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Friday, August 28th, 2015
- 2 shoulder Hyperesponse Multi-Function bumpers
- 2 removable Hyperesponse Multi-Function triggers
- 4 Hyperesponse ABXY action buttons
- 4 button Quick Control Panel
- Optional trigger stops for rapid fire
- 3.5 mm audio port for stereo audio output and microphone input
- Optional rubber palm grips
- Optional analog stick grip caps
- Carrying case
- Detachable 3 m / 10 ft. lightweight braided fiber cable with Micro-USB connector
- Approximate size : 106 mm / 4.17 in. (Length) x 156 mm / 6.14 in. (Width) x 66 mm / 2.60 in. (Height)
- Approximate weight (without cable) : 260 g / 0.57 lbs
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| 12:00a | Alienware Refreshes Lineup With Laptop Updates, And Liquid Cooled X51 Desktop
Today Alienware announced some refreshes to its lineup. On the laptop front, the Alienware 13, 15, and 17 notebooks have been updated, and the Alienware 18 notebook has made a comeback. The X51 Desktop is also refreshed, and can now be used with the same Alienware Graphics Amplifier that was available for the notebooks.
Starting with the laptops, the line was refreshed with the graphics amplifier as an option almost a year ago already, and the company says the new models have over 20 updates on tap. This includes USB Type-C ports for USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3 capabilities. Each of the laptops offers a different choice of processors, with the smallest of the bunch being outfitted with the 5th generation dual-core Core i5 and i7 U series, and the larger models offering quad-core 4th generation CPUs. On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GTX 960M graces the Alienware 13, the Alienware 15 offers a choice of the NVIDIA GTX 965M, GTX 970M, GTX 980M, or an AMD offering with the R9 M395X. The 17-inch model comes standard with the NVIDIA GTX 970M and can be upgraded to the GTX 980M. Unfortunately all models come standard with a spinning hard drive as the base option, but PCIe SSDs are available in all models. There are quite a few configurations available so it is easiest to reference this table.
Alienware is also offering dynamic overclocking capabilities for the CPUs which will hopefully take some of the guesswork out of the task for the non-professional overclocker. On the networking side, Alienware has gone with the Killer Wireless-AC and Gigabit Ethernet combination similar to what we have seen from some of the competition.
The displays should be good, if the Dell XPS 13 is any indication. Similar to that device, the Alienware 13 will also offer a 3200x1800 IGZO display with touch. The 15-inch model has just one display option with a 1080p IPS matte panel, and the 17-inch model starts with a 1080p base offering but will also offer a UHD 3840x2160 IGZO IPS display. The large panel notebooks are one of the few mobile devices which would be capable of running UHD but to this point it has been difficult to get one over 1080p so this should be a nice treat. All of these laptops can also be connected to the Alienware Graphics Amplifier which would give you access to a desktop class GPU if you need even more compute power.
Back after a hiatus is the Alienware 18 which we last saw back in 2013 when the dual GPU 18.4-inch monster was reviewed by Dustin Sklavos. There are different offerings, but it will offer dual GTX 970M with 12 GB of GDDR5, or dual GTX 980M graphics with a combined 16 GB of GDDR5 memory. The Intel CPU is going to be socketed, so customers will be able to upgrade it on their own, and it will ship with a factory overclock. The Alienware 18 will be available with up to 32 GB of system memory and four hard drives. The Alienware 18 Special Edition should be plenty capable, but once again the base model ships with a spinning disk, and you have to upgrade to a mSATA SSD boot drive which is a shame for a notebook which starts at $2500.
The extra-large laptop displays have not yet made the leap to high resolution, so the Alienware 18 is only available with 1080p offerings.
Finally, Alienware has refreshed its X51 desktop. The X51 fits in space wise between the small form factor Alpha and the large form factor Area-51. Alienware is targeting active keyboard and mouse gamers with this device, and the refreshed R3 model has moved to Skylake for the higher end models, and keeps a Haswell i3 model as the base. The $700 model comes with the NVIDIA GTX 745 GPU, and upgrades are available to the AMD Radeon R9 370 or NVIDIA GTX 960. There are a couple of interesting additions to this desktop. Alienware is offering a custom liquid cooling setup which should keep the temperatures in check, and will allow Alienware to offer overclocking of the CPU. It also adds support for the Alienware Graphics Amplifier which was first released on the notebook line. This may seem like an odd addition to a desktop, but the separate 460 watt power supply and chassis would allow a much larger GPU than could fit inside the small case of the X51. I think it is a neat addition especially if you have a laptop too, but it might be a hard sell to have someone buy a desktop and then buy something they have to put on the top of their desk.
Alienware’s new products are all available now at Alienware.com. Source: Dell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:10a | Blossom Smart Watering Controller Review Home automation has garnered renewed attention, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. Many vendors targeting this market look to deliver solutions for aspects appealing to a broader audience. Some examples include lighting, temperature control, security using IP cameras etc. Irrigation control is a niche within the home automation niche. At first glance, it appears to be a limited market, as only those with gardens big enough to require scheduled / automated watering of multiple zones might need it. Surprisingly, there are many options for people looking to gain IP control over their irrigation / watering system's functioning. iConservo's Blossom is one such option. Read on for a detailed look at the Blossom Smart Watering Controller. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:10p | Valve and HTC Push Wide Release Of Vive VR Headset To 2016
Valve isn't a stranger to product delays or discrepancies between promised launches and when a product actually launches. This is often joking referred to as Valve Time, and it seems that Valve's hardware endeavors are no safer from it than their video games are. Today they announced that the wide consumer release of their Vive VR headset is being pushed to Q1 2016, a slight delay from the originally promised launch by the end of 2015. While the Vive will only begin to ship in volume in 2016, Valve and HTC will still be sending a limited number of units to developers and community members in the last quarter of this year. This means that they're technically fulfilling their promise to launch by the end of 2015, but not in the way most people were expecting. With the Vive launching in Q1 2016, it's now in even deeper competition with the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus from Sony which will also be launching during that quarter. The price for the Vive is still unknown, but with a small launch still occurring this year we won't have to wait much longer to find out. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:30p | The Intel Skylake i7-6700K Overclocking Performance Mini-Test to 4.8 GHz At the time of our Skylake review of both the i7-6700K and the i5-6600K, due to the infancy of the platform and other constraints, we were unable to probe the performance uptake of the processors as they were overclocked. Our overclock testing showed that 4.6 GHz was a reasonable marker for our processors; however fast forward two weeks and that all seems to change as updates are released. With a new motherboard and the same liquid cooler, the same processor that performed 4.6 GHz gave 4.8 GHz with relative ease. In this mini-test, we tested our short-form CPU workload as well as integrated and discrete graphics at several frequencies to see where the real gains are. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3:30p | AMD Quietly Releases Radeon R9 370X, China-Only For Now
Back in June when AMD launched the Radeon 300 series, AMD made the unusual move of only releasing refresh SKUs for around half of their products. While the 390 series saw the release of the vanilla 390 and 390X parts, the 380, 370, and 360 were all released with just one SKU respectively. Furthermore all three parts were the second-tier configurations for their respective GPUs, each packing a partially disabled GPU. At the time we suspected that AMD was simply holding back some SKUs to avoid flooding the market all at once and to release those SKUs at a more convenient opportunity, and it looks like this is indeed the case. Alongside yesterday’s R9 Nano unveil, AMD also quietly launched the R9 370X. The unexpectedly quiet launch of the SKU is due to the fact that AMD is only releasing it on a regional basis, at least for the time being. As reported by PCWorld, who received confirmation from AMD, the R9 370X is only going to be available in China at this time. The China-only launch of the R9 370X comes shortly after the launch of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 950, a card that we expect will be especially popular in China given pricing, economics, and the specific popularity of free-to-play games in that market. As a result, AMD releasing a China-only SKU, while not normal, is not without merit since it’s likely going to be China and the greater APAC region where the real fight over sales volume for this class of parts will be. Still, we also expect that R9 370X will eventually come to North America, similar to how AMD rolled out some of the 200 series SKUs.
As for the R9 370X itself, the SKU is the refresh successor to the R9 270X. This means we’re looking at a fully-enabled Pitcairn GPU with all 1280 stream processors enabled. This marks the fourth such desktop SKU for the full Pitcairn configuration, following the original Radeon HD 7870 and the R9 270 & 270X, both of the latter being fully enabled parts.
At this time we don’t have official AMD specifications for the R9 370X SKU (nor do we expect to get them). Furthermore based on information released by TechPowerUp, the first card released is a factory overclocked Sapphire model, so we have limited information available on clockspeeds. However based on the 5.6Gbps memory speed, it would appear that this is closer to a straight re-badge than was the case with the release of the 200 series, as AMD reworked their board designs to improve memory clockspeeds for that refresh.
In any case, while the R9 370X is China-only for the time being, don't be too surprised if we see it released in North America before too long, especially once R9 270 series supplies start dropping. Sources: TechPowerUp & PCWorld | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:00p | Razer Launches New Wildcat Xbox One Controller And New Version Of The Nabu Smartband
Today at PAX Razer announced a refresh of the Nabu smartband which they first announced at CES in 2014. They also announced that they will be selling the Razer Wildcat controller for the Xbox One, which is their third generation Razer Xbox controller.
First, the Nabu, which Razer dubs a Smartband. This wearable can track your steps, display notifications, and share with other Nabu bands. Razer has redesigned the band based on user feedback including moving the interaction button to make it more accessible. The OLED display is still a single color, low resolution, but the trade-off is up to six days of battery life. Razer is also promoting a new companion app for the Nabu and Nabu X (X has no display) with a new, cleaner UI than the outgoing app. Current Nabu X owners can get the app at www.razerzone.com/nabu-x starting today.
The new Nabu will be available for pre-order on September 15th for $99.99 USD, and shipping will be in October. The next item announced is a new Xbox One controller from Razer. The Wildcat controller is labeled as tournament grade, and it includes quite a few tweaks to help give an edge. The controller itself is not going to get lost in a room, with some pretty distinct styling, but under the covers is a controller which Razer says is 20% lighter than other tournament grade controllers. It has four mult-function buttons added, and gamers can re-bind any button on the controller.
The analog stick is made of high carbon steel for durability, and the triggers are aircraft-grade aluminum. You can swap out the optional palm grips and analog stick grip caps. All in all, the Wildcat has the following features listed:
The Wildcat controller will be available starting in October for $149.99 Gallery: Razer PAX 2015
      Source: Razer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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