Nerd News: Dell Alienware external Graphics option

I've been interested in external GPU (eGPU) for some time, for all my posts on that click eGPU Label,since laptops are far more practical when you have to travel, but I don't care for 8+ lbs (4+ kilo) gaming laptops.

Heavy laptops like that aren't much more portable than some desktops, I helped a Nerd buddy drag his desktop around to many events when I was in high school.

So real interested in news from Dell Alienware about their "Graphics Amplifier", an external GPU bay designed to pair with their new 13" laptop.

Links to the eGPU:

• WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/10/27/alienwares-huge-graphics-amplifier-turns-laptops-into-gaming-infernos/
• Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/8653/alienware-graphics-amplifier

Link to 13" Alienware laptop info:

• Dell Alienware (Graphics Amplifier under "Accessories & Services" tab in middle of page) http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-13/pd.aspx
• Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/8652/alienware-launches-the-alienware-13-gaming-laptop-with-a-twist

Security & Hacking: "Cracking passwords from the Philips hack - an important lesson"

Excellent article by Paul Ducklin, over on Sophos' Naked Security Blog "Cracking passwords from the Philips hack - an important lesson"

Read the comments as well!

For more posts on Security & Hacking click on one of the following Labels:
Security 
Password Cracking
Pen Testing
Hacking

Nerd Gear: AMD Radeon HD 7800 price cuts

See Anandtech link for details http://www.anandtech.com/show/6175/amd-radeon-hd-7800-series-price-cuts-new-game-bundle-inbound

If you have some good but less well know online sites for buying GPU's feel free to post link in comments section, spam will be deleted, and I figure everyone knows about places like Newegg.

Thinking there have to be some good but less well known sites out there.

Nerd Gear: GPU AMD 7750 & 7770 Review

See AnandTech Review for full details:

"The 7770 will be a fully enabled Cape Verde with all 10 CUs (640 SPs) enabled, running at 1GHz for the core clock and 4.5GHz for the memory clock, with a PowerTune limit of 100W and an AMD defined typical board power of 80W. The 7750 meanwhile has 2 disabled CUs, giving it 512 SPs and 32 texture units, while the ROP count is unchanged at 16. The core clock will be 800MHz while the memory clock is the same as the 7770 at 4.5GHz, with a PowerTune limit of 75W and a typical board power of 55W. Both cards have a sub-10W idle TDP, while long-idle is sub-3W."

"Compared to the 7750, the 7770 has 25% more CUs and a 25% core clock advantage, giving it a massive 56% shader and texture performance advantage over the 7750. With the 5700 series this gap was only 35%, and most of that was a result of core clock differences. The fact that the memory bandwidth is the same between the 7770 and 7750 equalizes things somewhat, but it’s still a huge difference for two cards that are in the same family."

Price of the 7770 is $159 and the price of the 7750 is $109

See also Engadget, that provides following additional links, including Anandtech I mention above; AnandTech, HotHardware, PC Perspective, TechSpot, Tech Report.

I also found CRN's article interesting, if short, I will have to start following their site regularly. 

Nerd Gear: Radeon HD 7950

Some more information on the AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards "the card scores 2385 marks and is faster than the GTX 580" source and rest of the article http://www.techspot.com/news/47162-more-details-emerge-on-radeon-hd-7950-ahead-of-launch.html