Asrock M8 Mini-ITX Gaming PC Review

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By Steven Walton on November 8, 2013

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We've built countless gaming computers and the ones that are smaller in stature tend to impress us the most. We appreciate systems that manage to stand with full tower rigs in our benchmarks while maintaining a tiny footprint. For example, we managed to get an Asrock Z87M Extreme4 motherboard, Core i5 Haswell processor, a GeForce GTX 760, OCZ's 240GB Vector SSD and a pair of 2TB WD Red HDDs into Silverstone's 23-liter Sugo SG10 -- a chassis small enough that it could be carried under arm between LAN parties. What's more, that build cost just under $1,400, which is well within the realm of a typical self-built enthusiast machine -- because that's ultimately what it is, just smaller. Unfortunately, things get inflexible and unaffordable really fast if you want a brand name box, but that's not to say the splurge is never worthwhile.

Asrock's recently launched M8 barebones system, which we are reviewing today, may not be the best value for a Micro-ITX machine, but it may be one of the most attractive we've seen in years and that counts for something.

Even if the M8's style is not your thing, there's less room to argue that this is a unique gaming PC barebones kit and that was enough to earn our attention. We've been impressed with the looks of previous Asrock products -- including its mini PCs -- but the M8 is a clear step up having been designed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA, the driving force behind Thermaltake's Level 10 chassis, a case as overpriced as it is iconic. The Level 10 put aesthetics and novelty before affordability and practicality, and we could see a repeat showing with the M8.

"Our goal was to create desirability and iconic differentiation in a small gaming PC," BMW's Sonja Schiefer said. "Iconic differentiation" rarely comes cheap, especially not if BMW's involved, so it's not entirely shocking to see Asrock's new barebones chassis combo fetching $550, which gets you the company's priciest Z87 Mini-ITX motherboard ($150), a 450W SFX power supply (perhaps $50 to $100) and an optical drive ($15?). That suggests you'd be paying in the ballpark of $300 for the M8's enclosure, perhaps more.

Asrock could have a tough time justifying that price when cases like the Silverstone Sugo SG10 can set you back $120 or less, and while enthusiast backing remains to be seen, we wouldn't be surprised if the M8 receives due attention from well-funded system builders with a taste for the avant-garde. Without jumping to too many conclusions here, let's yank back the curtain and see what Asrock's flagship Mini-ITX offering is made of.

Asrock M8 Barebones Features

At the heart of Asrock's M8 is the company's Z87-M8 motherboard, which is armed to the teeth via Intel's chipset alone, but there are plenty of extras too. The Z87 supports half a dozen USB 3.0 ports, which are controlled by an xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface), as well as six SATA 6Gb/s ports, a dramatic improvement over the two ports supported by the 7 series chipsets.

Asrock hasn't upgraded the Z87's standard storage features with third party controllers and we doubt any Mini-ITX board needs more than six SATA 6Gb/s ports. Said ports can also handle RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, Intel Rapid Storage Technology 12 and Intel Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug.

There is an eSATA port on the I/O panel which is handy, though keep in mind this port is shared with the first onboard SATA port using port multiplier technology. Both ports can be used simultaneously, but this could limit the performance of the drives if they are being accessed at the same time.

Along with the Z87's six USB 3.0 ports, the board also supports six USB 2.0 ports. Networking is provided by the new Intel I217V PHY (Physical Layer Device), which is a gigabit copper networking component for mobile, desktop, workstation, and value-server designs that have critical space and power constraints. It supports Intel Remote Wake Technology, Wake-On-LAN, Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az and PXE.

Out of the box, the M8 also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth thanks to the inclusion of a 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 4.0 mini-PCIe module. Creative's Core3D audio solution is also present, supporting THX TruStudio Pro, CrystalVoice, EAX 5.0, Blu-ray 2.0 Audio. You'll also find Asrock's Premium Headset Amplifier (PHA) for up to 600 ohm high-end headsets.

The package also includes a Slim Slot-in Super-Multi Drive, a 4-in-1 Card reader (SD3.0 / MMC / MS / MS PRO) and 450W power supply with an 80 Plus Bronze-rating and two 8-pin PCIe power connectors which allows for discrete graphics cards with a TDP rating of up to 200 watts to be installed (note that the Z87-M8 motherboard includes DisplayPort and HDMI out via the Haswell chip's on-die GPU).

Microsoft planning to compete with Android by offering Windows Phone for free

Microsoft is mulling the idea of providing Windows RT and Windows Phone to device makers for free in the near future, according to a report from The Verge. The report also says that the free versions of Windows RT and Windows Phone would get delivered along with the much talked about Threshold update, a project aimed to further unify Windows, Xbox One and Windows Phone.

Microsoft generates a decent amount of revenue through the licensing fees that OEMs have to pay for using its operating system on their devices. But, with the acquisition of Nokia, which ships more than 80 percent of Microsoft-powered handsets, the company's ability to make licensing money has dried up.

The report says that the Redmond-based company would compensate the loss of licensing money through ad-based revenue from Windows 8 apps and Bing search results. The company would also make sure that the number of subscriptions to its services like SkyDrive, Office, and Skype goes up.

The idea to provide Windows Phone and RT for free is under serious consideration by the Microsoft's OS chief Terry Myerson, but a final decision has not yet been taken.

Google is currently the biggest player in the mobile OS market. Its Android OS is available free of cost to phone manufacturers -- though they pay licensing fees to Microsoft. If Microsoft goes ahead with the decision, the company would have a level playing field to compete with the Mountain View-based rival.

google, microsoft, windows, android, nokia, windows phone, windows rt, threshold

Lenovo Erazer X700 Gaming Desktop PC Review

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By Rick Burgess on December 3, 2013

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As the globe’s largest PC maker, Lenovo is well-known for its diverse portfolio of offerings spanning home and business. Gaming, on the other hand, is one area Lenovo has mostly ignored over the years. With that in mind, we introduce to you the Erazer X700 -- Lenovo’s first stab at a PC tailored for gamers.

Features which qualify the X700 as a full-fledged gaming PC are its unique exterior, performance-centered parts, ample tool-free expandability, liquid cooling and OneKey overclocking. Sound good so far?

Our review unit houses an Intel Core i7-3820, Geforce GTX 660, 12GB RAM and a 1TB HDD and a 128GB Samsung SSD. This is actually the same model available at Best Buy for $1699. It’s worth noting though that we continue to see the non-SSD version for a promotional price of $1290 directly from Lenovo.

Although the starting price is $1699, it’s possible to spend more. The highest-end configuration sports a decidedly non-mainstream $3,999 price tag ($2,999 promo price), but boasts a beefy Intel Core i7-3970X, dual Radeon HD 8950 graphics, 32GB of RAM, 128GB SSD and a 2TB HDD. With a GTX 660 and Radeon HD 8950 being the only GPU options though, extreme gamers will likely sneer at Lenovo’s tagline of “extreme-performance gaming desktop”. For gamers on a budget though, the GTX 660 is a capable if aging card even if it is a few rungs below top tier.

Aesthetics, First Impressions, Build Quality

The first detail to grab my attention was the goofy “Engine Start” power button. Innocuous as it may be, I need to get this off my chest: tacky car-computer analogues like these are, in my opinion, cringe-worthy. In the future, I hope Lenovo forgoes silly contrivances like these and chooses to keep it classy.

The Erazer X700 touts a “helmet inspired” exterior full of sharp lines and high-gloss black plastic further accented by blue lighting and silver gray elements. The resulting aesthetic is somewhat futuristic, sleek and easily more impressive than standard PC offerings. Simultaneously, the X700 also manages to “play it safe” by not straying too far from conventional design: It’s different, but not dangerously adventurous; it’s modern, but not impractical; it’s fun, but not too outlandish. Whether or not the look appeals to you though will be strictly up to you, but I think the Erazer’s target audience majority will be pleased.

Lenovo Erazer X700 Gaming Desktop - $1,699

• Intel Core i7-3820 
  (3.6GHz, quad-core Sandy Bridge-E)
• Lenovo X79 motherboard 
  (micro-ATX, LGA 2011)
• CPU Liquid Cooling
• 12GB DDR3 RAM
• MSI GeForce GTX 660 (1.5GB)
• 128GB Samsung SSD
• 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD
• Lenovo LED-backlit gaming keyboard
• Lenovo L251G 9-button LED-lit gaming mouse
• Ports (rear): 2 x DVI-D, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort, 6 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x Gigabit LAN, CS-out, RS-out, SS-out, line-in, line-out, mic-in, 1 x optical S/PDIF out, 1 x coaxial S/PDIF out
• Ports (front): 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, mic-in, line-out (headphones)
• Windows 8 Professional x64
• 24.01 x 10.62 x 20.86 inches
• 62 pounds

