PC X79 TESTED GPU COMPUTING BUILD IT We put the screws Are graphics cards putting Step-by-step to to Asus’s new CPUs out of work? Read a Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 mobo our full report powerhouse PC MINIMUM BS • JANUARY 2012 www.maximumpc.com PC REVIEWED: 21 Three Android ESSENTIAL tablets that break FIRST from the pack STEPS SET UP YOUR NEW PC THE RIGHT WAY! Check your hardware specs FACE-OFF! Confi gure and tweak your settings Nero vs. Roxio Create a backup and recovery plan vs. CyberLink: Optimize your network Which has the And more! best media suite? where we put stuff table of contents inside On the Cover JANUARY 2012 Photography by QUICKSTART Mark Madeo 8 NEWS What's behind HP's decision to stick with PCs; fl oods in Thailand could harm overall PC market. 14 THE LIST FEATURES Eight great webcomics for geeks. 16 HEAD TO HEAD Amazon Prime and Netfl ix battle for your video streaming dollars. R&D 56 WHITE PAPER Dueling Analogs Many of today's cell phone makers claim to utilize 4G, but what constitutes the technology is open to interpretation. 59 HOW TO Change Windows Explorer's default start location; benchmark your Android phone for free; create a personalized QR code. 64 BUILD IT We construct a dream PC around Sandy Bridge-E. 22 36 46 HOW TO SET UP THE STATE OF THE MEDIA A NEW PC GPU COMPUTING SUITE SPOT LETTERS You've got a new rig and How graphics parts are Ditch those old photo albums are drooling at the thought taking on more CPU chores and scratched discs—with a of moving in. Follow our 21 and which consumer media suite, you can manage 18 DOCTOR steps for optimizing your applications are benefi tting all your pictures, music, and setup. from it. video wherever, whenever. 94 COMMENTS IN THE LAB + E R 72 77 80 82 O FALCON COOLER 3TB SEAGATE ANDROID M NORTHWEST MASTER BARRACUDA TABLET MACH V ICON 2 HYPER 212 EVO HARD DRIVE ROUNDUP 5 maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC where we put stuff table of contents inside On the Cover JANUARY 2012 Photography by QUICKSTART Mark Madeo 8 NEWS What's behind HP's decision to stick with PCs; fl oods in Thailand could harm overall PC market. 14 THE LIST FEATURES Eight great webcomics for geeks. 16 HEAD TO HEAD Amazon Prime and Netfl ix battle for your video streaming dollars. R&D 56 WHITE PAPER Dueling Analogs Many of today's cell phone makers claim to utilize 4G, but what constitutes the technology is open to interpretation. 59 HOW TO Change Windows Explorer's default start location; benchmark your Android phone for free; create a personalized QR code. 64 BUILD IT We construct a dream PC around Sandy Bridge-E. 22 36 46 HOW TO SET UP THE STATE OF THE MEDIA A NEW PC GPU COMPUTING SUITE SPOT LETTERS You've got a new rig and How graphics parts are Ditch those old photo albums are drooling at the thought taking on more CPU chores and scratched discs—with a of moving in. Follow our 21 and which consumer media suite, you can manage 18 DOCTOR steps for optimizing your applications are benefi tting all your pictures, music, and setup. from it. video wherever, whenever. 94 COMMENTS IN THE LAB + E R 72 77 80 82 O FALCON COOLER 3TB SEAGATE ANDROID M NORTHWEST MASTER BARRACUDA TABLET MACH V ICON 2 HYPER 212 EVO HARD DRIVE ROUNDUP 5 maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC a thing or two about a thing or two editorial MAXIMUMPC Gordon EDITORIAL Mah Ung Editor-in-Chief: Katherine Stevenson Deputy Editor: Gordon Mah Ung Reviews Editor: Michael Brown Senior Editors: Nathan Edwards, Markkus Rovito Online Managing Editor: Alex Castle Online Features Editor: Amber Bouman Associate Editors: Alan Fackler, Dan Scharff Contributing Writers: Seamus Bellamy, Loyd Case, Brad Chacos, Pulkit Chandra, Ken Feinstein, Tom Halfhill, Justin Kerr, Paul Lilly, Thomas McDonald, Quinn Norton, Bill O’Brien Copy Editor: Catherine Hunter Podcast Producer: Andy Bauman Editor Emeritus: Andrew Sanchez ART Art Director: Richard Koscher UNIVERSAL BUSINESS Vice President, Consumer Media: Kelley Corten, [email protected] Vice President, Sales & Marketing: Rachelle Considine, GRAPHICS FOR ALL [email protected] Executive Director Integrated Sales: Nate Hunt, [email protected] Associate Director of Sales: Isaac Ugay, [email protected] Regional Sales Manager, West Coast: Greg Ryder, [email protected] Account Executive, East Coast: Samantha Rady, [email protected] Advertising Coordinator: Heidi Hapin, [email protected] AMERICAN’S, I’VE BEEN TOLD, don’t care The PC gaming resurgence that we’ve Marketing & Sales Development Director: Rhoda Bueno about discrete graphics anymore. seen lately tells us that we need to care eCommerce & Fulfi llment Director: Lisa Radler Consumer Marketing Director: Stephanie Blake No, not you. If you’re thumbing through about graphics performance. Certainly Newsstand Director: Bill Shewey Maximum PC magazine, you know the not every new PC buyer is going to want PRODUCTION value of a good graphics card or two. to play Battlefi eld 3 on Ultra, but even Production Director: Michael Hollister Production Manager: Larry Briseno The problem is, the average consumer “casual games” will board the feature- Senior Production Coordinator: Dan Mallory Print Order Coordinator: Jennifer Lim in North America apparently feels little creep train and start to require more and need for the GPU. more graphics fi repower. That doesn’t FUTURE US, INC. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 This isn’t just anecdotal evidence, ei- even take into account the increasing Tel: 650-872-1642, www.futureus.com ther. Research analysts who look at the reliance on the GPU for highly parallel President: John Marcom ebb and fl ow of chip sales across the workloads. Vice President & Chief Financial Offi cer: John Sutton Vice President, Internet & Mobile Products: Mark Kramer world have told me this, and I’ve also I’d be concerned that this was a lost General Counsel: Anne Ortel heard it from system builders, graphics cause if not for the fact that AMD and Intel SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE card vendors, and various other plugged- are making the right moves in integrated Maximum PC Customer Care, P.O. Box 5159, Harlan, IA 51593-0659 in PC people over the years: Yankees just graphics performance. AMD’s Fusion Website: www.maximumpc.com/customerservice don’t care about the discrete GPU. I’ve chips are a step in the right direction. In- Tel: 800-274-3421 Email: MAXcustserv@cdsfulfi llment.com seen it with my own eyes as I browse stead of getting craptastic chipset-based BACK ISSUES the confi gurations of many PCs at the integrated graphics with a fair quad-core, Website: www.maximumpc.com/shop big-box stores: The vast majority use consumers now get $70-level discrete Tel: 800-865-7240 integrated graphics, with only a handful graphics and a quad-core chip, to boot. REPRINTS Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, offering a discrete card. With its larger market share, Intel’s South San Francisco, CA 94080 Website: www.futureus.com Even more disturbing are the trends next-gen chip, code-named Ivy Bridge, Tel: 650-872-1642, Fax 650-872-2207 I’m being told about: While Americans will put another great big foot forward. Ivy don’t care about graphics, in European Bridge’s x86 functionality improvements and Asian countries, PC buyers have el- are ho hum, but the company has made evated the discrete GPU to a must-have major advancements in the graphics side item in new PC purchases. of the chip. More importantly, it’s clear So why aren’t Americans choosing that Intel fi nally cares about graphics, so discrete GPUs when we buy a new PC? newer chips will just build upon the trend. Some believe Americans have moved While I’m not certain we can ever con- onto consoles as the primary gaming vince our brothers-in-law or aunts to buy Future produces carefully targeted platform, so we give the PC short shrift. a PC with a discrete graphics card, all of magazines, websites and events for people with a passion. We publish more than 180 Others think that the PC’s role in the us would be for the betterif that PC just magazines, websites and events and we export or license our publications to 90 physically smaller homes of Europe and came with fairly decent graphics for free. countries across the world. Asia give it more prominence as a TV, Future plc is a public Non-executive Chairman: Peter Allen productivity tool, and game machine. company quoted on the Chief Executive: Mark Wood London Stock Exchange. Group Finance Director: Graham Harding Well, I’m here to tell you that Ameri- Tel +44 (0)20 7042 4000 (London) www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442244 (Bath) cans should care about graphics per- formance, even on their low-end ma- chines—at least as much as they care ©2011 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of about the typical three specs of CPU Gordon Mah Ung is Maximum PC’s Future US, Inc. (owner). All information provided is, as far as Future (owner) is aware, based on information correct at the time of press. clock speed, RAM allotment, and hard deputy editor, senior hardware expert, Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly drive capacity. and all-around muckraker. with regard to products/services referred to in this magazine. We welcome reader submissions, but cannot promise that they will be published or returned to you. By submitting materials to us you agree to give Future the royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive right ↘ submit your questions to:[email protected] to publish and reuse your submission in any form in any and all media and to use your name and other information in connection with the submission. 7 maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC quickstart the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small NNoo PPoosstt--PPCC EErraa ffoorr HHPP The computing giant caps a fl ip-fl oppy 2011 and looks forward to righting the ship A Windows 8 slate is probably the most tablet-y thing you'll see from HP in 2012. NOBODY NEEDS THE clean slate the new CEO. Whitman quickly business was spun off. Whit- a ton of money into WebOS, of a new year more than HP. established that (surprise!) HP man admitted that was “one so he expects the company to After announcing a brave new does plan on keeping its PC line. element of (the decision)” in an continue to license the soft- vision for the company on Au- interview with AllThingsD.com ware to other manufacturers gust 18, 2011—a vision that A Change of Heart (dthin.gs/ue0r4W). until it fi gures out a way to included killing all WebOS Why the sudden shift in di- actually see some return on hardware and possibly ditching rection? A number of factors Stopping the Bleeding in its investment. Enderle isn’t its top-selling PC business— probably infl uenced the deci- 2012 quite as optimistic. The recent the company quickly discovered sion—including HP’s plummet- “(HP) will be working hard departure of WebOS’s lead that, well, no one but CEO Léo ing stock value and widespread to put the strange year that supporter at HP leads him to Apotheker could see a future jeers from virtually all cor- was 2011 behind them,” says believe that “unless it is sold without the HP name on com- ners—but supply chain issues Crawford Del Prete, chief re- quickly, WebOS is history.” As puters. Amid fi erce consumer, were defi nitely part of it. As search offi cer at International this issue went to press, the enterprise, and investor back- the largest PC manufacturer Data Corporation. So how will latest word was that HP is in lash, HP’s board of directors around, HP has extensive le- the company go about winning fact looking to sell WebOS, gave Apotheker the boot and verage with component and lo- back the hearts and minds of with Amazon, RIM, Oracle, and named former eBay boss and gistic providers, leverage that skittish end users? By getting others interested. failed California gubernato- would disappear and hurt other thinner and trimmer. Del Prete WebOS hardware may be rial candidate Meg Whitman HP divisions if the consumer expects HP to entice custom- done, but HP won't let the mo- ers with lightweight, sub- bile money-train pass it by. “I $1,000 Ultrabooks that feature expect HP will now put the ef- “leading-edge technology and forts they would have put into forward-thinking design” and the WebOS tablet into their com- are ready for use in the work- ing Windows 8 tablets instead,” place as part of the “consum- Enderle writes, a comment erization of IT” trend. echoed by Del Prete. Look for Rob Enderle, the owner and both ARM- and traditional x86- principal analyst of the Ender- based HP tablets for Windows 8. le Group, predicts HP will slim down in yet another way, citing No More Drama Whitman’s disapproval of HP’s Experts agree: Expect HP to vast number of offerings. “I'd be much more focused on ex- expect fewer products that are ecution—and much less fo- both more richly confi gured cused on drama—under Meg and more aggressively priced, Whitman in 2012. Don’t make as new, simpler lines replace the mistake of ruling the com- the old, complex ones.” pany out, either; Lenovo may Look for HP to slim down be making strides, but HP is some of its bloated product What about Tablets? still top dog in the PC world. lines with simpler offerings, Del Prete notes that HP sank –BRAD CHACOS including Ultrabooks. 