Thinking of building a new gaming PC? Struggling with whatever random error your desktop is throwing up this week? Under The Hood gives you a quick and concise run-down of the most important things that happened to the PC master race in the last seven days.
Every 144Hz Monitor That You Can Buy In Australia
If you have a powerful gaming PC, you know that 60 frames per second is not enough. Newer LCD monitors can display up to 144 frames per second, but it’s surprisingly hard to find exactly which monitors support this standard, as well as more advanced tech like FreeSync and G-Sync variable refresh rates. So, we’ve rounded them all up into one big list.
We scoured the ‘net and built this list, but if you know of a particular model that you can buy in Australia — we didn’t include drop-ship importers that operate through eBay — tell us in the comments below! We’ve also included links to Aussie product pages and rough pricing, pulled from StaticIce, as well as a quick guide to screen size, resolution, panel type and extras like FreeSync or G-Sync.
Vulkan’s Graphics API Is Finally Out, But Don’t Expect Performance Gains Yet
It was meant to launch last year, but as they say: better late than never. The release version of the Vulkan graphics API, derived from the abandoned carcass of AMD’s low-level Mantle API, has finally been released royalty-free to all and sundry.As I mentioned before the jump, Vulkan — which was called GLNext for a period — is a platform-agnostic graphics API that gives developers a much lower-level access to hardware than what DirectX 11 or OpenGL currently allows.
The basic idea is giving developers more control over the hardware will result in less overheads and more performance gains. Vulkan, much like DX12, is also designed from the ground up for multithreading.
Huawei Matebook: Hands On With This 12-Inch Windows Tablet
Huawei is known for making phones. Some of them are pretty good. Now, it’s also making convertible tablets too, with a detachable slimline keyboard and Windows 10. The result is the new Huawei Matebook, a device with a striking similarity to the Microsoft Surface but packed with a couple of quirks that make it unique.
Like the Surface, the Matebook is a 12-inch 2560×1400 tablet with a detachable keyboard and running Windows 10. There’s currently no dual-boot with Android option, though Huawei acknowledged it might be possible. Screen-to-body ratio is 84 per cent — that implies a device smaller than the regular convertible laptop, but with the same display size. Nice.
This LEGO Gaming PC Runs Much Cooler Than It Looks
Building a gaming PC out of standard hardware and LEGO bricks is pretty impressive. Integrating an all new method of air-based graphics card cooling that delivers water cooling performance, Mike Schropp’s LEGO Gaming PC is a mechanical marvel.
Constructed of around 2280 LEGO pieces, Schropp’s distinctive X-shaped gaming system consists of three different sections. In the middle sits the mother board, mounted atop a trio of system cooling fans.Hard drives are also mounted in the middle.