Boy, did I score an absolute killing at Carousell. The Nikon L830. Now people sell that set at 300 SGD for the body. But she quoted me a good price and the bundle which I will share later. I tested it when checking before paying and it works including the crucial card slot. With that I will be ready in time for the Canon Marathon on the 21st August. But here's the bundle.
Nikon Coolpix L830 Body
Nikon Lens Cap
8GB SD Class 10 Card
SD Card USB Adapter
Large Nikon Coolpix Grey Carrying Pouch for the Camera
Smaller Nikon grey pouch for cards and other small accessories
AA Batteries
Travel Tripod
USB Cable, nice to have a second one since it's a proprietary cable.
An excellent value find I must definitely say.
The most distinct difference between the L820 and the L830 that you'll notice is the popped out screen. The screen on the L830 can be adjusted and swiveled, which is handy if you're facing the camera from a high angle and you need to see what you're doing.
The L830 looks similar to the L820 with the distinct
difference being the adjustable screen.
The image / Video qualities of the camera are very similar to each other. The only other diff is that the L830 has improved zoom at 34X as compared to 30X.
Other updates include:
L830 capable of 1:1 Photo Aspect Ratio at 3456 pixel Square.
Ability to fiddle around the exposure as needed.
Added 2s Self-timer option.
Increased resolution options for Movie recording and support for NTSC 25/50 fps Recording.
Now even if the camera is an ounce heavier than its predecessor, it's still sufficiently light to be carried with one hand.
Now I loved the L820 if not for the dead memory slot and thank you to YouTuber LMull3 for delving to this point and shoot camera. And this was an awesome value find too. Since everybody else was selling the Camera from 300 bucks up to the ceiling of 370. So for up to 150 cheaper than any other dealers from Carousell, I got a worthy replacement for the L820.
IMAGE QUALITY
The Coolpix L800 series has been a good value line as far as a general use point and shoot cameras are concern and the L830 along with the L840 are no exception.
Now here are some samples. The quality is very similar to the L820. Just a general info, each photograph at the highest 16 Megapixel Quality is 6.5 Megabytes, which is quite heavy for a camera. So at the very least a bare minimum of a 8GB SD Card but I recommend 16GB - 32GB if you can afford it if you want to take a bunch. However if you're clearing your card every time and you want to keep your photoes as an archive, do sign for Flickr for a massive Terabyte will be made available to store your photoes there.
To test the Zoom, I Zoomed using the Close Up mode. Starting with the Optical Zoom then the Digital Zoom towards that flag. The zoom is not bad at all.
Having taken some pictures already, especially with that working Memory Card slot, I'm ready for an upcoming photograph marathon in a couple weeks. If you want the images, go check my Flickr Webpage.
I was made aware of this camera, by YouTube User Lmull3 / Luke Muller who replaced his Philips CAM110 Pocket Camcorder as a result of a shot battery. And he enjoyed his Nikon L820. And for the price, it's a solid point and shoot camera with only the Focus being the noticeable complaint. It has 30x Optical Zoom which is so much better than all my phones / cameras which all rely on digital zoom for long range shots. It's not the best among the Nikon Coolpix series, but it'll still be a whole lot better than the Galaxy S4 that I use.
Impressions:
Impressions on this camera were promising and for the last 2 months, I've been having a blast with it. Ever since my fellow Music aficionados / Biker Besties from Holy Fam got me into photography as a hobby, rather than a professional, this has been my primary camera.
L820: 30x 16MP Nikkor Lens 16 MP.
Two ways to operate the T/W Zooms: One around the shutter switch for your right hand or the T/W Rocker next to the
Lens for your left hand whichever way you prefer.
It works with both Windows and Macintosh (both of which are easy to grab photoes from). On the windows you can simply go to the DCIM folder and drag the photos out as you normally would from a Thumbdrive. Macintosh would require you to use the iPhoto to get these out but you can choose to import whichever ones you want and you can see the preview of your library of photos at one glance. The importing to Macintosh rather than windows is my preferred one.
It comes with a generous 65 Megs of Memory, which is enough for a dozen 16MP Max Quality Shots, 33 8MP Shots and up to a minute of 720p Video.
The camera does have some heft to it but it's not heavy. Its grip is solidly grippy enough to hold one-handed. Auto-Focus is a bit iffy as said by LMull3, but I normally prefer to switch to a dedicated mode for a much better focus. And the Flash helps that.... A LOT.
Sample Photographs:
Now below are some photos that I did since getting it. And I did want to test how much I can push the camera. Just on Sunday 26th July 2015, one of my uncles came by to do an in-house wedding photoshoot at home. So while Dad was using one of the big boys, the Nikon D7000 DSLR that he has as a primary camera, I was using this. My uncle gladly obliged to do my own set to see how it goes. Now how it stacked up against each other was surprisingly admirably quite close to a DSLR quality camera even for a sub 150 SGD Camera.
Now I am not, at any stretch, a professional photographer and you all know me as a musician. So any tips on how to improve my shots are welcomed. That said my uncle was surprised how good even the shots from the L820 turned out.
Meanwhile enjoy some of the photos.
Patio Shot
Shot of the Table which had some of the things the camera was shipped with: The Black Pouch, Proprietary USB Cable,
mini HDMI to Composite, 3100mAH AA Batteries from Xit, (4 in the Camera, 2 in reserve)
Kitchen Shot
Shot from my Bedroom.
Singapore Esplanade Lighting: Taken during one of my Mahler 8th Rehearsals with the Vocal Associates
And the Orchestra of the Music Makers. That was by far probably my best shot till date.
Panoramic shot from my standing position.
Full Moon shot with the Lens Optically Zoomed in at 30X
Superzoom: Close Up Mode = 30X Optical + 30X Digital is about 60X Zoom.
The specs of the GTX 950 whether confirmed or not, is set to battle out with the R7 370 and will replace the 750 / 750 Ti. All these cards within this bracket are perfect as a budget mid-range card and potential HTPC and console killer builds. Only confirmed fact is that rather than basing on the GM107 Core, the GTX 950 will use the same GM206 Core found on the 960. Although nVidia has been successful with the GTX 750 Ti which proved to be enough for budget gaming at 1080p, the 950 is a large update that will replace the 750 and might even beat out the 750 Ti. Now Specs-wise, the leaked specifications are as follows, and here's a quick comparison table between the GM107 based GTX 750, 750 Ti and the upcoming 950.
My guess that the GTX 950 will be around 50% faster than the 750 it will replace and it'll have more power
headroom with an extra 150W from the 8 pin PCI-E.
Now already, the specs shown to be a hot replacement for both GM107 based cards. The GTX 950 will have an 8-pin PCI-E port compared to some having a 6-pin or most of it, none. You have a total of 225 Watts of TDP to play with which is massively overkill but to me, that's no bummer because for 2 reasons. There'd be enough Headroom for overclocking and the other reason is to provide enough juice and power stability when the card is running at full tilt.
Something I'm looking out for whether the card will run SLI. It'll be nice if it can.
It has been reported that nVidia started slashing prices of the GTX 750 Ti / 750 as they'll probably clear out stocks for the 950 release. So those who have been running old 550 Tis, 650, 650 Tis, you have a choice of waiting out for a GTX 950 or go for the cheaper GTX 750 Ti before stocks run dry. Not sure whether a Ti version of the 950 will be released with 3GB of Memory, 896 Cores and hopefully a 192-bit bus. That I doubt nVidia is gonna do that unless pending on reviews.
Today we review easily the smallest and possibly the cutest gaming computer that I have ever graced in my life. The Gigabyte AMD Brix Gaming, specifically the BXA8G-8890. This is practically represents the limit in smallest available form factor that can squeeze gaming grade components. Now I know this is not the only Small form HTPC based PC, there are others like the ASRock VisionX (with a Radeon R9 M270X and the older Radeon 7850M), Zotac EN760M/860M with GeForce GTX 860M and 960M, but this is basically as small as it gets and IMO the most practical of the whole lot.
This model was marketed by Cyberpower PC and I liked the dark grey scheme a LOT more than the red one by Gigabyte by Default as it will match most color themes of your room and your TV / Monitors and will not stick out the way red does.
Gigabyte is no stranger to the BRIX line. They have manufactured numerous models and types. The Brix went as small as a basic one with a i5 5200U Broadwell, to a Quad-Core i7 4770R with Hyperthreading and Iris Pro Graphics. Only 3 were contenders for gaming, this one, the 4770R (but the Iris Pro can't do too much either) and the model with a full desktop GTX 760, which proved to be a HORRIBLE idea.
First Look:
Unboxing of Cyberpower PC's rebranding of the AMD Brix reveals very simple stuff.
There was supposed to be a bag of screws for the VESA mount but I think I lost em' lol.
The Box contained the Manual, Utility Disk which really is not needed, VESA Mount, the power brick (on the right). The cable on the left is for the US wall socket. However, finding a compatible attachment for the UK, HK and Singapore's Wall socket is no problem. I happened to have tonne of cables that uses the Mickey Mouse head plugged into the Brick and have the appropriate 3 Pins for our Power Socket from all the old Laptop Chargers used for the Fujitsu Lifebook E8210.
Now synopsis was that initially prior to the Pentium G3258 Machine I built for my brother, I wanted to build a AMD system on the idea as a scrapyard wars recently as a small bedside computer with an mATX or mITX board. I was thinking along the lines of a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and the Radeon 5850 which is still in service in the G3258. I had been wanting an AMD system for a whole year now. But when I saw this on eBay going for so cheap, I knew I had to have it as it was within that budget I was targeting to spend for the AMD Build and this was a lot more practical too. So that said, I finally fulfilled that project a year later.
Now I purchased this as it was only at 470 USD on eBay including importing and shipping. A Fully assembled one and laptops with that GPU will be twice as expensive. I know it only had 2 gigs of RAM and one 120GB SSD but these can be swapped out either for upgrades or replacements should either part goes bad. In all honesty, this is how otherwise a MacBook Pro should have been, ease of upgrades. For that sort of money, factoring in Windows 8.1, I really can't say no to that and the form factor of it makes it awesome.
S4 vs the Brix in terms of size.
If the size reminds you of something, the length and depth is very similar to a NUC only taller. Tiny she is, it's like a toy. As you can see, the unit in comparison to the size of my Samsung Galaxy S4 along with some things around it, including a bottle and a Brother Printer and the AOC E2250SWDN Monitor that is being driven by that, it's so Cute! Easily, one of the cutest Brick Computers in existence. But don't let it fool you. It packs some respectable hardware. And despite the size, it is real hefty and weighty. But it is still way within how we can call portable.
Size Comparisons to all my Computers I have: In terms of gaming, the BRIX is the smallest, but ranked 2nd of my
rigs that I use to game with in terms of raw GPU power.
Ports:
Small enough to be held in my hand.
The assortment of ports is good. 4 USB 3.0s (2 front, 2 back) is the ideal number. HDMI and miniDisplay are your display outputs. The latter natively supports my Apple Thunderbolt - DVI adapter out of the box.
Front: 2 USB 3.0, Headphone Jack
Back (L to R): Power Jack, HDMI, mini Display, Gigabit Ethernet
2 USB 3.0
Honestly having a VGA / DVI Port will be very nice, but mini Display-Port and HDMI seems okay I guess, since the mini Display Port fully supports the Apple Mini Display / Thunderbolt to the DVI Adapter no problem. Nonetheless, 4 USB 3.0 ports is practically the perfect number of USB 3.0s to have. Only complaint is the unsightly amounts of cables that will result. But hey, I'll pick functionality than it looking pretty anytime. Also, having an additional Audio Jack at the back for a microphone will also be nice, especially if you need to have headphones plugged in with your audio output device at the same time.
Upgrades:
Having a removable base allows some maintenance and upgrades. Taking it off requires the 4 screws to be taken off the feet before it could be removed. For me, one of the screws was awful jammed in there so I had to take the feet out before I used my pliers for the best grip and least effort to take it out. Apart from that, removal of the base gives you access to the RAM Modules, mSATA slot and the 2.5" Drive Caddy. Currently the caddy is populated with a Kingston 120GB SSD. Of course with the base out you can dust and clean the BRIX with little complaint. And because this machine really depends on as-little-as-possible dust for thermal management with such hardware in there, I recommend doing so ever so often when you have time.
First Boot:
I did run into a little snag with regards to the memory, since the memory stick I shoved in there is of the 1.5V Voltage type. The machine uses DDR3 Low Voltage 1.35V RAM, which was why it was why POST Message was complaining. But you can skip the setup prompt and I was able to proceed to boot it with all 6 Gigs of RAM in, just have to keep skipping that prompt on every boot. And I checked the EFI BIOS and it does see all 6, and so did windows. But the first thing I did was to turn the mode from Operation to Turbo Mode on the BIOS first because I heard performance can be hampered quite a lot as Op Mode will limit max Clocks to 1.8-2.1 GHz. Turning on Turbo will greatly increase the clocks to the specced speed of 3.1 and it will noticeably improve performance.
Speaking of Windows, it does boot the OS really snappy despite the Low Power of the APU but it's partly because of the Kingston SSD it has on it. Boots up fast, shuts down fast. This comes with Windows 8.1 install which is actually a good place for me to see how the OS environment feels like. I used Windows 7 and 10 TP but not Windows 8/8.1. So now at least I'm finally using the missing puzzle of all Microsoft OSes all the way since Windows 3.11. Got Start 8 App for the Start Menu (which is obvious in the screenie below).
I really appreciate that the CyberpowerPC's branding of the BRIX doesn't use nearly any bloatware at all. Drivers are of course needed online, but this way I can customize how I really want to set this thing up. Wireless speeds are abit sluggish, partly however due to where I placed it. But it does work well enough for what I use the machine for.
Storage: Kingston V300 SSDNow
120GB is tiny... just as small as my MacBook Pro. However I'm glad there's at least a decent (however aging) SSD as a nice boot drive. No system that I have right now, runs a mechanical Hard Drive as my operating drive. All 4 systems I have use SSDs as boot with others as secondary. But if I need more, that's where the upgrading features comes in. If I want to populate the mSATA Slot, I can in the future, with another 120GB. So really, in all fairness, this is really a desktop version of my Aftershock X11 but with expandable storage.
Machine Uses:
Being small and so portable allows the users to bring it along elsewhere, so long if the area has a monitor / TV to plug into. The form factor makes it a Great LAN Party machine. And in a HTPC environment, the bigger your TV and the more powerful your sound system is, the better. Just plug in your HDMI or mini Display port or adapters that you have to a compatible monitor / TV and away you go. This class of computers can also fall in the class as a STEAM Machine.
And of course if your desk or workspace is really limited this will fit just fine plonked on your desk or behind your screen.
Gaming on the BRIX:
The R9 M275X is based on the Radeon 8890M which is a heavy 200 Mhz overclock to the 8870M. There aren't any official pages of the 8890M so I assume from the Gigabyte Product page that it is the 8890M rebranded. This GPU is based on the GCN architecture but primarily based on the old Cape Verde Chip and with the same Core Config as a Radeon 7770. The Radeon 7770 and 8890M are almost near identical, with the 7770 only being 75 MHz faster than the 8890M. That said, the APU might pose as a bottleneck to the system, bringing the performance closer to the GTX 550 Ti. To me, that's good enough for many of the older titles that I often play on my MacBook Pro and it'll sure perform a lot better than the Iris 5100 that I've been playing on the last couple of months.
And it shows, Diablo III easing its way through at full maximum settings at 1920 x 1080 at a comfortable 40 FPS, and with places maintaining my VSync fps at 60. And somehow, stuttering is far less apparent here than on my GTX 970 SLI desktop though it runs at 200+ fps or 60 with VSync all the time. Path of Exile somehow uses the 8550G unless I force the switchable graphics but it still works alright though. Dota 2 is absolutely fine at full settings at full 1080p.
Below is Diablo 3 running at Full Maximum HD settings. No problem.
Which goes to say, basically MMOs, RPGs and MOBAs, the Gaming BRIX fits its bill just fine.
Metro Last Light:
Did quite a few runs within my current bedside configuration at 1440 x 900p. As long as you turn tessellation off which hits the performance hard, High Settings on 900p is possible. Already this extremely demanding benchmark brings any high end GPU to its knees, let alone a GPU specced similarly to a Radeon 7770.
