The Xbox One arrives with a 500GB HDD built-in, and in contrast to the PlayStation 4's easily-accessed storage, it's not meant to be accessed or replaced by the user, ever. While we'll probably leave ours in place to keep from voiding the warranty or risk a ban from Xbox Live, a few folks have already cracked open the console to see what else will fit. iFixit noted during its teardown that there's an off-the-shelf 2.5-inch Samsung HDD inside connected via SATA II inside, and swapping that out isn't much of an issue. Brian Williams has already tried out the system with two alternate drives: a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD, and a Seagate 1TB hybrid SSHD. As you can see in his video (embedded after the break) boot time from off to the dashboard only improved slightly, with the SSD loading in 46.1 seconds compared to 50.5 stock. A test with Call of Duty: Ghosts revealed similar results, with the SSD loading up in 27 seconds and the hybrid drive close behind in 27.7, compared to 33.5 seconds stock. We'll need tests with more games to be sure, but so far it's not showing the improvements seen after swapping the PS4's hard drive out for speedier options. The folks at Tested report doing so improved level load times in Killzone: Shadow Fall from 60 seconds to 39 seconds.
So, if it's not a ton faster, why would you want to take the chance of prying Microsoft's box open? To get more space. Brian's drives were simply copies of the original transferred by Clonezilla, but an individual named Juvenal1 has already worked out how to get the system to actually recognize and make use of drives bigger than 500GB. By copying files from your original drive and using their Linux-compatible tool to repartition the new HDD, you can be up and running with more capacity after just a reboot or two. Of course, this carries significant risks and we don't recommend it for most, as Microsoft's Albert Penello has already revealed support for external drives is coming in a future update, along with the ability to do crazy things like see how much storage you actually have left. Still, if you just need to live on the edge (or store every game released so far and record hours of clean Upload Studio clips) the instructions can be found here.
Update: If you're interested in performing the upgrade, Brian Williams has followed with a video walkthrough for the process of properly formatting a larger hard drive, even if you're not familiar with using Linux.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Juvenal1 (Github), Brian Williams
Having spent over 2,000 hours working on the enormous -- and enormously impressive -- Skyrim mod "Falskaar," Alexander Velicky was dead set on getting a design job in the game industry. " I set my sights on a professional design job pretty early, I lowered my head, charged forward, and rarely looked back," he said in a recent forum post. Though you might expect his Skyrim chops would land him at Bethesda Softworks, the studio behind the beloved first-person RPG, he's just accepted a job at Bungie Studios working on Destiny.
Velicky spent much of the last four years working on modding, first getting his start in Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3. When Skyrim launched in 2011, he continued working with Bethesda's modding tools, only this time he created a massive game with "20 - 30 hours" worth of exploration and questing -- he even recorded new voiceover work and a unique soundtrack.
That whole cloth approach to modding assuredly helped land Velicky the new gig at Bungie, and it's not the first time we've seen as much. Armed Assault 3 modder Dean Hall created Day Z, which is now being published as a standalone project. Take that as a lesson, y'all: dreams do come true! At least if you work incredibly hard at them.
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Software, HD
Via: Geek
Source: Bethesda Forums
We're getting more and more excited watching the Expand NY agenda come together. We've already announced our first set of speakers (by which we mean people on stage, not those kind of speakers) including legendary game designer Peter Molyneux, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, io9 editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz and the man responsible for clogging the Internet's tubes with funny cats: Ben Huh.
But wait, there's more! Joining us at Javits Center this November will be:
Filed under: Announcements, Meta
If you have certain interior design tastes, some types of PC case mods may not quite suit your decor. That's where Jeffrey Stephenson comes in, this time with a fanless home theater PC featuring an art-deco style Mahogany shell that slides right over the aluminum chassis. Inside, there's an Intel Core i3-3225 processor running Windows 8 with 8GB RAM, an Intel Cherryville SSD, 150W Pico PSU and Silverstone HE02 passive heatsink. While able to handily perform most media chores (and generate a little heat!), it stays in keeping with his other tasteful, retro designs for those of you who eschew Thermaltake Level 10-type PC cases. Or, almost all of you, anyway.
Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Intel
Via: Fanless Tech
Source: Jeffrey Stephenson
Love pinball? So does professional modder Ben Heck -- he's building a ghost hunt-themed pinball machine, and needs it to sound just right. Luckily, a local musician is happy to help, provided Heck can rejigger his midi controller into a guitar. Challenge accepted. With the help of his musician friend, Heck spends the first episode of a two-part Ben Heck Show disassembling the instrument, desoldering its components and reassembling them in the desired pattern -- stitching together a few undersized circuit boards along the way. Ben lays out the key pattern too, which will dictate how large the axe's case will need to be. It's classic hardware modding, and a darn fine break to the deluge of CES news. Check out the first episode in the series after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: The Ben Heck Show
Gaming consoles are the usual candidates to go under a screwdriver for miniaturization into portable packages, but Nathan Morgan set out to do something different: transform the hacker-friendly Raspberry Pi into a mobile rig. Thus, the Pi-to-Go was born. The portable's custom 3D-printed case packs a model B revision 1 Raspberry Pi, a 640 x 480 LCD screen and a QWERTY Keyboard with a built-in touchpad. Other internals include a Samsung-made 64GB SSD (with a 1GB swap partition), a rechargeable battery that provides more than 10 hours of juice, a 4GB SD card and support for WiFi and Bluetooth. Morgan's even published build instructions, 3D printer files and a parts list necessary for replicating the box. Not accounting for the 3D-printed case, cobbling together your own Pi-to-Go setup should ring up at just shy of $400. For the entire build breakdown and more images of the rig, hit the bordering source link.
Source: Parts-People Blog
As much as we love the Arduino Uno, it's not the most powerful of hobbyist microcontrollers. Fortunately, the folks in Turin have just put the finishing touches on a 32-bit upgrade with buckets of potential. At the heart of the Arduino Due is an 84MHz Atmel CPU, based on ARM's Cortex M3 Architecture, which is capable of being the brains inside your own flying drone or homemade 3D printer. It should start trickling out onto shelves from today, setting you back $49, but hey, that's a small price to pay to automate your drinking adventures.
Continue reading Meet the Arduino Due, the 32-bit board that'll let your projects fly (really)
Filed under: Misc
Meet the Arduino Due, the 32-bit board that'll let your projects fly (really) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments