TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Computer Hardware

Windows 8.1 SSD Defrag

By

thAn interesting blog post was brought to me attention by a reader. Many Geeks will recognize the blogger, Scott Hanselman:
The real and complete story – Does Windows defragment your SSD? (be cure to check out the comments too)
The gist of this post is to tell us we’ve all been wrong and Windows 8.1 does in fact defrag SSD’s.
However, we need to dig a little deeper. [Read more…] about Windows 8.1 SSD Defrag

New AMD Radeon Drivers

By

amdradeonAMD Catalyst Omega 14.12 drivers are out.
“Introducing the AMD Catalyst™ Omega driver for Windows, a “Special Edition” driver delivered to enhance the AMD GPU and APU experience. The AMD Catalyst™ Omega driver contains over 20 new features, performance improvements, and significant number of bug fixes and improvements.”
Announcment: A Very Special Edition Driver: AMD Catalyst Omega
Download (there are also new AMD chipset drivers)
Release Notes
Linux Drivers

Samsung SSD News

By

samsung_ssdSamsung has unleashed the 850 Evo SSD.
Although there are lots of reviews out today, Anandtech is the the source I trust.

The 850 EVO is a very competitive drive in performance and features, but neither of these warrants the premium Samsung is charging. As I’ve said before, there are only two main segments in the SSD market that I recognize, which are the value/mainstream and high-end/enthusiast segments.
For the value segment, the key consideration is the price because these are typically users who don’t push their systems to the limits and thus shouldn’t pay a premium for a performance increase that is likely to be negligible for their usage…As for the high-end segment, Samsung already has that one covered by the 850 Pro. The 850 EVO, especially at the smaller capacities, isn’t fast enough under IO intensive workloads to really compete with the 850 Pro and Extreme Pro. Given that the Extreme Pro can be had for about the same cost (depending on the capacity, of course), I would much rather have that if I was looking for a high-end SSD.

also…

Samsung Magician Software Version 4.5 Released
Download & Info

Magician version 4.5 features a number of improvements over version 4.4:
– New model support : 850 EVO
– Improved RAPID v2.1
– Reduce the CPU Utilization during Magician launch
– Enhanced SATA Interface view and Over Provisioning
– Update Magician GUI and Help file

Geforce 344.75’s

By

nvidiaGeForce Game Ready Driver 344.75 WHQL released.
“Best gaming experience for Far Cry 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Crew, and World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.”
Download
Release Notes
Newest Linux drivers are v346.16 BETA released on Nov. 13.

Nvidia has been on a roll releasing Windows driver updates these last few months:
Version: 344.75 – Release Date: Tue Nov 18, 2014
Version: 344.65 – Release Date: Mon Nov 10, 2014
Version: 344.60 – Release Date: Tue Nov 04, 2014
Version: 344.48 – Release Date: Wed Oct 22, 2014
Version: 344.16 – Release Date: Tue Sep 23, 2014
Version: 344.11 – Release Date: Thu Sep 18, 2014

New GeForce Drivers

By

nvidiaGeForce Game Ready Driver 344.65 WHQL released.
Download
Release Notes

The new GeForce Game Ready driver, release 344.65 WHQL, includes improvements which allows GeForce owners to continue to have the ultimate gaming platform. In addition, this Game Ready WHQL driver ensures you’ll have the best possible gaming experience for Assassin’s Creed: Unity