptocurrency Chassis Market: The DopaMINE

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With our recent discussion regarding Intel’s launch of the 15-core Xeon E7 v2 ‘IvyTown’ processors, thoughts for a lot of high end consumers focused on the underlying hardware for these 4P and 8P systems that would be entering the market. Previously with high end systems there has been a disjunct between the sockets used for the mainstream 1P and 2P processors (-E and -EP) compared to the higher end 4P/8P models (-EX). For example:
With Nehalem/Westmere, the single socket Bloomfield Xeons were LGA 1366.
With Nehalem-EP/Westmere-EP, the dual socket Gainstown Xeons were also LGA 1366.
With Nehalem-EX/Westmere-EX, the quad/octo socket Beckton Xeons were LGA 1567.
With Sandy Bridge-E/Ivy Bridge-E, the single socket Xeons are LGA 2011.
With Sandy Bridge-EN/Ivy Bridge-EN, the single/dual socket Xeons are LGA1356
With Sandy Bridge-EP/Ivy Bridge-EP, the dual socket Xeons are LGA 2011.
With Ivy Bridge-EX, the quad/octo socket Xeons are also LGA 2011, but different.
Reported images of Haswell-EP Xeons also point to LGA 2011, but different again.
Back at ISSCC, when we reported about the talk around the new IvyTown based processors, we lifted the following line from the official documentation:

• “The processor supports two 2011-land, 40-mil pitch organic flip-chip LGA package options”

This produced speculation to whether the processor package for EX would be the same as EP, despite a reconfigured memory controller, additional QPI links and a different pin layout. Given at the time we were under NDA we could not mention they were different, but some investigative work from Patrick at ServeTheHome answers a lot of questions.
Simply put, Ivy Bridge-EP, Ivy Bridge-EX and Haswell-EP all have LGA2011 designations (officially FCLGA2011, for flip-chips), but have different physical mountings in the socket:

Despite the contact patches/‘wings’ on Ivy Bridge-EP, it will fit in the Sandy Bridge-EP socket – the issue is more the pins on Ivy Bridge-EX and Haswell-EP, where on the left and right it is more ‘filled in’, as well as at the corners. The notches for the processors (the indents on the top and bottom) are also different, moving to Ivy Bridge-EX.
The Ivy Bridge-EX and Haswell-EP processors look very similar from these images, despite the extra wings on the Haswell-EP. The key here is the bottom right of the two processors, and count the number of pins between the notch and the edge – Ivy Bridge-EX has four, Haswell-EP has six.
All in all, this may not much of anything – users spending thousands on processors should be making sure that the motherboards they buy have the processor they want listed in the QVL (Qualified Vendor’s List). My concern might be users thinking they can drop a Haswell-EP Xeon into an Ivy Bridge-E, and then trying to force it when it might not fit. Back in previous eras (socket 775 comes to mind) this was an even bigger issue – the processors might fit, but the processors that a motherboard could take was determined by the chipset used by the motherboard manufacturer and the QVL. At least this way the CPUs will not physically fit, but it is something that confuses the situation – it might be worth doing some clever renaming (LGA2011-EX, LGA2011-H), at least from an editorial point of view for the future.
Source: ServeTheHome



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Lately there's been a lot of excitement around value video cards. Part of it is due to the simple fact that for low resolution gaming, you can generally approximate the experience of a modern game console with fairly low end hardware.
Late last year AMD announced its Radeon R7 250, an Oland based part priced at $89 for the value discrete market. The R7 250 also serves as an interesting Dual Graphics/CrossFire option for Kaveri users looking to increase the performance of their processor graphics (we'll have a look at this later this month).
AMD wants to give a bunch of these R7 250s away to users who can really use them. This week we're giving away three Radeon R7 250s from ASUS to three lucky readers.
Here's the deal. To enter, simply post a comment below (US residents only, please only make a single post, contest requirements below) explaining your current PC setup and why you want, or need to win a Radeon R7 250. What I'm looking for here is an understanding of what your current system configuration is, why the Radeon R7 250 matters you and how you'd use it. Make your entries good as they may come in handy for some other stuff we've got planned in the future. If your entry from last time still applies, feel free to re-use it.
If you win, AMD wants your feedback on the GPU after you get it. You'll be asked to provide a short review (a paragraph or two, or video if you'd like) talking about your experience with the card. Do a good job and your feedback may even be featured on AnandTech.

AMD Radeon R7 250 Specifications
	AMD Radeon R7 250
Stream Processors	384
Texture Units	24
ROPs	8
Core Clock	1000MHz
Boost Clock	1050MHz
Memory Clock	4.6GHz GDDR5
Memory Bus Width	128-bit
VRAM	1GB
FP64	1/16
TrueAudio	N
Transistor Count	N/A
Typical Board Power	65W
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 28nm
Architecture	GCN 1.0
GPU	Oland
Launch Date	10/11/13
Launch Price	$89

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The Next Unit of Computing (NUC) from Intel is becoming a part of the PC roadmap like never before. Anand reviewed the first generation of the NUC, the DC3217BY, featuring a dual core Ivy Bridge ULV CPU (Core i3 3217U, 17W TDP, 1.8 GHz, HD 4000). Ganesh got the Haswell NUC, the D54250WYK, with a dual core Haswell CPU (Core i5-4250U, 15W TDP, 1.3 GHz/2.8 GHz Turbo + HD5000), as well as the GIGABYTE BRIX Pro, with a full on quad core Haswell CPU (Core i7-4770R) featuring Crystal Well and Iris Pro HD 5200 graphics. The next batch in line will be the Broadwell models, and the road maps for these have just become available courtesy of FanlessTech.

On the consumer side, we have the DN2820FYKH Bay Trail platform coming out in Q1 2014, under the Forest Canyon code name. This gives a Celeron CPU, HDMI, USB 3, 2.5” drive support, an Ethernet port and infra-red/audio capabilities.
For Q4 2014, the Broadwell NUCs should be upon us. If this roadmap is correct, we should expect an i3 and an i5 kit to come to market, under the Rock Canyon code name. Features for Rock Canyon include:

• Mini HDMI
• 4K and Triple Display via miniDP
• M.2 and 2.5” drive options
• USB 3.0 ports
• WiFi and Bluetooth built in
• Replaceable lids for NFC and Wireless Charging

The M.2 connectivity is welcomed, although the replaceable lids might not matter much if a NUC is used in a VESA mount – hopefully there might be a way to run the lid connected to the system via a cable and just resting on the desk. No formal mention of the format of the WiFi connectivity, although as it is now mentioned as part of the kit and built in, hopefully this will be at least a 2T2R 802.11ac solution given we now see it on $150 Intel 8-series motherboards.
Also available is the commercial roadmap, which lists a series of different products:

Using the Maple Canyon code name, the Broadwell commercial NUC is aimed more at a late Q4 launch. Using the Broadwell i5 and vPro with Trusted Platform Module support, this kit mirrors the Broadwell NUC in the consumer line up (4K, M.2, NFC, USB 3.0) although with two miniDP ports for connectivity.
For Atom, starting in Q1 2014 we have the DE3815TYKHE and DE3815TYBE. These are fanless Atom SoCs based on Bay Trail, using 4GB of eMMC as well as HDMI, VGA, eDP and support for legacy IO. The aim here is embedded solutions, such as digital signs and kiosks.

Source: FanlessTech



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I’m going to make a change with my coverage of gaming bundles; rather than focusing mostly on Humble Bundle, I’ll try to gather together a short overview of the current gaming bundles on a weekly basis. These posts will generally come on Thursday night/Friday morning, starting… now.
First up, Humble has two bundles going on right now, their regular weekly bundle along with a two week Indie Bundle 11. Starting with the latter, as honestly it’s the more interesting bundle to me (and yes, I bought it!), six games are currently announced for the Indie Bundle 11, split into the core games as well as a couple extras that you get for beating the current average – and next Tuesday Humble will add a few more items to the bundle, as usual. The four current base games in the bundle, which you can get with any donation, are Dust: An Elysian Tail (85%, 05/2013), Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (77%, 11/2012), Guacamelee! Gold Edition (88%, 08/2013), and The Swapper (87%, 05/2013). Beat the current average ($4.51 at the time of writing) and you also receive Antichamber (82%, 01/2013) and Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine (83%, 04/2013). Frankly, that’s a stellar lineup of indie games, and every single one is at least worthy of a bit of your gaming free time (unless you hate games I suppose, you old curmudgeon). Purchasing those six games off of Steam would normally run you up a tab of $94.94, so nabbing all six for less than a fiver is practically criminal.
Humble’s current weekly sale caters to a different type of gamer, specifically the adventure gamer. Sponsored by The Adventure Company (and Friends), the core pack comes with four games at a “pay what you want” price: Aura: Fate of the Ages (63%, 06/2004), Dead Reefs (51%, 07/2007), Mystery Series: A Vampire Tale (NA, 03/2012), and Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure (69%, 08/2006). Pay $6 or more and you receive seven additional adventure games: The Book of Unwritten Tales: Digital Deluxe Edition (82%, 11/2011), The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles Collector’s Edition (73%, 12/2012), Dark Fall: The Journal (68%, 07/2003), Dark Fall 2: Lights Out (66%, 08/2004), Deponia (74%, 08/2012), Edna and Harvey: The Breakout (56%, 01/2011), and Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within (52%, 06/2013) – but not the first Jack Keane game apparently. And if you’re really into adventure games, a $15 or higher donation tacks on one final game, The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief Digital Deluxe Edition (74%, 07/2013). Obviously some of these are pretty old adventure games, and some are “hidden object” games, which are IMO a lower quality sort of “adventure”; the scores should also tell you that not all of these are particularly compelling. Still, purchased separately on Steam you’d be looking at $134.90 for the whole kitten caboodle.
Next up after Humble Bundle is Bundle Stars, who have just announced a new Reboot 1.0 bundle with seven games – and if you act fast (like in the next day), you can get the bundle for just $2. There’s no charity donation here, but if you want a way to grab a bunch of games on the cheap then Bundle Stars has quite a few options currently available. As for Reboot 1.0, you get Steam copies of Dark Sector (66%, 03/2009), Dino D-Day (53%, 04/2011), Dream Pinball 3D (61%, 2006), GTR Evolution (83%, 09/2008), Space Pirates and Zombies (74%, 08/2011), SpaceChem (84%, 03/2011) and the SpaceChem: 63 Corvi DLC (NA, 07/2011). I’m not sure what the regular price will be ($4 probably?), but at $2 if there’s even one game in that list that catches your eye it’s worth the price of admission.
Looking for even more gaming options, like maybe some additional indie goodness? Have no fear, for we have two more bundling sites to look at. Indie Gala has their weekly update, this time the Capsule Computers bundle running with four base games and seven extra titles for donations of $5.55 or more. Three of the extra titles haven’t been named, but the base four titles are Dracula 4: Shadow of the Dragon (32%, 06/2013), Always Remember Me (NA, 05/2011), Raiden Legacy: The Return (~75%, 05/2012), and Hero of the Kingdom (~66%, 11/2013). Beat the average of $5.55 or more (currently) and you also get Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos (~72%, 06/2013), Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart (NA, 04/2012), Hero Siege (NA, 12/2013), Dead Sky (~32%, 11/2011) and three additional titles that will be revealed later in the week. Admittedly, that’s not the strongest batch of games around, but perhaps some of them will appeal to some of our readers. Indie Gala also has their Interstellar bundle still available for about 17 hours if you hurry, which is arguably a better set of games – Cubicity, Interstellar Marines, Rush Bros., Beast Boxing Turbo, Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves, Interstellar Marines: Spearhead Edition, Finding Teddy, PixelJunk: Shooter, and PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate are available for $6 or more.
Finally, we have the Indie Royale Debut 10 Bundle, with seven of the eight games revealed and a minimum price of $4.55. That will get you Crater Maker (NA, 02/2014), Doom and Destiny (~81%, 11/2012), Kill Fun Yeah (NA, 05/2012), Millennium 4: Beyond Sunset (~90%, 08/2011), Spirited Heart Complete (NA, 04/2009), Strategic War in Europe (~70%, 06/2012), You Still Won’t Make It (~83%, 08/2013), and one more title to be revealed later in the week.
And that is a lot of gaming, and a lot of links, so hopefully you can find something you’ll like in that list. Sure, there are big games coming out as well (not so many in the post-holiday doldrums of course), but those tend to get plenty of press. If I missed any great deals, though, let us know in the comments.

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As Brian, Josh, Ian and myself prepare to head to Barcelona for this year's MWC, NVIDIA makes its first announcement before the show: the Tegra Note 7 will now be available in an LTE version.
The Tegra Note 7 LTE keeps the same 7-inch Tegra 4 based platform as the original Tegra Note 7 while adding NVIDIA's own i500 LTE modem. The addition of the i500 brings the Note 7's MSRP up by $100 to $299. The WiFi-only version will continue to be available at $199.
NVIDIA expects the Note 7 LTE to be available through its usual partners worldwide (EVGA in the US) beginning in Q2 of this year.

A list of supported LTE and HSPA+ bands are in the table below. NVIDIA will also offer a 3G-only version for areas without LTE:

Gallery: NVIDIA Adds LTE to Tegra Note 7

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Meet the new Xeon E7 v2, codenamed "Ivy Bridge EX". We've had the new processors in our labs for the past few weeks putting them to the test, using the latest Intel "Brickland" server platform that features support for up to 60 cores / 120 threads in one quad-socket server. Join us as we see what the platform can do in the IT segment.

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One of the many issues presented with a SO-DIMM capable system, whether laptop or desktop, is one of performance. In our recent Haswell memory scaling article using regular sized DIMMs, the high-performance sweet spot for memory was around the 2133 MHz CAS 9 or 2400 MHz CAS 10 marks. The issue with SO-DIMM systems is that memory often starts at 1333 CAS 9 or 1600 CAS 11, but in recent months companies like G.Skill, Corsair and Kingston have released higher specification SO-DIMM kits, up to 2133 CAS 11. This is still a little way off our sweet spot, but on the road. The main barrier to this incidentally is the lack of XMP support on laptops and mobile devices, firmly shutting the door on speeds above 1600 MHz without a modified BIOS.
While we are doing some in-house memory scaling testing regarding SO-DIMM, G.Skill went ahead with some testing using the main overclockable motherboard for SO-DIMMs: the ASRock M8. We reviewed the ASRock M8 as a Steam Box alternative last year capable of handling an i7-4770 CPU and a 250W GPU and gave it a Silver Award for industrial design.

For the overclocking test, G.Skill use their DDR3L-2133 MHz CAS 11 2x4GB 1.35V memory kit and boost the final speed to DDR3-2600 12-14-14. Back in our memory scaling article we introduced the concept of a memory Performance Index as a rough guide to performance, and this memory kit started at a PI of 193 and ended on 217, or a 12.4% increase in potential performance.

While G.Skill have jumped us in terms of showing that these speeds are possible, it remains to see if memory manufacturers will go ahead and make SO-DIMM modules at this speed. Or ultimately what matters more is that the platforms that use them (especially laptops and SFF) will actually adhere to XMP and allow us to enable it without any fuss. There are speed gains to be had by moving up from the industry default of 1600 MHz CAS 11 as we showed in our Haswell memory scaling article, but there needs to be a paradigm shift from the manufacturers that implement SO-DIMM. If the SO-DIMM modules come up to par with regular DIMMs, there might be a future where motherboard memory makes the transition.

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Archos is a factor in European markets and I often see their name attached to a variety of devices here in the UK at least. They are making motions towards the US and there are a few models up on Newegg. Ahead of Mobile World Congress that starts on Monday, Archos have released statements regarding their Q1 (+Q2) 2014 line of tablets and smartphones under their 'Elements' brand, including an 8-inch 4G tablet, a 5-inch dual-sim octo-core Mediatek smartphone with a 720p screen, a 6.4 inch quad-core Mediatek smartphone and a £100 4-inch dual-core smartphone:
Archos 80 Helium 4G
The Helium 4G is the 8-inch 4G tablet, using a quad core A7 processor (Qualcomm MSM8926 @ 1.2 GHz) and Adreno 305 graphics. The screen is an 8-inch 1024x768 IPS, with the device having 1GB of DRAM and 8 GB of storage. There is a MicroSD card for additional storage, and the unit packs a 3500 mAh battery. Connectivity is via LTE cat 4, on the 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz bands, and the system with ship with Android 4.3. The device is set at an MSRP of £230 in the UK.

Gallery: Archos 80 Helium 4G


Archos 50c Oxygen
The mid-point of Archos’ 4/5/6 inch smartphone range is the 50c Oxygen, using an octo-core MediaTek MT6592 (Cortex A7) at 1.7 GHz and Mali 450MP4 graphics. The 5” 720p screen is an IPS, with the 1GB of DRAM and 8GB of storage plus a MicroSD slot matching the Helium 4G. No 4G on the Oxygen though, but a 2000 mAh battery and 8MP/2MP cameras on the rear and front respectively. MSRP is set at £200.

Gallery: Archos 50c Oxygen


Archos 64 Xenon
Continuing the theme, the Xenon is a 6.4 inch dual-sim smartphone (compared to HTC One max at 5.9” and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at 5.7”) using a quad core MediaTek MT6582 (A7) at 1.3 GHz with Mali 400MP2 graphics. The 1280x820 IPS screen is paired with 1GB DRAM and 4GB of storage with a MicroSD slot. The full dimensions run at 90.6x180.7x9.3mm, with a 2800 mAH battery and the device has an MSRP of £200.

Gallery: Archos 64 Xenon


Archos 40b Titanium
The final device from Archos is the cheaper 4” model, using a dual core MediaTek MT6572 (A7) at 1.3 GHz with Mali 400 graphics. The 4” screen is an 800x480 IPS panel, with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The MicroSD card alleviates that somewhat, but the battery is 1400 mAh and the device ships with Android 4.2. MSRP is set at £100.

Gallery: Archos 40b Titanium


Source: Archos

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