The 62-pound, 45-liter X700 is much larger than your average Lenovo PC, measuring nearly 21-inches tall, 10.6-inches wide and two-feet long. Evidence of its size was betrayed by the enormous carton it shipped in. Its above-average stature affords owners ample room for expansion, but stops it short of becoming an unwieldy monstrosity. The chassis’ generous volume is primarily useful for extra storage options, but a second (or longer) video card and even a custom cooler are all possible here.

The front drive bays are concealed behind a sturdy-enough plastic door which utilizes magnetic science-magic to remain shut. Behind the door lies a 29-in-1 card reader, standard-issue DVD burner, two removable 3.5” drive bays plus two additional 5.25” expansion bays.

The case’s side panel is easily removed with two thumb screws; however, re-attaching the side was a little more fussy than I care for. The edge of the panel needs to be angled and aligned near-perfectly to slip back on, but once you’ve figured it out, it’s an easy enough trick to replicate.

The case is essentially SECC steel wrapped by plastic, but it feels plenty sturdy. I don’t believe anything here is in danger of wearing out of breaking several months down the road, but just to nitpick, the gray plastic in the corners is easily scuffed.

Inside the Erazer X700

Internally speaking, the Erazer X700 is more ordinary than extraordinary. The systems’ innards are a kind of sturdy exercise in dull-gray, rolled-steel pragmatism. After diving in, it becomes self-evident that the X700 is an above-average mass-produced desktop, but not the kind of spare-no-expense machines you might expect from boutique PC outlets like Maingear.

The mesh side-opening doesn’t offer a clear view, but peering inside reveals few signs fancy: no bright, coordinated colors or high-end flair. The cables are managed, but not impressively so. The removable drive bay inserts (two in front) feel adequate, but fall short of the satisfyingly solid heft you’ll encounter on the highest-end systems and cases. There is a bit of blue LED lighting, but the effect is subtly visible: just enough to hint this is a wall-jumping, reaper-shooting, flag-capturing gaming rig as opposed to your momma’s Farmville machine. Additionally, there are a few sharp edges in there too -- an unusual thing to find on high-end cases.

Succinctly put, the X700’s innards show it is clearly not a “no-compromise” gaming PC. At $1699 though, we should expect some compromise.

Upgrades and Expansion

Lenovo doesn’t offer built-to-order Erazer configs, but the company does tout “expandability” as a selling point. Despite a lack of internal whimsy, functionally speaking, the X700’s bowels are roomy and easy to work within. The chassis sports an effectively toolless design and four directly accessible 3.5” drive bays in addition to the two removable ones in the front. One thing is for certain: X700 owners will never want for more storage options.

The chassis appears capable of accommodating a graphics card longer than 12-inches, but with one caveat: such an addition will require use of the bottom-front 5.25-inch drive bays. If you’re content with a single optical drive, this won’t be a problem.

The X700 is equipped with the watts, slots and space necessary for the addition of a second GTX 660. For about $1490 ($1290 promo + another GTX 660) and a little elbow grease, a formidable gaming rig can be had if you can forgo the SSD. Note that SLI users will have to toss out the Wi-Fi card occupying the second PCI-e slot.

In addition to storage options, X700 owners will likely never want for memory options either -- the X700’s RAM is upgradeable to 32GB of DDR3. With four DIMMs and only three taken, there’s still one slot yearning to be filled.

Despite its spaciousness (and enough standoffs for a regular ATX board), our Erazer X700 shipped with a micro-ATX motherboard. Packed with an X79 northbridge, 4 x DIMMs and 8 x SATA ports though, this board really only falls short on PCI-e slots: there are only two. Unfortunately, this precludes owners from mixing three or more cards, such as SLI/Crossfire graphics with Wi-Fi, professional audio, PCI-e storage options and so on. Even so though, two slots will meet the needs and wants of most.

Yes, Intel’s X79 is an aging chipset (nearly two years old). However, the X79 still has more PCI-e lanes and better bandwidth than other Intel options. This seems like a choice driven more by performance than bottom line, seeing as the X79 still doesn’t come cheap after all these years.

