PC Powerplay - Hardware & Tech Special 2016

HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016
THE
FUTURE
FUTUR
OF VR
COMPUTEX
2016
IN THE NEW
GPU
WAR
EVERYONE WINS
STREAMING PCS
HOW TO BUILD A STREAMING
PC FOR ONLY $500!
HOW AMD AND NVIDIA ARE

DOMINATING OPPOSITE
ENDS OF THE MARKET
NUC ROUNDUP
THEY MAY BE SMALL, BUT
THE NEW GENERATION
NUCS ARE SURPRISINGLY
POWERFUL
PRE-BUI T
4K GAMING PC
4K GAMING IS A REALITY,
R
BUT
AT A COST
POWER COMES A
NEW G US!
NVIDIA'S NEW
W RANGE OF
HMARKED
CARDS BENCH
D
ED
AND REVIEWE
THE LATEST AND GREATEST

PC HARDWARE STRAIGHT
FROM THE SHOW FLOOR
4K GAMING
WHAT YOU REALISTICALLY
NEED FOR 60 FPS 4K
GAMING
HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016
20
Computex 2016
The latest and greatest direct from the show floor
21 Aorus | 22 Asrock | 24 Corsair | 26 Coolermaster | 28 MSI | 30 In W

34 Asus | 36 Gigabyte | 38 Roccat/Fractal/FSP | 39 OCZ/Crucial | 40
42
Nvidia 1080 Launch

Nvidia dominates the enthusiast market
8 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016
12
52
56
64
Hotware
Case Modding
Streaming PC
4K Gaming
The most drool-worthy

products on show
Stuart Tonks talks case

modding in Australia
How to build a streaming PC

for around $500
What you really need for 60+

FPS 4K gaming
74
52
56
50
80
Industry Update
VR and 4K are where its at
VR Peripherals
Case Mod gallery
Interviews
VR is now a reality but

control is still an issue
The greatest and most

extreme case mods
We talk to MSIs cooling guru

and Supremacy Gaming
HARDWARE & TECH BUYERS GUIDES
66 SSDs
82 Pre-Built PCs
54 Graphics Cards
PC PowerPlay 9
Ride the Whirlwind

Holy mother of god, what a month its been in the lead-up
to this years PCPP Tech Special. Not only did I fly to Austin for
the GeForce GTX 1080 launch, I then flew to Macau for AMDs
RX400 series launch, then direct to Computex for four days of
back to back meetings. Throw in a case of a bizarre and rather
serious flu that struck the entire team down, and its been an
epic magazine to put together.
The good news is that theres plenty of cool info in here,
especially regarding our Computex visit and the new GeForce
GTX 1080 card from Nvidia. If theres one thing I noticed on
all of these field trips, its that Virtual Reality has become the
driving force of the gaming hardware industry in 2016. With two
successful VR kits on the market, hardware makers can now see
a valid reason for gamers to upgrade, and theyre all jumping
aboard the VR train. All of the major manufacturers believe VR
is going to be massive, and when people that smart believe it,
you know theyre onto something.
Nvidia gave us a stack of info about their new products, yet
AMD remained extremely tight-lipped at Computex. Thankfully
the AMD embargo lifted just before this magazine hits shelves,
but not in time for us to get hardware samples to test out their
new range. Rest assured, well be doing a full roundup in the
next issue of PC PowerPlay.
If youre still not a believer in VR, just know that the industry
is, and we think theyve got good reason. Todays kits are
brilliant, but theyre still relatively primitive hints of whats
on the way next year have us tantalised. Dont diss it until you
try, especially with one of the second generation of games on
the way.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this years PC PowerPlay
Tech Special, as its taken a monumental effort by the team to
pull together after so many product launches in such a short
period of time. Meanwhile, were taking a few days off to enjoy
ying with some of this tech, instead of just testing it!
Peace out,
EDITORIAL
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WORK EXPERIENCE Angus Renton
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COMPUTEX Hotware
Every year Computex is filled with the latest and greatest PC gear from around
the world. While everything at the worlds biggest PC trade show is exciting, many
of the products on display are iterations on the same new technology last year
it was motherboards for the new Skylake chipset, and this year the trend has
understandably been towards videocards and VR. Even with the prevailing trends
there are some products that really stand out from the crowd as being droolworthy. These are but some of the products (or ideas) that captured our attention
at Computex 2016.
01
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BitFenix Prodigy Pillow
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Tesoro Infra-Red switches
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PC PowerPlay 13
09
Zotac Zbox Magnus EN980
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Ventus Z Mouse
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COMPUTEX Hotware
21
HP Omen X
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22
PCPP AT
COMPUTEX
TAIPEI 2016
BENNETT RING brings you the latest news direct from the show floor
Wed like to
thank Gigabyte
Motherboards
for sponsoring
our trip to
Computex 2016
s the worlds largest PC component

conference, Computex is a massive
collection of huge halls jam-packed
to the ceiling with the very latest in
hardware. The theme this year was
impossible to miss, with Virtual Reality
being the focus. From case makers, to
graphics cards creators to motherboard
manufacturers, nearly every stand on
the show had some form of VR Ready
logo plastered all over the place.
However, very few of these actually
had approved by Oculus or HTC stamps
theyre simply claiming that these
components will run todays VR kits.
Thats not saying much really, as all
these kits need are a GTX 970/R9
290 level graphics card, an Intel Core
i5-4590/AMD FX 8350 or better CPU,
along with 4GB or 8GB of memory and

twin USB 3.0 ports. Which basically
equates to any mid-range system on
the planet.
In terms of actual new products,
the biggie of the show was Nvidias
new GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080
graphics cards, with nearly every GPU
manufacturer showing off their range.
AMDs news 400 series of cards were
nowhere to be seen, which seemed to be
a massive oversight the official NDA
for these products passes on the 29th
of June. Why launch one of your biggest
products just four weeks after Computex
it made very little sense to us.
The other major trend was a plethora
of X99 motherboards, in preparation
for Intels upcoming release of its
Broadwell-E high-end CPU. We should

remind you that the X99 chipset was
first released back in mid-2014, so its
not exactly new technology, but there
have been subtle changes that make the
latest boards more advanced than their
predecessors.
Finally, it seemed we couldnt attend
a meeting without the joys or RGB
lighting being espoused to us. It appears
that rainbow coloured products, from
keyboards to motherboards to graphics
cards, are going to be a big deal in the
coming year.
After 3 days of back-to-back
meetings, we think we managed to
cover most of the big ticket items, so
lets see what each of the major booths
had on show.
hough Gigabyte doesnt like to

promote its Aorus brand closely
with its parent company, the Aorus
laptops were nonetheless hosted on
the same sprawling conference table
as Gigabytes other laptops. The focus
for this year seems to be gaming on the
go laptops that have the grunt to run
with decent performance but without
breaking your back.
The highlight of their range had to
be the new Aero 14, which measures
just 19.9mm in depth. Yet Aorus has
managed to pack in some powerful
hardware into this 1.9kg notebook, with
the Nvidia GTX 970M delivering most
of the punch to the beautiful 14-inch
screen, which has a 3K resolution.
Theres also an Intel 6th Gen Core i7
processor, suggesting this thing will
chew through batteries with ease. Yet it
has a hefty 94.24W hour battery, which
p
y
g
Overwatch well before the competition.
If youre after something a little
meatier than the Aero 14, the new X7
DT trades mobility for power. Its slightly
thicker at 25.4mm, which is still by no
means massive. The 17 inch display is
fully G-Sync compatible, and can crank all
the way up to 120Hz. This requires some
serious horsepower though, so Aorus
has included a desktop GeForce GTX 980.
Theres even an overclockable K-series
i7 inside, while the mechanical keyboard
should make for a comfy experience.
And yes, you guessed it, its a fully RGB
keyboard, as expected. This is known as
the RGB Fusion keyboard, and features
per-key, fully customisable lighting.
Despite such meaty specifications,
the entire unit only weighs in at 2.3kg,
making it surprisingly lightweight for
such a capable gaming machine. This was
the only laptop at the show to win the
y category of
w.
w range of
ged paint
designs, which well be reviewing in an
upcoming issue of PCPP. This will be
perfect for taking into the bush for those
paint-ball planning sessions, where a
bright orange chassis is a great way to
get headshotted faster than you can
say ouch! Along with laptops, the new
K7 keyboard was shown. This has a
removable numpad which can be placed
on either side, making it perfect for both
lefties and righties.
One final feature promoted at the
Aorus booth is the inclusion of its
Hardware Live Stream Engine. Packed
into the X5 and X7 models, this is an
integrated hardware video encoder
card, delivering much higher quality
streaming video than software packages
with lower performance overhead. It
also comes with a one year sub to XSplit
Gamecaster and Broadcaster, a tasty
little inclusion for Twitchers.
1. The 14 Aero
14 sports a core i7
and a GTX 970M
2. The X7 DT
features a 17
G-Sync display and
a desktop GTX 980
3. The K7 keyboard
has a removable
numpad
PC PowerPlay 21
COMPUTEX 2016
ASROCK
s one of our favourite motherb
manufacturers, we were a little
surprised at ASRocks focus on min
this year. Having said that, its BeeB
was one of the best NUC-like PCs w
seen. This year the company launch
new DeskMini 110, which uses the
form factor the first time wed ev
of this to be honest. Using an Intel
chipset, the motherboard measures
inches by 5 inches, making it absolu
Yet it can still handle i7 CPUs, provi
maximum TDP doesnt exceed 65W
USB 3.0 ports (one Type-C) are inclu
well as HDMI and DisplayPort, mak
capable little HTPC box.
Its other focus was on two new
motherboards. The first is the X99
which is aimed at the new Broadwe
but with a focus on value for mone
a price point of US$219 itll be one
most affordable X99 boards on the
but ASRock hasnt scrimped on fea
12-phase power design compleme
triple PCIe slots, all of which are re
with steel. Dual Ultra M.2 and anot
M.2 slot deliver plenty of high spee
capacity, while dual USB 3.1 ports
Type-C and one Type-A) are also in
A slightly more expensive X99 b
the new ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Pro
at US $259. It seems to have basi
identical specs to the Taichi, apart
the inclusion of Creative Soundbla
Cinema3 Audio.
1. The X99 Taichi

is one of the
most affordable
Broadwell-E boards
on the market
2. The Fatal1ty
X99 Professional
adds Creative
Soundblaster
Cinema3 Audio
3. The DeskMini
110 uses the MiniSTX form factor
COMPUTEX 2016
1. The Bulldog
should launch
within a few months
for $2999 pre-built
2. The Lapdog is an
enclosure for a full
sized mechanical
keyboard
CORSAIR
he highlight of last years Corsair
booth was definitely the Bulldog, a
mini-PC designed to fit inside an AV rack
below your TV with ease. Sadly it still
hasnt launched yet, but Corsair did show
off version 2.0 this year, and its definitely
changed somewhat. The new version
doesnt quite have the squat, doggylooking exterior of the original, and has
grown slightly in size; apparently it no
longer fits inside a standard AV shelf,
which is a bit of a shame. Apparently
Corsair werent happy with the thermal
design of the original, so the new version
should run cooler and quieter, so were
happy to compromise on space.
We were initially informed that the
Bulldog should hit the Australian market
in the next few months for a price of
$2999, but this will be a pre-built rig
including a Gigabyte Z170 motherboard,
CPU, GPU, PSU and storage. Thats not
bad value when you consider the video
card is planned to be Nvidias brilliant
new 1080, while Intels premium I76700K will handle the CPU load. While
this is a K-series product, wed be a
little hesitant to overclock it too much
given the space premium within the
Bulldog. While Corsair recommends its
H5SF low-profile CPU cooler, the new
Bulldog can now also fit in many of the
companys All-in-One GPU coolers,
including the HG10 and H55. Corsair
is promising 4K support with this
mini-monster, but given our benchmark
results with a single GTX 1080, gamers
will have to compromise when it comes
to detail settings.
Once this product has launched,
Corsair will then release the DIY
version, which comes with case,
Gigabyte Z170 motherboard and
Corsairs very own SF600 SFX power
supply, which pumps out a healthy
600W of power, more than enough
for todays low-energy components.
At just US$399 this seems like an
absolute steal. Sadly, just before going
to print, we were informed that review
samples of the Bulldog would not be
available in the near future as planned
were not sure why, but as soon as

they are well have one ready for you.
Designed to go alongside the Bulldog
is the Lapdog, a lap-based keyboard and
mouse unit designed for couch gaming.
Again, this was introduced at last years
show, but still hasnt been released. Its
been improved upon again, with better
cable routing. A large 11-inch by 11-inch
mouse pad is included, while the entire
unit sits on memory foam for comfort.
Theres room for a K70 keyboard, as
well as a tenkey-less keyboard. We
tried it out for a few minutes and found
that while its very comfy at first, its
also darn heavy were guessing easily
over four or five kilograms. Wed urge
Corsair to reconsider the size and bulk
of the Lapdog, as currently it feels a
little too big.
Continuing the RGB theme is Corsairs
new range of Vengeance XMP 2.0
DDR4 certified memory, which has LED
lights across the top of the DRAM. This
doesnt require any external cables to
control or power, and will work with
Corsairs Link software. We should point
out that theyre extremely tall though,
7
8
so youll need to work around this size

when selecting a CPU cooler. Using
Samsung modules, Corsair claims the
most expensive variants should hit the
lightning-fast speed of 4,333MHz. There
will also be a limited edition version
called Dominator Platinum Special
Edition, finished in Blackout brushed
aluminium or chrome. Apparently only
500 kits will be available worldwide,
making this a must-have for modders.
Next to this was Corsairs new range
of Neutron SSDs, the XTi SATA. With the
largest having a capacity of 1920GB. It
might still be using the standard SATA
3 controller, but Corsair is claiming
read speeds of 560MB/sec, with right
speeds of 540MB/sec. Its powered by
the quad-core Phison controller, and
uses SmartFlush and GuaranteedFlush
tech to ensure no data loss during
sudden power downs.
High performance fans were all the
rage at this years show, and Corsair
obviously had to show off its own range
as one of the biggest case makers
in the world, they know a thing or two
about case fans. The Corsair ML Pro
and ML Pro LED use the companys

proprietary magnetic bearing system
to deliver speeds of up to 2000 RPM at
very low noise levels. And guess what
theyre all equipped with RGB lighting!
Noticing a theme yet?
Arguably the most interesting product
of the booth was the new Rapid Fire
range of keyboards. Using a special
Cherry MX mechanical key, these lower
the key travel to just 1.2mm, instead of
the 1.8mm or so used by other Cherry
MX keys. Corsair has the exclusive rights
to these keys at the moment, and they
have both plusses and minuses. At first
gamers will likely make a few mistypes,
as the lack of pressure required makes
it easier to hit multiple keys at once.
However, once youre used to the lower
travel, they can increase typing input
speeds by around 40 to 50%. This will
be huge for games that require on high
APMs, such as Starcraft.
A nice surprise was the new Hydro
GFX GeForce GTX 1080, a collaboration
between MSI and Corsair. Following on
from last years 980 Ti card, this year the
two have joined forces to deliver a GTX
1080 with integrated All-in-One water

cooling. This makes for quieter cooling
and better overclocking. Given the better
cooling, we expected to see extra power
connectors, but this card sticks with the
single 8-pin power connector found on
stock GTX 1080s. Due to launch in Q3 of
this year, pricing hasnt been announced
yet, but expect it to arrive at a premium.
Corsair is known for its amazing
power supply units, so we were
surprised at the total lack of any new
models at Computex. But again we
didnt see too many new cases either,
with the highlight being the Carbide
400C. Its basically identical to the 400C,
but now in white after speaking to
several importers, it appears that white
apparently doesnt sell well compared
to black in Australia. Itll be interesting
to see how the 400C white does down
under.
Tucked away at the back of the
Corsair booth was a special NDA room,
but we unfortunately werent allowed
to see what was inside perhaps thats
where all the new PSUs and cases were
being shown?
3. Vengeance
XMP 2.0 DDR4
has built in LEDs
4. Neutron
XTI SSDs have
capacities ranging
up to 1920MB
5. ML Pro LED
fans use magnetic
bearings to
increase speed
and reduce noise
6. The K70 Rapidfire
is excellent
(reviewed issue 252)
7. The Hydro GFX
GeForce GTX 1080
is a collaboration
between MSI
and Corsair
8. The Carbide
400C is the 400C,
only white
PC PowerPlay 25
COMPUTEX 2016
COOLER MASTER
uilding on last years Mastercase
concept, which allowed users to
modify and upgrade a single model
of Cooler Master chassis with various
optional extras, this year Cooler Master
launched a much expanded variant of
the programme. Called MasterConcept,
the aim is to allow a vast variety of
different computer users to build exactly
the right case for them. Whether its
a VR developer who needs a compact
system they can take to client demos,
to a video content creator who needs a
giant workstation packing quad graphics
cards, MasterConcept now allows users
to alter a wide variety of different cases.
The main version is the Master Case
5 series, an ATX sized case designed for
regular PC users such as gamers and
office workers. A special T version of this
comes with a two-tone paint job and
handles. Then theres the Master Case
3, a Micro ATX model aimed at those
who need smaller machines yet which
can still handle a full-sized graphics
card. Finally theres the rather massive
Master Case 7, aimed at power users
who need all the space they can get.
1. MasterConcept
is a new approach
to the Mastercase
concept
2. Master Case
5 T version
2. The Master
Case 5 in various
configurations
2. The new
MasterWatt power
supply range
The great thing about the

various options is that they fit all
cases its not like a Master Case
3 fan bay wont fit on the Master
Case 7. There are already dozens of
options for customising these cases,
from the expected Perspex windows
through to silenced panels, but Cooler
Master is opening up the design of these
options to fans. The CAD designs for all
of its cases are freely available online,
allowing users to create custom options
that they know will fit. These can then
be sold independently of Cooler Master,
or Cooler Master will help promote
them via its online store. Its a fantastic
concept which we think modders are
going to absolutely love.
A new All-in-One cooler was also
on-show, called the Liquid Master Pro
240. According to our PR rep, this was
designed in-house, unlike the myriad
of rebranded All-in-One coolers sold
under other brand names. Using a
240mm radiator, theres also a smaller
120mm version for those with less
space to play with.
Given the companys heritage, a booth
tour without checking out a range of
new air coolers wouldnt right, and there
was plenty to see. The company is now
rebranding all of its air coolers with the

MasterAir brand, and theyre all based
on a heatpipe/fan design. The entry level
MasterAir2 comes with just twin pipes,
while the upper end MasterAir4 uses
four. Its a much simpler naming system,
making it easier for users to know
exactly what theyre getting.
Our final stop on the Cooler Master
tour was a brief look at their new range
of Power Supplies. Once again, changing
the branding is key to this years
range, with the over-arching name
now called MasterWatt. Entry level
PSUs will be known as the MasterWatt
and MasterWatt Lite, while the high
end 1200W powerhouse is the new
MasterWatt Maker 1200.
COMPUTEX 2016
MSI
ne of the highlights of Computex
was MSIs 30th birthday dinner
extravaganza. Held in a giant ballroom
with around 400 guests, this formal
seated dinner was a celebration of the
companys rise from a tiny motherboard
manufacturer to one of the biggest
component makers on the planet. As
the drinks flowed, the heads of the
company toured the room to meet and
greet every guest. We didnt realise we
were hugging the founder and CEO until
a nearby MSI PR rep quietly mentioned
in our ear just who they were.
While the party was massive, we
were at Computex to see MSIs huge
new range of products, and they were
not in short supply. This company has
arguably the biggest range of gaming
notebooks on the market, and we
were overwhelmed at just how many
new models were on display. While
nearly every vendor at the show was
promoting the VR Ready message,
MSI was one of the only ones to be
officially certified by both HTC Vive
and Intel as being truly ready for the
virtual revolution, and this certification
extended to several of its laptops.
Two such laptops to feature the
power necessary to deliver the ultimate
in VR performance are the new MSI
GT83/73 Titan SLI, both absolute
behemoths that follow old-school rules
of gaming laptop design, where bigger is
better. The GT83 comes packing not one
but two GTX 980 graphics cards, giving
it more than enough grunt to power
even the most demanding upcoming VR
1. The GT73 is the

lightest SLi laptop
on the market
2. The GS63 is thin
and light but still
titles, which
feature much
more detailed
visuals than the
first generation of
games.
The next model
down is the GT73, and
MSI claims this is the
lightest SLI laptop on
the market. Rather than
the full desktop GTX 980
parts of the GT83, it instead
uses the GTX 980M GPUs, which should
still be more than enough for a smooth
90Hz VR experience. Both laptops
support up to three external displays.
Being bigger laptops, theyre not for
everybody, which is where the
new GS63 Stealth Pro might
be a better fit. Winner of
the Computex Best Choice
Golden Award 2016 (whatever
that means), its apparently the
worlds lightest gaming laptop, tipping
the scales at a meagre 1.9kg. More
importantly, its incredibly anorexic,
measuring a mere 17.7mm ultra slim
chassis. We love the new cooling
system in use, known as the Cooler
Booster Trinity. Using five heatpipes,
over dual thermal modules, it should
deliver relatively silent cooling for the
i7 6700HQ and GTX 970M graphics
within the laptop. So despite this being
a lightweight gaming laptop, its still a
top performer.
Last year MSI showed off a laptop
featuring eye tracking, and this year it
demonstrated an improved version.
The GT72 uses Tobii eye tracking,
which is apparently created by the
same company behind the TrackIR
head tracking unit that has been
popular with PC simmers for years.
It basically tracks the users eye
position, which can then be used
to manipulate the mouse cursor,
change active windows and
control the camera position in games.

We tried it out in Ubisofts The Division,
yet found it has the same issues as last
years version. Its not very accurate, and
considering most of the action happens
in the centre of the screen, where the
gun pointer is, having to look to the
edges of the screen means you miss
much of whats happening. We also
found that the camera would only rotate
180 degrees. Its an interesting feature
no doubt, but we just cant see it being
that useful for gaming.
A slightly more useful yet just
as innovative product was the MSI
Backpack PC. Designed to deliver an
untethered VR experience, its basically
a mini-PC built into a backpack form
factor. Housed inside is an Intel Core
i7 CPU along with NVIDIAs GTX 980,
though MSI stayed mum on the power
supply. There doesnt appear to be a
power cord though, so theres obviously
a battery. There was also no mention
of weight or battery life, but with a
backpack of this size it can pack a much
larger battery than a standard laptop,
6
5
so were guessing three or four ho

shouldnt be a problem. While wer
not so sure how useful this will be
for home users, where the tether o
the Rift and Vive arent much of a
problem, it could be a great produc
for larger VR experiences, such as
the warehouse-sized Zero Latency
arcade in Melbourne. MSI will
announce pricing and a release dat
for the backpack later in the year.
As well as the Vortex mini-PC
we reviewed last issue, MSI debute
the new Aegis series gaming deskto
Housed in an aggressive angular ca
with an internal space of just under
litres, its unique VR feature is a HDMI
connector on the front of the case,
perfect for connecting your HMD. Built
with the latest unlocked Intel processor
and NVIDIA video cards. A nifty button
on the front called the Dragon OC
automatically overclocks the CPU by 15%,
a nice little increase for the simple push
of a button. Theres also twin NVMe SSD
drives rigged up in RAID 0, delivering a
rather insane read rate of 3300MBps.
As one of the few makers of All-inOne gaming PCs, we were keen to check
out 2016s new models. The Gaming
27 features an I7 CPU with GTX 970M
or 980M graphics, while the Gaming 24
uses an i5 CPU with GTX 960M. Given
the relatively mid-range GPU, the choice
of a 4K panel is rather interesting.
Dozens of motherboards were
on show, and one that stood out is
X99A Gaming Pro Carbon,

d the most impressive RGB
olution of the show. The
wer Gaming Titanium is
serious overclockers, but the
power Gaming Titanium was
our favourite, simply for its
white design.
Rounding out our visit was the
viewing of four different versions of
Nvidias new GTX 1080. The SeaHawk
was our favourite, as it features an
integrated All-in-One water cooler in
fact, its basically identical to Corsairs
version, but with different branding.
Three other variants are also available,
all aimed at various price points stay
tuned for upcoming reviews in the next
issue of PC PowerPlay.
4. The Backpack
PC is designed for
untethered VR
5. The Aegis desktop
has a front HDMI
port for easy VR
connection
6. The MSI X99A
Gaming Pro Carbon
sports impressive
RGB lighting
7. Aimed at
overclockers, the
Z170A Mpower
Gaming Titanium
is powerful
and elegant
8. The Seahawk GTX
is a collaboration
between MSI
and Corsair
PC PowerPlay 29
COMPUTEX 2016
1. The 509 is
big, gorgeous
and surprisingly
affordable
2. The 303 is subtle,
elegant and very
budget friendly
3. (left) D-Frame
4. The 805 Infinity
is a case and optical
illusion all in one
IN WIN
e recently reviewed In Wins
limited edition iFrame case, a
limited edition $1700 behemoth of
which only 500 pieces were being made.
It seems that these ultra-high-end
cases have been In Wins main stock
and trade until now, but theyre aiming
to change that with the introduction of
three new cases, which just happened
to be some of the most attractive that
we saw at the show.
The first of these is the new 303,
which has an incredibly elegant and
subtle design that stood out from the
blazing RGB festooned cases featured
elsewhere. The front panel is a plain
black design, with the range of IO ports
glowing a pale blue. Theres also a small
LED display for showing basic system
information, or a custom icon. However,
its the stunning tempered glass panel
on the left side that we love the most,
as it just looks so much more classic
than boring old Perspex. Removing
this is as simple as pressing a handle,
revealing the modular interior which
also just happens to be totally tool-less.
If youd rather a plain steel side instead
of the tinted tapered class, this is also

an option. The PSU case at the bottom
is perfect for hiding away the myriad of
power cables, while theres also plenty
of cable management options. What
was most impress though is the price
at just AU$109, this thing is incredible
value. We cant wait to get our hands on
a sample.
The next case in the line-up was the
stunning 509, which features tempered
glass on both the front and side to
deliver a look that would be at home in
an architect designed mansion. Theres
a small amount of brushed
aluminium at the top
of the front, where
the drive bay and
IO ports reside, but
it doesnt detract
from the look at all.
Were not so sure
about the big In Win
logo on the front
though something
a little smaller would
be more stylish.
Removing the
side panel reveals
special graphics
card support
brackets, which will come in handy for

some of the larger GPUs now on the
market. This full-sized tower can also
fit an E-ATX motherboard, and theres
even room for three separate 360mm
water radiators. Its going to cost a
little more than the 303, at $199, but
even then its outstanding value given
the functionality, good looks and build
quality.
Finally we came to the blingiest case
of the range, the 805 infinity. This has to
be one of the most interesting designs
weve seen on a case. The entire front
panel is a window into a mirrored
chamber lined with LED lights.
When looking into it, the effect
is like looking into an
incredibly long tunnel
lined with LEDs you
cant see the interior
of the case at all.
Again, youll need to
take a look at the
product shots to
see what we mean.
Itll be a little more
expensive again, at
$349, but theres
nothing quite like it
4
on the market.
COMPUTEX 2016
MALTAKE
1. C1000 coolant
should last and
retain colour for
up to two years
2. The Core P3 is
a budget friendly
cousin to the
popular Core P5
3. The worlds
first fully 3D
printable case
3. Level 10 M
Advanced (reviewed
issue 253)
and RGB. This seemed

recurring theme at
s booth, which was
th all manner of rainbow
ponents. Coolest of all
s new RGB water cooling
n the world which includes
he water cooling pipes.
ect match for Thermaltakes
oloured cooling liquid.
coloured liquids, which
acement after about
three months, the C1000 should last
up to two years, though Thermaltake
recommends replacing it after a year. At
$29 per litre, its rather cheap compared
to the competition.
Last years Core P5 case proved to
be popular, but many modders found it
a little large, so this year Thermaltake
introduced the new Core P3. Its an open
frame chassis design basically theres
a back plate to hold all your components,
and then a Perspex (or it may be glass,
we couldnt tell) window over the top,
held in place by four poles. Its designed
to show off your components entirely,

and the interior is fully modular to allow
for unique designs. Thermaltake has
also provided 3D printing blueprints so
modders can create new components
to fit inside the case. Due to its shape
and thin dimensions, a special L-shaped
bracket is used to rotate the GPU, and
it also needs an SFX power supply.
Thermaltake expects this case to sell
for approximately $100 when its hits
Australia
Speaking of 3D printing, Thermaltake
also showed off the worlds first fully
3D printable case. The design is freely
available from their website all the
user needs is a 3D Printer capable of
building it. Its not exactly pretty, and
uses an open design making it more
suitable for test benches than gaming
systems, but its a damn cool idea.
Last year Thermaltake got into a
little trouble with a new range of server
cases, with a competing company
claiming copyright infringement. So the
company has redesigned them, in the
form of the Core WP200 and W200,
both massive server cases that s
up to 17 drive bays.
One of our favourite new mice was

on show, in the form of the Level 10 M
Advanced. With a 16000 DPI sensor,
its got one of the most unique designs
weve seen it has to be viewed to
be comprehended, using much more
angular, sharp lines than the usual
ergonomic, smooth curves of most
mice. A range of modded keyboards
were also on show, but these were just
concepts created by modders. Along
with these, around a dozen extremely
cool modded cases were on display, as
you can see from our gallery in the back
of the mag. Our favourite had to be the
tracked robot that was actually remote
controlled, which included water cooling
radiators housed in the tracks.
Speaking of modders, Thermaltake
also announced a limited edition case
modding program. On per year, it
will allow modde
dify existing
Thermaltake
t of these
will then
d editions,
and
e store.
t
1. The Zenbo is our

new robot overlord
2. The ZenFone
3 Deluxe is
aggressively priced
but probably wont
come to Australia
3. The Zenbook
3 is lighter and
faster than the
Macbook Air
3. The Transformer
3 Pro is the most
powerful Asus
hybrid tablet/
laptop yet
6.8 inch display.

Taking aim straight at Apples
Macbook is the new ZenBook 3, which is
thinner, lighter and faster than Apples
competing product. With a depth of
just 11.9mm, its absolutely tiny, and
is machined from aerospace-grade
aluminium alloy. This is claimed to be
50% stronger than the usual alloy used
in standard laptops. Despite weighing
just 910 grams, ASUS has crammed
an Intel i7 Processor, 16GB of DDR4
memory and a PCIe SSD up to 1TB in
Kardon to deliver a quad-speaker

system. Despite the thin dimensions,
key travel is 19.8mm, basically the
same as a desktop keyboard. With a
starting price of US$999, the premium
version doubles this to US$1999. Asus
claims up to 9 hours of battery life,
but wed expect the premium version
to chew through this a little faster
given the powerful CPU yet small form
factor. Thankfully the new quick charge
system will charge the battery to 60% in
just 49 minutes.
resolution of 2880 by 1920, giving it a

275ppi pixel density, along with a 121%
claimed sRGB space. Impressive. Once
again Harman Kardon has been bought
onboard for audio duties, with twin
speakers. Internal specs are a Core i7
processor, 1TB PCIe SSD and 16GB of
DDR4 memory. Gamers might like to
buy the optional Audio Pod, which has
four speakers for virtual surround, while
the ROG XG Station 2 is an external
graphics card dock that allows the use
of a discrete GPU for serious gaming.
The coolest, yet creepiest,

announcement of the
Zenvolution event was Zenbo,
a small household robot that
is basically a computer on
wheels. While there was no
mention of the hardware
within, a demonstration video
showed what this US$799
robot will be capable of. Full
voice recognition means it
can do a variety of duties,
but it appears most will need
optional extras. It can be used
to trigger emergency alerts
when elderly or disable people
fall over, providing full video to the call
respondent. Its also ready and able
to read books to children courtesy of
its face, which is actually a small LCD
screen. This also makes it perfect for
reading out recipes while cooking. A
built in calendar means he can remind
you of upcoming appointments,
while a built in video phone means he
doubles as a communication device.
If youve got the right accessories,
Zenbo can be used to control home
automation devices, while his built
in camera acts as a remote security
camera. Itll be interesting to see just
how well Zenbo works when he is
released later this year right now
the creepy voice definitely needs to be
improved.
Asus other flagship event was its
Republic of Gamers night, where it
debuted a range of new(ish) gaming
products. We loved the proof-ofconcept Avalon gaming box, that builds
a high-end gaming PC into a tiny
form factor. Its designed to be fully
modular, replacing the usual PCIe and
SATA connectors we now use, making
it much easier for beginners to simply
plug in new components. However, its
going to take a miracle for the rest of
the industry to get on board with this
standard.
Asus is known for its premium
gaming monitors, but theyre going
for something a little cheaper with the
new Swift PG248Q, a 24-inch gaming
display that packs a blazing 180Hz
overclockable refresh rate. There was
also the new Centurion 7.1 gaming
headset, which packs ten discrete
speakers into its twin cups well
be most interested to hear how this
sounds given that virtual surround
headsets tend to offer less distortion.
As mentioned with the Transformer
3, ASUS is also launching an external
5
graphics card dock called
the XG Station 3. Its
not the only company
to offer these the
widespread availability of Thunderbolt 3
now delivers the necessary bandwidth
and latency to allow for these kinds of
products.
Fans of water cooling will dig the
GX800 laptop, which comes with an
external docking station that includes
water cooling, bumping up the
performance of the laptop when its
plugged in at home. ASUS claims its th
fastest gaming laptop in the world, an
looking at the size of the water
cooling dock, we dont doubt
them. The final standout product
is the new ROG G31 Edition 10, a
20 litre chassis the includes dual
GTX 1080 GPUs with a 3D vaporchamber cooling system to keep
this mini-PC nice and quiet, even
when running 4K games.
5. The Swift
PG248Q monitor
can be overclocked
to 180MHz
6. X99 Rampage
V Edition 10
7. Centurion 7.1
gaming headset
8. The proof of
concept Avalon
gaming box
9. The ROG G31
Edition 10 is a
mini PC with dual
GTX 1080s
10. The GX800
laptop features
external
watercooling
10
PC PowerPlay 35
COMPUTEX 2016
5
1
1. GB-BSi5HA-6300
should seamlessly
stream 4K
2. GB-BNi7HG4-950
is about the size of
3 stacked NUCs
3. GB-XD7B0 - a
mini PC boasting
a GTX 970
4. P57 laptop
5. P37 laptop
6. The Aero 14
features a QHD
display and 970M
GIGABYTE
ts not often a booth tour commences
at the exact same moment as a 6.1
magnitude earthquake, but thats how
this years Gigabyte tour kicked off.
Their booth is held on the 37th floor
of Taipeis 101 tower, the 4th tallest
building in the world, but thankfully its
built to handle these types of events.
It was certainly an interesting start to
a booth tour that was absolutely jam
packed with new products.
The massive booth in the 101 was
divided into several key areas laptops,
motherboards
while another
building highlighted more of their
peripherals and notebooks. Our tour
commenced with the laptop section,
an area where Gigabyte seems to have
more products than ever before. As
expected, many of these were product
updates to existing systems, though
they all seemed to have much improved
cooling systems. As readers of PCPP,
youll know that gaming laptop fan
noise is one of our biggest bug-bears, so
seeing Gigabyte focus on lowering this is
a real plus.
If youre into super-fast frame rates,
youll also appreciate the new 120Hz
panels that feature on several of the
premium models in the range, which
appear to all support NVIDIAs G-Synch.
Interestingly we didnt see a single
FreeSync-equipped laptop at the show,
very surprising given its official support
in DisplayPort 1.3a. Like every other
manufacturer at the show, Gigabyte
were very keen to show off their RGB
keyboards.
The new Aero range of notebooks
feature a Quad HD display, powered by
graphics up to and including the GTX
p
p ,
which tend to be announced four to
eight weeks after their desktop launch,
but we can expect to see Gigabyte and
Aorus laptops powered by GTX 1070M
and 1080M (were guessing those are
the product names) in the next few
months.
Next stop on the Gigabyte train was
its mini-form factor series, known
as Brix. These have had substantial
upgrades compared to previous units,
all moving to the latest 6th Gen Core
CPUs from Intel. One of our favourite
picks for a media box is the new GBBSi5HA-6300, which uses an i5 CPU.
As well as room for a standard 2.5 inch
drive, it also includes an M.2 SSD socket
for ultra-high speed storage. USB 3.1
and 3.0 are both included on most of the
new Brix range, with several featuring
a single Type C connector. Until now
many Brix units havent been able to
stream 4K video due to the use of single
channel memory, but this unit now use
dual-channel DDR4 2133MHz memory,
which should make 4K streaming
a breeze. Twin video outputs in the
form of HDMI and mini-DisplayPort
COMPUTEX 2015
means dual displays is an option. Its still no gam

machine though, as Intels HD Graphics 520 will
struggle to run anything detailed.
As well as the Brix range, Gigabyte showed o
several mini-PCs that arent quite as small, but
quite the punch. The GB-BNi7HG4-950 is abou
the size of three stacked Brix units, with an inte
capacity of just 2.6 litres, but can power four 4K
displays at 60Hz. This is thanks to the discrete
GeForce GTX 950 squeezed inside, which outpu
via triple Mini-DisplayPort and a single HDMi 2.
output. Twin M.2 slots allow for RAIDed SSDs, a
with a single 2.5 inch drive bay. This will be the
perfect little powerhouse for those wanting to r
retail displays at 4K. Our final fave mini-PC is th
GB-XD7B0, which looks a lot like a Playstation 3
small with a 10 litre internal capacity, but packs
6th Gen Core CPU alongside a full-blown GTX 9
Its the perfect little gaming box to go next to yo
TV, but pricing is TBD.
As expected, Gigabyte had no shortage of
motherboards to show, with a dedicated section
to its G1 Gaming range. Nearly all of these were
powered by the existing Intel Z170 and X99
chipsets, and several key new features appeared on
nearly every board. A new 4-pin LED header means
RGB freaks can now hook their third-party RGB
kit directly to the motherboard, and synchronise it
with every other RGB kit in their PC the keyboard,
mouse, and RAM, though we should point out that
Gigabyte werent the only company to feature this.
In a new move for the company, Gigabyte also
showed its first ever gaming case, the XC700. Yep,
its festooned in RGB lights, and uses a full-sized
ATX design. The tempered glass side panel is a
subtle compromise between a bawdy Perspex
window and a tinted view inside the case, and the
use of this material seemed to be another overall
trend of the show. Along with this case, Gigabyte
debuted its first ever gaming power supply, the
XP1200M. This 1200W monster is fully modular and
carries an 80+ rating. Along with the case, these two
products suggest Gigabyte it positioning itself as
a manufacturer who can deliver basically an entire
system, in the same way ASUSs ROG brand does.
Heading to Gigabytes other booth revealed one of
the most impressive hardware displays of the show.
A huge 9 panel screen was connected to a fullmotion cockpit with wheel and pedals, along with
a Rift headset. As our photos of PCTA Editor Ben
Mansill show, it was quite the sight to behold.
This was hosted next to Gigabytes upcoming
range of GTX 1080 and 1070 products, the best
of which is the new GTX 1080 Extreme Gaming
Edition. As well as featuring a brand new cooler
design, where the third fan is mounted underneath
the other two, it has one brilliant feature for VR.
Twin HDMI 2.0 ports are included in addition to the
usual, but they face forwards. This makes it easy to
pass them through to forward connectors on the
case, positioned perfectly for VR kits. This was the
only GPU we saw at the show to include such an
innovative feature.
7. Z170X-UD3 Ultra
8. X99 Ultra Gaming
9. The XC700 is
Gigabytes first
ever case
10. Ben Mansill in his
natural environment
11. GTX 1080
Extreme Gaming
Edition features
forward facing HDMI
connectors for easier
front connections
10
11
COMPUTEX 2016
ROCCAT
occat didnt have a whole lot to
show off that we havent seen
already, but one product did stand
out the Roccat Suora. Yep, we dont
know how to pronounce it either. At first
glance it looks like a relatively standard
entry-level product, until we noticed the
frameless design. The aluminium alloy
housing has no palm rest, and no border
around the keys. What good is that,
we hear you ask? The answer is simple
cleaning out the keys on this sucker
will be a breeze. Simply grab a can of
compressed air and spray away, and all
that dirt and dust will come flying out.
Its fully mechanical, but rather than
use Cherry MX switches it instead
comes with TTC Brown, which have
a feel very similar to Cherry MX
Brown. These are guaranteed to last
50 million keystrokes, so dont worry
about reliability. Rather than offering a
gazillion different colours, the Suoras
backlight is only available in blue,
though it can be run in eleven different
brightness levels. Six macro keys are
included, and obviously theres full anti-
ghosting with N-key rollover support.

