The TR Podcast 117: Clicky keys, sultry sound and sweet-spot graphics

	Date: August 19, 2012 Time: 1:14:49 Hosted by Jordan Drake Co-Hosts: Scott Wasson, Geoff Gasior, and Cyril Kowaliski Download: MP3 (53.9MB) | M4A (73.5MB) Subscribe: RSS (MP3) | RSS (M4A) iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (M4A)
Listen now:

Show notes
From Intel's all-in-one platform to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti's $300 sweet-spot GPU play (and the Radeon HD 7950 with boost response), from Rosewill's clicky keys to value Asus sound cards, it's a fantastic new episode of the TR Podcast. These are also the shortest show notes I've ever written.

Send in listener mail, and we'll answer on the podcast. - jdrake@techreport.com

Follow us on Twitter - Scott - Jordan - Geoff - Cyril - The Tech Report

Listener mail/tweets:

Surround-sound headphones? (answered during Xonar review) - from Milo:

"I recently acquired a Xonar DSX, given the Report's review. A few reasons I pulled the trigger, A) sound quality sounds like a good idea B) the built-in mobo sound card and my case don't get along, such that plugging in headphones to the front port never really worked. So, now that I have a "surround sound system", I have been looking for Surround Sound headphones that would take advantage of the Xonar, and I am not finding much. Most Surround Sound headphones are wireless / and or usb driven with the sound card built into the USB connection. Thus far the only headphone I have found is the Zalman ZM-RS6F 5.1 Given all the Xonar promoting yall have done, what surround sound headphones suggestions do you have?"

Korean IPS comment and a CPU question (answered during 660 Ti review) - from Gawain:

"After listening to the podcast I looked up the monitors you guys spoke of. I found this one (I am in the EU) and thought Scott should see it as it claims to have HDCP support while having HDMI 1.4a and DP! I believe it is around $450 for the US… My 30” Gateway is failing (like so many others already) and think I will get one. And for an actual question for Scott… Re CPUs. In particular the AMD Trinity chip. The question is why does AMD have to sell a low power chip for an ultrabook type formfactor? Why can’t they take the A10-xxxx (full power chip) and just make it so it goes into low power mode when it’s on battery? Like shutting down cores and so on, and once plugged in you get full power. It may seem like a naïve question, but I truly am curious. Thanks for the great show and any answers given! "

Tech discussion:

Hands on with Intel's open all-in-one platform - (0:01:16) - Read more

Asus' budget Xonar DGX and DSX sound cards reviewed - (0:06:29) - Read more

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card reviewed - (0:26:56) - Read more - Back-to-school system guide

Rosewill's RK-9000-series mechanical keyboards reviewed - (0:59:55) - Read more

That's all, folks! We'll see you on the next episode.