Lenovo’s motherboard hosts an LGA 2011 socket capable of supporting Ivy Bridge E and Intel’s “Extreme” varieties of Core i7 CPUs. Disappointingly, there are no signs of Haswell coming to this platform. For desktops, the only flavor of Haswell so far is LGA 1150 while future chips may skip directly to LGA 2011-3. This likely limits prospective future CPU upgrades to Ivy Bridge-E.

Thankfully, the chassis is fairly standard, avoiding proprietary design elements (aside from the “Overclock” button). This means when the X700 has outlived its usefulness, it can be gutted and retrofitted with new innards… assuming you like the case, of course.

Earn money from your blog this holiday season

The holiday season is here and retailers are spending more on online advertising to promote their products. Your blog has valuable space and you can earn some extra money by placing Google AdSense ads next to your content.

If you don’t already have AdSense set up on your blog, visit the Earnings tab of your Blogger dashboard to give it a try. It’s free and only takes a moment to sign up. 

And if you’ve tried AdSense out in the past, head to your blog and give it a second look. It now has updated controls, so you can match the ads that appear to the style of your blog.

Happy holidays!

Posted by Ian Cohan-Shapiro, Marketing Manager

Automatically share your blog posts to Google+

Posted: September 09, 2013

  

Notifying your followers that you've published a new blog post not only gets the conversation going, it encourages them to reshare your content with others. In this way it's critical for growing your blog's audience and engagement. But it takes time. And we want to give you that time back.

Starting today you can automatically share your blog posts publicly to Google+ — as soon as you publish them, with no additional clicks. And of course: if you've enabled Google+ Comments, any replies on Google+ will also appear on your blog.

Blog post

Google+ post

If you've connected a Google+ page or profile to your blog, this new feature will start working the next time you publish a post. If you'd rather not share to Google+, or you'd prefer to be prompted each time, you can adjust your preferences in the Google+ tab of your Blogger Dashboard.

Happy blogging!

Posted by Marc Ridey, Software Engineer

Expanding your audience with Google+: Kelly Saks' story

Posted: August 02, 2013

  

From time to time, we like to highlight bloggers who successfully use Blogger and other Google products. Today we're featuring how Kelly Saks from Kelly's Kloset reached a wider audience with Blogger and Google+.

All about Kelly: 
Kelly Saks, the blogger behind Kelly’s Kloset, is a fashion and beauty expert based in Miami, Florida. Kelly posts daily musings on outfits, beauty tips, and local happenings. She has successfully transformed blogging from hobby to career, landing styling gigs with brands like Bloomingdales, Swarovski, and Macy’s.

How she did it: 
Kelly always shares her blog posts from her personal Google+ profile and the Miami Fashion Bloggers Google+ page, a page she contributes to with almost 400,000 followers. “The option to share on Google+ helps keep my fans up-to-date whenever I post something new,” says Kelly.

Kelly has broadened her audience and built a strong online community using Google+. Google+ has also helped her connect with other bloggers, fans, and even celebrities by live streaming the events she hosts using Hangouts On Air:“I can easily interact with fans even if they can’t come to events in person”.

If you’re also looking to grow your audience, Kelly uses several Google+ plugins that are easy to add:

• The Google+ badge on Kelly’s Kloset shows her presence on Google+
• The +1 button lets fans share her blog 
• The Google+ followers gadget displays her growing follower count and allows fans to easily add her to circles 

Kelly notes that “these tools are really easy to use and make interacting with my audience a seamless experience”. You can explore these features by visiting the ‘Layout’ tab in the Blogger dashboard and clicking ‘Add a Gadget’.

Click here to learn more about Google+ and Blogger.

Posted by Diana Golduber, Google+ Marketing

Celebrating 10 years of shared success

Posted: June 18, 2013

  

Ten years ago we launched AdSense to help publishers earn money by placing relevant ads on their websites. I can still remember the excitement and anticipation as AdSense went live that first day.

Our small team huddled together in a cramped conference room, and right away we saw that publishers were as excited about AdSense as we were.

Fast-forward 10 years, and AdSense has become a core part of Google’s advertising business. The AdSense community has grown to include more than 2 million publishers, and last year alone, publishers earned more than $7 billion from AdSense. AdSense is a community that thrives because of all the content creators we are so fortunate to partner with. Their stories inspire us to do our part to make AdSense great.

