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Duchin Comedy Hour
If you like stand-up comedians, you'll love the 2013 Winter Comedy Series at the Duchin Room every Friday and Saturday night at 8:30 pm. We present new comedians hot off the comedy circuit every weekend. Cover is FREE (21 & Older)
March 1 & 2
Cash Levy
If you missed Cash on Fox Sports or haven't bought his newly released comedy CD, Extemporaneous, you're probably familiar with seeing his act as a regular performer on the CBS Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, and also Comedy Central. Cash can be heard daily on XM/Sirius Radio and has entertained on The Bob and Tom Show on WGN. Cash just finished a world tour for U.S.A. Armed Forces Entertainment, entertaining the troops from Japan to Afghanistan.
Cash is known as one of the finest improvisers around, and now his unique, interactive show has been captured on film in the one hour special, "Crowd Control" currently showing on AXStv.
"Perfect comic delivery with lightening quick wit"
The Charlotte Observer
Jay began his stand up comedy career in Boston as the host of "The Tribe Presents," a weekly show twice named The Best Comedy Show in Boston by The Boston Phoenix. As a touring national headliner beloved for his unabashed physical comedy and off-the-cuff audience interplay, Jay has also become a regular at The Hollywood Improv and Comedy Juice shows in Los Angeles and regularly performs at The World Famous Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Icehouse.
He has been seen on "The Rebels of Comedy" pay-per-view special, The Comedy Time Network, and "Comedy All-Stars" with Tommy Davidson. Jay also placed (11th) in the 2010 San Francisco Comedy Competition, was selected for the 2010 Atomic Comedy Festival, and recently performed in a USO Tour in Okinawa, Japan . His original sketches are all over Funny or Die and he can be found in many, many national commercials. He has had large roles on ABC's "Body of Proof", and VH1's sketch comedy series "Stevie TV." He recently performed on NBC's "Blake Shelton's Not-So-Family Christmas" and you will soon recognize his voice as "The Roastmaster Marty Martin" in the upcoming hilarious television show "The Roasters." His one-hour comedy album entitled, "The Sound That Jokes Make" can be found on iTunes and Amazon.com.
March 8 & 9
Dan Gabriel got bit by the comedy bug early in life. Dan grew up immersed in the world famous San Francisco comedy scene where his mom took him to comedy shows when he was just in grade school. While other kids were trading Garbage Pail Kids, Dan was trying to make his friends listen to Steve Martin albums on his travel case record player.
In college, he stepped up on stage for the first time and was instantly hooked. Ignoring his studies, Dan spent his nights at any open mic night or comedy event he could find. After graduation he began opening for his heroes like Dave Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg and George Lopez. Since then Dan has worked his way from opening act to nationally touring headliner.
Now considered a veteran jokesmith, Dan has appeared on CBS'sLate Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Showtime, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, CBS's Star Search, NBC's Late Friday just to name a few. He was an award winning writer for Thugs on Film on BBC America and the Winner of the L.A. Take Out Comedy Competition. Take Out opened the doors for Dan to co-develop and host the hit first season of Asia Street Comedy, on AZN TV. Today you can hear his podcast, "The Best Medicine" on iTunes as well as his two critically acclaimed comedy albums, "Giant Robot" and "Baby For Sale."
Jason Zelt
Jason Zelt delivers fresh, enthusiastic, and intelligently self-deprecating standup comedy. Drawing from inspired topics ranging from personal shortcomings to social/political commentary, this young comedian excites audiences of all demographics with a performance that translates universally.
Jason has been seen at well-known venues such as The Comedy Store (Hollywood, La Jolla), The Laugh Factory (Hollywood, Long Beach), Flappers (Burbank, Claremont), the Improv (Melrose), and Rooster T. Feather's (Sunnyvale). He has opened for established comedians including Paul Reiser, John Caparulo, Vargus Mason, and Rusty Dooley and played several one night gigs and colleges (Long Beach State, University of Arizona, Santa Monica JC). Along with his standup, Jason appears bi-monthly on several FCC Radio productions (News with Verve, In The Meantime, Pam's Comedy Clubhouse). Recently a runner-up in the LA's Funniest Comic Comedy Competition (2012), Jason remains present in the San Francisco Bay Area comedy scene.
March 15 & 16
Paul was raised as a sports fanatic in the tiny town of Owego, in upstate New York. After four years of playing college basketball, somehow he graduated. Aside from playing in the NBA, his dream job was to talk about sports for a living. Paul then moved to California after landing a television sports anchor job but found out quickly that he was "too much of a smart-ass" for TV news. After he was fired, Paul took his unique sense of humor to comedy club stages all over the country.
In 2005, Paul was selected to perform at the HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. Morrissey has also been a finalist in several national comedy competitions including Wendy's Comedy Challenge, Comedy Central's Open Mic Fight and Maxim's Real Men of Comedy.
Morrissey's big break came when he was asked to make his network television debut on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS. He was so well received that Paul was asked to make three more appearances on the show. Morrissey's four appearances are the most by a comedian on "The Late, Late Show." He has also appeared on the network TV shows, Comedy.TV, Who Wants To Date A Comedian and Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen. Morrissey has also been a guest on many radio shows including the national syndicated "Bob & Tom Show" and the "Ron & Fez Show" on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio.
The recent TV exposure has put Paul in high demand as a headliner at clubs and colleges across the US and Canada. He also performs frequently at The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, The Laugh Factory, and The Hollywood Improv.
Morrissey has released two CD's,"Good Seats Still Available" and "Comedy Sampler" which get regular airplay on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. One reviewer says, "When an experienced comedy fan is repeatedly surprised by the payoff or where the jokes land, you know you are listening to an original comedic talent."
Michael Gelbert
With appearances on CBS' The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, the new TV series Comedy.tv, performances at sold-out clubs and theaters, and two of his own prime time stand-up comedy specials, comedian, screenwriter and novelist Michael Gelbart is truly someone to watch. He has a nonchalant, audience-friendly approach, meshing ad-libs with material that is completely unique. His debut novel The Other Oprahs is rapidly gaining momentum and has been called "hilariously inspiring."
Michael started his comedy career in high school and continued through college. After graduating from broadcasting school, he landed his own episode of the CBC series Comics, his first national exposure showcasing his abilities as a performer and writer. A second TV special followed, as well as offers to write and perform. He was head writer of the Gemini Awards, wrote and co-starred in The Weinstein Company DVD A Very Cool Christmas, which airs annually on Lifetime, and is currently writing and performing on a number of shows for Disney, Cartoon Network and Teen Nick.
Michael performs all over North America, dividing his time between the US and Canada. He has several screenplays and original series currently in development.
March 22 & 23
Trish Suhr
You may know Trish Suhr as the Emmy-winning Co-Host and "Yard Sale Diva" of over 200 episodes of the Clean House franchise on Style Network. Trish most recently was a contributor on Good Day LA, Good Day NY, Woman's Day magazine and will be a regular Lifestyle contributor on the upcoming syndicated Ricki Lake Show. Additionally she has hosted a variety of shows including Gamers for National Lampoon, Take My Kids Please for WE, Family Secrets for CMT, and the Great American Cook-off for Lifetime. Trish is also known for her quick witted commentary on specials for E!, Style, CMT and VH1.
Trish was born and raised in Middlesboro, Kentucky and grew up in the family funeral business where she knew that she wanted to head to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy… but who knew along the way her passion for helping people organize their lives and helping them "keep it clean" would change her path forever. "Hosting is the greatest job for me, I never wanted to be an actor, I have more fun just bein' me." With her "what you see is what you get" attitude, on screen and off Trish fell in love with hosting.
Trish's number one love are our troops as her younger brother is Special Forces in the Navy, and she understands the sacrifices families make for our country, so in her free time she loves going to Afghanistan and Iraq to perform for our Troops. As Trish says, "It's the least I can do for the amazing men and women that allow me to have my dream job."
Trish lives in Los Angeles with her Husband Dave McCoul and their two dogs, Truman & Bessie.
Heath Harmison
Heath is a special kind of person. He grew up a small fat child in a little town called Twin Falls, Idaho. While his childhood haunts him in his dreams, it also makes people nearly kill over in laughter in colleges and comedy clubs all over the nation. He has performed in some of the biggest shows in the world including the Fringe Festival in Scotland which is the largest performing arts festival in the world. His abundance of energy, physical humor, and impersonations are incredible. He prides himself on being one of the cleanest comedians out there. From experiencing his first kiss to married life and job experiences, Heath's observations are on spot with hilarity and relativity. With Heath's life experiences it is easy for him to be a comedian. His ability to watch people and make little things become things that you will laugh at for hours on end is nothing short of amazing.
March 29 & 30
Known for his quick wit and caustic-style of comedy, Eddie Ifft has a habit of speaking first and thinking later and this gets him in trouble – a lot. Having been fired from most jobs, including a short stint at his father's insurance firm (he was either fired or asked to pursue a new career – depending on who you ask) Eddie took to the stage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at an open-mic night and realised he was being paid to mouth off…and so his career began.
A career that has taken Eddie all over the world. This year alone he has headlined across the United States and Australia, performing to sold-out crowds and appearing on numerous TV shows such as Comedy Central's Premium Blend, BET's Comic View, NBC's Late Friday Night, VH1′s Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Comic's Unleashed and Chelsea Lately as well as releasing his own 30-minute special for Comedy Central. A popular TV personality in Australia, Eddie has appeared on Rove, Thank God You're Here, The Footy Show and Good News Week.
One of the most well-travelled comedians in show business, Eddie has proudly told jokes in most comedy clubs in the United States, UK and Australia, toured more than 15 countries around the world and performed in major festivals including Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival and New Zealand Comedy Festival.
A prolific writer and director, Eddie's travels were chronicled for an upcoming feature length documentary film, entitled America the Punchline.
As a stand up, there is not much Eddie hasn't done. He was proud to be one of five finalists in the MySpace/Sierra Mist Stand Up or Sit Down Challenge – which aired on TBS – has performed alongside comedy greats Dave Chapelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Robin Williams and after the success of his first two CDs Jokes that Make My Friends Laugh and I learned the Hard Way, Eddie is about to release his third CD and a DVD Live from Australia, taped in front of a sold-out crowd at Sydney Opera House.
Eddie has also worked as the host of Shark Week, spent a season as the ABC College Football Guy, earned a job as 'man-on-the-street' on the Queen Latifah show, was co-host of a sports radio show on New York's legendary WNEW and hosted a pilot 'Strap-On' for Comedy Central.
Ryan Wingfield
Ryan Wingfield is an Alaskan born comic who somehow ended up living in Boise, Idaho. Growing up as a middle child he was naturally drawn to comedy, and spent years developing his talent on radio, television and stage. He combines story telling with observational humor, creating a clean style of comedy audiences can relate to. From getting caught peeing in the shower to trying to fart quietly in public, you'll find a little of yourself in every joke he tells.


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Anti Doping
The RFL prides itself on being a clean sport and works hard to maintain its image. It is committed to ensuring that high standards are set for fair play and a drug-free sport while protecting the spirit of the game. It's doing this by increasing the level of awareness of all anti-doping issues. The RFL want to create a generation of players who have confidence in their ability to succeed in Rugby League without the misuse of prohibited substances or methods, and empower Rugby League clubs to be competent in supporting their players.
100% ME Anti-Doping education
The RFL is committed to the principles of drug-free sport and work with UK Sport and UKAD to regularly educate and inform players through their '100% ME' campaign. It teaches them about the dangers of drugs and the consequences of taking drugs or breaching the Anti-Doping Regulations. The RFL train club staff who can provide player education both formally and informally.
Introduction of NRTP
As part of the RFL's WADA compliant anti-doping programme 17 players signed up for the National Registered Testing Pool for Rugby League. These players were obliged to provide whereabouts information to UK Anti-Doping, detailing where they are for one hour every day so they can be tested. They've been inducted and supported by the RFL to ensure that they are compliant with the system and are able to say with pride that they are amongst the most tested athletes in sport.
According to UK Sport figures, Rugby League players were tested 508 times for prohibited substances from April 1 2008 to March 31 2009. This is the third highest of all UK major sports behind football and athletics. Approximately 628 tests were expected to have been taken from April 1 2009 to March 31 2010 and for the year 2010-2011 the RFL have requested 650 tests from UKAD.
Blood testing is common within Rugby League which makes our testing programme even more effective.
Looking ahead
Social drug education
The RFL are currently working with potential partners to deliver education to players regarding social drugs and alcohol. The intention is to support these players and help them make the right choices throughout their career to protect their health, well-being and reputation.
Development of the Community Game Well-Being programme
In response to the Community Club Survey, the Operations department has been tasked with developing a variety of Community Game Well-being workshops. The aim is to educate players and coaches within the community game about a variety of aspects related to their well-being and game preparation. These include smoking, drinking and drugs (performance enhancing and social). The information will be delivered in an engaging and Rugby League focused way with the intention of enforcing positive player choices.

subset: commoncrawl


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PCPer Live! GeForce GTX 960 Live Stream and Giveaway with Tom Petersen
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards | January 22, 2015 - 06:44 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tom petersen, nvidia, maxwell, live, gtx 960, gtx, GM206, geforce
UPDATE 2: If you missed the live stream you missed the prizes! But you can still watch the replay to get all the information and Q&A that went along with it as we discuss the GTX 960 and many more topics from the NVIDIA universe.
UPDATE (1/22): Well, the secret is out. Today's discussion will be about the new GeForce GTX 960, a $199 graphics card that takes power efficiency to a previously un-seen level! If you haven't read my review of the card yet, you should do so first, but then be sure you are ready for today's live stream and giveaway - details below! And don't forget: if you have questions, please leave them in the comments!
Get yourself ready, it's time for another GeForce GTX live stream hosted by PC Perspective's Ryan Shrout and NVIDIA's Tom Petersen. Though we can't dive into the exact details of what topics are going to be covered, intelligent readers that keep an eye on the rumors on our site will likely be able to guess what is happening on January 22nd.
On hand to talk about the products, answer questions about technologies in the GeForce family including GPUs, G-Sync, GameWorks, GeForce Experience and more will be Tom Petersen, well known on the LAN party and events circuit. To spice things up as well Tom has worked with graphics card partners to bring along a sizeable swag pack to give away LIVE during the event, including new GTX graphics cards. LOTS of graphics cards.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Live Stream and Giveaway
10am PT / 1pm ET - January 22nd
PC Perspective Live! Page
Need a reminder? Join our live mailing list!
Here are some of the prizes we have lined up for those of you that join us for the live stream:
- 3 x MSI GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Cards
- 4 x EVGA GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Cards
- 3 x ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Cards
Thanks to ASUS, EVGA and MSI for supporting the stream!
The event will take place Thursday, January 22nd at 1pm ET / 10am PT at http://www.pcper.com/live. There you'll be able to catch the live video stream as well as use our chat room to interact with the audience, asking questions for me and Tom to answer live. To win the prizes you will have to be watching the live stream, with exact details of the methodology for handing out the goods coming at the time of the event.
Tom has a history of being both informative and entertaining and these live streaming events are always full of fun and technical information that you can get literally nowhere else. Previous streams have produced news as well – including statements on support for Adaptive Sync, release dates for displays and first-ever demos of triple display G-Sync functionality. You never know what's going to happen or what will be said!
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and we'll look through them just before the start of the live stream. Of course you'll be able to tweet us questions @pcper and we'll be keeping an eye on the IRC chat as well for more inquiries. What do you want to know and hear from Tom or I?
So join us! Set your calendar for this coming Thursday at 1pm ET / 10am PT and be here at PC Perspective to catch it. If you are a forgetful type of person, sign up for the PC Perspective Live mailing list that we use exclusively to notify users of upcoming live streaming events including these types of specials and our regular live podcast. I promise, no spam will be had!
A few secrets about GTX 970
UPDATE 1/28/15 @ 10:25am ET: NVIDIA has posted in its official GeForce.com forums that they are working on a driver update to help alleviate memory performance issues in the GTX 970 and that they will "help out" those users looking to get a refund or exchange.
Yes, that last 0.5GB of memory on your GeForce GTX 970 does run slower than the first 3.5GB. More interesting than that fact is the reason why it does, and why the result is better than you might have otherwise expected. Last night we got a chance to talk with NVIDIA's Senior VP of GPU Engineering, Jonah Alben on this specific concern and got a detailed explanation to why gamers are seeing what they are seeing along with new disclosures on the architecture of the GM204 version of Maxwell.
NVIDIA's Jonah Alben, SVP of GPU Engineering
For those looking for a little background, you should read over my story from this weekend that looks at NVIDIA's first response to the claims that the GeForce GTX 970 cards currently selling were only properly utilizing 3.5GB of the 4GB frame buffer. While it definitely helped answer some questions it raised plenty more which is whey we requested a talk with Alben, even on a Sunday.
Let's start with a new diagram drawn by Alben specifically for this discussion.
GTX 970 Memory System
Believe it or not, every issue discussed in any forum about the GTX 970 memory issue is going to be explained by this diagram. Along the top you will see 13 enabled SMMs, each with 128 CUDA cores for the total of 1664 as expected. (Three grayed out SMMs represent those disabled from a full GM204 / GTX 980.) The most important part here is the memory system though, connected to the SMMs through a crossbar interface. That interface has 8 total ports to connect to collections of L2 cache and memory controllers, all of which are utilized in a GTX 980. With a GTX 970 though, only 7 of those ports are enabled, taking one of the combination L2 cache / ROP units along with it. However, the 32-bit memory controller segment remains.
You should take two things away from that simple description. First, despite initial reviews and information from NVIDIA, the GTX 970 actually has fewer ROPs and less L2 cache than the GTX 980. NVIDIA says this was an error in the reviewer's guide and a misunderstanding between the engineering team and the technical PR team on how the architecture itself functioned. That means the GTX 970 has 56 ROPs and 1792 KB of L2 cache compared to 64 ROPs and 2048 KB of L2 cache for the GTX 980. Before people complain about the ROP count difference as a performance bottleneck, keep in mind that the 13 SMMs in the GTX 970 can only output 52 pixels/clock and the seven segments of 8 ROPs each (56 total) can handle 56 pixels/clock. The SMMs are the bottleneck, not the ROPs.
Continue reading our explanation and summary about the NVIDIA GTX 970 3.5GB Memory Issue!!
NVIDIA Responds to GTX 970 3.5GB Memory Issue
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 24, 2015 - 11:51 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: nvidia, maxwell, GTX 970, GM204, 3.5gb memory
UPDATE 1/28/15 @ 10:25am ET: NVIDIA has posted in its official GeForce.com forums that they are working on a driver update to help alleviate memory performance issues in the GTX 970 and that they will "help out" those users looking to get a refund or exchange.
UPDATE 1/26/25 @ 1:00pm ET: We have posted a much more detailed analysis and look at the GTX 970 memory system and what is causing the unusual memory divisions. Check it out right here!
UPDATE 1/26/15 @ 12:10am ET: I now have a lot more information on the technical details of the architecture that cause this issue and more information from NVIDIA to explain it. I spoke with SVP of GPU Engineering Jonah Alben on Sunday night to really dive into the quesitons everyone had. Expect an update here on this page at 10am PT / 1pm ET or so. Bookmark and check back!
UPDATE 1/24/15 @ 11:25pm ET: Apparently there is some concern online that the statement below is not legitimate. I can assure you that the information did come from NVIDIA, though is not attributal to any specific person - the message was sent through a couple of different PR people and is the result of meetings and multiple NVIDIA employee's input. It is really a message from the company, not any one individual. I have had several 10-20 minute phone calls with NVIDIA about this issue and this statement on Saturday alone, so I know that the information wasn't from a spoofed email, etc. Also, this statement was posted by an employee moderator on the GeForce.com forums about 6 hours ago, further proving that the statement is directly from NVIDIA. I hope this clears up any concerns around the validity of the below information!
Over the past couple of weeks users of GeForce GTX 970 cards have noticed and started researching a problem with memory allocation in memory-heavy gaming. Essentially, gamers noticed that the GTX 970 with its 4GB of system memory was only ever accessing 3.5GB of that memory. When it did attempt to access the final 500MB of memory, performance seemed to drop dramatically. What started as simply a forum discussion blew up into news that was being reported at tech and gaming sites across the web.
Image source: Lazygamer.net
NVIDIA has finally responded to the widespread online complaints about GeForce GTX 970 cards only utilizing 3.5GB of their 4GB frame buffer. From the horse's mouth:
The GeForce GTX 970 is equipped with 4GB of dedicated graphics memory. However the 970 has a different configuration of SMs than the 980, and fewer crossbar resources to the memory system. To optimally manage memory traffic in this configuration, we segment graphics memory into a 3.5GB section and a 0.5GB section. The GPU has higher priority access to the 3.5GB section. When a game needs less than 3.5GB of video memory per draw command then it will only access the first partition, and 3rd party applications that measure memory usage will report 3.5GB of memory in use on GTX 970, but may report more for GTX 980 if there is more memory used by other commands. When a game requires more than 3.5GB of memory then we use both segments.
We understand there have been some questions about how the GTX 970 will perform when it accesses the 0.5GB memory segment. The best way to test that is to look at game performance. Compare a GTX 980 to a 970 on a game that uses less than 3.5GB. Then turn up the settings so the game needs more than 3.5GB and compare 980 and 970 performance again.
Here's an example of some performance data:
Shadow of Mordor | ||
<3.5GB setting = 2688x1512 Very High | 72 FPS | 60 FPS |
>3.5GB setting = 3456x1944 | 55 FPS (-24%) | 45 FPS (-25%) |
Battlefield 4 | ||
<3.5GB setting = 3840x2160 2xMSAA | 36 FPS | 30 FPS |
>3.5GB setting = 3840x2160 135% res | 19 FPS (-47%) | 15 FPS (-50%) |
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | ||
<3.5GB setting = 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, Supersampling off | 82 FPS | 71 FPS |
>3.5GB setting = 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, Supersampling on | 48 FPS (-41%) | 40 FPS (-44%) |
On GTX 980, Shadows of Mordor drops about 24% on GTX 980 and 25% on GTX 970, a 1% difference. On Battlefield 4, the drop is 47% on GTX 980 and 50% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. On CoD: AW, the drop is 41% on GTX 980 and 44% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. As you can see, there is very little change in the performance of the GTX 970 relative to GTX 980 on these games when it is using the 0.5GB segment.
So it would appear that the severing of a trio of SMMs to make the GTX 970 different than the GTX 980 was the root cause of the issue. I'm not sure if this something that we have seen before with NVIDIA GPUs that are cut down in the same way, but I have asked for clarification from NVIDIA on that. The ratios fit: 500MB is 1/8th of the 4GB total memory capacity and 2 SMMs is 1/8th of the total SMM count. (Edit: The ratios in fact do NOT match up...odd.)
The full GM204 GPU that is the root cause of this memory issue.
Another theory presented itself as well: is this possibly the reason we do not have a GTX 960 Ti yet? If the patterns were followed from previous generations a GTX 960 Ti would be a GM204 GPU with fewer cores enabled and additional SMs disconnected to enable a lower price point. If this memory issue were to be even more substantial, creating larger differentiated "pools" of memory, then it could be an issue for performance or driver development. To be clear, we are just guessing on this one and that could be something that would not occur at all. Again, I've asked NVIDIA for some technical clarification.
Requests for information aside, we may never know for sure if this is a bug with the GM204 ASIC or predetermined characteristic of design.
The questions remains: does NVIDIA's response appease GTX 970 owners? After all, this memory concern is really just a part of a GPU's story and thus performance testing and analysis already incorporates it essentially. Some users will still likely make a claim of a "bait and switch" but do the benchmarks above, as well as our own results at 4K, make it a less significant issue?
Our own Josh Walrath offers this analysis:
A few days ago when we were presented with evidence of the 970 not fully utilizing all 4 GB of memory, I theorized that it had to do with the reduction of SMM units. It makes sense from an efficiency standpoint to perhaps "hard code" memory addresses for each SMM. The thought behind that would be that 4 GB of memory is a huge amount of a video card, and the potential performance gains of a more flexible system would be pretty minimal.
I believe that the memory controller is working as intended and not a bug. When designing a large GPU, there will invariably be compromises made. From all indications NVIDIA decided to save time, die size, and power by simplifying the memory controller and crossbar setup. These things have a direct impact on time to market and power efficiency. NVIDIA probably figured that a couple percentage of performance lost was outweighed by the added complexity, power consumption, and engineering resources that it would have taken to gain those few percentage points back.
NVIDIA Plans Driver Update for GTX 970 Memory Issue, Help with Returns
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 28, 2015 - 10:21 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: nvidia, memory issue, maxwell, GTX 970, GM204, geforce
The story around the GeForce GTX 970 and its confusing and shifting memory architecture continues to update. On a post in the official GeForce.com forums (on page 160 of 184!), moderator and NVIDIA employee PeterS claims that the company is working on a driver to help improve performance concerns and will also be willing to "help out" for users that honestly want to return the product they already purchased. Here is the quote:
First, I want you to know that I'm not just a mod, I work for NVIDIA in Santa Clara.
I totally get why so many people are upset. We messed up some of the stats on the reviewer kit and we didn't properly explain the memory architecture. I realize a lot of you guys rely on product reviews to make purchase decisions and we let you down.
It sucks because we're really proud of this thing. The GTX970 is an amazing card and I genuinely believe it's the best card for the money that you can buy. We're working on a driver update that will tune what's allocated where in memory to further improve performance.
Having said that, I understand that this whole experience might have turned you off to the card. If you don't want the card anymore you should return it and get a refund or exchange. If you have any problems getting that done, let me know and I'll do my best to help.
This makes things a bit more interesting - based on my conversations with NVIDIA about the GTX 970 since this news broke, it was stated that the operating system had a much stronger role in the allocation of memory from a game's request than the driver. Based on the above statement though, NVIDIA seems to think it can at least improve on the current level of performance and tune things to help alleviate any potential bottlenecks that might exist simply in software.
As far as the return goes, PeterS at least offers to help this one forum user but I would assume the gesture would be available for anyone that has the same level of concern for the product. Again, as I stated in my detailed breakdown of the GTX 970 memory issue on Monday, I don't believe that users need to go that route - the GeForce GTX 970 is still a fantastic performing card in nearly all cases except (maybe) a tiny fraction where that last 500MB of frame buffer might come into play. I am working on another short piece going up today that details my experiences with the GTX 970 running up on those boundaries.
Part 1: NVIDIA Responds to GTX 970 3.5GB Memory Issue
Part 2: NVIDIA Discloses Full Memory Structure and Limitations of GTX 970
NVIDIA is trying to be proactive now, that much we can say. It seems that the company understands its mistake - not in the memory pooling decision but in the lack of clarity it offered to reviewers and consumers upon the product's launch.
A Summary Thus Far
It has certainly been an interesting week for NVIDIA. It started with the release of the new GeForce GTX 960, a $199 graphics card that brought the latest iteration of Maxwell's architecture to a lower price point, competing with the Radeon R9 280 and R9 285 products. But then the proverbial stuff hit the fan with a memory issue on the GeForce GTX 970, the best selling graphics card of the second half of 2014. NVIDIA responded to the online community on Saturday morning but that was quickly followed up with a more detailed expose on the GTX 970 memory hierarchy, which included a couple of important revisions to the specifications of the GTX 970 as well.
At the heart of all this technical debate is a performance question: does the GTX 970 suffer from lower performance because of of the 3.5GB/0.5GB memory partitioning configuration? Many forum members and PC enthusiasts have been debating this for weeks with many coming away with an emphatic yes.
The newly discovered memory system of the GeForce GTX 970
Yesterday I spent the majority of my day trying to figure out a way to validate or invalidate these types of performance claims. As it turns out, finding specific game scenarios that will consistently hit targeted memory usage levels isn't as easy as it might first sound and simple things like the order of start up can vary that as well (and settings change orders). Using Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare though, I think I have presented a couple of examples that demonstrate the issue at hand.
Performance testing is a complicated story. Lots of users have attempted to measure performance on their own setup, looking for combinations of game settings that sit below the 3.5GB threshold and those that cross above it, into the slower 500MB portion. The issue for many of these tests is that they lack access to both a GTX 970 and a GTX 980 to really compare performance degradation between cards. That's the real comparison to make - the GTX 980 does not separate its 4GB into different memory pools. If it has performance drops in the same way as the GTX 970 then we can wager the memory architecture of the GTX 970 is not to blame. If the two cards perform differently enough, beyond the expected performance delta between two cards running at different clock speeds and with different CUDA core counts, then we have to question the decisions that NVIDIA made.
There has also been concern over the frame rate consistency of the GTX 970. Our readers are already aware of how deceptive an average frame rate alone can be, and why looking at frame times and frame time consistency is so much more important to guaranteeing a good user experience. Our Frame Rating method of GPU testing has been in place since early 2013 and it tests exactly that - looking for consistent frame times that result in a smooth animation and improved gaming experience.
Users at reddit.com have been doing a lot of subjective testing
We will be applying Frame Rating to our testing today of the GTX 970 and its memory issues - does the division of memory pools introduce additional stutter into game play? Let's take a look at a couple of examples.
Continue reading our look at GTX 970 Performance Testing using Frame Rating!
All may not be well in Samsung-ville, some EVOs are slowing down again
Subject: Storage | January 26, 2015 - 05:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Samsung, firmware, EVO, 840 evo
In the fall it was confirmed by Samsung that stale data on some 840 EVO drives would suffer performance degradation and released a tool to mitigate the issue which Al reviewed here. The Tech Report recently heard of some cases of drives slowing even with the new EXT0CB6Q firmware installed and decided to investigate. They took a 840 EVO 250GB SSD which had been filled with files to test the patch and was then left forgotten on a shelf for several months and tested the speeds. The benchmarks showed an average speed between 35-54MB/s far below what you would expect to see from an SSD but in line with what users have been reported. On the other hand another 840 EVO which has been in constant use since the firmware update shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down, though NTFS compression was recently used on the drive which could have refreshed the flash. Obviously more testing needs to be done, keep your eyes out for updates on this new development.
"In October, Samsung patched its 840 EVO SSD to address a problem that caused slow read speeds with old data. Recent reports suggest the issue isn't completely fixed, and the results of our own testing agree."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Plextor M6e Black Edition SSD @ The SSD Review
- OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC 100 SSD's hit 200TB mark @ Kitgru
- Samsung's Portable SSD T1 @ The Tech Report
- Samsung Portable SSD T1 500GB @ Custom PC Review
- Samsung T1 SSD @ HardwareHeaven
- Samsung Portable SSD T1 @ The SSD Review
- Kingston SDCA3 microSDHC/SDXC UHS-I U3 Card @ The SSD Review
- Synology DiskStation DS215j 2-Bay NAS @ eTeknix
Well here we are again with this Samsung 840 EVO slow down issue cropping up here, there, and everywhere. The story for this one is so long and convoluted that I'm just going to kick this piece off with a walk through of what was happening with this particular SSD, and what was attempted so far to fix it:
The Samsung 840 EVO is a consumer-focused TLC SSD. Normally TLC SSDs suffer from reduced write speeds when compared to their MLC counterparts, as writing operations take longer for TLC than for MLC (SLC is even faster). Samsung introduced a novel way of speeding things up with their TurboWrite caching method, which adds a fast SLC buffer alongside the slower flash. This buffer is several GB in size, and helps the 840 EVO maintain fast write speeds in most typical usage scenarios, but the issue with the 840 EVO is not its write speed – the problem is read speed. Initial reviews did not catch this issue as it only impacted data that had been stagnant for a period of roughly 6-8 weeks. As files aged their read speeds were reduced, starting from the speedy (and expected) 500 MB/sec and ultimately reaching a worst case speed of 50-100 MB/sec:
There were other variables that impacted the end result, which further complicated the flurry of reports coming in from seemingly everywhere. The slow speeds turned out to be the result of the SSD controller working extra hard to apply error correction to the data coming in from flash that was (reportedly) miscalibrated at the factory. This miscalibration caused the EVO to incorrectly adapt to cell voltage drifts over time (an effect that occurs in all flash-based storage – TLC being the most sensitive). Ambient temperature could even impact the slower read speeds as the controller was working outside of its expected load envelope and thermally throttled itself when faced with bulk amounts of error correction.
An example of file read speed slowing relative to age, thanks to a tool developed by Techie007.
Once the community reached sufficient critical mass to get Samsung's attention, they issued a few statements and ultimately pushed out a combination firmware and tool to fix EVO's that were seeing this issue. The 840 EVO Performance Restoration Tool was released just under two months after the original thread on the Overclock.net forums was started. Despite a quick update a few weeks later, that was not a bad turnaround considering Intel took three months to correct a firmware issue of one of their own early SSDs. While the Intel patch restored full performance to their X25-M, the Samsung update does not appear to be faring so well now that users have logged a few additional months after applying their fix.
Continue reading our look at the continued problems with the Samsung 840 EVO SSD!
A Bit Off Topic: FCC Bans Wi-Fi Blocking
Subject: General Tech, Networking | January 27, 2015 - 08:45 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: wifi, FCC
Because blocking a person's mobile hotspot so you can charge them to use your Wi-Fi is a completely jerk thing to do. The FCC has just released a warning to any individuals, groups, or businesses considering these measures that blocking Wi-Fi is illegal. This follows the decision in October to fine Marriott, the hotel chain, $600,000 for blocking personal networks in a Tennessee location.
Now who's blowing the Raspberry?
Marriott, despite paying the fine, asked the commission to consider writing an official rule on this practice. They just did. It is illegal. The blocks of spectrum belonging to wireless internet are unlicensed, and thus no particular entity is apparently allowed to claim ownership over it, even in their geographic property.
It seems like a good decision to me, one that I cannot think of any immediate side-effects for, but this is one of those cases that a problem could be hiding in plain sight. What do you think? Am I missing something? Or is this a win for everyone (except those trying to block competing services)?
New MSI All In One PCs Powered By AMD Beema APUs
Subject: General Tech | January 23, 2015 - 12:56 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: msi, beema, APU, amd, all in one, AIO
MSI will soon release three new All In One PCs under its Adora and Entertainment series. The new PCs are powered by AMD's Beema APU and are aimed at light duty home computing and commercial applications respectively.
MSI AE200 5M and AE220 5M AIO PC
The AIOs are clad in a white plastic casing with a clear bezel surrounding the matte display. The Adora20 5M offers a 19.5" 1600 x 900 screen while the AE200 5M and AE220 5M feature a 19.5" 1600 x 900 and 21.5" 1920 x 1080 displays respectively. All the displays use MSI's anti flicker, blue light reduction, and optional anti-glare technologies to reduce eye strain. The panels are multi-touch capable as well.
As far as I/O, the AIOs have webcams, optical disc drives, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, analog audio in/out, and an SD card reader. All of the PCs support 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The Entertainment series PCs (AE200 5M and AE220 5M) further add a Mini-PCIe connection and a COM port on the back to support barcode scanners, card readers, and other legacy peripherals.
Internally, the PCs are powered by a low power AMD "Beema" APU, up to 8GB of DDR3L memory, and a single 2.5" SATA III hard drive or SSD. The Beema APUs in question are the AMD A4-6210 and E2-6110 with the Adora20 5M getting the latter chip. Both processors are 15W 28nm SoCs with four Puma+ x86 cores and discrete Radeon GCN graphics. The A4-6210 and E2-6110 are similarly configured but the A4-6210 has higher clockspeeds on the quad core CPU (up to 1.8GHz vs 1.5GHz) and 128 GCN graphics cores (600MHz vs 500MHz). Josh wrote up an article following the launch of Beema that goes into more details, but the gist of it is that Beema is competing with Intel's Bay Trail Atom chips in this area and the chips tend to trade benchmark wins. Depending on the application used under Windows 7/8.1, users should see roughly similar performance versus an Atom based system. I will admit to being surprised to see AMD get a design win here given the huge popularity of Bay Trail, but in this form factor Beema should do well.
Rear IO of the AE220 5M and AE200 5M PCs.
As is usually the case with these sort of announcements, there is no word on pricing or availability yet. Keep in mind that the AE200 5M and AE220 5M are aimed at businesses for use as kiosks, checkout terminals, product demonstrations, et al while the Adora20 5M is aimed more towards consumers who need a second PC or a primary PC for those with basic (mostly web-based or media playback focused) needs.
Lies, damned lies and statistics
Subject: General Tech | January 26, 2015 - 01:15 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: statistics, mtbf, hdd, backblaze
Backblaze is a moderately sized hosting company with about 40,000 disks set up in their own style of arrays called Storage Pods, which are open sourced so that you can build one yourself if you so desire. Every once and a while they put out reliability numbers for the HDDs that they use in their arrays; the newest report just arrived for your perusal. This is good as most reliability and market share studies are done by professional organizations which they tend to charge quite a bit for their findings as they do put a lot of effort into ensuring that their data is correct. Unfortunately that also means that most people do not have access to the information and make judgments based on incomplete or incorrect data. As The Register points out, 40,000 HDDs is a very small sample size compared to the market as a whole or even large hosting companies and so the data set you can see here may not be the best representation of the actual market failure rates projected from it may not be overly accurate. On the other hand it is nice to have any data, especially when you are provided with the actual sample size and a definition of failure. If you are really into the numbers game, spend some time researching the Mean Time Between Failure and Average Failure Rate and the ongoing debate on how to properly measure expected mortality rates among large drives.
"We're not entirely comfortable with cloud backup outfit Backblaze's data on disk drive reliability, but the company has just popped out another year's worth of analysis on which drives hang around longest. With due scepticism, let's have a look."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Hands-on With Windows 10's Preview Build 9926 @ Techgage
- SURPRISE! Microsoft pops open Windows 10 Preview build early @ The Register
- We Can't Wait to Try Leatherman's New Wearable @ MAKE:Blog
- Apple's iPhone 7 chip will reportedly be supplied by Samsung Electronics @ The Inquirer
- Tenda AV1000 Gigabit Powerline Adapter @ eTeknix
DirectX 12 Preview in New Windows 10 Build. No Drivers Yet.
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards | January 23, 2015 - 07:11 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: windows 10, microsoft, dx12, DirectX 12, DirectX
Microsoft has added DirectX 12 with the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview that was released today. Until today, DXDIAG reported DirectX 11 in the Windows 10 Technical Preview. At the moment, there has not been any drivers or software released for it, and the SDK is also no-where to be found. Really, all this means is that one barrier has been lifted, leaving the burden on hardware and software partners (except to release the SDK, that's still Microsoft's responsibility).
No-one needs to know how old my motherboard is...
Note: I have already experienced some issues with Build 9926. Within a half hour of using it, I suffered an instant power-down. There was not even enough time for a bluescreen. When it came back, my Intel GPU (which worked for a few minutes after the update) refused to be activated, along with the monitor it is attached to. My point? Not for production machines.
Update: Looks like a stick of RAM (or some other hardware) blew, coincidentally, about 30 minutes after the update finished, while the computer was running, which also confused my UEFI settings. I haven't got around to troubleshooting much, but it seems like a weirdly-timed, abrupt hardware failure (BIOS is only reporting half of the RAM installed, iGPU is "enabled" but without RAM associated to it, etc.).
The interesting part, to me, is how Microsoft pushed DX12 into this release without, you know, telling anyone. It is not on any changelog that I can see, and it was not mentioned anywhere in the briefing as potentially being in an upcoming preview build. Before the keynote, I had a theory that it would be included but, after the announcement, figured that it might be pushed until GDC or BUILD (but I kept an open mind). The only evidence that it might come this month was an editorial on Forbes that referenced a conversation with Futuremark, who allegedly wanted to release an update to 3DMark (they hoped) when Microsoft released the new build. I could not find anything else, so I didn't report on it -- you would think that there would be a second source for that somewhere. It turns out that he might be right.
The new Windows 10 Technical Preview, containing DirectX 12, is available now from the preview build panel. It looks like Futuremark (and maybe others) will soon release software for it, but no hardware vendor has released a driver... yet.
The Latest NVIDIA GeForce Drivers Are Here: Version 347.25 adds GTX 960 Support, MFAA to Most Games
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 23, 2015 - 11:09 PM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: nvidia, gtx 960, graphics drivers, graphics cards, GeForce 347.25, geforce, game ready, dying light
With the release of GTX 960 yesterday NVIDIA also introduced a new version of the GeForce graphics driver, 347.25 - WHQL.
NVIDIA states that the new driver adds "performance optimizations, SLI profiles, expanded Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing support, and support for the new GeForce GTX 960".
While support for the newly released GPU goes without saying, the expanded MFAA support will help provide better anti-aliasing performance to many existing games, as "MFAA support is extended to nearly every DX10 and DX11 title". In the release notes three games are listed that do not benefit from the MFAA support, as "Dead Rising 3, Dragon Age 2, and Max Payne 3 are incompatible with MFAA".
347.25 also brings additional SLI profiles to add support for five new games, and a DirectX 11 SLI profile for one more:
SLI profiles added
- Black Desert
- Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
- Nosgoth
- Zhu Xian Shi Jie
- The Talos Principle
DirectX 11 SLI profile added
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
The update is also the Game Ready Driver for Dying Light, a zombie action/survival game set to debut on January 27.
Much more information is available under the release notes on the driver download page, and be sure to check out Ryan's chat with Tom Peterson from the live stream for a lot more information about this driver and the new GTX 960 graphics card.
Hats and short term sales to the rescue in Greece?
Subject: General Tech | January 27, 2015 - 12:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: valve, greece, economics
In 2008 Gabe Newell contacted a Greek academic economist by the name of Yanis Varoufakis to see if he would be interested in consulting with Valve on how to create a successful shared economy as well as how to balance payments globally and between the real and virtual economies that Valve now has. He agreed and among other things started a Valve Economist blog which you can start reading here and which shows that he did contribute far more than just hats and the dreaded Steam Sale. In what seems at first to be a rather bizarre turnaround in his career Yanis has gone from author, blogger and Valve consultant to being appointed the Finance Minister of his home country of Greece. A closer look at his bona fides provide a good explanation, as he has been focused on how European economies interact since before the beginning of the economic downturns and austerity measures in countries like Greece. Follow the previous links for a look at what he has accomplished or if you prefer, head to Slashdot for more hat jokes.
"A turnover in the Greek government resulted from recent snap elections placing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) in power — just shy of an outright majority by two seats. Atheist, and youngest Prime Minister in Greek history since 1865, Alexis Tsipras has been appointed the new prime minister and begun taking immediate drastic steps against the recent austerity laws put in place by prior administrations. One such step has been to appoint Valve's economist Yanis Varoufakis to position of Finance Minister of Greece."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- University's Virtual Reality Setup Runs on Linux and Open Source Software @ Linux.com
- How to get Cortana working on Windows 10 preview in the UK @ The Inquirer
- Ubisoft Revokes Digital Keys For Games Purchased Via Unauthorised Retailers @ Slashdot
- Linux chaps want to recycle your mobe as a supercomputer @ The Register
- iControl Networks Piper Smart Home Security System Review @ NikKTech
- IBM to cut '118k jobs worldwide' – report claims
- Tech ARP 2015 Mega Giveaway
Report: AMD Godavari CPU Lineup Leaked - New APUs and Athlon X4 Processors
Subject: Processors | January 29, 2015 - 10:41 AM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: rumor, processors, Kaveri, Godavari, cpu, Athlon X4, APU, amd
VR-Zone has published a report with a detailed slide showing upcoming AMD Godavari processors, and the updated lineup includes 12 new models.
The release schedule indicates a spring availability for most of the new APUs, with the Athlon X4 850 and 870K shipping in May. The APU line gets a new flagship desktop part with the A10-8850K, and this appears to be a higher-clocked version of the A10-7850K, with a 100MHz higher boost clock (4.1 GHz vs. 4.0 GHz) and a higher GPU clock of 856 MHz (vs. 720 MHz).
Of particular interest for the potential budget quad-core buyer is the Athlon X4 870K, a new 95W part which would presumably replace the X4 860K - a processor that has seen inconsistent availability (and is currently unavailable on Newegg). With more games being released that require a quad-core to run, these sub-$100 Athlon CPUs present a great value in constructing a low-cost gaming system these days.
The slide does not indicate a change in the 28nm process from Kaveri, and it should be safe to assume these will not represent a significant architectural change. The modest clock increases from Kaveri will result in some performance gains, and this is good for consumers assuming these will sell at the same price points as the outgoing models.
Tired of patching Flash? You might not need to worry as much anymore
Subject: General Tech | January 28, 2015 - 01:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: youtube, google, flash, html5
Youtube has finally ditched Flash as the default player for video in Chrome, Internet Explorer 11 and Safari 8. If you use the beta builds of Firefox you will also be provided HTML5 video by default but as of yet the official release will still be playing Flash videos. The adaptive bitrate which HTML5 can handle, without the use of plugins, could reduce buffering by 50% in a normal situation and up to 80% on congested networks according to the information which was given to The Inquirer. As well the VP9 Codec can provide a stream at 35% less bandwidth than Flash which makes 4K and 60fps videos start much faster. Flash is not yet dead and you can revert back to it, if you want to play Snake while your video is loading.
"GOOGLE'S YOUTUBE video portal has made the switch to HTML5 as a default renderer, marking yet another milestone in the downfall of the Adobe Flash format."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Another day, yet another emergency Adobe Flash patch. Because that's how we live now @ The Register
- Ghost in the Linux machine hits Debian, Red Hat and Ubuntu @ The Inquirer
- Horrifying iPhone sales bring Apple $18bn net profit A QUARTER @ The Register
- IBM details PowerPC microserver aimed at square kilometre array @ The Register
Taking the HoloLens with a grain of salt
Subject: General Tech | January 23, 2015 - 01:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: windows 10, microsoft, hololens
That fancy black visor was not what was provided to those lucky few who were invited to try out the HoloLens after the WinX presentation. The working model consists of straps and an adjustable headband holding the lenses all enclosed within a wire frame to which is attached an external enclosure holding the battery and processors. There were four different experiments to try, including the Minecraft looking demo we saw on stage and a virtual Mars experience using the data captured by Curiosity. We won't be seeing the slick model demonstrated on stage any time soon but the technology is solid and was enough to convince The Register that Microsoft has an incredible product in store for us.
"During Wednesday's Windows 10 preview day, select groups of hacks were stripped of any recording devices or cameras and sent down into the bowels of Building 92 of Microsoft's Redmond campus to try out the HoloLens, the software giant's new "hologramatic" wearable."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Microsoft Office for Windows 10 detailed with Office 2016 to follow @ The Inquirer
- Install Windows 10 Preview From A Flash Drive @ Bjorn3d
- Is Windows RT not invited to Windows 10 upgrade party? @ The Register
- LEAKED: Samsung's iPHONE 6 KILLER... the Samsung Galaxy S6 @ The Register
- Project Zero's vigilantism is harming Google's 'Don't Be Evil' buzz @ The Inquirer
- Win two ASUS Strix OC GTX 960′s with Nvidia and KitGuru
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Courtesy of Primochill
The Wet Bench open-air test bench is Primochill's premier case offering. This acrylic-based enclosure features an innovative design allowing for easy access to the motherboard and PCIe cards without the hassle of removing case panels and mounting screws associated with a typical case motherboard change out. With a starting MSRP of $139.95, the Wet Bench is priced competitively in light of the configurability and features offered with the case.
Courtesy of Primochill
Courtesy of Primochill
The Wet Bench is unique in its design - Primochill built it to support custom water cooling solutions from the ground up. The base kit supports mounting the water cooling kit's radiator to the back plate, up to a 360mm size (supporting 3x120mm fans). Primochill also offers an optional backplate with support for up to a 480mm radiator (supporting up to 4x120mm fans).
Continue reading our review of the Primochill Wet Bench kit!
The Reeven Steropes cooler is flat as a pancake
Subject: Cases and Cooling | January 23, 2015 - 06:54 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: reeven, steropes, low profile, air cooling
The Reeven heatsink stands a mere 125x60x129 mm and weighs barely over a pound even with the included fan installed. This will be perfect for an incredibly thin system and with its small foot print it won't interfere with your RAM as it is not big enough to overhang the DIMMs on most boards. This will by necessity reduce the cooling capabilities as you can see in techPowerUp's testing with an i7-4770K. For those looking for a tiny system that is not going to be an issue and at full speed the fan doesn't reach more than 47dBA so it is also good for those who desire quiet as well as small size. This one is worth checking out if you are looking at this type of build.
"Reveen looks to impress with their small-form-factor friendly Steropes low-profile CPU cooler. At just 60 mm tall, this diminutive cooler may lack size, but it certainly doesn't lack style. Offering solid performance and low noise, it might be just what you need for a SFF or HTPC."
Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
- be quiet! Pure Rock CPU Cooler Review @HiTech Legion
- DeepCool GamerStorm Captain 240 All-in-One Liquid CPU Cooler @ Modders-Inc
- Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO CPU @ eTeknix
- Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 mATX/mITX PC Case Review @ NikKTech
- Thermaltake Core V21 Stackable Micro-ATX Chassis @ eTeknix
- Lian Li PC-T80 Modular Test Bench Chassis @ eTeknix
- Raijintek Metis Mini-ITX Aluminum Chassis @ eTeknix
- Corsair Carbide 330R Titanium Edition Review @ OCC
Mow the lawn or enjoy the Internet we grew up with, kid
Subject: General Tech | January 29, 2015 - 01:17 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vexbox, Kickstarter, 56k
The VexBox will bring tears to the eyes of parents and children, though only for the parents will they be tears of joy. It is a device being Kickstarted which will connect to your main router and provide a separate connection, both wired and wireless, to the devices you assign to it. You can then throttle the connection when you feel it is needed, all the way down to 56K modem speeds while leaving your connection unaffected. You will need to have a tiny bit more technical savvy than your children, if they can guess your password or the main router password then obviously they can circumvent the VexBox but as long as you can manage to keep a step ahead you can slow your internet down for anyone that isn't living up to your expectations. The KickStarter is here, one of their stretch goals is to be able to limit speeds depending on the URL being accessed so that actual online research can be performed at full speed. You will also need to block or confiscate 4G devices to avoid excess data charges if attempts are made to circumvent the VexBox. Join The Inquirer and "retro enthusiasts and people of a certain age" in bringing this beautiful device to the market.
"You can't shut kids in cupboards under the stairs these days, as it just leads to Harry Potter fantasies. So parents have had to come up with new ways of getting someone to mow the lawn."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- The TR Podcast 169 video: Win10, Elon's musk, and the gimpy GTX 970
- Intel launches 5th-gen Core vPro chips for the wireless office of the future @ The Inquirer
- Embedded Development with ARM mbed on Linux @ The Inquirer
- Boffin finds formula for four-year-five-nines disk arrays @ The Register
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CPU dumped from flagship smartphone @ The Register
- Linksys WRT1900AC AC1900 Smart Wi-Fi Wireless Router Review @ NikKTech
- [Tech ARP] The Samsung NX1 Masterclass Event by Yaman Ibrahim
A beautiful and quiet water cooled gaming machine
Subject: General Tech | January 26, 2015 - 03:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: swiftech, MCP655 PWM, VisionTek, CryoVenom R9 290 LE, phanteks, Enthoo Luxe
Pictured below is a VisionTek R9 290 using a watercooler custome designed by EK Water Blocks for a limited edition of CryoVenom R9 290 LE and gives this build some serious GPU power. As this system build is being done by Silent PC Review a generic pump is not going to cut the mustard and instead they chose the Swiftech MCP655 PWM for its low noise while operating. To cool off the i7-4790K a VisionTek/EK Supremacy waterblock was chosen as IK produces very high quality parts. To house the build a Phanteks Enthoo Luxe was chosen for it space and the ease of installing a radiator as well as its clean overall design. Check out the full build over at SPCR.
"Our seventh article in this season's new quiet gaming PC build guide series is our first complete discrete liquid cooled system, featuring the VisionTek CryoVenom R9 290 Limited Edition Graphics Card. This 450W beast of a system gets tamed to a cool, soft purr."
Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
- Journey to a Silent MicroATX @ Silent PC Review
- ECS LIVA-X Mini PC (Intel N2808) @ techPowerUp
- Quiet mini-ITX Gaming Build Guide #3: BitFenix Prodigy Edition @ Silent PC Review
- Gigabyte BRIX S BXi5H-5200 @ Kitguru
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Off-Season Upgrades
Sorry for the downtime but we are currently upgrading Vikings Territory to a new and improved version of itself. We will be down Friday, January 24th to Sunday, January 26th. Thanks for being patient. Come back Monday morning to check out the new digs!


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Her funeral services will be Saturday, February 23, 2013, at 11 a.m. at New Horizon International Church, 1704 Ellis Avenue, Jackson. Interment will be in Garden Memorial Park, 8000 Hwy 49 North, Jackson.
Annette is the daughter of Frank and Irene Williams of Bolivar County.
She is survived by her daughter, Shemeeka Roberts; six brothers, Willie Lee, Danny, Andy, Harvey, Billy, Jackie Williams; and two sisters, Mildred Harris and Shirley Gibbs.


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Diversity Mini-Grants available
Diversity Grants are awarded by the Diversity Council to UNI projects and events that enhance awareness of and education about issues of diversity at UNI. Diversity Grants align with the definition, mission and vision of diversity at UNI. Anyone enrolled at UNI or working at the institution may apply for up to $1,500 to support diversity-related projects and initiatives. For more information or to access the application, please click here.
NISG creates Diversity Matters Fund for student organizations
The Diversity Matters Fund was created to provide a new, unique and flexible funding source to collaborating UNI student organizations, and to supplement those monies already available from other sources.
Update your International Profile:
Faculty and staff are invited to update the international field in the Professional Interest Database. This database allows the campus community to search for faculty and staff with certain interest or expertise in a county or geographical location. To add, delete or edit your information, email email@example.com.
Upcoming Event:
Veteran's Week: Novemeber 10-November 14
*Check the Diversity Calendar to see a list of events to take place during this week!
Congratulations to the 2014 Diversity Matters Award Winners
Front row, from left: Paul Sapp, Samantha Swanson, Nick Sullivan and Victoria DeFrancisco.
Back row, from left: President Bill Ruud, Gloria Gibson, Kathy Green, Bryant Dowd, Alicia Jessip, Keynote Speaker Regina Dixon-Reeves, and Chair of the Diversity Council and Vice President for Student Affairs Terry Hogan.
Winners of the Diversity Matters Award were announced on January 22 at the Sixth Annual Diversity Town Hall. Award winners were:
- Bryant Dowd, Record Analyst, Office of Admissions
- Kathy Green, Director, University Health Services
- Alicia Jessip, Senior, communication studies and Spanish major
- Victoria Pruin DeFrancisco, Professor, Department of Communication Studies; and Diversity Fellow in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost
- Gloria Gibson, Executive Vice President and Provost
- Paul Sapp, Transfer Student Coordinator, Office of Admissions
- Nick Sullivan, Director, Student Support Services
- Samantha Swanson, Sophomore, elementary education major
UNI makes "Best for Vets"
Military Times has announced that UNI is among those institutions chosen for its Best for Vets: Colleges 2014 rankings.
The organization comprising Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times placed a new emphasis on academic rigor this year when conducting and scoring the fourth annual Best for Vets: Colleges survey, a highly respected 150-question analysis of a school's complete offerings for veterans.
Best for Vets provides service men and women a gauge by which to judge whether a school or degree program will truly benefit them. The rankings factored in service member enrollment, percentage of tuition covered by the GI Bill, and availability of specific programs to help service members. The extensive evaluation process also factored in statistics commonly used to track student success and academic quality, including student loan default rates, retention rates, graduation rates and student-faculty ratio.


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How time flies! September 24, 2012 marks ten years since the release of Iron & Wine's debut album, 'The Creek Drank The Cradle,' and what a ride it has been! A hearty thanks to all of the fans and those that have listened to the music, especially the entire Sub Pop family.
To celebrate, we're offering the download of the song, "Carissa's Wierd," previously only available on a bonus 7" vinyl when 'Creek...' was released.
If you aren't familiar with 'Creek...,' and it's home-recorded sound, the musical encyclopedia that is Mike McGonigal had this to say about the album.
"Iron & Wine is Sam Beam, a back-porch Florida singer-songwriter whose sad little songs pack a helluva wallop. Beam's immediately likable tunes paint such clear pictures that songs like "Southern Anthem" and "Muddy Hymnal" are more akin to short stories by Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor than to your average pop ditty. Recorded in his living room on a vintage four-track, 'The Creek Drank the Cradle' co-stars cassette hiss, ambient room sound, and Beam himself. A stripped-down, one-man band, Beam contributes delicious Delta-flavored slide guitar, passable banjo, and deliriously beautiful harmonizing. Beam's melt-in-your-head-but-not-in-your-ears voice is instantly recognizable..." --Mike McGonigal (Amazon)
"The Creek Drank The Cradle' is sale priced this week via Sub Pop Mailorder ($8 CD / $8 LP), Iron & Wine Mailorder ($8 CD / $8 LP), and iTunes ($7.99 U.S.).
Thanks for listening and the support!


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The Colts swept the Strider Academy Rams in a District 2-A doubleheader, winning the first game 16-0 and the nightcap 17-0. Bayou improved to 9-2 with a 5-0 mark in the district. Neither game made it past the third inning.
"We came out focused from the first pitch," Bayou head coach Will Reed said. "Our pitchers hammered the strike zone and our hitters made good contact. Once we got on top, we stayed on them."
In the first game, the Colts took advantage of mistake committed by the Rams. Strider's pitchers walked eight batters and hit another while the defense committed three errors in the field. Bayou also stroked two solid hits in the inning. Trevor Runnels roped a three-run triple, and Parker Hudson stroked a RBI-triple. When the inning finally came to a close after sending 19 batters to the plate, the Colts held a 14-0 lead heading into the second inning.
In the bottom of the second, Bayou went back to work again as Chantz Arbuckle roped a lead-off single, while Runnels reached on an error by the second baseman. The next batter, Hudson, tagged a single that scored Arbuckle and Runnels to make the score 16-0 with no outs. After Runnels scored, the games was called as Bayou picked up the victory.
Tyler Kitchings gave up two hits and a walk with three strikeouts in the two-inning complete game. Hudson led Bayou at the plate with two hits and three RBIs, followed by Runnels with a hit and three runs and Michael Portner and Arbuckle with a hit and two runs each.
In the second game, the Colts picked up where they left off as they scored 10 runs in the first and a seven runs in the second. Kitchings towed the rubber again and picked up his second win of the day by giving up just one hit with three strikeouts and no walks. Arbuckle closed the game out by striking out three batters and walking one over a hitless inning of work.
Tanner Johnson led the Colts at the plate with two doubles and two RBIs, followed by Kitchings and Cole Hutchinson with two hits each.


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Silk stripe bowtie
Material: 100% Silk
Care: Dry Clean
Brand: Alton Lane
Origin: United States
Former financiers Colin Hunter and Peyton Jenkins founded Alton Lane in order to permanently change the ways men shop for clothing. An ambitious goal, you might say — but totally within reach for this dynamic designing duo. Raised in Virginia, Hunter and Jenkins hope to inspire a "tailored apparel revolution" by creating high-quality and high-tech men's custom dress shirts, suits, silky ties, and other workwear essentials. Men who visit Alton Lane's showrooms in NYC, Washington, D.C. or Boston can be measured by one of the company's cutting-edge 3-D body scanners and order made-to-fit tuxedos, overcoats, blazers and pants. The brand also invites prospective customers to send their favorite garments to its NYC headquarters and have their new Alton Lane clothing altered to those measurements.