8 MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com Tom Halfhill pacity. This in turn will lead to massive drive shortages as retailers and system Fast integrators run through existing inven- Forward tories. Hard drive prices had already doubled as early as November 2011, with shortages expected to last through the ARM fi rst quarter of 2012. The hard drive shortage could have EMBRACES 64 a chilling effect on the entire PC in- dustry; motherboard vendors reported BITS slower-than-expected fourth-quarter sales, while PC sales could drop by nearly a quarter in the early part of IT WAS THE best-known secret of the year: next year, according to IDC, the tech re- ARM was prepping its fi rst 64-bit CPU ar- search group. chitecture to bash head-on with Intel in the It’s not just consumers who'll feel the low-power server market. ARM’s offi cial pinch. Nick Bilton at the New York Times announcement fi nally came in October, and (nyti.ms/w3Kvtu) warns that cloud-com- AppliedMicro revealed bold plans for the puting companies, which rely on ever- fi rst 64-bit processor based on the new ar- increasing storage pools, could run into chitecture. problems—or even run out of space. With Microsoft readying its fi rst ARM- The drive shortage will lead to lean Thai Floods Lead compatible version of desktop/server Win- times for just about everyone in the PC dows, PCs may fl irt with ARM, too, although to Massive HDD component business, though SSD manu- notebooks are more likely candidates than facturers could see sales soar. After all, Shortages desktops. It’s the fi rst serious challenge with hard drive prices rising, their once from a non-x86 architecture that Intel has This autumn, heavy rain in Thailand absolute price advantage over solid- faced in 20 years. caused fl ooding that led to massive state drives may start to disappear, These days, the desperate quest for pow- property damage, as well as more than and if SSD manufacturers can keep up er effi ciency is driving the industry in new 500 deaths. The fl ooding forced the shut- with demand, they could wind up sitting directions. Not all those roads lead to In- down of many of the world’s hard drive pretty. Some manufacturers, like OCZ, tel. ARM’s existing 32-bit CPU architecture factories, including those of Seagate and have already announced lower-cost SSD rules the cell phone market and is popular Western Digital—up to 40 percent of the models to try to capture some of the in numerous other devices, such as Apple’s world’s hard drive manufacturing ca- market. –NE iPad. Although ARM-based processors can’t yet match the performance of Intel’s best chips, they are powerful enough for many Skype LSI Scoops up purposes and are more power effi cient. Founders Hit SandForce for System vendors want to try building large servers using boatloads of low-power ARM Play on Vdio $322 Million chips, but the critical missing piece was a 64-bit ARM architecture. Every other serv- Video may have killed the radio In a bit of a shocker, LSI signed a de- er-processor architecture (x86, Itanium, star, but Vdio, the online video fi nitive agreement to acquire Sand- POWER, SPARC) has been 64-bit for years. equivalent of Rdio, will do battle Force, maker of popular high-speed Unlike Intel, however, ARM doesn’t actu- with Netfl ix for streaming su- SSD controllers in the performance ally make microprocessors. It licenses its premacy. Skype creators Niklas category. In recent years, LSI has architecture and CPU cores to other compa- Zennström and Janus Friis head focused most of its attention on en- nies, which design the chips and outsource up a team of heavy hitters with ex- terprise networking and storage. manufacturing to independent foundries. perience at Napster, Microsoft, TV Many assumed a company like Intel Hence the importance of AppliedMicro’s an- Guide, and Apache. or Corsair would pocket SandForce, nouncement: a future 32-core server proces- Like Netfl ix, Vdio lets you in- just as OCZ did with Indilinx. sor called X-Gene. Someone has to go fi rst. stantly watch TV and movies. It's a Yet LSI agreed to pay approxi- Intel retains awesome advantages in privately funded project currently mately $322 million in cash and CPU performance, fabrication technology, in closed beta. Vdio will debut in assume around $48 million of un- engineering resources, and market posi- the UK, but it's a safe bet that it'll vested stock options and restricted tion. Frankly, I give ARM only a 50/50 chance land in the U.S. shares held by SandForce employ- of succeeding outside its traditional mobile The Vdio team isn't backing ees. The acquisition should close in scope. But the battle will be good drama, down from inevitable compari- Q1 2012, and LSI envisions becom- and the fresh competition will push Intel to sons to Netfl ix. Their answer to ing an industry leader in the high- design lower-power x86 processors, so al- how Vdio is different from Netfl ix volume fl ash storage processor most any outcome is a win for the rest of us. is, "We think people will love us- market space for Ultrabook, note- ing Vdio." This should be fun. –PL book, and enterprise SSD and fl ash Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior solutions. –PL editor for Byte magazine and is now an analyst for Microprocessor Report. 9 maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC quickstart Ubuntu 14.04 to Thomas Run on Tablets, McDonald Smartphones, Game and TVs Theory At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in November, Canonical described a new strategy: “By 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu will power tablets, phones, TVs, and smart screens… and connect those devices seamlessly to the desktop, the server, RAGING and the cloud,” wrote Canonical found- er Mark Shuttleworth in a blog post. MEDIOCRITY Key to the strategy is Unity, the oft- maligned interface that became the default GUI of Ubuntu 11.04. In his blog, I REMEMBER 1994 well. OJ Simpson debuted Shuttleworth noted that Unity was de- a new kind of TV show running 24/7 on ev- signed for its core elements to scale to ery network. Ace of Base proved that Swed- any form factor, and he underlined the ish musical artistry didn’t die with ABBA. importance of partnerships with ma- And Id Software released its last game that jor silicon vendors. Canonical recently didn’t disappoint me. rolled out support for chips based I’m not saying that Doom II was Id’s last on ARM’s architecture inside Ubuntu game of any value, but that it was its last Go Ubuntu Unity is a great theme for the Go 11.10. –PC Launcher Ex Android app. game that met expectations. Everything since then has marked Id's gradual slide into game design mediocrity—a slide that reaches its nadir with Rage. It’s Official: Mobile Flash Sucks Since Doom II, Id’s game design sen- sibility has hardly progressed at all. The There’s one thing we’ve long agreed with Steve Jobs on: Adobe Flash sucks. Quake games added almost nothing to the It appears that Adobe finally agrees, too—at least regarding the mobile ver- basic Doom formula, while Doom III milked sion of Flash. Adobe announced it will stop developing its Flash mobile plugin, as every cliché in the design book, from mon- well as TV support for it, in favor of HTML5. ster closets to a tedious obsession with Adobe made the abrupt about-face after years of trying to squeeze Adobe sudden darkness. Flash onto low-powered mobile devices and television sets. That’s no easy feat I’m not talking about the technology. A considering that, at times, Flash would cripple even more powerful desktop PCs. new Id game is a chance to see technology Flash’s fate on mobile was likely sealed when Steve Jobs declared a fatwa on the tools that push PCs to do wonderful things. plugin for the iPad and iPhone. Adobe says that going forward, it will concentrate But if you’re writing a review of an Id game, on HTML5 as well as AIR applications for mobile devices. and you’re lingering over the wonders of While Adobe is committed to Flash for desktops and laptops, many question curved surfaces, volumetric fog/lighting, how long that will last, as consumers turn more and more to tablets and phones or nice, smooth shadow maps, you’re not for general browsing. –GU reviewing the game, you’re reviewing the engine. Each new Id release is the great- est tech demo ever, but as games, they just don’t offer much. Expect Ivy Bridge No Earlier than March With Rage, the Id formula finally comes The doomsday clock is already ticking on Intel’s spiffy Sandy Bridge processors. Ivy Bridge, completely undone. It’s as though the de- the slimmer, trimmer 22nm next-generation processors, are barreling down so fast that velopers studied other games with more you can already pick up motherboards that accommodate Ivy Bridge’s PCIe 3.0 support. depth and innovation (namely Fallout 3 Intel only says “early 2012” for Ivy availability, but one source claims to know more. and Borderlands), and then attempted to DigiTimes (and its as-always anonymous sources) reports that Ivy Bridge will hit the squeegee a thin film of those gameplay el- streets no earlier than March. The same sources claim that quad-core Ivy Bridge processors ements over their old formula. They didn’t will use just 45W, 65W, and 77W of thermal design power, thanks to Intel’s energy-efficient even nail their two strongest areas: The tri-gate transistors (pictured below); dual-core processors will run at 35W and 55W. –BC tech is impressive but glitchy, and the mul- tiplayer is weak. Oddly, Rage's visual de- sign is the most aesthetically unappealing Id has ever done. It’s hard to recall a more lovingly detailed, ugly environment. Something good will come of this. Quake III gave us Call of Duty; Doom III gave us Prey; and something worthwhile will come from Rage. It just won’t come from Id. You can follow Thomas McDonald on Twitter @StateOfPlayBlog. 10 MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com quickstart Flexible Screens Come Quinn to Samsung's 2012 Norton Gadgets Byte Samsung has announced that its 2012 Rights lineup of mobile gadgets will include flex- ible screens—initially hitting phones, and eventually tablets. Though this is an THE CRAPPY exciting prospect, Samsung had little more information to give; we don’t know HOUSE REMIX which phones will include the technol- ogy first, or whether or not the screens will be able to stand up to Samsung’s EVERY TIME a terrible bill like COICA touted AMOLED screens used in or PIPA gets exposed for what it would phones like the Galaxy Nexus. actually do to the Internet, large rights Samsung’s interest in the screen holders reinvent it slightly, lay some bad innovation probably stems from its dubstep over it, and call it something you purchase of Liquivista, a screen developer that focuses on making flexible screens can dance to. that are bright and consume little power. For now, only time will tell whether or not This time it's the Stopping Online Pi- flex-screens are the next step in the ever-developing world of smartphones. –AF racy Act—SOPA for short. SOPA is a bill coming out of the House that is a compli- ment to the Senate's PROTECT-IP abom- Brits Build Biological Logic Gates ination. It's entirely unlike PROTECT-IP, After a team at Imperial College London demonstrated logic gates made from in that while it does all the same things harmless bacteria and chemicals in October, science took one step closer to pre- and worse, it phrases them differently… senting humanity with Kurzweilian living computers that could keep our bodies so you won't notice. healthy from the inside. SOPA has done away with PROTECT- Researchers modified the DNA of E. Coli bacteria and reprogrammed it to per- IP's "blacklist," after realizing Americans form “on” and “off” switching when stimulated by chemicals, mimicking an elec- don't really like blacklist censorship. tronic AND gate. A different experiment resulted in a NOT gate, and the scientists Instead, SOPA allows the attorney gen- combined both gates into a NAND gate. These biological gates perform more like eral to cut off sites from the Internet by electronic gates than previously demonstrated, and their modularity bodes well prohibiting them in some sort of non-list for making more complex biological processors in the future. document. Since that's not a blacklist, it While still a long way off, microscopic biological computers could include sen- doesn't need any judicial review. Prohibit- sors that detect cancer cells, toxins, harmful plaque in the bloodstream, etc., and ed sites would be arranged in a tag cloud then neutralize those dangerous elements. –MR of some sort, and DNS providers would be required to not show them to you. SOPA goes on to ban advertisers and credit card processors from doing busi- ness with sites dedicated to copyright in- fringement. Whether a site is dedicated Windows 8 to infringement is helpfully determined Watch by what the guy filing the legal nasty- gram thinks looks like a site dedicated to infringement, without any law enforce- Windows 8 Accepted by IT Pros and ment getting into the act, much less Gadget Makers judges. The law calls this the "market- based approach." This provision could With Windows 8 expected to show up on machines in time for the back-to-school not possibly be abused as much as the season of 2012, we're keeping a close eye on the industry anticipation for the OS. infamous DMCA take-down notice, a For example, a recent InformationWeek survey of 973 IT professionals found that 52 provision used more to hobble competi- percent of their employers already had definite plans to adopt Windows 8. tion and speech than protect copyright, While Windows 8 PCs are a given, one of the leading Android tablet developers, Asus, according to a Google study, because is planning two Windows 8 tablets to hit in Q3 of 2012, according to a presentation at the I heard recently that all the bad people Asus 2011 Investor Conference. No further details were given. left the Internet. Though ITG is not a PC giant like Asus, the obscure Taiwanese This bill may let corporations and component maker nonetheless has announced its xpPhone 2, government break the Internet, but don't a 4.3-inch smartphone that will initially run Windows 7 worry, because they've put out press re- when it launches in 2012 but will also support Win- leases promising they would never do dows 8 when that operating system arrives. anything like that. The xpPhone 2 sheds bulk while improving on the battery life of its predecessor and has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 2GB RAM, Quinn Norton writes about copy- and 112GB of solid-state storage. –MR right for Wired News and other publications. 12 MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com quickstart 8 GREAT WEBCOMICS FOR GEEKS PENNY ARCADE This geek favorite started as a video game comic but has become so much more. www.penny-arcade.com THE TRENCHES DRESDEN CODAK From the makers of Penny Arcade and Amazing artwork and high-minded philosophical PvP, The Trenches focuses on the trials and tech content make this comic a double-yes. and tribulations of video game testers. www.dresdencodak.com www.trenchescomic.com SEQUENTIAL ART Human and anthropomorphic characters talk games and fanboyism. bit.ly/99Xd16 MS PAINT ADVENTURES USER FRIENDLY This user-driven, text-based adventure Centered on the staff of a fi ctional Internet comic is pure geek awesomeness. provider, UF is classic IT guy humor. www.mspaintadventures.com www.userfriendly.org DUELING PVP ONLINE ANALOGS One of the fi rst webcomics, PvP Consistently hilarious, follows the offi ce antics DA pokes fun at of a group of game games and gamers. magazine employees. www.duelinganalogs.com www.pvponline.com 14 MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com quickstart BY BRAD CHACOS Amazon Prime vs. Netfl ix Remember when Netfl ix and streaming video were virtually synonymous? Yeah, those were the days. Then, in the course of three disastrous months, Netfl ix jacked up prices by 60 percent, announced it was splitting off the DVD business, and then announced that, no, actually, it was going to keep DVDs in house after all. The wacky moves sent investors fl eeing like rats and confused customers looking for alternatives—alternatives like Amazon Prime Instant Video. The service offers unlimited streaming, and Amazon has signed several new content deals since Prime Instant Video’s launch last March. But is it a Netfl ix killer? Let’s fi nd out. Round 1: Catalog Round 2: Pricing Round 3: Image Quality Round 4: Device Compatibility When it comes down to it, it’s Neither Netfl ix nor Amazon It’s kind of hard to make a call all about the content. Who has Prime breaks the bank. As ev- on image quality because the Amazon Instant Video (which more of what you want? It’s eryone probably knows from speed of your Internet con- Amazon Prime utilizes) cer- not really much of a contest at the price-hike outrage of a nection makes such a dras- tainly works on plenty of de- this point, unfortunately. Al- few months ago, a streaming tic difference. Netfl ix offers vices, including more than 200 though Amazon offers a mas- subscription to Netfl ix costs more HD content in general. Internet-enabled HDTVs, tons sive 100,000 programs for $8/month for all the video you In a head-to-head viewing test of Blu-ray players, the Roku, download à la carte at $2 to can watch. Amazon Prime In- of “Broken Bow” from Sea- the Logitech Revue, and— $4 a pop, only around 10,000 stant Video costs even less on son 1 of Star Trek: Enterprise soon—the $200 Kindle Fire tab- of those are available for un- a monthly basis—about $6.66 in HD, Netfl ix’ image quality let. Even still, that’s just a frac- limited free streaming via (ooh, spooky!) a month—but looked slightly better overall tion of the devices supported Amazon Prime. Netfl ix plays that’s kind of deceptive; you’ll and ran much more smoothly. by Netfl ix. In addition to HDTV coy with the exact number of have to pay a fl at $80 up front We ran into repeated issues and Blu-ray device support, its streaming offerings, but to purchase a year’s subscrip- with Amazon Prime con- Netfl ix ups the ante by stream- we’ve found estimates rang- tion to Amazon Prime. But stantly bouncing our connec- ing to home theater systems; ing from 30,000 to 45,000 that $80 also includes free tion speed from the minimum Android, iOS, and Windows titles. Most titles available on two-day shipping on many to the maximum rating and Phone 7 smartphones and tab- Amazon are also available on Amazon purchases, as well back again, which resulted in lets; tons of set-top boxes (like Netfl ix, but not vice versa. as access to Amazon's new stuttering playback and re- the Boxee Box and Apple TV); e-book lending library for duced image quality. Netfl ix and all the major video game Kindle devices. Both services (and Speedtest.net) didn’t suf- consoles—including Nintendo’s offer a free one-month trial. fer from the same problem. 3DS handheld. Winner:Netfl ix Winner: Amazon Prime Winner:Netfl ix Winner:Netfl ix 16 MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com