Geforce Now - first impressions of game streaming
Geforce Now (GFN) is a game streaming platform by Nvidia. Games are run on Nvidia servers and you play from your PC without the need to install the game or to have hardware needed to run it. Everything is run on the server and streamed to your laptop, Nvidia shield or other PC. Right now the service is in beta and with the announcement of Google Stadia streaming service both got a lot of attention. I got beta invite recently so lets check how Geforce Now looks right now.
Quick review of few recent astrophotography books
Astrophotography is an interesting and complex hobby. There is a lot of tutorials on the web but usually they focus on one topic and general overview is what is missing. Such complex astrophotography overview can be handled by a good book - but does books are able to keep up with the flow of new technologies and astrophotography techniques development? I've decided to check it out and ordered few more recent books about astrophotography. Here is a short review of them.
Building a small form factor system with upgrade options on the cheap
AMD Ryzen processors with integrated Vega graphics are a proven product that even allows for some gaming without a dedicated GPU. There is the popular DeskMini A300 or bit bigger systems like HP Pavilion 590 that use them. DeskMini lacks the upgrade path while such features in a pre-build systems may also be limited unless you pay extra for a higher model.
In this article I'm going to make and test a custom small form factor PC based around Ryzen 3 2200G but with keeping upgrade options for CPU and GPU. I hope you will find some of my tips and tricks useful.
Threadripper cooling: low profile server air coolers and Thermal Grizzly thermal pad
There are big tower air and water AiO coolers for Threadripper CPUs. There are also Epyc/Threadripper low profile server coolers. To top things off we also got Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut thermal pads that can come in TR4 size. Let's check those options and their cooling performance.
Price to performance of used graphics cards - July 2019
With the release of new graphics cards some may opt to upgrade to a new one while many others could see an opportunity to hit a bargain on a used graphics card. I've decided to check what are the local prices for used graphics cards and how they relate with price/performance to current new cards.
Measuring power draw of DC-DC Pico PSU power supply powering AMD APUs
AMD APUs are a power efficient package of CPU and a capable integrated graphics. They can be used for some gaming not to mention more day to day PC usage. All of that in a small package -but how small actually can you get with an Athlon 200GE or Ryzen 3 2200G? How much power does such system needs and can you use PicoPSU alike DC-DC super compact power supplies for ultra thin and ultra stylish builds? Let's find out.
Testing fancard effectiveness on GPU cooling performance
GPU Fancards aren't a new idea - an expansion card with fans that goes in front of your GPU to help push air through it to then help with the cooling. At least in theory. Fancards didn't really got much traction and are rather an oddity among PC hardware. Let's test some of them and see if they work as intended or just add more fans to the mix without any benefits.
Testing OEM and no-name RX 460 graphics cards
Graphic cards try to appeal to us with impressive cooling solutions, factory overclocks or RGB, lots of RGB. But what happens when a graphics card is destined to live it days as a OEM card in an pre-built PC? Or what it won't end up in a MSI, Gigabye, Sapphire or other well known brand product? Let's take a loot at Medion OEM and Jegy RX 460 cards to find out.
Benchmarking and analyzing World of Warcraft performance
World of Warcraft performance isn't something easily defined. Subsequent patches bring changes to the engine and online character of the game makes accurate benchmarking even harder. Lack of consistent and repeatable benchmark mode makes comparisons or problem debugging even more problematic. In this article I want to go over my benchmark results and methodology for Battle for Azeroth and Classic Stress Test as well as my set of benchmarks spots that try to cover edge cases of this game performance limits.
Solar System imaging cameras and hardware for 2019
In my look at planetary imaging cameras for 2016 I nominated IMX224 as best color sensor and sensors such as IMX178, IMX265, IMX250 and IMX252 as best mono variants. We are almost half a year into 2019 and those picks are still one of the best if not the best. What did changed and what is upcoming for Solar System imaging? Let’s find out.