720p Medium with Tessellation: Just short of 30 fps.
720p 16:9 without Tessellation - Medium
720p 16:9 without Tessellation - High
1440 x 900 in my current Bedside Monitor - Medium
1440 x 900p: High
I did go straight to 1080p test after swapping out to my Philips 222 EL. And still playable. Seems the game is poorly optimized for the BRIX on lower resolutions as we can still play in 1080p but the frame rate isn't that much higher on 720p and 900p. Just don't know why.
3DMark Benchmarks:
I ran the full suite except FS Ultra which really is not needed since it's not meant to be a high end machine. But 3D Mark Fire Strike scores surprisingly well, to my surprise. The score of 2316 and a GPU Score of 2820 is not something to be scoffed at. This score brings it in league with a GTX 670MX and a GTX 765M, excellent. I was actually not expecting this. The scores owes a bit of gratitude by setting the BIOS to Turbo though.
A Respectable Score on Fire Strike for the GPU especially.
Fire Strike Extreme: Not bad scores really.
However, while the GPU scores extremely well for the following, here's this, the Physics. While the APU is a Quad-Core, most APUs won't come close to even Dual Core i3s and i5s. And of course, due to heat, it will thermal throttle when it's under the heavy usage scenario. For that, the APU is what really bogged down physics performance. General work is okay, but not ideal for applications that require the use of heavy physics. That said though, physics aside, the GPU performance scores are surprisingly high across all the 3DMark Benchmarks (Save FS Extreme / Ultra), especially scoring exactly the same as a Radeon 7770 for Cloud Gate and Fire Strike. (According to Notebookcheck.net)
A less intensive and more forgiving Benchmark for Mid Ranged PCs. The R9 M275X scored a respectable
over 9500 for the Graphics scored. Notebookcheck doesn't really run this particular benchmark at all.
Cloud Gate scores. The GPU scored really well here but is heavily bogged by the relatively weak APU
despite being a quad Core.
Catzilla and GPU Switching:
Ran into a snag and abnormally when I first ran the test initially scoring low till I forced the Maximum Performance on CCC. The 720p test with the 8550G scored a measly 1800+. After manually dedicating full GPUs for the App, scores are a lot more acceptable. As aging as Catzilla is, it is still good for those low end GPUs. But that said, the automatic GPU switching from AMD needs to be reworked.
PassMark 3D Graphics Benchmark:
Another program that needs to Force the GPU on. The Graphics test initially scored a super low of 717, that was until I forced the BRIX to run on the maximum settings and eventually scored 2028 and places the GPU to where I expected it to be, trading blows with the GTX 550 Ti on the 3D Benchmarks. The Baseline is recorded however as the 8550G as its default GPU.
CPU Bencharks: Cinebench R15
We're starting to see an increasing trend of the weak APU that really doesn't need much more complaints than it already has. This benchmark is more representative of how balanced your computer is and it's already obvious on how big a bottleneck the APU is.
Geekbench:
Outside of Windows, the APU is relatively a weak Processing Unit, as seen by the Geekbench results below. The single core score of 1668 was far off than the general baseline average of 2500. Multicore didn't really do so much either. Of all the scores it scores kinda bad. Even my Samsung Galaxy Note (2014) 10.1 Tablet isn't super far off despite scoring 916 and 2829 respectively.
Ranking of all my devices I got after testing Geekbench excluding my desktop that I just ran today:
1. Aftershock X11 2216 8236
2. MacBook Pro 2810 5951 3. Gigabyte BRIX 1668 4332
4. Samsung Galaxy Note 916 2829
5. Samsung Galaxy S4 626 1655
But then again, you can't expect to fit an Core i7 4900MQ or an FX 8350 in there for that size.
Now if you want to see how this GPU roughly performs, the VisionX 420D by ASRock is the closest PC that can replicate such results. AnandTech has compared that to the GTX 760 Brix and others in the following articles.
Noise:
As expected in such a form factor, the fans will spin up. So it is plenty loud when exerting a full load like Fire Strike. However, to me that one was totally expected, so no surprises that it'll be noisy in Gaming Loads. All honesty, that said, I had worse. It's noticeable but not too annoying since I game on Big Speakers all the time. And if you put this in the living room, and any good sound output will definitely overpower the noise big time.
Value:
Now the System I bought from eBay cost 400 USD (500 SGD) + Shipping. Now if I factor in Windows 8.1 and the SSD at 150 USD, the entire package along with accessories and VESA Mount cost only 250 USD, that was unbelievable. For the price I really couldn't say no to it. Should be mentioned though that this is from another eBay user so it was not straight from CyberPower. But it always already freaking mint without any scratches so it is New.
Bottomline:
"Not a kid's toy" is a fitting name for it, seeing that it's cute enough to be one. For this Tiny but mighty machine packs some serious horsepower in a chassis no bigger than a triple-decker club sandwich, And it shows the absolute limit in shrinking a gaming computer. It also pretty much can do what a full desktop can offer you, with the added feasibility of bringing it to LAN parties or presentations. Of course, compromises have to be made for thermals and noise, which is to be expected and the Quad-Core A8 leaves a lot to be desired. Upgrade paths are an important welcome addition to any computer, really it's what my MacBook Pro should have been.
Gigabyte has made this BRIX combining the best of AMD, and frankly speaking the most optimal of all the BRIX Gaming they did so far. Of course, you can build better systems yourself but this is a niche product that fulfill specific roles. There's still that sense of a DIY-ness which should still please PC builders as this can be found in places online where it's being sold as a barebones unit.
Pros:
- Good GPU performance, ready for most mid-range games given its cost and size.
- Access to upgrades and maintenance.
- Super Compact and easy to place.
- Well within portability though it still carries some heft.
- Snappy SSD though tiny storage.
- Versatile Machine for almost any role a full Desktop would fill, made more flexible with its size.
- Large performance per cost and per watt.
- Excellent port selection. Enough USB 3.0s for the job.
- Little Bloatware
- Just looks So Damn Cute!!!
Cons:
- A8 APU isn't exactly strong. Presents a bottleneck.
- Unsightly amount of cables. You see more cables than you see the system LOL
- DVI / VGA connector would have been nice.
- Audio ports at the back would be nice to ensure a clean look on the front side of the Brix
- Loud Audible Fan at full blast, can also result to thermal throttling.
- RAM Upgrades require some thinking for the Low 1.35 Voltage though standard 1.5 voltage RAM will work; just that POST display will complain of incompatibility issues.
- Catalyst Control Center Auto Graphics Switching needs work.
Zotac has revealed a new SFF Machine with a STEAM OS in it along with other systems classified as STEAM Machines. The Zotac EN760 which set a good standard as a SFF PC with a powerful and efficient GPU is set to have a bigger brother in form of the SN970. The 970 in the serial number denotes a GTX 970M in it, which has twice or more the power of the 860M in EN760. I know Dell Alienware already has one in form of the Alpha but it's specced quite the same as the EN760 with the 860M installed.
I'm definitely sure this will be bigger than the EN760 as I reckon it'll be dimensioned the same size or similar size as a console. Still, it'll be pretty nice and small enough and like many Flat desktop or Horizontal Desktop Form Factors, you could simply save space by just plopping your monitor on top. Of course you can change the orientation as you'd like.
Zotac revealed that it will have a Skylake CPU which is the successor to Broadwell. Broadwell for the Desktop if memory serves, is not available yet so it makes me wonder what difference will Broadwell be against Skylake. So I'm a bit doubtful of the CPU's capability at the moment. But the GPU is proven capable, that is definite. The Maxwell Architecture really has set some solid ground from my GTX 970 SLI experiences despite the 3.5GB controversy. So I won't be surprised at its definitive performance. With 1280 Maxwell-based CUDA Cores and 3GB of Video Memory on a 192-bit bus, it's a definite sweet spot for Home Theater gaming at 1080p with an extent to even 1440p and 4K and more than enough for current today's AAA titles at close to maximum settings. I read somewhere on Zotac that the GPU is a MXM Module based card, so I guess it's possible to bump this up down the road should you want. We'll wait for November to be absolutely sure though. But if it is confirmed that this should be the case, this will be an awesome feature to have, especially in a event should your GPU happen to fry itself somehow.
One thing I notice that this thing has a crap tonne of HDMI! Those are nice to have, so if you plan to go NVidia Surround, you can. Each HDMI is at the 2.0 standard and supports UHD resolution at 60Hz so 4K gaming is definitely possible there, especially given the horsepower of the GTX 970M. But this also functions as a HTPC and you'll want to have the option of plugging in some add-on players to record movies and TV Shows to your SN970.
The unit is set to launch in November. And as far as it's certain, I was told by Dennis from BeyondGeek, the retailer whom I personally bought my former Zotac GTX 780 AMP Card 1.5 years ago from, a high chance that a Barebone will be released as well. Knowing Zotac, they always sell barebones for their ZBoxes. I'll gladly look out for one because I want to transfer my 8Gigs of RAM and my 2.5" Samsung 840 250GB SSD from my X11 to here. But I'd definitely take a 64GB M.2 as my boot if you ask me. Likely a definite Win-Win for Zotac.
Rumored Specs: CPU: Skylake 6th Generation CPU RAM: 8GB SODIM
Storage: 64GB M.2, Provision for an extra 2.5" Drive in it. GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 970M (MXM, Maybe upgradable in future) I/O: 2 x USB 2.0, 4 x USB x 3.0, 4 x HDMI?! (That's a lot of HDMI!) , Audio Jacks: Mic In and Speaker/Headphone out, SD Card (always nice to have), WIFI: 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 OS: Steam OS, Optional Windows OS.
By the way, has anyone thought of using Steam Machines as a Hackintosh Mac Mini?
Front I/O: Power Button, Dedicated Audio Jacks, two USB 3.0 ports and the good ol' SD Card slot.
Very nice: Dual Ethernet, Wireless Antenna, And a crapload of HDMI.
2 USB 2.0s and another pair of USB 3.0s.
Well, nVidia have been pretty damn busy with their graphics cards especially with the new Maxwell Architecture. We had a first taste with the GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti, the latter being the base for the GTX 860M. They later released their flagship GTX 980 and their 2nd Highest tiered but very good Value-for-money GTX 970. They only did 2 GTX 900 series cards this year, their GTX 700 series lineup was establishing a stable foothold already in the GPU game. These 2 cards rocked the GPU Wars by storm when they were released in September 22. Before that they launched 2 CUDA Developer cards, the Titan Black and the freaking (and still) expensive GTX Titan Z, which I wasn't surprised to say that it wasn't popular due to cost to fulfill niche operations when heavy CUDA was needed.
AMD SUMMARY
That's not to say that AMD has been quiet either. Just to battle the GTX 700 series lineup, AMD released quite a craptonne. AMD was soft launching budget cards like the R7 250X, 265. AMD unleashed the AMD R9 295X2. This was the only card whose reference cooler is based off a Liquid AIO unit. Initially it was expensive at 1500 USD but now dropping prices drastically to combat the price of 2 GTX 970s in SLI, citing power comparisons. At least now this dual GPU Card has way much better value for money than it had way before. Now in between the high end and the budget end are the R9 280 and 285. The 280 was based off the old Tahiti 7950 which is still good today despite being almost 3 years old now. The 285 is based off the new Tonga core which is sorta the AMD counterpart to Maxwell.
MY TOP 5 CHOICES OF THE NEW 2014 GPUs 5. GTX 750 Ti Highly Power Efficient and Budget friendly.
This was initially a taste of what is to come for later part of the year. This card was extremely power efficient for how much performance it could do. Most models do not come with a PCI-E 6 Pin connector but some do have it for overclocking Headroom. Older computers with a small wattage power Supply can breathe a new lease of life without taking out that dinky little PSU. The line of GTX 750 Tis cards are pretty small in general so these are ideal in small form factor HTPC / LAN Party / Low-budget gaming builds. For their size and performance per watt, gets the Number 5 spot from me. The only drawback is the lack of SLI connectors for Multi Way Configurations, which anyway, personally, is not the aim of any budget card.
4. R9 285 AMD's First Tonga Based GPU.
This was to supplement the 280 Series of R9 GPUs. Unlike the older 280 and 280 which were based off the 7900 series Tahiti cores, this was a power optimized Tonga GPU which is AMD's counter to Maxwell, sorta. Priced at a mainstream market, this GPU fulfills the mainstream enthusiast, whose performance is in league with the 280X but at a more power optimized envelope. Sapphire makes some of the best 285s with the mITX version being the most powerful of the mITX cards that Sapphire has made. However the cheaper models aren't any slouch either. The 285 makes a good 1080p gaming and to a strong extent 1440p too however with lack of VRAM being the bottleneck. However for a gamer who wants a strong affordable GPU, the 285 is a solid choice at Number 4.
3. R9 295X2 Enthusiast Level, power-hogging Performer
The king of AMD GPUs was an upgrade from the 7990. Now this is the first reference GPU that is has a hybrid Liquid / Fan cooling system, probably inspired by the ASUS ARES 7990 Card. Now the liquid cooling is needed for the Hawaii GPUs as these get really toasty. Their crap air blowers couldn't handle the 290Xs and 290s and they throttle down very heavily when they operate at 95 degrees all the time. So the Liquid cooling addressed the problem for this card for a more consistent core clock. Initially expensive at 1500 USD. However with the prices of the newer GPUs like the 980 and especially the 970, they had to cut it dramatically, citing power hogging requirements compared to 2 GTX 970s in SLI even though they perform at the same level. They offer the same new features like Mantle from the new GCN Architecture.
2. GTX 980 Maxwell Unleashed. Power Efficiency at its finest.
Palit Super Jetstream GTX 980
Owned by Darryl Leong after
swapping out his R9 290X.
The top of the line Maxwell GM204 at least till nVidia releasing Big Maxwell, it was released at the same time along with the GTX 970. This card was set to replace the GTX 780 and doubled the performance of a GTX 680. The GTX 980 brought about new changes to the table. And like the GTX 750 Ti, it is meant to be more power efficient without compromises. TinyTomLogan tested an i7 4960X with a GTX 780 Ti on a 450W and works fine, and Guru3D places 980's power consumption just under the R9 270X, which is SO down the freaking line!!! It was measured at 171W and 280W with another 6 core CPU.So when NVidia says you need to have a 500W PSU for a 980, you don't, really.
If you want to see the extent, take Gigabyte's new 3x Waterforce which is 3 Way SLI 980s on Steroids, even at factory overclocks, the Power Consumption is lower than 2 R9 290Xes (Could be a reference model) and very slightly more than one 295X2 (which is expected for 3 GPU vs 2 GPU but still a good show.)
The GTX 980 is the first new DirectX 12 Card from nVidia and supports Dynamic Super Resolution which brings the fidelity of 4K resolution to a small 1920 x 1080. Maxwells are also known for insane overclocking including the GTX 970s so for enthusiasts, overclocking is a dream. Darryl, who was using a R9 290X in last year's Top 5 GPU roundup upgraded to this card. He could get a stable 1.5GHz Core and a Full 8GHz on the memory. Now Value for money isn't the best, but it's fair for 500+ USD. My Number 2.
My Current Configuration of Palit
Vanilla GTX 970 and MSI Armor
GTX 970 in SLI.
1. GTX 970 / GTX 970 in SLI High End Performance for Outstanding value.
All honesty, the best value for money in the high end range, with high performance per dollar value. It's not to say that the GTX 980s have bad money value but this line up generally cost as low as 5/8s the price of the GTX 980. You do have lesser Cuda Cores and Clock Speed than the 980 but these cards' insane overclocking headroom can bring these in line with GTX 980s. Power consumption is of course low. It uses 2 6-Pin PCI-E but actually this card could EASILY make do with just 1. But extra overclocking headroom, always nice to have. Back to value, if you can afford a GTX 980, splashing a bit of extra than that can give you 2 GTX 970s! In fact, this configuration is cheaper than some of the premium single GPU cards of the last generation including the GTX 780 Ti and the R9 290X. 2 Cards in SLI are possibly one of the cheapest gateways for playable 4K Experience. So for a well-rounded High End Card(s) without breaking much of a bank, GTX 970 and 2 of them in 2-way SLI earned a solid #1 Recommendation from me.
Nikon Coolpix L830 Body