Were a little concerned about the price
though at $169 its rather pricey for
such a simple design.
We also saw Roccats Kiro modular
mouse, which is fully configurable for
both left and right handers thanks to its
removable sides. Its even possible to
change the number of buttons on either
side, from none to two. We love the
Pro-Optic R2 optical sensor, which has an
effective DPI of 4000, making it one of the
highest DPI optical mice on the market.
FRACTAL DESIGN
ractal is one of
our favourite case
makers, so it was a
shame to see they
were only showing a
single product at this
years show, which
has already been on
the market for a while
now. The Define Nano
S is an ITX case that
is designed to have
the space inside to
host a high-end PC
with water cooling, and their small
booth was filled with custommodded versions. In fact, one
was even brought over by their
Australian distributor, who had to
bring it on as carry-on luggage.
Make no mistake, its a beautiful
case, even winning the European
Hardware Association best-ITX
case, but it would have been
nice to see something new.
Unfortunately the suite was set
2. Kiro modular
mouse with
exchangable
side panels
FSP
ritish power supply manufacturer FSP had a number of new
products to show off at Computex, ranging from eco-friendly
power storage to, inverters and new form factor power supplies.
Looking much like a wheeled suitcases (featuring a couple of big
red buttons), the Emergy line of products are efficient, fanless
power storage systems that can be charged from mains for use
off the grid.
On the power supply front, FSP has two new product lines, the
Twins Series of redundant PSUs and the Dagger SFX PSU series.
The Twins series PSUs are designed primarily for home server use
and feature two hot-swap PSUs. If the primary PSU
fails, the secondary PSU immediately takes over. The
PSU also features an onboard software solution
and several LED indicators that will detect
and identify any problems as they occur.
The Dagger line of SFX PSUs offers
two models, 500W and 600W, both of
which are 80 Plus Gold rated. Promoted
as being able to power high-end,
VR-ready compact builds, the Dagger
PSUs feature fully modular cabling. FSP
has opted for 80mm fans for cooling
rather than the quieter 92mm fans seen
in many other SFX PSUs. How much
this will affect the noise level is as yet
unknown.
1. Suora keyboard
(reviewed issue 253)
up to show how this mini-PC can

power HTCs Vive VR kit, yet this
fickle piece of new technology
stopped working after just a few
days. We felt no end of pain for
their new global comms manager,
who had only been with the
company for a fortnight and was
responsible for setting up the HTC
Vive; hopefully his bosses will
understand that the Vive doesnt
always work as intended.
COMPUTEX 2015
OCZ
CZ only had one major new product
to show off this year, but it was a
ripper. The RD400 is one of the latest
crop of NVMe SSD drives to hit the
market, and uses a PCIe Gen3 x4 lane
to deliver earth-shattering speeds. OCZ
claims it can hit up to 2600MB/sec read
and 1600MB/sec write performance.
Its actually an M.2 SSD attached to a
PCIe board, so were guessing it can
probably be detached and used as an
M.2 drive if necessary, like Kingstons
similar product.
The product uses Toshibas 15nm
MLC NAND flash memory with an
endurance rating of up to 592TBW
(Terabytes Written). But what is even
more impressive is the companys
amazing warranty policy, which it calls
the Advanced Warranty Programme.
If a user finds their drive to be fault,
they simply need to email OCZ and
the company will send out a brand
new product no receipt necessary.
Once the user receives the new drive,
they then return the faulty drive with
the included return packaging. Best of
all, this warranty lasts an incredible

five years, making it easily the best
warranty policy in the industry. This
has no doubt been introduced for two
reasons; firstly, OCZ had reliability
issues with its first few generations
of products. Secondly, since being
bought by Toshiba, were guessing
OCZ has a little bit more cash behind
it. Regardless, this new warranty
policy will go a long way to restoring
faith in the OCZ brand, and the
performance of this drive should help
put the company back on top of the
performance pile.
1. OCZ claims the

RD400 can hit
2600MB/s read and
1600MB/s write
2. OCZ VT180
CRUCIAL
ather than have a booth at the
show, Crucial chose to demo its
new range of products at a relatively
quiet dinner and drinks night at a hotel.
The main message is that it is now
going to aggressively target gamers,
mainly by building products that fit
the performance needs of us high-end
users. Its now moving the Ballistix
brand into its own category, aimed
at gamers, and there were several
products carrying this name.
A series of high end DDR4 modules
were on show, but its obvious the
company sees the 2666MHz frequency
as being the most popular amongst its
target market. It will carry speeds up to
3400MHz, but a company rep claimed
this would probably make up about 1%
of all DDR4 sales for Ballistix. These
DDR4 modules will be sold across three
different levels. Sport is the base model,
Tactical is mid-range, and Elite is for,
well, the Elite.
The major new product for the
company is its new NVMe drive, the
Ballistix TX3. This should include a

small heatsink, to help get around
the throttling issues that other
NVMe/SSD drives have been
shown to suffer from. The company
is aiming to get aggressive on
pricing, so it wont quite deliver the
performance of the very best NVMe
drives, but itll be near enough that

most users wont notice in real
world use. A live demo showed read
speeds of 2397MB/sec, with write
speeds of 777MB/sec. That read
speed is fine, thought the write
speed is well below the 1600MB/
sec being offered by competitors.
PC PowerPlay 39
COMPUTEX 2016
ZOTAC
otacs focus this year seemed to
be mini-PCs, as it had a plethora
on display. The Zbox Magnus EN980
is arguably the smallest VR-ready PC
weve seen, only slightly larger than
an ITX motherboard. Its able to cool
the GTX 980 inside by using a custom
waterblock connected to a 120mm
radiator, an impressive feat for such a
tiny gaming machine.
As one of Nvidias biggest partners, it
was no surprise to see Zotacs version of
the GTX 1080 on display, which is called
the Amp Extreme. This massive slab of a
video card uses a huge triple slot cooler
with three fans (yep, RGB lighting and
all) along with juiced up power circuitry.
A smaller Amp edition was also on
show, which uses a two-slot cooler with
twin fans, yet still includes the improved
power circuitry.
Zotac was another company to show
off its own VR backpack PC, which
appears to be based around the Magnus
EN980. Thanks to the larger size of the
backpack, the company has been able
to remove the water cooling and stick
ALIENWARE
remium gaming PC manufacturer
Alienware had four new products
to show off at this years show, and
they were all tasty indeed. First on
the sampling plate was the new Alpha
compact desktop. Looking extremely
similar to last years model, its now
60% faster than the previous generation
thanks to the new GTX 960 GPU
included within, along with 4GB of
GDDR5 memory. Theres even an option
with AMD Radeon graphics, and is also
compatible with the new Alienware
1
with aircooling instead. Unlike other
companies, which stayed mum about
the battery life of their VR backpacks,
Zotac was happy to share details.
They think around two hours will be
the maximum lifespan, so hopefully it
comes with a removable battery. We
really dont think this trend will take
off for home users its so much more
affordable to simply install a rotating
hook in your ceiling, yet can see the
appeal for large-scale VR experiences.
Graphics Amplifier, an external graph

card box.
The next product to get a big updat
is the beautiful Area 51 triangular
behemoth. Now packing Intels latest
Broadwell-E CPUs along with GTX 10
graphics, this is one rig that will shred
the competition. We have no word ye
on pricing, but expect to have to sell y
granny into slavery to pay for this bru
Our favourite product had to be th
revised Aurora desktop, which has
shrunk massively in size. Packing the
latest Nvidia graphics cards, with up
to dual SLI available, it also houses
Intels newest CPUs with the option
of liquid cooling for severe
overclocking. Kingstons Fury
X memory is included at
2400MHz, and theres space
for up to 5 drives. We love
the tool-less design, and RGB
freaks will dig the AlienFX and
Alienware Command Centre
utilities. These allow for fully
customisable lighting designs
and system maintenance,
which can be shared with the
community.
1. The Magnus
EN980 backpack PC
(on that guys back)
2. The Amp Extreme
GTX 1080 certainly
looks the business
1. Alienware Alpha
and Graphics
Amplifier
2. Area 51
(exploded)
2. Aurora has come
doThe wn in size
but still fits top of
the like graphics
cards, five drives
and the latest CPUs
NVIDIA GTX 1080
NVIDIA
GTX 1080
Launch
The 1080 is not an evolution, its a revolution
he GPU industry has been

constrained by a key technology
for almost half a decade, which has
forced it to make hotter, bigger and
more expensive products. The size of
the transistors used in the last few
generations of GPUs was stuck at
28nm for over four years, with several
delays holding back the move to a
smaller process. These transistors are
designed by the folks at TSMC, which
stands for the Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company. The original
plan was to move to a 20nm process,
then down from there, but it turned out
to be a much harder task than anybody
could have imagined.
As a result, when NVIDIA released
new products, which generally
required more transistors to improve
performance, the silicon die had to grow
in size. This makes for a hotter piece of
hardware, as there are more transistors
running, which in turn needs more
power to run. Its also more expensive,
as the size of the chip helps determines
the price. For example, the GTX 980 Ti
had a silicon die that was 601 square
millimetres. Meanwhile, the much less
powerful GTX 960 had a die size of only

227 square millimetres.
The good news is that TSMC has
finally perfected the move to a smaller
manufacturing process. In the case of
Nvidias new Pascal products, officially
named the GeForce GTX 1080, the
transistors are now just 16nm in size.
They also use a new layout called
FinFET, which is part of the reason
theyre able to be so small. Intel was
actually the first company to use
FinFET shaped transistors back in 2011,
and theyre basically the worlds first
3-dimensional transistor. The move
to these new transistors has allowed
NVIDIA to release a product that has a
rather large performance improvement
over its predecessor, yet in many
ways its quite similar to the Maxwell
architecture used in the GTX 980 Ti.
Lets check out what has, and hasnt,
changed.
KEY SPECIFICATIONS
At the heart of both Maxwell and Pascal
are CUDA cores, which are basically the
small processors that handle the job of
what used to be called pixel and vertex
shaders. The new GTX 1080 actually has

slightly fewer CUDA cores than the GTX
980 Ti, moving down from 2816 in its
predecessor to 2560 in the GTX 1080.
Its also got fewer texture units, the part
of the processor that puts textures onto
3D planes. The old GTX 980 Ti had 176
of these, while the GTX 1080 drops this
to 160. But the biggest drop comes in
the number of ROPs, or Render Output
Unit. This is one of the final parts of the
rendering process, and the 1080 has
just 64 of these, whereas the GTX 980
Ti had 96.
It should be apparent that the GP104
GPU at the heart of the GTX 1080 is
a less complex beast than the 980
Ti. This is why it only has 7.2 billion
transistors, compared to the 8
billion transistors of the 980
Ti. Thanks to the smaller
transistors, the die size has
decreased massively,
down to just 314
square millimetres,
around half that
of the GTX
980 Ti. It
also
PC PowerPlay 43
NVIDIA GTX 1080
requires much less power to operate, with the

GTX 1080 having a TDP of just 180W compared
to the 250W of the GTX 980 Ti. Yet the 1080 is
a substantially faster card, so how has NVIDIA
been able to make this happen?
THE SECRET SAUCE
By far the biggest improvement between the
GTX 980 Ti and the GTX 1080 is the frequency
of the GPU. It turns out that these new 16nm
FinFET transistors can run much faster than
those of the past. The GTX 980 Ti had a base
speed of 1000MHz, whereas the GTX 1080
massively increases this to 1607MHz, a huge
60% speed increase. When the card is under
maximum load, it goes into Boost Clock, which
is faster still. The GTX 980 Ti was rated to have
a Boost speed of 1075MHz, though we often
saw it hit 1200MHz in reality. The new GTX
1080 has a Boost clock of 1733MHz, but it can
be pushed much higher with overclocking. We
managed to obtain a ridiculously fast 2.1GHz
GPU core speed, which is over twice the base
speed of the GTX 980 Ti.
The next area of improvement is memory
speed. While initial rumours suggested that the
GTX 1080 was going to use HBM 2.0, which is
the second version of the memory type that
debuted on AMDs Fury product, it has instead
chosen to use a GDDR5X. This is simply a
revised version of the GDDR5 memory used
on most of todays products, and thus has a
similar manufacturing cost. However, it runs at
substantially faster frequencies than GDDR5,
with the memory on the GTX 1080 running at
10Gbps, whereas the 980 Ti had 7Gbps GDDR5
memory. On the other hand, the memory bus
is actually slimmer on the new card, at just
256-bits compared to the 384-bit bust of the
980 Ti. This gives the new card a total memory
bandwidth of 320GB/sec, which is actually a
little slower than the 336GB/sec of the 980 Ti.
However, Nvidia has also improved the delta
colour compression technique used in Pascal.
According to Nvidia, this has resulted in a
memory bandwidth gain of around 20%, helping
to narrow the gap between the two. Theres
more of memory this time around, with the
GTX 1080 now carrying a hefty 8GB of onboard
memory compared to the 6GB found on the
GTX 980 Ti.
The GTX 980 Ti had a

base speed of 1000MHz,
whereas the GTX 1080
massively increases this
to 1607MHz, a huge 60%
speed increase
Another new feat

empt graphics oper
compute operation
which apparently d
switching. Yep, we
what that means
sounds impressiv
VIRTUALLY UNB
NVIDIA is bettin
Virtual Reality, a
feature that ma
VR performanc
Projection, or
speed differen
a scene needs to b
Reality or multi-screen setup
for a GPU to render the two
views required for VR, one fo
it would have to render the e
scene twice. However, with
SMP, the GPU now renders
the scene just once, but
captures the view from two
different viewpoints. Nvidia
this can improve pixel throug
in VR by around 1.5X, with d
the geometry throughput. A
doesnt seem to have a com
technology, which will put it
massive disadvantage when
to VR and multi-screen rend
Nvidia is also toying with
sound, using the same ray-t
technology used in image re
but with audio instead. Calle
VRWorks Audio, instead of u
fake effects like pre-existing
techniques, it actually physic
calculates the direction and
of audio just as in the real w
its currently in a very early f
incredibly performance intensive. Nvidia had
a demo machine running with this audio, and
it required a dedicated GTX 1080 just for the
audio. The company is promising to optimise
it though, so that these ridiculous hardware
requirements arent required.
DIGITAL ART
A key software feature of the new GTX 1080
is Ansel, which allows screenshot makers to
freeze games and take manual control of the
game camera and take screenshots. It also
removes the HUD if required, and a range
of effects can be applied to the screenshot.
Obviously its up to game makers as to whether
they want to allow Ansel to be used in their
games, as there is the potential for cheating.
The good news is that Ansel integration is
incredibly simple it required just 40 lines of
code to implement into The Witness, and 150
lines for The Witcher 3.
a 38 foot by 8 foot banner with a 100 DPI

resolution. The size of the file was just 1.5GB,
and allowed viewers to see intricate details
that wouldnt normally be visible, as Ansel
increases the level of detail. Because this is
a software feature, it will also be backwards
compatible with GTX 900 series cards.
GPU BOOST 3.0
The final new feature of note is GPU Boost
3.0, which is why the GTX 1080 overclocks
so damn well. In the prior version, the
frequency increase was fixed for example,
youd set the GPU to always run at 150MHz
over its stock speed, and it would stay there.
GPU Boost 3.0 offers much more granular
overclocking, as it adjusts the frequency per
voltage point. This means that the GPU will
pick the best frequency for a given voltage.
Finding the right frequency at each voltage
point would be a very time consuming affair if
GTX 1080 Benchmarks

HITMAN Benchmarks
4K, Ultra
Performance Increase
Avg FPS
49
GTX 1080
GTX Titan X
GTX 980 Ti
37
36
32%
36%
THE DIVISION Benchmarks

4K, Ultra
Avg FPS
45
GTX 1080
GTX Titan X
GTX 980 Ti
34
34
33%
33%
3DMARK Fire Strike

1080p
Score
GTX 1080
GTX Titan X
GTX 980 Ti
15334
15340
17656
15%
15%
3DMARK Fire Strike

Score
4K
GTX 1080
GTX Titan X
GTX 980 Ti
(above) Ansel Free

Camera integration
allows in game
photography
done manually, so EVGA has released

a new version of its overclocking
software called Precision X. This can
be set to run a timed test that can
last several hours, finding the precise
maximum frequency for each voltage
point. This was how we managed to hit
a 2.1GHz overclock.
One final note for users of multiple
GPUs. Nvidia now intends that SLI is
now focused on twin-card setups, and
is dissuading users from three and four
card setups. A new SLI bridge has been
designed just for the new card, which
now runs at 650MHz.
4998
4265 17%
4134 21%
PERFORMANCE
Nvidia claims that the GTX 1080 is
faster than two GTX 980 cards in SLI
mode, but we were unable to test
this as we only have one 980. It also
claims the card is designed for 4K
gaming resolutions, and that 1080p
performance is a bit of a waste. As
such we tested our card in our standard
testbench, but ran most games at
4K. We also used a couple of new
benchmarks as theyre much more
demanding than the old ones.
As you can see from the benchmark
results, the GTX 1080 is anywhere
between 15% and 36% faster than a GTX
980 Ti. And this is without overclocking,
which should add another 15% or more
to performance. We should point out
that the 15% difference was at 1080p,
backing up NVIDIAs claims that its
designed for higher resolutions. Our
results also show that a single 1080
still doesnt quite have the grunt to run
todays games at 4K with Ultra settings,
and maintain a framerate of 60fps. Still,
its an impressively fast bit of kit, though
we cant wait to see what the GTX 1080

Ti delivers. Its also very quiet, measuring
just 35dB on our sound meter.
RELEASE DATE AND PRICE
Nvidia has released its own version
of the card, known as the Founders
Edition, claiming it is a premium version
with Nvidias custom blower cooler.
Priced around AU$1149, its certainly
not cheap, but when the standard
chipset becomes available, third party
manufacturers will likely release cards
around the $950 to $1000 price point
at the entry level. We can expect to see
even more extravagant versions of the
cards as well, priced upwards of $1300,
several of which we mentioned in this
issues Computex report.
It may not be a radically redesigned
product, but the GTX 1080 brings
impressive performance improvements.
The only question now is how close the
impending GTX 1070 is, which is the
card that tends to offer the best price/
performance benefit. Well have more
details about this soon.
PC PowerPlay 45
AMD RX 480
AM
Pola
Laun
AMD takes aim at the mass mark
its new range of RX400 videocards
onsidering it was held just a week
before Computex, AMDs launch of
its new 400 series of graphics cards was
a little strange to say the least. Held in
Macau, China, the company unveiled its
new mainstream Polaris architecture,
yet everything at the event was under
embargo until June 29th, well after
Computex. Why hold an event so close
to the biggest PC hardware show of the
year, and then not show it at Computex?
Whatever the reasons, AMD also
remained relatively tight-lipped on the
technical details of its new GPU design.
Thankfully it shared a little more info
its new range APUs, so lets see exactly
what the company revealed at the event.
VR FOR THE MAINSTREAM

If there was one key message that
came out of the event, its that AMD is
aiming to deliver graphics cards with the
necessary grunt to run VR at a fraction
of the price of todays products. Three
new products in total were announced,
but theyre all very different to Nvidias
new GTX 1080i. Rather than aim at
premium power-obsessed users, AMD is
targeting the mainstream market, with
much more affordable products.

The most expensive product is the
new RX 480, which has a retail price
of just US$199. While we dont have
samples of these cards yet, theyre
expected to deliver around five teraflops
of performance, putting them on par
with Nvidias GTX 980. This performance
increase is courtesy of several key
changes, and the biggest (or should
that be smallest?) is the same reason
Nvidias new cards are so fast. AMD
has finally made the move from a
28nm manufacturing process, but
rather than use the 16nm process that
Nvidia selected, its gone for an even
smaller 14nm process. Like Nvidias
transistors, AMDs are all based on the
3D FinFET design, a must for such small
transistors. This uses the new Polaris
10 GPU, which delivers up to twice the
performance per Watt of the last gen.
AMD would not reveal the speed
of the new GPU in the RX 480, but
its expected to be around the 1.2GHz
mark, a surprisingly low speed given
the 1700MHz+ of Nvidias new cards.
Also helping boost performance is the
inclusion of 36 compute units, which is
ei
R9
the
Rat
exp
foun
prod
with
memo
the cl
across
256GB
will be t
one pac
doubling
the new p
Graphics C
Thanks
the RX 480
operate, wi
great to see
adopted the
with Display
a huge range
rates: 1080p 2
120Hz and 14
These new con
RX480 is also f
when these dis
PC PowerPlay 47
AMD RX 480
VR is amazing, but relatively few can enjoy it

1.6 B
1.4 B
1.2 B
1.0 B
0.8 B
0.6 B
0.4 B
0.2 B
0.0 B
1.43 billion
PCs
Just 13 million PCs worldwide

this year will have the graphics
capabilities needed to run VR
Only 1% of the 1.43 billion PCs
used globally
Source: Gartner
Under embargo until June 29, 2016 at 9 a.m. EST.
(above) One of the goals of the RX 480 is

making VR more affordable for the masses
more common in the market. Obvious

of AMDs new products also support A
FreeSync technology, which were sur
hasnt seen a major uptake in the mar
AMDs reasoning behind the price
of the RX 480 all comes down to whe
market is growing. According to a Ma
Mercury Research report, more than
million gamers will spend between $
$300 to upgrade their graphics card.
in stark contrast to Nvidias release s
of aiming at the high-end first, and th
releasing more affordable products. I
very interesting to see if AMDs new
pays off, but the company think its o
winning strategy.
THE NEXT RUNG DOWN
Next on the list is AMDs RX 470, whic
apparently ideal for 1080p gaming,
uses 32 Compute Units. Memory band
is 224GB/sec, with 4GB of 7 Gbps GD
onboard running over a 256-bit memo
Itll need just 110W of juice to run. Fin
theres the RX 460, the budget level c
aimed at eSports users who dont nee
of power. With just 14 Compute Units
a much smaller card, hence the 75W p
requirement. Memory bandwidth drop
dramatically too, down to 112GB/sec
the 2GB of onboard memory still runn
7Gbps its the smaller 128-bit mem
that is responsible for such a big drop
AMD went to great lengths to highlight its
DirectX 12 performance, an area that Nvidia
barely commented on during its 1080 launch.
In fact, they even showed one benchmark
where two RX 480 cards outpaced a single
1080 Ashes of the Singularity. Thats not too
shabby considering twin RX 480s will cost you
Despite AMDs
insistence that its new
cards are Oculus and
HTC certified, weve
got a few concerns
regarding this claim
APU, which comes in two flavours - Bristol

Ridge and Stoney Ridge. This brings several
changes to the design of the companys APUs,
although the use four Excavator x86 Cores is
a bit of a disappointment. These are the same
cores used in the 6th Gen A-Series APU, which
have been shown to be much slower, pound for
pound, than the cores in Intels CPUs. However,
AMD claims that the Stony Ridge CPU delivers
up to 50% faster CPU core performance over
the previous version of the Carrizo APU.
Depending on which model you buy, various
versions of these APUs will have differing
numbers of Radeon Graphics Core Next Cores.
AMD claims the top of the line chips will deliver
up to R7 levels of graphics, good enough for
eSports. According to benchmarks shown at
the event, the 15W Bristol Ridge APU delivers
Ridge range will consist of 35W and 15W

versions, known as the AMD FX, A12 and A10
processors. Meanwhile the Stoney Ridge chips
will come in a 15W flavour, and be known as
the A9, A6 and E2 processors.
BETTER ENGINEERING EQUALS BETTER
PERFORMANCE
Given that the new APU isnt a radical redesign
compared to the last APU, how did AMD
manage to deliver up to 50% better CPU and
GPU core performance, all while managing to
lower power use by around 12%.
In the words of AMD, Engineering
innovation can overcome thermal, voltage, and
current performance constraints. But what
does this actually mean? Well, it turns out the
company fine-tuned several of the ways its
p
y
p
performance. In the past, CPUs have
used Dynamic Voltage and Frequency
Scaling, or DFVS for short, to achieve
this. This always has a serious amount of
power overhead, to take into account the
various temps the chip may be operating
at. However, AMDs new APUs include
AVFS, or Adaptive Voltage and Frequency
Scaling. In contrast to DFVS, this uses ondie sensors to measure in real-time the
temperature and frequency of the chip,
and adjusting the voltage accordingly. Its
apparently not new technology though,
as it appeared first in the Carrizo APU.
A very cool (literally) feature for laptop
users is the new Skin Temperature
Aware Power Management system.
By embedding temperature sensors
pp y
PC components, the power components
within each APU have some variability
built into them. AMDs new system runs
voltage analysis on the APU when the
part is tested and binned, and the voltage
is then logged by the integrated power
supply monitors. When the system
then boots-up and the APU is engaged,
the same voltage analysis is run, and
a regulator then delivers the same AC
voltage as observed on the tester. The
end result is that power waste from
the usual over-voltage seen on APUs is
eliminated entirely, leading to substantial
power savings. All of these technologies
are part of AMDs 25 x 20 project, which
aims to increase performance per watt by
25x within the next five years.
at Computex,
mit Ridge. With eight
n threads, AMD is
row the gap between
nce and Intels, with
p
j t behind Skylake. Were
all hoping this will be AMDs next Athlon
success story, as the CPU wars have
been extremely stale of late.
WHERE ARE THE PRODUCTS?
Despite the introduction of AMDs
new APU, we still found it hard to find
AMD-powered laptops on the floor at
Computex. Perhaps its because these
chips are still so new that APU powered
laptops are few and far between, but
we hope AMDs new APUs give it a leg
up on Intel. A world with only one CPU
maker is not a happy place. We also
hope to see more info on AMDs new RX
400 series of cards in the near future,
but sadly samples werent available in
time for this issue.
PC PowerPlay 49
INTERVIEW
Vincent Ho
MSI Manager
Multimedia PM Division
Q: So youre the guy in charge

of coming up with these custom
cooling solutions for MSI GPUs?
Vincent: Yes
When I was outside it was explained
to me that twin fans is a better
choice than three fans for reliability
but also offers the same cooling.
Can you explain more about that?
The duo fan is more stable because if we
put a three fan the fans have to be smaller
because of the size of the system so the
noise level will be higher. For cooling three
fans need lots of RPM, so the noise levels
will be higher. With duo fans we use the ten
centimetre fans for the cooling solution.
They can go slower so the noise level will
be more quiet. For the temperature the
10cm fan delivers more airflow, so the
temperature is lower than the three fan.
Do the 1080 or 1070 have any
special requirements for cooling?
How does it compare to Maxwell?
I think they are similar. With media
management the GPU temperatures go
lower so we can gather more boot clock for
the same requirements from the Maxwell.
With the new Pascal die size we had to
change the architecture to account for the
die size getting smaller and smaller. The
heat pipe is a bit different. With the new
architecture we can put more and more
heat pipes ion the same area, so we can
get a lower temperature with the heat pipe
technology. The FinFet is different, so we
can it (the Maxwell cooling solution) Torx
Spin 1.0, and this (Pascal cooling solution)
is Torx Spin 2.0. It has a totally new fan
and we have a patent on the fan, so by
comparison the new fan delivers 20%
more airflow and the noise level is d
at least 15%. Because of the new FinF
and the new technology the cooling
noise level are improved by about 22
Does the 1080 or your
cooling design have any
type of idle mode for when
youre in Windows desktop?
When the GPU temperature is abo
60 degrees the fan will start spinnin
With duo fans we use the ten centimetre

fans for the cooling solution. They can go
slower so the noise level will be more quiet
You also have an all-in-one closed
loop card.
We have the 980Ti Seahawk with a
water cooling solution by Corsair. The
number one water cooling solution
worldwide by branding is Corsair, and are
graphics cards are number one worldwide.
The last generation, the 980Ti was a
number one seller in the UK, Australia and
the United States, so with the 1080 were
MSis 980 Ti Seahawk, with

water cooling by corsair
Would the 1080 benefit from having

a closed loop water system?
The water system would get a lower
temperature, but for noise level it would
be this (fans). Some people want to use
the latest technology in their system,
so some fans might pick up the water
solution. Some people might want to
use overclocking and some might prefer
fans. Theres different
segments. With water
cooling, its easier now
for fans to assemble it.
In previous generations,
everybody wanted water
cooling but it was hard
to assemble by yourself,
so we created this new
product for the end user
making it easier for users
to assemble at home.
TONKA
TOUGH
Stuart Tonks may not be a household name, but he
is arguably Australias premier modder, creating PC
builds that are both stunning and functional. We caught
up with Stuart after Computex to talk to him about
modding in Australia, what inspires his builds, what
advice he can give up and coming modders, and more.
PCPP: How did you first get involved in

modding? What drew you to it in the
first place?
Tonks: Funnily enough I never actually
set out in case modding from the start.
I first took over GGF Lan Party about 6
years ago. I ran the event with a bunch
of friends for about a year but decided
I wanted to offer more at each event.
This is when I had the idea to have a few
systems on display. The next event saw
a budget and extreme rig on display for
gamers to test out and play around with.
Then from there on it grew. Each event
having more systems on display and
then they eventually turned into modded
systems. Now my case modding has
really picked up and as of the last 2 years
it has been non-stop venture for me.
There seems to be two streams of
modding, the elegant and practical
modding that you do and the
extravagant scratch builds and full PC
conversions. What inspires you in your
approach?
You can clearly see from my builds
that I go with the clean, looks awesome
on your desk approach. My main aim
from day one is to bring modding to
Australia and have Australia recognised

as a modding country. As much as I
admire those who do scratch builds.
I feel scratch builds wont introduce
newcomers to modding. They are just
too hard and take too long. Hence why
most of my builds are quite simple but
look great. This encourages anyone to
jump in and try their own build with the
likes of painting, vinyl work, custom
acrylic panels and so on.
Where do you start with a new build?
Do you come up with an initial concept
and then get parts, or does the concept
come from the available parts?
This is a tough one. It all depends on
the job, timeframe and parts for the build.
If I have plenty of time and lead time, I
can plan the build out. If there is zero lead
time I normally design while Im building.
Does the fact that you do a number of
sponsored builds limit your creativity in
any way or do you like working within
the confines of a commission?
I guess it really depends on the
sponsor and what theyre after. When
it comes to creating a build for a case
sponsor I tend not to hack up the
As much as I admire those

who do scratch builds. I feel
scratch builds wont introduce
newcomers to modding
case too much. I do this as I still like to

showcase the case they have provided.
No point showcasing a case from a
vendor that doesnt even look like the
original model right? If its not for a case
vendor I can be a bit more creative and
really showcase the item the mod is
promoting.
What type of tools do you use for your
modding?
When it comes to tools, I use very
basic hand tools. The most advanced tool
I have would be my table saw. I mainly
use this for cutting down large sheets of
acrylic. Other than that my top 5 tools
would be a jigsaw, files, vinyl cutter,
sandpaper and a heat gun.
How do you fund your projects?
Getting in to modding can be quite
tough and youll never find yourself
getting sponsored builds with no history.
Im lucky enough now that I have quite a
large track record with builds, events and
videos that most of my builds now are
fully sponsored. This also makes sense as
most of the time I dont end up keeping
the final build.
The Australian moddin

to be very small, with o y
names getting any form of exposure or
recognition. Why do you think this is?
Modding in Australia is still new. Its
going to take some time to get Australia
on the modding map. We really just
dont have the events the likes of USA
and other countries have to showcase
our talent at. I do feel in the past few
years Australia has done really well.
Weve had an Australian represent the
Thermaltake Casemod Invitational each
season out of the 3 so far as well as
other Australians being represented in
other competitions as well.
How important is company/
manufacturer sponsorship in fostering a
robust modding community?
This is one of the number one
aspects to form a strong solid modding
community. If there is nothing to work
your way up to its nearly impossible
to introduce new modders in to this
community. Its kind of like eSPORTS.
You want to work your way up to
compete in competitions and showcase
your work. If the sponsors arent there
CASE MODDING
along the way, its going to be very hard

in the long run.
Do you have any advice for people
who might want to get into modding
and system building? Are there any
techniques for keeping budgets low you
can share?
Yes theres plenty of things you can
do. My number one tip is to get some
builds under your belt. These builds dont
have to be killer $10,000 builds. Its more
about the case mod than the hardware.
Its never a good idea to start sponsor
hunting with no background or prior
modding history.
If youre struggling with funds for your
first builds, you dont need to buy the
latest and greatest. Second hand parts
are just as good as new. This includes
hardware, tools and materials. Always try
new concepts out on old cases. Just head
to the tip and grab what you want. If it
doesnt turn out, then theres no loss.
When it does come the time when you
want to pursue some sponsors, its great
to have some exposure opportunities
for them. I would suggest creating a
Facebook page or other social media
channels. This gives potential sponsors
an idea that youre serious about what
youre doing.
Are there any pitfalls prospective
modders should keep an eye out for?
I would recommend starting of small
and work your way up. I see so many
times where a relatively new modder
drops everything to pursue his dreams.
Being a successful modder is one of the
hardest hobbies around. To turn it into a
business is even harder. Even I mod as a
hobby as there just isnt enough full time
work in Australia to turn it into a business.
But for me its all about having fun which
is why I want to keep it as a hobby.
Any advice for any modders out there
who may be looking to turn their hobby
into a more commercial venture?
As I mentioned above. Its very, very
hard to start turning modding into a
source of income. It can be done but
takes years of establishing yourself and
becoming your own brand.
Is there anything else youd like to add?
Id just like to add that modding is all
about having fun and getting more out of
your PC. Whether its modding your case,
peripherals or anything really. Remember
to look up to modders that inspire you
rather than trying to out mod them.
STREAMING
Building a
Budget Streaming/
Steam PC
For a little money you can take your
PC to the loungeroom
heres no denying that Valves Steam Link is a fantastic little device

for the price, but it doesnt actually do a whole lot more than stream
your PC games from your main PC to the TV. And even then, it has some
serious issues with playback at high detail and framerates, especially
when trying to render better visuals. Still, for the price its hard to beat,
but if you want a tiny PC for the living room for media and Steam game
streaming, youre going to have to pay a little bit more. Notice we said
a little bit, as it should be possible to build something for around $500
or so, and itll do a heck of a lot more than the Steam Link. What follows
is our guide for building a budget Streaming/Steam PC, and the various
configurations that are available.
>STEP 1
Choose your chassis
The very first decision youre going to have to
make is what kind of chassis youre going to use.
If you want your Streaming box to fit inside a
standard AV stand, youre going to need a Home
Theatre PC Case. These tend to cost around
the $100 to $200 mark, and use the Mini-ITX
standard sized motherboards. One that we find
to be a ripper is the Silverstone ML07 HTPC case,
which retails for just $85. For such a small case,
its surprising to see that it can house some of the
larger GPUs on the market, thanks to the use of a
proprietary PCI-E Riser, and theres even space for
a water cooler.
If you dont mind going for something a little
larger that can sit to the side of your TV
stand, a Mini-ITX case might do the job,
and provide a little more room. By being
larger, they also tend to be quieter, a very
important quality in this kind of machine.
Our favourite case in this category is the
Fractal Design Define S Nano. Priced
at around $110, this case has enough
room for a full-sized ATX power supply, which is a

major issue for other smaller cases. Built around
the Mini-ITX form factor, it has twin expansion
slots, and our favourite feature is the use of sound
dampening material throughout, making it one of
the quietest mini-PCs on the market.
Your final option is totally different to the other
two buy a NUC-style PC. If youve got the cash,
Intels new Skull Canyon is basically all youll need
to do the job, but its not cheap. Wed recommend
starting off with a more affordable bare-bones
NUC, such as the ASRock BeeBox. We recommend
this as its one of the few that can handle 4K video
playback without stuttering and this is all due to
the use of dual channel memory. Thankfully were
now seeing this feature roll out across competing
NUCs, such as Gigabytes range of Brix units.
(top) Fractal Design Define S Nano

(above) ASRock BeeBox; (left) Silverstone ML07
>STEP 2
The CPU
Opinions vary wildly here, but we
think AMDs existing range of APUs
are perfect for this kind of machine.
They have much better integrated
graphics performance than Intels
chips, and when it comes to decoding
a video stream, you dont really need
the power of a discrete graphics card.
On the other hand, we dont want
anything too hot in our mini-PC, as
it will cause fan noise to become an
issue. As such, we recommend AMDs
mid-range APU, the AMD A10 7860K,
which retails for around $150. This
quad core chip runs at a top speed of
3.8GHz, which is more than enough
for an HTPC, but its the inclusion of
the Radeon R7 graphics that makes
this the one to watch for. With eight
GPU cores, it should easily stream
your Steam games at maximum

without any hitching or stutter
AMD also claims its ready to r
video without issues. The max
TDP of 65W isnt too bad, so a
air-cooler should keep it tame.
If on the other hand you deci
go with an Intel CPU, wed recom
something along the lines of th
Core i3 6100, which has a simil
of $160. Its only a dual core chi
the inclusion of Intel HD Graphi
means it can deliver smooth 4K
playback. Its also a very low po
chip, requiring a mere 51W to o
Still, we think the AMD APU is t
overall solution here.
If youve chosen the NUC rou
stuck with the CPU the manufa
chose for the box. Ensure the C
can handle the necessary perfo
for 4K video playback it shoul
clearly labelled on the box. If it can do
that, it can handle your Steam games
with ease.
>STEP 3
(above) The AMD A10

includes integrated Radeon
R7 graphics; (left) The Intel
Core i3 is very low powered
SO-DIMM DDR3 is
required for NUCs
The motherboard
If youve gone for the NUC route,
you dont need to worry about a
motherboard, but the other two chassis
options will likely require the purchase
of a Mini-ITX motherboard. However,
some mini-PCs already include this for
example, Corsairs upcoming Bulldog will
include a Gigabyte Z170 board inside.
Wed recommend going with the
cheapest option you can find that has
certain features, but one core decision
is going to come down to which CPU
you use. Obviously, if youve chosen
the AMD route, youll need an AMD
compatible board, and vice versa.
A key feature to look for on these
boards is the video output obviously you want something
that is compatible with your TV. The latest spec is the HDMI
2.0 output, which delivers 4K @ 60Hz, though youre more
likely to find DisplayPort 1.2 instead, which does the same
job (1.3 is even better, as itll do 4K at 120Hz!). Ensure your
TV or AV receiver is equipped with the relevant option.
As for sound outputs, if youre using an
AV receiver, HDMI should be all you need.
However, older sound systems require
either S/PDIF or analogue connections for
each of the surround channels. Check your
TV and sound systems needs and choose
the right board for the job.
>STEP 4
(above) Fatal1ty Z170
Gaming-ITX/AC mini ITX
motherboard; (below)
The Corsair Bulldog
Memory
As mentioned earlier, dual channel
memory is an absolute must if you
want smooth 4K video playback.
Thankfully it doesnt actually
need to be that fast even DDR3
1333MHz should do the job fine.
Buy the cheapest kit you can find.
Bear in mind that if youve bought a
barebones NUC, youll also need to
buy memory, but itll need to be of
the SO-DIMM form factor, to squeeze
inside such a small little case.
PC PowerPlay 57
STREAMING
>STEP 5
Cooling and Noise
Noctuas NH-C14
is expensive but
whisper quiet
Nobody wants a mini-PC under their TV that sounds like a hairdryer every time it starts decoding an intensive video stream, but
its one of the biggest issues with these PCs. Their tiny size makes
airflow a real issue, requiring the use of small but high-speed fans
that buzz like a hive of bees whenever the PC gets busy. Thankfully,
there are several solutions to this issue.
The first is to layer the case with sound absorbent material, which
can be picked up from PC DIY shops for a few dollars a metre. Layer
each side with this material and the Decibels will drop immediately,
just be sure not to cover up any cooling vents or air inlets.
The second solution is to use a silent air-cooler on the CPU. These
tend to cost a little more than standard air coolers, but theyre
designed to dissipate heat at much lower fan speeds. Theyre also
known as low-profile coolers, as the small cases they have to fit
into mean they have to be much lower in height. One such example
is Noctuas NH-C14. It might seem relatively tall at 130mm, but it
should fit into most mini-PC cases with ease. Best of all, its whisper
quiet, but youll pay for this with a high retail price of $110.
All-in-One water coolers are also available for these small builds,
but weve found they can get rather loud when confined to such small
spaces. For the ultimate in silence, a hand-crafted water cooling loop
is the go, but this obviously increases the price and complexity of the
build exponentially.
>STEP 6
Storage
Do you want your Streaming box to double
as a media device, or are you happy to let
it stream all of its video off your local PC or
NAS device? If the latter, wed recommend
going with Ethernet connectivity if possible,
especially if youre going to be streaming
4K video. Weve found Wi-Fi to be incredibly
unreliable as more people start using it in
their homes, leading to interference, even
when the distance between our router and
streaming box was just five metres (and two
concrete walls). This was found when using
either the 802.11ac or 802.11n modes, and
dont even ask what happens to our Wi-Fi
signal when we use the microwave or other
devices on the 2.4GHz spectrum.
Given the incredibly cheap price of drives
these days, wed recommend installing
a large mechanical hard drive into your
streaming box, so that you can store all of
your media locally, negating the need for a
high-speed network to get 4K video playback
working smoothly. A 2TB Toshiba drive will
only cost $90, and provides plenty of space
for your totally legally downloaded collection
of Game of Thrones off Apple TV.
A 2TB Toshiba
drive will only set you
back around $90
>STEP 7
Power Supply
The final step in our interior
build is the power supply. If youre
lucky enough to have gone for the
small mini-tower that can fit an
ATX power supply, youre going
to save a good chunk of cash as
you can pick from a wide range
of PSUs. For a system of these
specs, we think 300W is plenty,
which you can pick up for less
than $50.
However, if youve gone for an
ultra-slim system to fit in your
AV unit, its likely youre going to
need a special SFX power supply.
These ultra-small models are
actually becoming extremely
powerful now, with models
offering up to 700W of power, but
again we think 300W is enough.
SilverStones ST30SF 300W PSU
is just $65, so its not a major price
hike up from existing ATX supplies.
SilverStones ST30SF
300W PSU can push all
the power youll need
>STEP 8
Peripherals
Ok, so youve got your beastly
streaming PC set up and good to go, but
youre going to need a couple of extra
things to make the most of it namely
accuracy of a mouse in the form factor

of a control pad, but a lot of users find it
hard to use. In their circumstances wed
recommend the Xbox One Controller
Wireless dongle.
t if you want to get really serious
couch-based gaming, nothing
a mouse and keyboard controller.
its possible to pay stupid amounts
pboards that host a mouse and
oard, weve found its just as easy to
your own. Simply buy a laptopt that has an extendable mouse
n the right hand side. Select an
priately sized gaming mouse
and then use glue to stick it to the
p mouse pad. Voila, youve got an
mely light, comfortable lapboard for
than $100.
However, if youd rather buy one,
ere are several models due to hit
he market soon. Corsairs lapdog
s as huge as it is heavy, while
Roccat is offering a free Kova
aming mouse with pre-orders of
ova lapboard.
(top) Corsairs Lapdog fits a full

sized mechanical keyboard; (above)
Roccats Sova features a built in
keyboard; (left) The Steam controller
is an excellent PC peripheral
If you follow our guide, you

should have an extremely
powerful streaming PC that is
capable of handling 4K video,
Steam streaming, and media
streaming, for around the $500
price point. Its a big leap up from
the price of the Link, but we
think the ability to run so many
more applications thanks to
Windows makes this an upgrade
that is easy to justify.
PC PowerPlay 59
NUC
CRACKER
Tiny PCs can be deceptively powerful. BENNETT RING
Asus VivoStick PC TS10

A PC the size of a pen
PRICE
www.asus.com.au
ts hard to believe that we can now buy

what is basically a full-featured PC that
is only slightly larger than a high-lighter,
but thats exactly what the TS10 is. It
may not have the fastest specs around,
but when it comes to a simple PC to plug
into the side of your TV for basic media
streaming duties, this thing is magic.
Tucked away inside this tiny stick
is Intels Atom x5-Z8350 extreme
low-power CPU, along with 2GB of
LPDDR3 at 1666MHz. Theres only
32GB of eMMC storage for long-term
file storage, but this thing is designed
to stream thanks to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi
thats built in. It plugs directly into your
TV via a HDMI port on one end. Were

pretty sure its only HDMI 1.4a, so no
4K for this thing. Despite its tiny size,
it also includes a micro USB port for
power, plus a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port.
Bluetooth 4.1 means you can connect a
wireless mouse and keyboard for ease of
control, and it can even be controlled via
your SmartPhone. Theres even enough
power within to stream Xbox One games
to another device in your house.
Did we mention it also comes with
Windows 10 pre-installed? Yep, this
this is incredible value, not to mention
incredibly small. Perfect for those who
need a streaming device to handle
1080p, as well
as run various lowperformance Windows apps
on their TV. BENNETT RING
SMART
BUY
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VERDICT:
Its incredible to see what

Asus has packed into such
a tiny package. The perfect
budget streaming device.
Intel NUC6i7KYK
Redesigned for gamers
PRICE
www.intel.com
s the inventor of the NUC form

factor, Intel knows a thing or two
about these products. Its latest version
is a huge departure from earlier models
though, adopting a much more aggressive
look than its predecessors, not to mention
far more powerful specs.
At its heart is Intels latest 6th
Gen Core i7-6770HQ processor, with
integrated Iris Pro Graphics 580. Intel
claims this is fast enough for casual
games like CS:GO, but the inclusion of a
Thunderbolt 3 port means you can plug
in an external GPU accelerator for true
gaming desktop performance. Up to
32GB of DDR4 SO-DIMM memory can
be installed, while twin M.2 slots allow

for twin SSDs in RAID 0 mode, but youll
have to buy these separately.
Four USB 3.0 ports are included, as
is Intels 802.11ac solution. This thing
can handle 4K video with ease thanks
to the powerful CPU and HDMI 2.0 and
Mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. Bluetooth
4.2 will handle your input devices, and
theres even an IR port if youd rather
use a remote. The inclusion of a TOSLINK
output is handy for older audio systems.
Theres no doubting this thing is
powerful and well-featured, but it does
feel rather overpriced given the lack of
memory or storage. BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
While this thing is stupidly

fast and well-featured,
its simply priced too high
compared to other similar
NUCs
ASUS VivoMini UN65H

Middle of the pack in every way.
PRICE
www.asus.com.au
elcome to one of the more

affordable units in Asus range
of VivoMini PCs. Its smaller than most
NUCs, measuring 13cm x 13cm x
5cm, so will still easily fit next to your
TV. Its available with a range of Intel
processors the i7-6500U, i5-6200U or
i3-6100U. The variant at this price uses
the i5, which is a very capable processor
and includes Intels HD Graphics 520.
This is a barebones kit, which means
no storage or memory is included. Up to
16GB of dual channel DDR3 SO-DIMM
can be installed, while theres space for
two types of long term storage. A single
M.2 slot delivers high-speed file loading,
while theres also room for a large 3.5inch mechanical drive, a nice inclusion
for those looking for a very cheap file
server. 802.11ac means it can also patch
into your Wi-Fi network to hit up your
NAS if you have one.
Asus claims this is 4K ready,

but it seems as if this is only via the
full-sized DisplayPort output. Theres
also HDMI, but Asus makes no mention
of it being version 2.0, which were sure
they would if it was. The inclusion of a
4 in 1 card reader is handy, as it allows
for extremely cheap expansion of the
internal storage. Theres nothing really
revolutionary about this NUC its a
solid, middle of the range offering that
delivers decent power at a decent price.
BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
This barebones unit

is just a little, well,
boring really. Theres
nothing special here
to take note of.
Asus VivoMini VM65N

Power in a mini-PC
PRICE
www.asus.com.au
ow this is more like it the other

ASUS VivoMini didnt really turn
us on, but the VM65N is a much more
impressive beast. Its much bigger,
measuring 19cm x 19cm x 56cm, but
even then its still nothing compared to
Mini-ITX build.
Available with two flavours of CPU,
either Intels 6th Gen Core i5-6200U or
i3-6100U, the version were reviewing
here uses the more powerful of the two.
Whats most remarkable is that ASUS
has managed to squeeze a discrete
GPU inside this box. It may only be an
Nvidia GeForce GTX 930M with 1GB
of dedicated memory, but you can be
guaranteed of rock solid 4K performance
as a result.
Once again this is a barebones
system. You can install up to 16GB of
DDR4 SO-DIMM in dual channel mode,
while theres plenty of space for extra
storage. The unique removable drive
cage can house either twin 3.5-inch
or twin 2.5-inch drives. There

doesnt appear to be any M.2 ports
though.
A stack of I/O options are included
quad USB 3.0, twin USB 3.1, one
TOSLINK, one HDMI and one DisplayPort.
Again, were guessing that youll need to
use DP for 4K, as theres no mention that
the HDMI port is version 2.0.
It might be a little pricier than the
competition, but the inclusion of a
discrete GPU and so many USB ports
makes this thing worthy of its higher
cost. In fact, wed argue its probably
better value than Intels new NUC.
BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
This powerful NUC

comes packing the good
stuff, but youll pay a
little extra to get it all.
PC PowerPlay 61
NUC ROUNDUP
Gigabyte Brix S GB-BS

A very fast brick
PRICE
www.gigabyte.com.au
his is one of Gigabytes top-ofthe-line Brix units, as you can see

from the price. Its also so new that we
couldnt find it on sale in Australia yet,
but it should be in stores by the time
you read this. So what makes that price
point justifiable?
Lets start with the 6th Gen Core
I7-6600 CPU, which tops out at 3.4GHz.
This packs Intels HD Graphics 520,
so can easily handle 4K video. Sadly it
still doesnt bloody have HDMI 2.0, so
youll need to use the mini DisplayPort
output to get 4k @ 60Hz. The fact that
it also runs dual-channel DDR4 memory
means itll slay 4K video, but this isnt
included. Neither are any hard drives.
Instead youve got the option of filling
both M.2 slots with SSDs, or keeping
one filled with the included

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card.
Theres space inside for ju
one 2.5-inch hard drive, but
no external card reader to b
storage any more. Audio ou
limited to a single stereo mi
once again youll have to use
surround sound.
To be frank, at this price w
a little more. When compared to the
Asus VivoMini VM65N its simply lacking
in value, though it is quite a bit smaller.
Still, without a discrete GPU, space
for twin drives or TOSLINK out, this
expensive Brix S doesnt quite match up
to the competition, especially as it costs
more. BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
At over $100 more than

the Asus VivoMini VM65N,
we think the Brix S comes
off as second best.
Gigabyte Brix GB-BACE-3000

Kingston is back in the game
PRICE
www.gigabyte.com.au
f youre looking for the most affordable

barebones NUC in town, youve come
to the right place. This little tacker is
extremely underpowered compared to
the other players, but its also less than
two hundred bucks. As a result, dont
expect it to handle high-speed tasks,
but as a basic media box itll do a decent
enough job.
Powering this mini-PC is Intels
Celeron N3000. It mightnt be fast, but
it sure is quiet. Theres just a single SODIMM memory slot, with a maximum
capacity of 8GB, but its empty when
you buy the machine. Theres also an
M.2 slot, but it comes pre-filled with
a Wi-Fi card a rather nice inclusion
at this price. If youd rather stick with
normal storage, theres space for a
single 2.5-inch drive, and thats it.
Video I/O ports

are rather limited
too, stuck with a
single HDMI 1.4 and
VGA out. Thankfully
the USB options are much
better, with four USB 3.0 ports.
Theres also a Micro SD card slot
for easy storage expansion. Audio
out is limited to a simple 3.5mm stereo
mini-jack, so youre going to need to use
HDMI to deliver surround sound to your
home AV system.
As you can see, theres not a lot of
hardware here and thats the point.
It is super affordable, and is great as
a Netflix/Media streaming box. Forget
about 4K video or Steam streaming
though, as its just not powerful enough.
BENNETT RING
SMART
BUY
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VERDICT:
If you build it cheap,

they will come.
4K GAMING
4K Gaming
What you need to know
Every tech vendor seems to label their products as being 4k

ready but what do you really need for smooth 4k gaming?
K gaming has been the buzzword
in the gaming hardware sector for
over a year now, and its obvious why.
Throwing so many pixels on screen at
once needs an awful lot of hardware
performance, and manufacturers are
always keen to get people to buy the
most expensive hardware possible.
Weve been hearing claims of 4K-ready
gaming machines for a while now, but
in reality most struggle to maintain
playable framerates, especially when
the action gets
hot and heavy.
So what do you
really need for 4K
gaming, and what
are some of the
standards surrounding this ultra-high

resolution gaming?
WHAT IS 4K?
The exact definition of how many pixels
makes up a 4K screen depends on which
industry you talk to. In the cinema, its a
full 4096 x 2160 pixels, which is where
the 4K name came from. This gives it an
aspect ratio of 1.9:1. However, TV and
computer display manufacturers have
a slightly different definition of 4K. The
accepted resolution in this market is
3840 x 2160, giving it an aspect ratio
of 16:9, which is what the majority of
games and TV content is created in (in
TV-land, its often referred to as Ultra
High Definition instead of 4K). Thats still
a whole lot of pixels 8,294,400 per

screen refresh to be precise. Considering
that most games are designed to be
run at 60Hz, this means a 4K gaming
machine has to pump out 497,664,000
pixels per second, a massive increase
over the 124,416,000 required to run a
1920 x 1080 display at 60Hz. It should
be pretty obvious that this needs some
serious hardware to run.
Due to the high number of pixels
required to run in 4K, the HDMI 1.4a
output found on most video cards
simply isnt up to the job. The first video
output that delivered the necessary
bandwidth for 4K video was DisplayPort,
and the latest version 1.3 enables
4K resolution at 120Hz, which would
PC PowerPlay 65
4K GAMING
4K HORSEPOWER
The number of 4K notebooks weve seen
powered by GTX 970M class GPUs is absolutely
absurd, as there is no way a GPU of this
specification can deliver anything like playable
performance at 4K resolution. We should point
out that the CPU of your gaming machine has
very little to do with 4K performance its all
about the GPU. A healthy amount of system
memory will also go a long way, as storing
those huge 4K textures requires abundant
space; wed suggest nothing less than 16GB.
Where your 4K performance really comes
from is the GPU though, and there isnt a
single graphics card on the market that
can deliver 4K performance at a minimum
of 60Hz while running at Ultra detail.
Thats right theres not one card on
the market, and that includes the new
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080. Most cards
can handle 4K video playback without
much effort, but rendering 3D game
graphics at this resolution is an
entirely different issue.
If youre happy to lower your
detail settings to medium, a
couple of GTX 980s should do
the job, but because of the higher
resolution youll notice these lower detail
settings. Nope, youre going to need at least
two GTX 980 Ti cards, possibly three, to hit
playable 4K performance with a minimum
frame rate of 60Hz. Youre talking over $3000
in GPU hardware just to enable 4K, and that
doesnt include the cost of the larger power
supply, motherboard and case youre also going
to need. Thankfully this issue shouldnt exist for
much longer, as there are two solutions one
here already, and one just around the corner.
The Asus PB287Q is

one of the best gaming
4k screens on the market
basically require a supercomputer to run. This is

because it has an extremely high throughput of
32.4 Gbit/sec. HDMI 2.0 also now supports 4K
resolution, though its throughput of 18Gbps is
much lower than DisplayPort, so only delivers
4K at 60Hz. Finally, the new Thunderbolt 3
connection can also be used to power a 4K
display, but these are rare indeed.
4K DISPLAYS
Many critics often cite the fact that at most
normal viewing ranges, the difference on a
standard 50 TV between 1080p and 4K is
almost imperceptible. You can read lengthy
articles online explaining exactly why this is,
but the difference becomes noticeable as the
screen size increases above 80 inches or so.
This makes 4K an incredibly exciting technology
for projectors, but sadly 4K consumer projectors
are still extremely expensive, with the cheapest
model in Australia selling for over $20,000.
Unlike TV viewers though, PC gamers sit
much closer to their screens. Our screens also
suffer from aliasing due to the lower number of

pixels, which is why 4K is a much more relevant
technology for gamers. However, we still think
its really only of much use if youre using a
screen that is 27 inches or larger the more
affordable 24 inch 4K panels that are coming
out are simply too small to make that much of
a difference. Bigger is definitely better when it
comes to 4K gaming, with 32 inches being our
recommended size.
With larger sizes, come large prices. The
cheapest 32 inch 4K screen on the market is
currently the Benq BL3201PT, which retails
for $1349. Its not the best for gaming though,
with a 4ms grey to grey time, which equals
motion blur. For a true gaming 4K screen, youll
need to look at something like the beautiful
Asus PB287Q. This 28 incher has a 1ms grey
to grey response time, and can be had for just
$710. Thats rather darn cheap for such a large,
crisp display, but the real cost of 4K Gaming
isnt in the display its in the hardware
required to drive it.
NEW GRAPHICS CARDS

As our GeForce GTX 1080 review shows, this
card comes relatively close to delivering 60Hz
playback in todays 4K games. This is why
were sure two of them will do the job nicely, as
SLI usually delivers around a 70% performance
increase. However, its only a matter of time
before Nvidia releases the GTX 1080 Ti, and
given the speed boost between the 980 and
980 Ti, we think that the GTX 1080 Ti should
Youre talking over

$3000 in GPU hardware
just to enable 4K, and
that doesnt include the
cost of the larger power
supply, motherboard
and case
Two GTX 1080 in

SLI all but guarantee
60+ FPS 4k gaming
at Ultra settings
card on
ket to happily
4K gaming. Its rumoured
e a 3840 CUDA cores, a huge
increase over the existing GTX 1080,
and its also possible that it will run the
new HBM2.0 memory type.
Meanwhile, AMD has a product in the
pipeline that is currently codenamed
Vega. While its recent 400 series products
are aimed at the mainstream, Vega is
most definitely not. With an incredible
4096 stream processors, somewhere
between 15 and 18 billion transistors,
HBM2.0 memory and built on a new
14nm process, it should definitely give
the GTX 1080 Ti a run for its money when
it comes to 4K gaming. Either way, wed
recommend on holding off on building a
rig for 4K until either of these products
are released, and cant imagine the GTX
1080 Ti to be too far away
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
There are already two solutions on
the market that will deliver smooth 4K
gaming, provided youve got a system
that can do 4K at around the 40 to 45
fps mark. Both G-Sync and FreeSync
deliver smooth gaming performance at
these framerates due to the way they
synchronise the screen refresh to the
graphics cards frame output.
Unfortunately, 4K monitors with
this technology are extremely
expensive.
One such display is the ROG
SWIFT PG27AQ from Asus.
Its a 27 incher IPS panel with
4K resolution and a maximum
refresh rate of 60Hz. The pixel
response time of 4ms isnt
amazing, but the inclusion of
G-Sync means this should tie
nicely with a GTX 1080 to deliver
smooth 4K gaming. Theres
just one small problem its
incredibly expensive. At $1349
its almost twice the price of the
mpanys 28 4K panel, which

ems a little odd given that
Sync modules are rumoured
nly cost around US$100 to
00.
ync 4K monitors are few
ar between, but they do
st. Viewsonics XG2700-4K is
7 inch 4K display featuring
s FreeSync technology. It
S panel with a maximum
of 60Hz, though FreeSync
y works between 40Hz and 60Hz,
a limitation G-Sync doesnt suffer
from. Theres just one small problem
with this screen though its currently
not on sale in Australia. However, a
quick Amazon search reveals it can be
purchased for US $600, which should
make it considerably more affordable
than the ASUS offering.
However, by far the biggest issue

with 4K gaming actually has nothing
to do with games its desktop use in
Windows. While Windows 10 itself has
sliders to control the size of various
icons and options, the vast majority of
applications available for the platform
do not. Most applications running in
4K mode have tiny interfaces that are
a nightmare to use, and its a problem
that doesnt seem to be going away very
quickly. Its for this reason that we often
find notebooks with 4K panels so hard
to use, and actually recommend the
lower resolution versions. Trying to read
a 4K interface on a 13 inch display is a
fantastic way to introduce eye fatigue.
THE 4K FUTURE
Despite the existing issues with 4K,
theres no doubt that it will become
the standard resolution in upcoming
4K ISSUES
gaming platforms. Heck, even Sonys
So, youve decided to build a mega-rig,
new PlayStation 4K will play games at
have bought a mental new 4K display,
4K resolution, but it uses trickery to do
and want to start gaming. Hold up for a
so. Instead of rendering the games at
second there are problems associated full 4K resolution, it takes their existing
with 4K that we havent mentioned yet.
resolution and then simply upscales
The first and most obvious is that
it, which wont look anywhere near as
some games simply dont offer 4K
good as true 4K rendering.
resolution as an option. This is becoming
Theres also the benefit that 4K
less of an issue as the standard
resolution basically negates the need
becomes more popular, but often users
for anti-aliasing. When your pixels are
will need to hack config files to open up
this small, the jaggies were all used
the higher resolution. This in turn can
to disappear, which helps to lower
lead to other image quality issues.
the workload on your GPU. Were also
Then theres the problem of game
seeing the introduction finally of the
HUDs. With 4K being so rare, most
4K Blu-ray standard, which will drive
games dont have an option to
a massive uptake in 4K TV displays. If
change the size of the HUD. Weve
and when 4K projectors finally become
run several games in 4K mode and
affordable, theyll offer the ultimate in
found the interface to be almost so
bigscreen gaming, with nary a pixel to be
tiny that it was basically unreadable.
seen. Meanwhile prototype VR headsets
Thankfully more games are starting to
are already in existence that have 4K
incorporate interface-size sliders, but
screens per eye. Yep, thats a massive
its still a rarity.
8K of pixels right there, which is about
the amount necessary to remove
the visible pixel structure todays
HMDs suffer from.
Finally, as PC hardware gets
faster, well have $400 graphics
cards that can run 4K with ease. So
the future for 4K really is looking
bright, but wed caution against
rushing in now give it at least
six months to see how Nvidia and
AMDs new products shape up,
and preferably a year or two for
the crazy prices to drop.
But by then everybody
The ROG SWIFT
PG27AQ features
will be talking up 8K,
G-Sync but costs
and the whole cycle will
almost twice as much
begin anew.
as the Asus PB287Q
PC PowerPlay 67
PRE-BUILT
4K SYSTEMS
So just what does it take to buy an off-the-shelf PC that is ready to run
games at 4K, with Ultra Detail, at a minimum frame rate of 60fps. The first
answer is money, cash money, and lots of it. These mega-beasts are not
cheap. Secondly, you need a PC-builder who has the knowledge to build such
a specialised system, as it need to be uber powerful. We put the call out to a
handful of local PC builders to supply 4K-ready systems, yet only two were
able to get us these mega beasts. Lets see what these 4K ninjas can do.
4K Benchmarks
METRO LAST LIGHT
Min FPS
PLE Overt
Scorptec Battlebox
25
35
3DMARK Fire Stike Ultra
SHADOW OF MORDOR
Avg FPS
56
83
Min FPS
PLE Overt
Scorptec Battlebox
44
55
73
Avg FPS
106
Score
PLE Overt
Scorptec Battlebox
PLE Overt
Beautiful build, but wheres the SLI?
PRICE $6499
www.ple.com.au
ed just returned from Computex

when writing this article, and had
seen some incredibly beautiful builds
during our week there. So when we slid
open the right side of this case and saw
a tastily hand-crafted water cooling
loop and custom-build that was on par
with some of the best of Computex,
we couldnt help but be impressed. The
good folks at PLE certainly know how to
build with the best of them, which helps
justify the rather stratospheric price
point of this PC and yet its missing
one crucial element that we think true
4K gaming needs.
PLE has chosen to use Corsairs
excellent Carbide 600C case. This uses
a unique inverse design that places the
power supply at the top of the case,
tucked away in its own little box. Not
only does it make the machine look
neater, it helps keep it cooler, as the
heat from the PSU dissipates straight

upwards.
Gigabytes mighty Gigabyte X99
Phoenix SLI X99 motherboard provides
the central backbone of this unit, and
its a $500 ripper. Theyve needed to
use such a powerful board to tame
the brand new Broadwell-E Intel Core
i7 6900K CPU. This is an eight-cored
behemoth with Hyper Threading, and
runs at a base clock of 3.6GHz. Boost
speed is slightly faster, at 3.8GHz, but
that simply wasnt good enough for the
folks at PLE. Theyve pre-overclocked
the CPU, which well talk about when we
get to the performance numbers. With
a huge cache of 15MB, this is not one
cheap chip, costing around $1650 at the
time of print. Having said that, we still
think the four-cored Skylake makes for
a better all-round gaming CPU, as its
got architectural improvements, a faster
default clock speed, and most games

only utilise a maximum of four cores at
the moment.
32GB of Geil Luce memory is also
included, and we were a little surprised
to see that PLE has kept it at the stock
speed of 2400MHz. Having said that,
memory overclocking can introduce
stability problems, so it was probably
a wise decision. The OS is included
on Intels beautiful 750 series drive,
which uses NVMe to triple the speed
of standard SATA drives. Its a 400GB
model, which is plenty for your top 10
or so games, but theres also another
4TB Seagate Barracuda within for
longer term media storage. Everything
is powered by Corsairs RM850x 850W
PSU, showing how remarkably power
efficient a machine of this power is.
Where things are a little mixed is
the choice of graphics card. Dont get
5181
9125
us wrong, we love the Nvidia GeForce

GTX 1080 included within, and PLE has
removed the stock cooler for a water
block. However, for true, smooth 4K
performance we think two of these
are necessary as youll see, one just
doesnt cut it for 60fps, ultra detail at
4K. Wed have preferred to see PLE
use a Skylake processor instead of the
Broadwell-E and go with dual 1080s
instead we think the performance
would have been much better.
What we do approve of is the
beautiful build quality within. Everything
is colour coded to be orange and white,
and it looks beautiful. The GPU has an
EKWB clear water block, while the twin
XSPC radiators keep everything quiet
yet cool. However, there was the slightly
perceptible sound of the fluid running
through the system, but its insignificant
over the sound of a game being run.
Sadly CPU-Z and GPU-Z both didnt

show the pre-overclocked settings
PLE had put in place, but a quick email
confirmed that the Gigabyte software
had defaulted both back to their normal
speeds. Unfortunately, as our tests
confirmed, theyre just not up to running
todays more demanding games with a
minimum of 60fps. They come close, but
throw something even more demanding
like Hitman at them and the single GTX
1080 will struggle.
Theres no denying that the build
quality of this machine is exceptional.
However, we think the use of the
Broadwell-E CPU is a mistake for
gamers. It might look and sound
impressive on paper, but todays
games generally use four cores at
most, and the Skylake architecture is
both faster when it comes to IPC and
frequency. Broadwell-E is better for
content creators who need all those

cores gamers would be far better
served saving a grand on the cost of
the CPU, and pumping it into another
GTX 1080. Knowing how reactive the
good folks at PLE are, theyll probably
now offer this kind of specification,
but until then, the Orange gets a
10/10 for looks and build quality, but
doesnt quite live up to the 4K promise.
BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
As the benchmarks
show, this beautifully
built machine just
doesnt have the guts to
do 4K at Ultra settings
with a minimum of 60Hz.
PC PowerPlay 69
PRE-BUILT 4K PCs
Scorptec Battlebox 1080 SLI Gaming PC

Utilitarian, but oh so powerful
PRICE $4999
www.scorptec.com.au
he differences between the

Scorptec and PLE systems could
not be more profound. PLE has
delivered a system that has had
maximum care and attention put into
the build quality of the interior, creating
a piece of art that any case modder
would be proud to show off. On the
other hand, Scorptec has focused on
pure power, with a relatively simple
interior. Its well-built, but not in the
same league as the PLE when it comes
to sheer bling. And yet the Scorptec
system is the only one of the two that
is truly capable of 60Hz minimum Ultra
gaming at 4K, because of their clever
component choices. Theyve focused
on the bits that matter the GPUs
rather than the bits that dont.
Opening the side of the case reveals
a clean, if unremarkable style of build
quality. All of the cables are nicely
tucked away, and the use of green
braided power cables gels nicely with
the green LED lights on the three case
fans and water cooling radiator.
At the heart of the system is
Intels i7 6700K, our favourite CPU
for gaming. This might only have four

Hyper Threaded cores, but it has a
Turbo speed of 4.2GHz. The fact its a
K-version also means its overclockable,
though Scorptec has chosen not to do
so. Theyve strapped a Corsair H115i
Liquid Cooler to the CPU, keeping it
at ultra-low temps without so much
as a whisper from the huge radiator
mounted at the top of the case. In a
nice little touch, the water block has a
custom Scorptec H115i cap, showing
off the builders brand. Tweakers should
be able to squeeze another 300MHz out
of this chip without too much difficulty
thanks to the water cooling solution,
improving performance even more. It
might not be as impressive as the handcrafted water cooling loop that makes
the PLE a masterpiece to look at, but it
does almost as good a job.
The CPU is housed in a Gigabyte
GA-Z170X Gaming 6 motherboard,
one of the finest Z170 boards on the
market. We especially like the high-end
onboard audio of this motherboard, not
to mention the overabundance of I/O
connections, with a plethora of USB
Where this machine really

shines though is the use of dual
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080
Founders Editions
3.0 ports waiting for your devices. By
going with this more affordable CPU
and motherboard choice, Scorptec has
easily shaved $1000 off the price of
the system compared to PLE. Yet as
the performance numbers show, this
CPU is more than powerful enough
to whip the PLEs systems butt. And
thats because todays games dont
need more than four cores, reinforcing
our opinion that the new Broadwell-E
CPUs are a waste of money for gamers.
Memory is handled by Corsairs
Vengeance LPX DDR4 sticks, with two
16GB sticks running at the sweet spot
of 2666MHz.
Samsungs Samsung 950 PRO
512GB is used for the primary OS and
games storage, and its connected via a
high-speed M.2 with NVMe connector.
Theres also a secondary

mechanical drive used for your
media files and less important
games, in the form of a Seagate
2TB drive.
Everything is housed in Corsai
massive Obsidian 750D Airflow e
case, and Airflow is the right wor
use here. Scorptec has installed
huge Thermaltake Riing 14cm RG
static fans along with a fan contr
Under load its a little noise thank
of these fans (theres six in total
you include the radiator), but this
be tamed with the various fan control
options. Powering it all is Corsairs
reliable RM850x PSU.
Where this machine really shines
though is the use of dual Gigabyte
GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Editions,
and its here that Scorptec made the
absolute right call. 4K is all about GPU,
not CPU, and our performance numbers
back this up. As you can see, the
Scorptec machine outclassed the PLE in
every way. It was 76% faster in the 4K
Fire Strike Ultra test, and a whopping
93% faster in the Shadow of Mordor
p
p
even more. Our final test, Metro Last
Light, showed a 48% improvement in
average FPS, though even the Scorptec
wasnt quite fast enough to hit 60fps
minimum we think this is more of a
loading issue at the beginning of the
benchmark though.
It might not be as fancy as the PLE
system, but considering its $1500
cheaper and between 50% and 93%
faster, there simply is no competition as
to which is the better machine for those
who want a 4K box that actually does
the job, and isnt simply gorgeous to
look at. This review has reinforced what

we already knew that even a single
GeForce GTX 1080 simply isnt good
enough for true 60Hz 4K performance;
youre going to need two of these bad
boys if you want to bring that 4K screen
to life. BENNETT RING
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VERDICT:
Scorptec wins thanks

to its clever selection
of components,
delivering true 4K
performance for just
five grand.
10
PC PowerPlay 71
GALLERY
MSI a
Comp
2016
A closer look at the

updated laptops
1. The GT83 sports
dual desktop
GTX 980 cards
2. The GT73 features

two GTX 980M cards
3. The GS63
contains a Core i7
and a GTX 970M
but thanks to
clever cooling
is only 17.7mm
thick and weighs
a slight 1.9kg
GIGABYTE
Ultra Durable Motherboards
x16 x16
Innteel USB
with
B 3.1 w
Poowe
w r Delivery
e veer
USB
SB 3 wi
w th
with
x16
n
u or
Triple NVMe PPCIe SSDs
Pree
Pr
Ie 166
Dual Hybrid Fan

Headers
ea er
erss
Dual Hybri
Dual
ybrid
bridd Fa
Fann
www.gigabyte.com.au
Triple NVMe PPCIe SSDs

in RAID 0 Support
Premium 3-Way
-Way PC
PCIe x16
x
Multi-Graphics Support
*Features may vary by models. *The above photos are for reference only.
NVMe U.2 / M.2 / PCIe Support

Dual Armor with Ultra Durable Design
INDUSTRY
State of
Industry
Its a good time to be a part of the PC
master race
>CPUS
o be frank, this is
one of the most
exciting years in PC
hardware history in
recent memory, and
its been driven by two
major product announcements. In case
you hadnt noticed, the PC gaming
industry has gone Virtual Reality crazy,
with the launch of two successful VR
kits in the form of the Oculus Rift and
HTC Vive. It turns out these are just two
of many at Computex, I discovered
there are over 100 new Head Mounted
Displays (HMDs) in development in
China. Sure, most of these will probably
suck, but theres real potential here for
some killer products to land soon.
The other major new product launches
are two new GPU architectures from
AMD and Nvidia, both driven by TSMC
finally being able to hit their 16nm/14nm
FinFET manufacturing process. Its taken
this transistor company almost half a
decade to hit this target, after years of
delays, which has held both GPU makers
back from faster, more energy efficient
designs. This goes to show that as the
manufacturing processes get smaller, the
problems associated with making smaller
transistors get exponentially larger, so
in the near future were going to have
to come up with some unique ways to
get around the issue. Heck, the FinFET
design of these new transistors was first
proposed sixteen years ago, showing
how long it takes an engineering concept
to become a reality. Without further
ado, lets take a look at the state of the
hardware industry as it stands in 2016.
Consumer Virtual
Reality is now an
actual reality
AMD look to
be seriously
re-entering the
CPU race
There is finally hope in sight that Intels

utter dominance over AMDs CPU core
performance will come to an end with the
upcoming release of the AMD Zen core
architecture. Unfortunately its not expected
to arrive until late 2016/ early 2017, but its
a huge redesign of the cores used in todays
AMD CPUs. It aims to improve performance
The 10 core Broadwell-E is powerful but
via several key design changes. Firstly, its
bested by Skylake in gaming performance
aiming for high Simultaneous Multithreading
throughput. Secondly, a new high-bandwidth,
low-latency cache should provide a shot in the arm. Itll be using the same FinFET
transistor design currently used by Intel, and performance is claimed to be
extremely close to Intels latest Skylake cores. Its being designed by Jim Keller, the
same engineer who brought us the Athlon XP and Athlon 64, two products that
gave Intel a nice black eye. Leaks are touting a 40% performance improvement per
clock, a massive increase compared to the 5 to 7% Intel seems to think is ok.
On the other hand, Intel has two new CPUs up its sleeve. The first, and the one
which dominated Computex, is the new Broadwell-E chip, and to be honest were a
little unexcited about it. Based on the Broadwell architecture released in 2015, its a
huge multi-cored version of this consumer-level chip. Were expecting a ten-cored,
Hyper-Threaded chip, which is fantastic if youre a video editor or CAD designer.
However, squeezing so many cores into a chip leads to thermal issues, so dont
expect very high frequencies. From what weve read, base frequencies will start
at a mere 3GHz, so this chip will probably be actually worse than a much cheaper
Skylake CPU when it comes to gaming. So far, so meh.
Of a little more interest is the new Kaby Lake
processor, designed to replace the Skylake.
Thankfully it should still support the Socket
1151 interface of Skylake, yet it seems to be
coming with a new chipset in the form of the
200 series, with increased I/O performance.
Apparently itll be backwards compatible with
todays 100 series boards. As for performance
improvements, expect the usual 5% to 10% that
Intel offers with each new generation heres
hoping AMDs Zen can surpass this.
S
ead this, AMDs rather weird June
announce its new RX400 series
uld have passed, so we can finally
w at the recent Macau launch. In
for the company, its aiming at the
and foremost with these three new
VR-ready performance at sub US$199
contrast to Nvidias approach with
TX 1080, which will ship for around
ng 40% more performance than a
a is aiming for the hardcore users
To see AMD and Nvidia take such
proaches for the first time will be
se tactics will work best? AMD claims
he current PC gaming market has the
n VR, so is focusing on the remaining
ange. According to their stats, 84%
of the gaming market buys cards that are between
US$100 and US$300, so their sub US$200 cards
should hit the sweet spot.
Yet in the past AMD cards have usually been cheaper
than Nvidias, and still dont sell as well. Nvidia has
already announced the GeForce GTX 1070, which
has a US price of US$449, and therell inevitably be
a GTX 1060 on the way. Also, Nvidias proprietary
Simultaneous Multi-Projection technology gives it a
huge leg-up when it comes to VR performance; were
talking double the speed of an AMD card.
AMD isnt just focusing on the mid-range though,
with its Vega architecture due late this year. Using
HBM2.0 memory, it wont be limited to the 4GB of last
years Fury, and its rumoured to use around 15 billion
transistors, making it by far the most complex GPU on
the market well, until the GTX 1080 Ti launches.
Whatever happens, this year is a very interesting
one for the GPU wars; heres hoping AMD can reclaim
some of the ground its lost over the last few years. As
one vendor at Computex said to us If the new RX400
cards dont sell, AMD could well be doomed.
AMD has a dedicated

roadmap to high end GPUs
Nvidia launched with their
high end card and will roll
out budget options later
>MOTHERBOARDS
Affordable
X99 mobos for
Broadwell-E
seem to be
a big push
Kaby lake
motherboards
should offer
faster I/O
performance
The big focus on motherboards this year are affordable X99 boards
for the new Broadwell-E processors; at least thats what we seemed
to see at this years Computex. And the key feature on these new
boards is the widespread adoption of USB 3.0 and 3.1, not to mention
Thunderbolt 3. Its now basically impossible to find a motherboard
that doesnt have one of these ports on it. HDMI 2.0 is also going to
become a mainstream feature, ready to deliver 4K resolution at 60Hz
to all those 4K TVs that are now starting to sell so well.
Intels new 200 series chipset should land by the end of the year,
in time for its new CPUs. One key new feature will be support for
Intels 3D Xpoint memory architecture. Intel claims this will enable
solid state storage that has throughput
and write durability up to 1000 times
higher than flash memory, while latency
is ten times lower compared to NAND
SSD over NVMe.
PC PowerPlay 75
INDUSTRY
The introduction of VR has been

extremely exciting, and yet we wonder if the
industry is getting a little bit too excited.
DDR4
The last major area of change in PC components this year
is DDR4. Now that its the norm with Intels 6th Gen Core
processors, prices have plummeted. Its now possible to pick
up a 16GB kit for around $80. The race is now on to increase
the speeds of these kits, and weve seen speeds of up to
4000MHz already on the market. The question is whether
or not these speeds are really necessary in a recent test
we found almost no difference in the vast majority of games
between DDR4 2400MHz and DDR4 3600MHz. Only a tiny
minority of games with memory issues, such as Fallout 4,
noticed any perceptible increase in speed. So unless youre
wanting to set some world records, or
just show off that you have the fastest
memory around, wed suggest sticking
DDR4 speeds are
steadily increasing
with DDR4 2666MHz, which seems
but 2666 MHz seems
to be the sweet spot in price at the
to be the sweet spot
moment.
PCIe 3.0
x4 or NVMe
SSDs will have
read times
of around
2600MB/s
NVME
While M.2 drives are now hitting the masses, this year should
see the adoption of the next iteration in solid state drives
NVMe. This stands for Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller
and is a total redesign of the way todays SSDs work. M.2
drives still use instruction sets designed for our old spinning
mechanical drives, but NVMe is instead optimised for todays
Flash-memory based SSDs. The improvements in speed are
incredible with read times of around 2600MB/sec, and write
times of 1600MB/sec, these are blazingly fast drives. Youll
be able to mount them in a standard PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, or use a
special NVMe plug that will ship with certain motherboards.
Conclusion
The introduction of VR has been extremely exciting, and yet
we wonder if the industry is getting a little bit too excited.
high, yet AMD
premonitions
n VR units in
of gamers in
ew years. Dont
ong, we love
ology, but we
going to take
er to hit those
mbers, and in
makers might
d by the lack of
ted.
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MA/S22016
INTERVIEW
Ryan
Psaila &
Jason Harp
Company directors at
Supremacy Gaming
ts possible to hire a game server from

one of many companies in Australia, but
it can cost big bucks depending on how
many players are going to be using it. Also,
you lose a lot of control when doing so.
So why not host your own? We spoke to
Ryan Psaila and Jason Harp, both company
directors at Supremacy Gaming, an
organisation which runs their own server
farm, to find out just how to go about it.
What servers do you run?

Supremacy: We run 6 x Hardcore BF4
servers on a commercial dedicated server
host, but we privately host 1 x ARK Evolved,
1 x CS:GO and 4 x Minecraft servers
What hardware does each box
require, and how many server
clients can each handle?
Our commercial BF4 server is dedicated
to our servers and allows us a maximum
of 300 player slots that we can distribute
into servers to meet our community needs.
For our private hosting we run an HP Gen8
v2 server. The server itself is capable of
running all of the existing servers with
physical memory and CPU power to run
many more, however our limiting factor
is the upload bandwidth that is currently
available with residential fiber plans.
Whats the most important facet
when hosting servers?
Uptime availability, and the quality of the
connection for a lag free user experience.
How many players would use your
servers each month, and how does
that equate to hosting costs?
We have had over 36,000 unique players
visits on our BF4 servers. We estimate
around 2000 to 5000 individual players per
month on our servers which justifies our
large investment costs for the dedicated
server over individual paid instances. Our
private servers have less of a turn over
as they are more specific games that are
requested from our community members.
the cap of 40Mbps upload that is currently

available, this greatly limits the maximum
capacity of player slots we can offer
What kind of ISP would you suggest
to those who want to host their own
servers?
An ISP that provides excellent support
as issues arise at all times of the day and
night, also a strong connection to where
the servers are hosted. I also wouldnt
recommend trying to run multiple servers
on anything less than NBN or fibre as the
main requirement for the server is a good,
stable upload speed.
Why do you run your own servers?
The main reason to run our own servers
is to save on operating costs for servers
that may not be as popular as some of
the larger games. We currently save well
over $200.00 per month in equivalent
server costs from a commercial provider.
It also allows great flexibility in the
game choices that we can offer to our
community, if the community wants to

try a game, and we can host it, there is no
extra cost to see if it is something we want
to continue.
Whats the biggest challenge with
running your own servers?
Unfortunately the Australian gaming
community is quite immature compared
to the northern hemisphere, so DDOS
attacks are seen as an acceptable action,
this requires the best protection you
can afford and constant awareness of
potential attacks. Another factor as
mentioned before is the cap of 40Mbps
upload that is currently available, this
greatly limits the maximum capacity of
player slots we can offer.
ON SALE NOW
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YOUR GAMES DVD INSIDE!
REVIEWED
BOX MASHES A MOBA

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OVERWATCH
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ISSUE #252
52
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AT
GRAPHICS CARD
GROUP TEST
BENNETT RING has the power!
hen it comes to gaming, there

is one component that takes
precedence when it comes to power
your graphics card. With most CPUs now
hovering around the 3.5GHz to 4GHz
range, and system memory between 8GB
and 16GB, your graphics card is arguably
the single most important piece of the
pie for game performance. Weve taken
a look at six different price points, all
the way from $1139 down to $175 to

see just what you get for your money.
Unfortunately AMDs new RX400 series
couldnt make it in time, but well be
doing a full roundup of them in the next
issue of PC PowerPlays standard edition.
In the meantime, lets see just how far
your dollar will stretch, starting all the
way at the top of the pile, with Gigabytes
beastly G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 1080.
PRICE COMPARISON
$AUS
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080
ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edt.
ASUS Strix Radeon R9 390X
Galax GeForce GTX 950 EXOC White
PowerColor R7 360
$1139
$899
$779
$540
$249
$175
GPU Benchmarks
METRO LAST LIGHT Benchmarks
SHADOW OFMORDORBenchmarks
1080p Ultra
1920 x 1080, 4xMSAA, Ultra Detail

Min FPS
41
ASUS 20th Edition Gold GTX 980 Ti 12
41
42
28
27
PowerColor R7 360 15
Min FPS
Avg FPS
141
100
105
71
131
81
99
67
43
28
30
PowerColor R7 360 12
105
123
89
49
3DMARK Firestrike
161
3DMARK Firestrike Extreme (2560 x 1440)

Score

PowerColor R7 360
Avg FPS
16812
12611
14717
11579
6277
3847
Score
PowerColor R7 360
9304
6499
7829
5829
3183
1802
Gigabyte G1 Gaming
GeForce GTX 1080
The new king of the crop
PRICE
www.gigabyte.com.au
elcome to the current king

of GPUs, Nvidias brand new
GeForce GTX 1080. Based on its new
Pascal architecture, its actually quite
similar to the older Maxwell architecture
in many ways. The main difference is
a process shrink; whereas the 980 Ti
was stuck on a 28nm process, the new
Pascal chips are being built on TSMCs
long overdue 16nm FinFET process.
This reduction in transistor size brings
several advantages. For starters, Nvidia
can cram more transistors into a smaller
piece of silicon, making it cheaper to
produce (eventually). Secondly, they
require less power to run, by about half
in fact. But where these transistors
really shine is in their speed, as youll
see in a moment.
As far as specs go, compared to
the 980 Ti, the GTX 1080 has actually
had several key areas cut back when
compared to its predecessor. The total
number of CUDA cores has dropped
from 2816 to 2560, while the number of
texture units has also decreased, from
176 to 160. The biggest drop though is
the number of ROPs, falling from 96 in
the 980 Ti to 64 in the GTX 1080. So why
is the 1080 up to 40% faster than the
980 Ti, especially at higher resolutions?
There are several key reasons, but the

biggest is the huge boost to the GPU
frequency. While the GTX 980 Ti had a
base speed of 1000MHz, the GTX 1080
ramps this up by 60%, to 1607MHz.
The Boost clock, which is the speed
the card runs at under load, is even
faster, up from 1075MHz to 1733MHz.
Overall were looking at a 70% boost
in frequency, thought the cut-backs in
other components means we wont see
a 70% boost in overall performance.
This card also utilises the new
GDDR5X memory, which runs at
10Gbps. This compares well to the
7Gbps of the GDDR5 used on the GTX
980 Ti, though the memory bus width
has dropped from 384-bits to 256-bits.
The total amount of onboard memory
has also increased, up from 6GB to 8GB.
Gigabytes take on the GTX 1080
includes its new Windforce Stack 3x
100mm fan cooling system, which
seems a little louder than the standard
blower used on NVIDIAs Founders
Edition, measuring 45dB under load
during 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme test.
Its still by no means annoying, and will
be barely audible inside a case. A single
8-pin power plug is used to supply
power, and Gigabyte claims that it is
factory overclocked to hit 1936MHz

when using its VGA-EXTREME
overclocking software. Unfortunately
we couldnt verify this we installed the
latest version of both this and GPU-Z,
but GPU-Z showed the stock speed of
1784MHz.
As the benchmarks show, this card
isnt that much faster at 1080p, which is
why we included the Fire Strike Extreme
test, which runs at 2560 x 1440. Its
here that we can start to see the
performance boost, and this will only
increase as the resolution increases. As
one of the more affordable GeForce GTX
1080s on the market, and with such an
excellent factory overclock, Gigabyte
has once again produced one of the best
versions of Nvidias products. BENNETT
RING
t#JHQFSGPSNBODFCPPTUBU
IJHISFTPMVUJPO
t2VJFU
t&YDFMMFOUGBDUPSZPWFSDMPDL
t&YQFOTJWF
t#JH
VERDICT:
This is an exemplary
version of Nvidias
newest chipset, the
GeForce GTX 1080,
with an excellent
factory overclock.
10
PC PowerPlay 83
GRAPHICS CARD GROUP TEST
Asus 20th Edition

Gold GTX 980 Ti
Goodbye 980 Ti, Hello GTX 1070
PRICE
www.asus.com.au
hen this card was first

introduced, it simply blew
the competition away. Offering
most of the performance of a GeForce
GTX Titan X, it shaved a solid $500 off
the price point. Sadly its now basically
obsolete thanks to the introduction of
Nvidias new GeForce GTX 1070, which
can be bought for just $769, a solid
saving of $120. The good news is that
Nvidia has announced price drops for
the GTX 900 series, so we should see
the price of this card drop in the near
future hopefully.
At the time this card came out, it
was the fastest GTX 980 Ti product
on the planet. Asus had endowed it
with 14-phase Super Alloy Power II,
which apparently delivers 30% power
noise and 5 times greater durability.
The beautiful custom cooler came in
custom black and gold, making it stand
out from the pack, and delivered 30%
better cooling performance while being
three times quieter than the reference
cooler designed by Nvidia. We measured
it at 42dB while under load, which isnt
quite as impressive as Asus claims, but
we should point out we were testing in
a heated study to handle Melbournes
freaking cold winters.
Designed specifically for

power users and overclockers,
Asus included special features
for lovers of liquid nitrogen. An
LN2 mode switch allowed severe
overvoltaging, while the memory
defroster feature helped to keep the
memory defrosted when required. If
things went pear-shaped, a safe mode
button reset the VBIOS back to default
settings. The Asus logo on the side
lights up to show the load that the
card is under, with four different colour
values depending on just how hard the
card is being pushed. Extreme quality
control, with GPU binning, ensured only
the best components were used on this
collectors edition.
As a result of these improvements,
Asus was able to deliver a huge 26%
increase on the Base clock of the
card, and that was before tweakers
squeezed even more out of it. The
Boost clock increased even more, up
from 1075MHz on reference cards to
1367MHz. Despite having more CUDA
cores than todays GeForce GTX 1070,
with 2816 compared to just 1920 in
the newer card, sadly the GeForce
GTX 980 Ti GPU just cant keep up as
the clock speeds simply arent there.
Our benchmarks show that this card

is around 17% slower in the Fire Strike
Extreme benchmark, with the gap
widening to 20% in the Shadow of
Mordor benchmark.
At the time of its release, this was
the GTX 980 Ti to own if you wanted
the very best card on the market. Sadly
its now a victim of the killer of all
technologies time. The good news is
that Asus has a range of GeForce GTX
1070 and 1080 cards on the market,
and we can expect the advanced
features of this card to make it into
their prestigious version of their new
products. BENNETT RING
t"NB[JOHCVJMERVBMJUZ
t*OOPWBUJWFPWFSDMPDLJOH
GFBUVSFT
t4MPXFSCVUNPSF
FYQFOTJWFUIBOB(F'PSDF
(59
VERDICT:
Asus really needs to shave

a couple of hundred bucks
off the price of this card
for it to compete with the
stunning new GeForce GTX
1070 range.
MSI GeForce GTX 1070

Founders Edition
Our favourite mainstream card
PRICE
www.msi.com
SMART
BUY
elcome to the best value

mainstream card on the planet,
Nvidias new GeForce GTX 1070. The
670 and 970 were both our favourites
in the last two product lines, offering
much of the performance of the more
expensive 680 and 980 but with a
considerable price saving, and the new
GTX 1070 is no different. Priced at just
$779 yet delivering performance that
outstrips a Titan X, this is the card to
buy if youve got $700 waiting for a GPU
upgrade.
As expected, this is simply a cut-back
1080. The total number of CUDA cores
drops from 2560 in the GTX 1080 to
1920 in the 1070, while the number
of Texture Units takes a dive from
160 to 120. Surprisingly the number
of ROPs remains the same though,
at 64. Like the GeForce GTX 1080,
the new GTX 1070 is built on those
zippy, power efficient 16nm FinFET
transistors, and its here that it gets
a huge speed boost compared to its
predecessor. The GeForce GTX 970
had a Core clock speed of 1050MHz,
whereas the new card bumps this up
by almost 50%, to 1506MHz. The Boost
clock has also been pumped up, from
1178MHz to 1683MHz. Surprisingly
MSI hasnt factory

overclocked this
version of the
GTX 1070, sticking with the exact same
frequencies as Nvidias reference design
theyve saved those factory overclocks
for its GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G, which
has a top factory overclock of 1797MHz
in Boost mode. Thats not exactly huge
compared to the Founders Edition, but
were sure itll overclock even better
once tweakers get their hands on it.
8GB of GDDR5X is included, but its
only clocked at 8Gbps compared to the
10Gbps of the 1080. However, it runs
over the same memory bus width of
256-bits. As this is a Founders Edition
of the GTX 1070, MSI has had to use
the exact same Founders Edition cooler
found on all cards with this branding,
which is Nvidias custom aluminium
blower design. Under load we measured
45dB of fan noise, which basically silent
once tucked away in a tower.
Due to the lower specs, this card only
draws a mere 150W of power, which is
simply incredible given the performance.
As you can see, it shredded through
our benchmarks. It was just 15% slower
than the GTX 1080 in the demanding
Fire Strike Extreme benchmark, and
a mere 18% slower in the Shadow of

Mordor test. Considering the price
is 32% cheaper, and some folks are
reporting overclocks in the region of
2GHz, this card is without doubt the
best value offering for performance
users who dont want to spend over a
grand. In fact, buying two of these will
offer an amazing performance increase
compared to some of the premium
GeForce GTX 1080s on the market, for
around the same price.
So there you have it welcome to PC
PowerPlays favourite new performance
product for those who dont have wads
of cash to burn. We cant wait to see
what some of the other variants of
the GeForce GTX 1070 have to deliver.
BENNETT RING
t(SFBUWBMVF
t$MPTFUP(F'PSDF(59
QFSGPSNBODF
t1PXFSFGGJDJFOU
t4UPDLTIPSUBHFTEVFUP
QPQVMBSJUZ
VERDICT:
This is our new favourite

GPU at PC PowerPlay,
and we cant wait to see
what other vendors do
with this chipset.
10
PC PowerPlay 85
GRAPHICS CARD GROUP TEST
ASUS Strix Radeon

R9 390X
Time will tell
PRICE
www.asus.com.au
ts very hard to
recommend a product
when a replacement series is
just around the corner, but when
it comes to the R9 390X, we think its
probably going to outdo the new RX 480,
albeit it at a slightly higher price. This is
because the R9 390X has 44 Compute
Units compared to the 480s 36, and
AMD doesnt seem to be able to manage
the same incredible frequency increases
as Nvidias new Pascal range. Were
expecting to see the RX 480 with a Core
clock speed of just 1266MHz, which has
a boost speed of 1050MHz. The RX 480
also only has memory bus of 256-bits,
compared to the ultra-wide bus of 512bits on the R9 390X. On the other hand,
the RX 480s memory will probably be
clocked faster at 8Gbps, versus 6Gbps
on the R9 390X, so the difference in
performance may not be great.
But enough crystal ball gazing
just what do you get with the Asus
Stix Radeon R9 390X? Well, as many
Asus fans will already know, the Strix
branding is the cream of the crop for
Asus, so youre getting their premo
version of the R9 390X. This is a huge
card thanks to the whopping triple
fan cooler, necessary to get rid of
the 275TDP of this power-hungry

beast. Known as the DirectCU III
thermal cooler, it makes this card
extra-long, at 30cm. Youre going to
need plenty of space for this sucker. Its
also a little loud, hitting 47dB during
our audio test. Packing a huge 2816
Stream processors, 176 Texture units
and 64 ROPs, this is a rather potent
product for the price. All of this power
is fed via one 8-pin and one 6-pin
power plug.
Asus has endowed this card with
8-phase Super Alloy Power II, which
refers to an advanced power design
over AMDs reference. And yet its only
had the slightest of factory overclocks,
upping the Boost clock from AMDs
1050MHz to just 1090MHz here
thats well under the usual increase we
expect from the premium Strix brand.
Back when this card was released,
having a backplate was rather unique,
but its become pretty stock standard
these days, though not so much at this
price point. It was also the first product
on the market to use twin 10mm
heatpipes, but weve seen others since
then with this world first.
As far as performance, goes, this
card isnt too shabby at all for the
price. Its around 20% slower than the

GTX 1070, yet 30% cheaper, making it
rather damn good value. Even at higher
resolutions of 2560 x 1440 its only
25% slower than a GeForce GTX 1070,
which is right on point given the price
of this product.
Speaking of which, we can expect
the R9 390X to drop even lower in price
once the new RX 400 series comes out,
which will make it a killer product for
around the $500 price point. Our only
concern is how hot this thing gets
with a TDP of 275W it needs a louder
cooler and will definitely heat up the
inside of your case. But at the $500
price point, this card is the one to get.
BENNETT RING
t(PPE TPMJE7BMVF
t#SJMMJBOUCVJMERVBMJUZ
t4PMJEQFSGPSNBODF
t/PJTZDPPMFS
t3VOTIPU
t)VHF
VERDICT:
When it comes to the

$500 or so price point,
the R9 390X is the card
to beat, and this premium
version is one of the best.

Mutton dressed up as lamb
PRICE
www.msi.com
ts probably going to be quite some

time until Nvidia releases its GeForce
GTX 1050, so in the meantime the older
GeForce GTX 950 is the sweet spot
for gamers. Yet, this version is hard to
comprehend with other GTX 950 cards
selling for $210, the extra $40 doesnt
really get you a whole lot. And at this
price, $40 extra is definitely something
buyers are conscious of.
Compared to other cards in Nvidias
range, this thing has quite a low count of
CUDA cores, at just 768. Its also only got
48 Texture Units, with another 32 ROPs.
Theres only 2GB of onboard memory,
with runs at 6.6GHz over a 128-bit
memory bus. Galax has given this card a
decent factory overclocking, increasing
the Core clock from 1024MHz to
1203MHz. The Boost clock has also been
given a bump, rising from the reference
of 1188MHz to just 1405MHz. Even the
memory has been overclocked, but only
by the tiniest amount, up to 6.73GHz. A
decent range of graphics

outputs are included, with
triple DisplayPort 1.2, Dual
Link DVI and a single HDMI
port. This is a HDMI 2.0 port,
which makes this a decent card
for a HTPC, but it lacks the HDR
support of todays newer cards.
Given that $200 versions of the
GTX 950 also overclock to these
levels with ease, were not sure the 25%
increase in price is really justified. In fact,
its even possible to pick up a GTX 960
for the same price as this card, which
makes absolutely no sense at all why
would you pay the same price for a
significantly slower product? However,
the performance really isnt too shabby
for such an affordable card. It delivered
relatively playable performance in our
game benchmarks, and should deliver
oodles of performance for less demanding
games like CS:GO and DOTA, but its going
to have some serious competition on
its hands when AMDs new

RX400 series arrives. With
think the RX470 in particular
will be the prime competitor, as the prices
should be similar but the performance
significantly higher. BENNETT RING
t -PPLT QSFUUZ
t3FMBUJWFMZRVJFU
t4BNFQSJDFBTB(59
t".%TOFX39XJMM
EFTUSPZUIJT
VERDICT:
Until we start to see huge

price drops on Nvidias
budget range of cards,
products like this make no
sense in the face of AMDs
new RX400 range.
PowerColor R7 360
Patience, grasshopper.
PRICE
www.powercolor.com
ometimes you just cant afford the

best, and the games you play dont
need all that much power. This is where
sub-$200 cards are extremely popular,
especially amongst e-Sports players and
those on a budget. However, once again
were forced to gaze into our crystal
ball to see how AMDs old R7 series will
compare with its new RX400 range, but
unlike the R9 390X, we think the R7 360
is probably going to be decimated by the
new competition.
It has but a mere 12 Compute Units
within, with a Turbo speed of just
1050MHz. Compare this to AMDs new
entry-level card, the RX 460. It has 14
Compute units, which has a base clock
of 1000MHz. The memory bus width
is identical, at 128-bits, but the RX
460 increases the memory speed from
6.6Gbps to 7Gbps. Even AMD is being
open about the RX 460 being the better
card, with a quote from their recent
RX 400 series PowerPoint deck saying
Radeon R7 Series Replacement

Optimised for e-Sports gaming. I
theyre saying out loud, chances a
theyre on the money.
But until we actually get an RX4
our hot little hands, lets see what
replacing. This card comes with jus
of onboard memory, so its obvious
not aimed at high-resolution gamin
In fact, even 1080p is probably a bit
a struggle for this sucker. With a me
768 Stream Processors, 48 Texture
Units and a tiny 16 ROPs, its obvious
that this the bottom of the stack for
AMD. There is one benefit to this it
only requires 100W. That used to sound
pretty impressive, until you realise the
replacement RX 460 will only need 75W
of juice, making it perfect for thermally
limited HTPCs and mini-PCs.
Given its age, the lack of HDMI 2.0 is
to be expected, but youll still be able
to power 4K TVs via the DisplayPort
connector. Theres also Dual Link DVI.
Given the lower TDP of

the card, the overall size of the card is
quite surprising its not long, but it is
high. A single fan is tasked with taming
the 100TDP, and it measured in at
rather noisy 48dB during our load test.
BENNETT RING
t "GGPSEBCMF
t -PXJTI QPXFS VTBHF
t "WFSBHF QFSGPSNBODF
t "CPVU UP CF PVUDMBTTFE
CZ 39
VERDICT:
Another one bites the

dust thanks to a new
generation of cards on
the way hold out for
the RX 460 instead of
buying this el cheapo.
5
PC PowerPlay 87
VR PERIPHERALS
Virtual
Insanity
The headsets are
here, but real VR still
requires more
n case you hadnt noticed, the PC

hardware industry has gone nuts for
Virtual Reality. Its banking massive
amounts of marketing money behind
the concept, not to mention a bit of
R&D, in the hope that it will finally give
everybody a reason to upgrade their
PC hardware. This years Computex
was absolutely dominated by VR-ready
signs, with every single major vendor
pushing the message that their gear is
the best for VR.
More importantly, theres also the
fact that the release of the HTC Vive
and
Oculus
Rift have
proven
that VR
is finally a
viable concept.
Both excellent
VR kits in their own
right, theyve shown
that when done well, VR can
deliver an incredible experience,
exponentially more impressive than the
entertainment experiences of the past.
It really is that good when the game is
made right and weve only seen the
first gen of games, which are all simple
experiments to see what works. Its the
next few generations of games that will
really show off the potential of VR.
And yet, while weve got two good
kits on the market, there are a host of
VR issues that need to be solved using
different peripherals to deliver an even
more immersive experience. Were here
to touch on a few that weve seen in
the flesh, as well as a few that are in
experimental form. Its going to take
many years to solve some of these
problems, while other solutions are just
around the corner.
IMPROVED HEAD
MOUNTED DISPLAYS
While theres no denying that todays
Vive and Rift are both impressive,
theyre a long way from being perfect.
Several major issues stand out that stop
them from delivering a truly perfect
VR experience. The first, and most
obvious, is resolution. Both units deliver
a resolution of 2160 x 1200, split down
the middle to give each eye 1080 x
1200. That sounds extremely sharp for
such small displays b t th h il
magnified via the sp
both headsets. As a
easy to see the pixe
as well as the black
between each pi
The only ans
to higher reso
and there are
prototypes in
has already d
5.5 panel wi
of 3840 x 216
density of 806p
increase over the
today. Yet even that
be enough to totall
Some ocular scienti
perfectly replicate t
today, each eye will
40K screen this is
decades away at least. In the meantime
lets just be happy with the upgrade to
4K and then 8K, though we should bear
in mind the hardware requirements that
will drive with it.
A way to solve this hardware power
issue could be the use of a technology
called foveated rendering. By tracking
where the eye is looking, the game
engine only needs to render the most
detail at the centre of the screen it can
use Level of Detail tricks to lower detail
away from the center of the screen.
Another issue that todays HMDs
struggle with is faking distance.
In reality, our eyes are constantly
readjusting to different depth cues, but
when using an HMD, were stuck looking
at a screen that is at a fixed point in
space. There are various tricks that can
be used to simulate depth, but theyre
basically hacks. Binocular Disparity
gives each eyeball a slightly different
view of the world, and the brain then
processes this to give the illusion
of depth. Motion Parallax, Binocular
Occlusions and Vergence are all other
techniques that we can use to fake
depth, but theyre a far cry from the real
world. In fact, apparently they can lead
to pathologies in the developing visual

system of children according to a group
of Stanford University researchers.
Thankfully theres an answer that
delivers true depth, and its called a 4-D
Lightfield Display. A realworld 3D object
emits light rays in a variety of directions,
and this is called a lightfield. The eyes
then use these lightfields to see which
objects are further away than others.
4-D Lightfield displays mimic this by
overlaying two semi-transparent LCD
b kli ht d th th
in the near future, as theyre already in

prototype stage.
There are other obvious issues
to solve, such as lighter headsets,
removing the tether and wider
fields of view, but these are all
relatively easy to fix compared to the
aforementioned issues.
4-D Lightfield
Displays realisticly
mimic how light
bounces from objects
in the real world
OMNIDIRECTIONAL TREADMILLS
One of the key reasons people feel ill
in a Virtual Space is the lack of real
motion. While the eyes and brain can
see that the player is moving, various
human sensors dont measure any
motion. For example, one primary
system is the vestibular system,
a chamber filled with fluid in the
inner ear which acts basically like an
accelerometer. If this doesnt detect
PC PowerPlay 89
VR PERIPHERALS
Virtuix Omni sounds

like a character
from Asterix
movement in the fluid, yet the eyes do,

it can lead to simulation sickness.
Valve has solved this issue handily
by introducing room-scale tracking,
where the player can walk around a
room-sized VR space. However, what if
you want to play The Witcher 3, where
you can run across miles of landscape
rather than a small 2.5m x 2.5m room?
Its here that several options are
available, and the most likely of these
are omnidirectional treadmills.
As the name suggests, this is simply
a treadmill that lets the player run in any
direction. It sounds simple, but building
a treadmill that supports 360 degrees
movement is anything but. One solution
is to cover the base in tiny ball bearings,
but this is as costly as it is tricky to
use. The only retail VR omnidirectional
treadmill on the market at the moment
is the Virtuix Omni. For US$699, you
get a large platform that the player is
strapped into. The base is a 360 degree
dish made of rather smooth plastic, and
the player wears special shoes with a
slippery base. Sensor pods mounted
on the top of each shoe track your feet
movement, and its possible to walk,
run, turn and even crouch.
Unfortunately the only unit we saw
(thanks to the peeps at www.merkava.
com.au) wasnt in operation due to early
software, which only supported a single
title, but its looking to be the most
affordable and workable omnidirectional
treadmill to hit the market.
VR backpacks allow
for untethered VR
with the drawbacks of
weight and battery life
VR BACKPACKS
We first saw custom VR backpacks
last year when we checked out the
brilliant Zero Latency warehousesized VR experience in Melbourne.
An empty warehouse served as the
playing space, while each player had
to wear a VR headset and carry a fake
weapon to blast through the virtual
zombie apocalypse. Over the course
of the experience, and by using clever
navigational cues, players end up
walking over a kilometre, so theres
obviously no way a tethered VR HMD
will work in such an environment.
Even when using the HTV Vive in
room-scale mode, getting tangled up
in the tether that links the headset to
the PC is a common problem, though
it does get easier as you become more
experienced with it. There is a solution
though, in the form of a wireless VR
headset, but that seems to
be a long way off given the
bandwidth requirements.
In the meantime, several
companies have created
VR backpacks, and there
were several of these
on display at Computex.
These are basically
mini-PCs mounted into a
backpack with an independent
power supply, allowing the user
to walk untethered. Both HP and

had built their VR backpacks as a
computers shaped as backpacks
whereas Zotac simply stuffed a
into an existing backpack. Only Zotac
would go on record regarding battery
life, stating around two hours was the
expectation.
With most of these backpacks
weighing around the 5kg mark, we cant
see them taking off for home users in
the near future. Theres also the issue
that by making you totally untethered,
youre going to need a much larger play
space to take advantage of the freedom
offered by these backpacks. In the
meantime wed suggest a much simpler
solution for the HTV Vive simply
drill a rotating hinge into the ceiling of
your roof, and mount the tether there.
Problem solved for less than $20.
OCULUS TOUCH
By far the biggest advantage the HTC
Vive has over the Oculus Rift at the
moment is the inclusion of two motion
wands, which allow the user to interact
with the virtual world through natural
arm movements. In comparison, the
Rifts Xbox One controller and Oculus
Remote are primitive substitutes that
make it feel like youre in the world, but
not part of it. Thankfully I got to recently
try out the Rifts new Oculus Touch
Oculus Touch
controllers feel natural
despite the odd shape
shape. While the Vives controllers

feel very much like Wii-motes, the
extremely strange design of the Touch
feels much more natural. Its more like
youre holding a pistol in each hand
than a large remote control. A second
camera is included just to track the
Touch controllers, which Rift calls
constellation tracking. It seems to be
much better at tracking the rotational
status of the players hands, and
overall accuracy in general seems
better than the Vive. In fact, it seems
it can even track different gestures, a
feature we havent seen on the Vive.
For example, when playing Insomniacs
The Unspoken, various hand gestures
would conjure spells. From there it
was possible to launch them at the
other player, and the accuracy of each
pitch was remarkable. Luckily this exbaseball player had his fireballs landing
right on target within seconds.
There are also rumours that the
inclusion of a second camera will
give Rift room-scale tracking. In
fact, it already almost has this
ability, though the use of a single
camera means it only works in a
trapezoidal shape. By adding a
If there was one issue with the

Touch controllers, its that there are
two buttons in close proximity to the
trigger. I found that I often accidentally
hit the wrong one when
spell-casting, but
Im guessing
30 games, with a promised Spring

release date. No word yet on pricing,
though were guessing somewhere
between US$199 and US$299 should
keep it competitive with the
HTC Vive.
The HTC Vive

Controller comes
packaged with
the Vive
PC PowerPlay 91
VR PERIPHERALS
(main) The Teslasuit

is a hybrid wetsuit,
MoCap and TENS
(inset) The FeelReal
mask turns VR into
Smellovision
THE WEIRD AND THE WILD

The aforementioned devices are already
in prototype form in one shape or another,
but there are plenty of other devices
being planned to take VR to the next level.
One of the most difficult is mimicking
the sense of force we feel when pushing
against things, and theres a company
who is planning to use electricity to
trick our body into feeling this. Tesla
Studios is designing two versions of
the Teslasuit, the Pioneer and the
Prodigy. The first has 16 individual
points of feedback across the upper
and lower body, while the latter has
52. Made from washable neoprene,
the suit is lined with conductive thread
that tricks the muscles and sense of
touch using neuromuscular electrical
stimulation. Basically, it uses tiny shocks
of electricity, in the same way those
workout devices do, to trick your body
into feeling feedback.
The company promises that this
can simulate a wide range of different
experiences, such as bullets hitting
the player, being touched on the skin
and even changing weather effects
courtesy of temperature control. Theres
even a mo-cap system built in, so your
in-game avatar perfectly mimics what
your real body is doing. If it all sounds
a little ambitious, wed have to agree,
and it doesnt appear to have met its
Kickstarter goal. Still, its good to see
engineers talking about this kind of

technology already.
One product already in existence
is the Leap Motion. This tiny sensor
can accurately track finger and hand
placement, and is meant to be a mouse
replacement. However, many savvy VR
users have figured out that if you stick
it to the front of a VR HMD, it does a
pretty good job of measuring finger
movement in a way that the Touch
and Vive wands cant. However, the
current version isnt designed for this,
so the range is limited, but the company
appears to be developing a new version
with VR specifically in mind.
There are also a wide range of VR
gloves being developed, which will also
track the users finger movements.
Hopefully they fare a little better than
Nintendos Power Glove. Another range of
products aim to recreate the smells of the
real world. The FEELREAL is a VR mask
that includes an odor generator with
seven removable smell cartridges that
are interchangeable depending on which
game youre playing. It also has twin fans
inside to generate the sensation of wind,
while twin vibrating engines can make the
entire unit shake perfect for generating
a virtual earthquake. Theres also twin
hot-air microheaters for presenting
those virtual desert environments, while
an ultrasonic ionizing system produces
water mist, though were not sure how
In the far future, the plan is

to tap directly into the brains
electrical network, totally
replacing the real world
comfortable wearing a HMD half filled
with water is going to be. Interestingly,
this product is designed to work with all
existing HMDs it basically clips over
them, instead of replacing them.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
If you think this sounds exciting, there
are some radical technologies already
being experimented on in laboratories
around the world. One of the most
promising is the ability to beam the
image directly into the users eye, rather
than having to use a screen, and its
rumoured that the incredibly clandestine
Magic Leap will use this technology.
In the far future, the plan is to tap
directly into the brains electrical
network, totally replacing the real world
with the virtual. Its all very Snowcrash,
and a looooong way off, but if somebody
is thinking about making it, have no
doubt that one day itll be created. In the
meantime, lets enjoy Day 1 of the VR
revolution, and watch in excitement as
it improves in leaps and bounds faster
than anybody could have expected.
GALLERY
COMPUTEX
CASE MOD
SHOWCASE
PC PowerPlay 95
GALLERY
PC PowerPlay 97
GALLERY

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HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016

HOW AMD AND NVIDIA ARE

THE LATEST AND GREATEST

HARDWARE & TECH SPECIAL 2016

21 Aorus | 22 Asrock | 24 Corsair | 26 Coolermaster | 28 MSI | 30 In W

Nvidia 1080 Launch

8 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

The most drool-worthy

Stuart Tonks talks case

How to build a streaming PC

What you really need for 60+

Case Mod gallery

VR is now a reality but

The greatest and most

We talk to MSIs cooling guru

HARDWARE & TECH BUYERS GUIDES

Ride the Whirlwind

1300 361 146

Locked Bag 3355, St Leonards NSW 1590

COVER DISC ENQUIRIES:

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

10 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

Privacy Policy: We value the integrity of your personal information.

In Win Aurora fans

12 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

BitFenix Prodigy Pillow

Tesoro Infra-Red switches

Zotac Zbox Magnus EN980

Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900

14 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

Asus Rog Claymore

16 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

s Collectibles: Ultimate Studio

18 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

s the worlds largest PC component

20 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

along with 4GB or 8GB of memory and

Broadwell-E high-end CPU. We should

hough Gigabyte doesnt like to

1. The X99 Taichi

22 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

24 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

were not sure why, but as soon as

so youll need to work around this size

and ML Pro LED use the companys

1080 with integrated All-in-One water

The great thing about the

rebranding all of its air coolers with the

26 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

1. The GT73 is the

control the camera position in games.

so were guessing three or four ho

X99A Gaming Pro Carbon,

30 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

of the tinted tapered class, this is also

brackets, which will come in handy for

and RGB. This seemed

to show off your components entirely,

32 PC PowerPlay TECH SPECIAL 2016

One of our favourite new mice was

1. The Zenbo is our

6.8 inch display.

Kardon to deliver a quad-speaker

resolution of 2880 by 1920, giving it a

PC Powerplay - Hardware & Tech Special 2016

PC Powerplay - Hardware & Tech Special 2016