On this occasion, it’s especially inspiring to hear the stories of partners who have been with us since the very beginning—like a retiree in New Zealand who was able to pursue her dream of writing about her garden, a tech support expert in Colorado who can spend more time with his kids, and a theme park reviewer who now sends employees around the world to test and review rides—all thanks to money earned from AdSense.

As part of our 10th anniversary celebration, we hope you’ll tune into our live Hangout on Air today at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT) on the AdSense Google+ page. I look forward to joining several of our partners to share stories from the early days of AdSense, talk about how we’ve all grown since then, and discuss the future for publishers and online advertising. And if you want even more 10th anniversary celebration, just visit our AdSense 10th anniversary page at any time.

Posted by Susan Wojcicki, SVP, Ads and Commerce

Bringing Google+ Comments to Blogger

Posted: April 18, 2013

  

Cross-posted from the Google Official blog

Posted by +Yonatan Zunger, Principal Engineer

Reading and responding to comments can be one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. Not only do they help you connect with your readers, they can also inspire later blog entries. The challenge, oftentimes, is following all the conversations around your content—on Google+, for instance, as well as on your website. So we're making things a lot simpler.

Starting today, you can bring Google+ Comments to your Blogger blog. Once you've enabled the feature through your Blogger Dashboard, you'll enjoy a number of important benefits:

View your blog and Google+ comments, all in one place

Now when you're browsing your blog's comment threads, you'll see activity from direct visitors, and from people talking about your content on Google+. For example, if there's a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog. This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place.

Help readers comment and connect with their circles

Your blog readers will now have the option to comment publicly, or privately to their circles on Google+. And when they're browsing blog comments, they can view all of them, just the top ones, or only those from the people in their circles.

In all cases, you and your readers will only see the comments you have permission to see. Giving people these kinds of controls not only encourages more meaningful sharing—it can lead to more blog traffic.

25-GPU cluster can brute force Windows password in record time

eremi Gosney, the founder and CEO of Stricture Consulting Group, recently showcased a GPU-based computer cluster capable of brute forcing its way through any standard eight-character Windows password (including upper- and lower-case letter, digits and symbols) in less than six hours.

The machine, powered by 25 AMD Radeon graphics cards, runs the Virtual OpenCL cluster platform. This allows all of the machines / GPUs to act as a single computer. With this configuration, Gosney was able to use a password-cracking suite called ocl-Hashcat Plus that is designed specifically for GPU computing.

The cluster uses the NTLM cryptographic algorithm included in all versions of Windows since Server 2003 and is able to generate and test 350 billion password guesses per second. Once the math is factored in, that equates to every different password combination in only five and a half hours. Gosney said they can now attack hashes about four times faster than they previously could.

VCL virtualization is essentially what makes a system like this possible. GPU computing isn’t exactly new but hardware and software limitations have thus far prevented most people from running more than eight graphics cards on a single computer.

"Before VCL people were trying lots of different things to varying degrees of success," Gosney told Ars Technica. "VCL put an end to all of this, because now we have a generic solution that works right out of the box, and handles all of that complexity for you automatically. It's also really easy to manage because all of your compute nodes only have to have VCL installed, nothing else. You only have your software installed on the cluster controller."

It’s worth pointing out that this method typically only applies to offline attacks due to the fact that most websites limit the number of incorrect password guesses before either locking the account down or enforcing a waiting period.

Either way, experts suggest using a password that is at least nine characters long and doesn’t contain names, words or common phrases.

TechSpot PC Buying Guide

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By TechSpot Staff on November 15, 2013

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The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best desktop PC hardware, spanning four unique yet typical budgets. Whether you're a first time builder seeking guidance or a seasoned enthusiast, we have you covered.

After working on this guide for many years, we learned the biggest pitfall of our previous work along with many other buying guides online: they expire shortly after publishing. Prices change daily, components come and go, and the guides simply degrade in worth until they're eventually rewritten months later. Recognizing this, we're taking an alternative approach.

We will add and update new hardware to the mix as it's released. The four builds will be updated on major product launches and we'll keep monitoring components and their prices over the course of weeks and months to catch anything in-between. We wholly welcome your support and input to keep this guide as fresh as possible. With that out of the way, let's take a look at our four price points: