Holographic storage and Lego computers: February’s most powerful new PC hardware - paulsonfristruither

A cornucopia of computing hardware

'tween January's hardware deluge and Mobile Domain Congress' parade of phones, you'd think February would've been a congener snoozer on the PC front. Nope! We witnessed a widely array of compelling new computers and components therein shortened calendar month, from a flood of itty-bitty PCs to futuristic storage crafted in quartz to a Razz Pi carriage configured to molest Comcast when the ISP fails to deliver promised Internet speeds.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Stick comfy, grab yourself a nice cool cup of ice tea, and let's dig deep into February's hottest untried PC hardware.

Crystal holographic storage

Let's originate in with something fantastical. Just after Valentine's 24-hour interval, researchers at the University of Southampton in the U.K announced that they'd crafted a revolutionary new type of storage, using "self-collective nanostructures created in coalesced quartz crystal to store data in quint 'dimensions,' writing each file in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometers of place."

The end result? This "Back breaker crystal" tin stack away up to 360TB of data for a jaw-dropping 13 zillion-plus years. Wear't expect this technology to hit actual PCs anytime before long, merely damn is it heroic.

Huawei MateBook

Image by Florence Ion

Hither's other first. Huawei, a major Android twist maker, dipped its toes into the PC waters this month with the debut of a sleek Surface knockoff, dubbed the MateBook.

On the face of it a Windows 10 tab rather than a laptop—just like the Surface—the MateBook comes into its own via a suite of optional peripherals: a coerce-sensitive stylus that offers twice as very much sensitivity as the Surface Write out, a Touch Cover-esque keyboard cover, and a bob for adding extra ports to the device. You know, like the Surface—but look for this stylish rival to devote Microsoft's tablet a serious pass around for its money.

Mini-STX PCs arrive

February also saw the debut of chuck-full-blown PCs built roughly the diminutive mini-STX form broker, in the form of MSI's Cubi 2. At 5×5 inches, mini-STX motherboards are far small than their mini-ITX counterparts, and slightly larger than Intel's NUCs. And whereas 4×4-inch NUCs pack processors soldered directly to the motherboard, mini-STX motherboards offer traditional sockets that let you upgrade your CPU if you desire.

The first mini-STX cases, motherboards, and nude-clappers PCs were revealed at CES, only MSI's Cubi 2 is a fully equipped system, with heavenward to 32GB of RAM, m.2 SSD and traditional storage options, Windows 10 Habitation, and Core i3, i5, and i7 processor options.

A Sir Thomas More sinewy Kangaroo PC

Amusingly enough, the Cubi 2 is the largest mini-PC that caught our eyeball this calendar month. At the beginning of February, InFocus rolled out a much powerful version of its intriguing Kangaroo PC, doubling the Ram down along this Intel Cherry Trail-settled rig to 4GB, and the storage to 64GB.

There's a big "gotcha" though: The more powerful $169 version lacks an operating organization, and so you'll need to BYO OS. The creative $99 Kangaroo—which is still in stock—comes with Windows 10 preinstalled, and the fact that it was a wedge-$100, fully functioning Windows PC was a big part of its catch. My unprepared advice? Follow the cheaper Kangaroo unless you plan to install Linux on the more powerful version.

Endless Mini PC

Speaking of Linux, we enwrapped our grubby paws around a very interesting Linux computer this calendar month. The orbicular, $79 Endless Mini PC was designed for utilise in areas where Internet access is unreliable, caching as much of the Web Eastern Samoa possible to its internal storage for offline use. IT comes with several offline programs preinstalled too, from basic productivity tools to budget planners to medical databases.

This PC won't appeal to most people in the U.S., to equal unpointed, regardless how slickly studied it is. Simply between its thoughtful functionality and comparatively low cost, IT could prove to be a godsend for conservative families in development nations.

Intel Compute Stick

Image by Alaina Yee

This mini-PC, on the other deal, has more broad appeal—though it's still pretty niche. Like the original, Intel's invigorated $159 Compute Stick is designed to slot into an HDMI port on some TV or monitor, instantly transforming it into a PC formerly you connect a black eye and keyboard.

Intel's bumped up the speed of the CPU and RAM, embraced the newest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth applied science, and added a a great deal-needed USB 3.0 port to the updated translation. It's actually the port that makes the most noticeable Clarence Shepard Day Jr.-to-day difference, greatly improving the Figure out Spliff's ease of use. Atomic number 3 a cheap PC, Intel's Compute Stick delivers much of value, especially as a portable productivity device or fuller-conspicuous Chromecast alternative.

Raspberry Pi hates Comcast

All right, there's no New computer hardware hither, but it's thus marvelous I had to include it.

A Comcast contributor became so irate about the company constantly under-delivering on square-for information speeds that he configured his Raspberry Principal investigator to check his network speeds periodically, then automatically squeeze at @ComcastCares if the results were under a third gear of what helium was paying for.

Empyrean—and he's free everything you need to make a Comcast-hating Raspberry bush Pi bot of your own. Hit the clause for full details.

Dell XPS 13

Image away Gordon Ung

Simply enough mini-PCs! Permit's dive into full-sized notebooks.

We reviewed the reinvigorated version of Dell's XPS 13 in February, and while it's mostly an iterative aspect evolution, this silky laptop still holds the statute title of the best Ultrabook around. Why? Soft: The Dell XPS 13 offers extraordinary performance, reasonable pricing, superior shape quality, and the smallest 13-inch notebook body around. This affair is tiny.

Dell started showing off gold editions of the Ultrabook, overly. Hey, it worked for the iPhone, rightfulness?

Lenovo Flex 4

Icon away Adam Patrick Murray

Lenovo showed off a troika of brand-new Windows hybrid laptops of its own at MWC this month—an funny place for a notebook to comprise revealed, but whatever.

Best raised: The Flex 4 (known as the Yoga 510 internationally), a laptop with a 360-degree hinge and internals that you can customize to your liking. Seriously: Choose from 11, 14, and 15-edge screen sizes, processors ranging from Pentiums to beefy Core i7 processors, and even discrete AMD nontextual matter options. Have it your way, baby.

Lenovo Yoga 710

Image by Robert Adam Patrick Murray

The Lenovo Yoga 710, meanwhile, stands out largely for offering the homophonic 360-degree flexible joint, only in an cheap $500 laptop. Even better: The 11.6-inch video display is a full 1080p IPS screen, another comparative rarity therein price ambit. There's a thick range of configuration options acquirable with this machine, likewise, if you don't mind dropping a bit more dough.

Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 310

Lenovo's IdeaPad Miix 310 goes even turn down. Have in mind it as a "Surface Lite," with a wallet-intimate $229 price tag. For a full-blown Windows 10 hybrid, that's damned powerful, even if you can't game with this rig's modest guts. Lenovo says the Miix 310's target exploiter is an "online addict"—you can even add 4G LTE as an option—so it sounds like in time other Windows-based Chromebook killer.

Origin EON17-SLX

Sitting somewhere between laptop and desktop lies the god-awful Origin EON17-SLX. This gaming reckoner's ostensibly a notebook computer, but information technology's packed with enthusiast-class desktop components like the an Intel Core i7-6700K, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a GTX GPU. It even has a buttery-smooth G-Synchronise showing!

On the flipside, you wouldn't want to actually put this 10.5-pound "laptop" on your lap. But if you're looking a take-away gaming laptop computer that you force out drag from place to place, the Origin EON17-SLX tattered several records in our testing cortege—and you can evening switch out its processor if you'd suchlike. This is easy the most background-y laptop to ever survive PCWorld.

A butt-kick Microcomputer made of Legos

What, you want your PCs even larger? Fine! Let's start with this blest, stern-kicking PC custom-built and designed from the solid ground busy function inside a case made from Lego blocks.

Simply ensuring that the machine doesn't explode from heating system took some hardcore engineering, which you tooshie read about in our Lego Microcomputer coverage. But this rig pulls no punches despite its funky exterior, with an Asus Z170 motherboard, a quad-core 4GHz Intel "Skylake" Marrow i7-6700K processor, an Nvidia GTX 980 Ti, 16GB of HyperX Fury DDR4, and a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD A the firsthand storage.

That's hardcore. Even more explicit: You can buy cardinal of these yourself, and creator Mike Schropp will craftsmanship it for you. He'll even swap in whatever parts you want, or hardly betray you the case so you can serve the DIY work yourself, but without having to cobble together thousands of Legos.

DIY Mac Pro clone vitrine

Of course, there's a middle ground between movable laptops and massive hul PCs. Case in point: The Dune suit, a chassis that aims to help DIYers build their own Mac Favoring clones. This svelte, trashcan-esque case supports mini-ITX builds, with cool melodic phrase coming in from the bottom and blowing over the tail end-mounted baron append in front splitting into separate CPU and GPU Chambers, then finally blowing out via a fan at the top.

Be warned, though: This is an unproved Kickstarter product, so it may not come to fruition contempt the designer's claims that it'll be make to rock trey months after successful funding. If you're looking at for a more verifiable Mac Pro clone already kitted out with components, MSI's stylish Vortex will glucinium out soon, too.

AMD's new processors and Wraith cooler

Image by Brad Chacos

While the world's waiting for AMD's next-gen Zen processors, the company isn't sitting still. This calendar month, AMD released two new processors: The $117 AMD A10-7860K, a powerful APU designed for low-priced e-sports gaming with husky onboard graphics, and the 3.8GHz Athlon X4 845, which marks the first desktop appearance of AMD's energy-efficient Excavator CPU architecture. Check retired the post for full speeds and feeds for each.

Both will ship with new 125W breed coolers settled on the same conception as AMD's whisper-quiet fres Wraith CPU tank—which, the company announced, wish start shipping bundled with AMD's $200 FX-8370 central processing unit. IT's a huge betterment finished AMD's previous stock cooler. Present's hoping information technology sees Sir Thomas More widespread adoption soon.

Oculus Prepared PCs

Excited about the coming virtual reality resolution, but not so mad with the musical theme of building a beefy rig capable of powering it? The PC industry's got you covered. This month, a whole sle of Oculus Ripe PCs hit store shelves, premade and packing components secured to smasher (and in some cases, shove off gone) the negligible specifications for VR.

You butt find full inside information approximately the first wave of Oculus Ready PCs here. If you'rhenium comfortable edifice a Microcomputer, though, you might take a DIY rig regardless—the money you'll save over a premade box will let you invest in heavier graphics firepower, which VR needs emphatically.

HTC Vive preorders

Those Oculus Ready rigs should also act upon just fine with the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive, which opens for preorders nowadays and ships in April. IT'll price you though: At $799, the Vive costs $200 much the $599 Oculus Breach. That said, in comparison to the Falling ou, the Vive feels similar a relative bargain, oblation much more hardware for full "elbow room-scale" VR experiences that you dismiss tramp around in. Find out down our Rift vs Vive: What you get for your money article for a breakdown.

If you decide to twine your own VR PC, be sure to read up on the processors AMD recommends for virtual reality, and check your rig's potency victimization the new benchmarking tool Valve released to test your PC's VR performance.

Tobii EyeX

Image by Mark Hachman

Innovative inputs aren't just happening in VR. This month, we reviewed the Tobii EyeX stare-tracking hardware, an "eye sneak out" of sorts that lets you ascendancy your PC and even a smattering of games using your peepers. It feels like magic—when IT whole kit. The hardware's better at tracking some eye types many than others. Read our Tobii EyeX revue for tons of information and testing results.

EVGA GTX 980 Ti VR Edition

Instantly that we've covered tiny PCs, notebooks, and cram full-sized premade PCs, it's time to wade into the enthusiast stuff: components. And information technology doesn't get much more enthusiast than the EVGA GTX 980 Ti VR Variation—a graphics card designed for systems built around virtual reality.

The GTX 980 Ti VR Edition is basically unitary of EVGA's median graphics cards, but with an HDMI header connected the end of the poster inside your PC. That connects to a 5.25-edge drive bay in the advance of your computer volumed with an HDMI port and a pair of USB 3.0 ports (which connect to a USB header happening your motherboard). That lets you well connect a Rift operating room Vive to the foremost of your turnout, kinda than fumbling with cables in the back, and the GTX 980 Atomic number 2 itself has more enough desirability to power VR experiences.

It's simple, but whizz. Expect to see other nontextual matter card vendors follow suit sooner than later, and I'd be aghast if Oculus Ready PCs wear't embrace this design, too. It's a nobelium-brainer, instantly identifiable differentiator for VR rigs.

Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury

Image by Brad Chacos

A couple of stimulating traditional graphics cards crossed our desks in February, both from Sapphire.

Initiatory, the Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury, a tweaked and tuned interpretation of AMD's Radeon R9 Fury sporting a custom PCB, a massive and heavenly cooling system, and a manufactory overclock that helps make this calling card a fierce contender for 1440p gaming supremacy. Not only does this trounce similarly priced GTX 980 graphics cards, IT comes within spitting outstrip of the $650 Radeon Fury X itself, and IT runs cool and quiet. Highly recommended.

Sapphire Nitro R9 380 ITX Compact

Image past Brad Chacos

The $200 Sapphire Nitro R9 380 ITX Compact is the charged opposite of the Nitro R9 Fury. Where the latter is a long, thick powerhouse, the Nitro 380 Constrict is a tiny graphics card built for use in itty-bitty miniskirt-ITX builds. Despite its small size, however, Chromatic's batting order still games like a champ at 1080p resolution, and we'd recommend it in a minute for absolute room PCs, LAN party rigs, or for small under-desk systems that relieve need solid gaming chops. If you have no need to spring for a more potent (and significantly more costly) mITX GTX 970 or Radeon Nano, this card delivers swell mITX graphics without breaking the bank.

OCZ Trion 150 SSD

Let's be Frank: OCZ's Trion 100 sucked at moving monolithic amounts of data. But despite our declared dislike of that SSD, OCZ yet sent us one of its new OCZ Trion 150 drives for review, and we're bright to say that this SSD is everything its predecessor wasn't: It's crummy, comes with a ternary-yr warranty, and actually outperforms many SSDs in normal, everyday use. What's not to like?

Samsung 750 EVO SSD

Samsung's not taking the threat sitting stillness, however. After proclivity on its cutting-butt against V-NAND tech to create some of the most impressive enthusiast SSDs more or less, Samsung's returning to traditional planar NAND tech with its new Samsung 750 EVO.

The 750 EVO's claimed 540MBps/520MBps read/write speeds are a bit faster than you ordinarily find in budget SSDs, but Samsung's delivering them with a price that doesn't break the bank: $55 for 120GB and $75 for 250GB. How are OCZ and Samsung able to pump retired solid-state drives same this for so cheap, you ask? By leaning connected relatively new triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, which increases the number of bits that for each one cell in the drives can store.

Seagate's super-slim hard drive

Since SSDs Don River't have spinning platters the likes of traditional unvoiced drives, they feature smaller corporal designs that are sure-footed of squeezing into tighter places. That's made them a favorite in immoderate-thin laptops. But sadly, SSDs typically don't offer anywhere near as much pure storehouse capacity as similarly priced hard drives.

Enter Seagate's super-slim new 2TB hard drive, the first 2.5-inch hard drive with a specified 7mm height. By comparing, Western Digital's 2TB laptop drives are more than twice as thick, at 15mm. We'd still recommend an SSD ended an HDD any mean solar day when it comes to your primary boot campaign, only hey—IT's nice to stimulate options.

VisionTek Pocket SSD

If you want to expire flat smaller—or at least more portable—we've got a pair of SSDs for you. Pocket SSDs, in reality. These tatty drive-esque devices slip into your pocket and boost your PC's in stock capacity from a USB interface, but tranquillize fork over storage speeds that blow away traditional hard drives.

VisionTek's aptly named USB Pocket SSD would be a welcome accessory for any laptop, or even a desktop that's constrained by quad or orthodox hard drive speeds. This bad boy reads files as locked as most of the SSDs you can buy today. Write speeds aren't nearly as efficacious, only they still outpace anything that the speediest hard drive out in that respect can fight. Summation, it's affordable (protrusive at $90), sheds heat efficiently, and comes in sizes ranging from 128GB all the fashio to 512GB. This matter kicks butt.

Samsung T3 portable SSD

Only this thing is the unexcelled portable storage product on the satellite today.

Samsung's T3 portable SSD isn't in the convenient flash drive-like form ingredien, but it's still pretty diminutive. This USB 3.1-equipped portable SSD privy hit pure top speeds of 450MBps—bedamn near internal SSD speeds—and while information technology doesn't quite nail that in practice, it comes awfully darn close. The Samsung T3 will dissolve your font.

Information technology's available in sizes up to 2TB, and patc it's a morsel more expensive than VisionTek's Pocket SSD (and a lot more expensive than similarly sized portable problematic drives), IT's Worth all centime.

Oil and pee

Figure by Gordon Ung

2 intriguing bits of software hit the streets in February that hardware enthusiasts volition want to keep tabs on.

Let's start out with the good news: The fashionable beta build of Ashes of the Singularity will let you bench mark DirectX 12, and flatbottom better, it supports DX12's explicit multi-adapter feature, which lets you rock Nvidia and AMD graphics cards in collaboration in the same system. Hell just froze over, folks—and our first testing results were very interesting so. Here's an Nvidia-specific teaser: 2 GeForce GTX 980s using explicit multi-adapter delivered much higher frame rates than two GeForce GTX 980s working together in SLI. To see how GeForce and Radeon performs tandem, advantageously, you'll evenhanded wealthy person to read the clause.

Intel shuts land cheap overclocking

Paradigm past Gordon Ung

Sadly, we'll have to end this calendar month's roundup on a low note.

Late hold out twelvemonth, motherboard vendors began shipping custom BIOS builds that let you overclock frown-cost, non-"K"-serial Skylake chips, which ostensibly can't be overclocked the least bit. You knew it wouldn't conduct Intel long to reply, and now, the party's over.

"Intel regularly issues updates for our processors which our partners voluntarily integrated into their BIOS," an Intel spokesman told PCWorld aft a recent update. "The stylish update provided to partners includes, among opposite things, code that aligns with the position that we do not recommend overclocking processors that have not been organized to do so."

Bummer. On the plus position, if you managed to snag one of those overclocking BIOSes before the iron struck, you should still live able to overclock your not-overclockable Skylake potato chip to 11—as long as you don't update your motherboard.

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Brad Chacos spends his years digging through screen background PCs and tweeting to a fault untold.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/419818/holographic-storage-and-lego-computers-februarys-most-powerful-new-pc-hardware.html

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