Cougar QBX tested: an incredibly compact mini-ITX case

Shares Cougar QBX mini-ITX build One of the most exciting cases I saw at Computex this year was Cougar’s super compact QBX.

this year was Cougar’s super compact QBX. The mini-ITX case somehow has room for an ATX power supply and a full-length graphics card, as well as a slim optical drive. It’s even affordable at $55! When Cougar sent over a QBX, I decided to test out the case by building a powerful gaming rig inside of it. It was a tight squeeze, but the build was a success, and I came away impressed by a few of Cougar’s clever design decisions for this mini-ITX case. Follow along to take a look at how everything fit together.

Prev Page 1 of 15 Next Prev Page 1 of 15 Next Starting the build

Here you can see most of the planned components of the build, with the Cougar QBX already opened up. It side panels easily snap into place, no thumbscrews required (although the holes are there if you want to use them). In fact, that’s a major theme of the QBX: it’s almost entirely toolless, and doesn’t need screws in most of the places I expected them.

Not pictured: RAM (I grabbed it later), a physical HDD (the QBX had space for it, so I decided to throw one in), and the actual power supply I ended up using (this one, it turned out, was too big!).

Asus Z97I-Plus motherboardIntel Core i5-4790K processorRosewill Valens 500 power supplyMSI GTX 960Samsung 850 EVO SSDWestern Digital Black HDDCorsair Vengeance DDR3 Prev Page 2 of 15 Next Prev Page 2 of 15 Next Inside the QBX

The QBX splayed open. A mini-ITX motherboard fits into the top-left corner, while the top-right holds the power supply. Zoom in on the picture and you can see circular half-globes rising out of the metal. That’s for the motherboard. It’s pre-risen!

Hidden behind the bundle of front panel connector cables is a raised metal bracket that actually holds in the power supply, no screws required. You can see the other bracket in the gap between the motherboard and power supply space. The cable along the top plugs into the power supply, then runs an extension to the plug at the back of the case.

A full-length (350mm, to be precise) graphics card fits along the bottom of the case. In the foreground, you can see the detached panel that includes a 3.5-inch hard drive cage and slots for two SSDs. There’s also space for a single 120mm fan (or radiator+fan for liquid cooling) to be mounted here. Removing the panel is stupid easy: it slides in and out of the slots at the top of the case, so you can also flip it up for easy access to the guts without completely removing it.

One other tidbit: the top panel of the case is removable, and you can fit two more 120mm fans up there. It’s ridiculous how much you can cram into the QBX.

Prev Page 3 of 15 Next Prev Page 3 of 15 Next Installing the motherboard: I/O shield

The first step here doesn’t change with a mini-ITX system: installing the I/O shield is simple, though not always easy. Thankfully, this one snapped into place in just a couple seconds without slicing open my fingers.

Prev Page 4 of 15 Next Prev Page 4 of 15 Next Installing the motherboard: slotting in the Asus Z97I-Plus

Things aren’t too cramped in the QBX yet, so the motherboard is mercifully easy to fit in. At first, I thought I’d misplaced the motherboard riser screws that normally come with PC cases, so I grabbed some spares and screwed them in. Then I realized that I didn’t need them, since the QBX’s metal chassis was had riser globes already punched out. The motherboard nestled up against the I/O plate and I screwed it down.

Prev Page 5 of 15 Next Prev Page 5 of 15 Next Installing the processor: socket time

Installing the processor was, as usual, quick and painless. Taking care not to bend any pins, I lowered the CPU in place and then closed ‘er up.

Prev Page 6 of 15 Next Prev Page 6 of 15 Next Installing the processor: cooler time

I rarely use Intel’s stock coolers. They get the job done, but they’re not as quiet or powerful as aftermarket coolers like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, and I like to have the option to overclock while keeping my CPU cool. But fitting a tall air cooler into the QBX wasn’t an option. It does actually support a liquid cooler (with a 240mm radiator, even!) mounted to the side panel, but I decided things would be cramped enough already.

In this case, the stock cooler felt like a smart choice. For one thing, it’s extremely easy to install: just push the corners down firmly for the plastic pins to snap into the slots around the socket. I didn’t want to try installing a backplate in the cramped quarters of a mini-ITX case.

I didn’t have a low-profile cooler like the Cryorig C7on-hand, but I’d like to try one. The i5 4790K has plenty of headroom to overclock, but I want to keep it cool. And quiet, especially—this case is small enough to sit on a desk, and I don’t want to hear its CPU fan whirring flat-out to stay cool.

Prev Page 7 of 15 Next Prev Page 7 of 15 Next Installing the PSU: Finding one that fits

I thought the first power supply I had, the modular RM550, would fit in the QBX. Turns out, it didn’t—it’s 160mm long, which is a common ATX form factor, but the QBX only supports 140mm power supplies. This is my biggest gripe with the QBX: many “standard” ATX power supplies are actually longer than 140mm, and thus won’t fit into the case because of the flange that holds it in place. Cougar’s website specifies the length requirement, but the case’s page on Newegg does not. It’s easy to grab what seems like a perfectly normal power supply only to find that it’s too long for the case.

I went hunting around the office, and between the component supplies of PC Gamer and Maximum PC, found three more standard ATX power supplies that were all 160mm long. Finally, we found one that fit: a 140mm Rosewill Valens 500.

Fitting the power supply into place is satisfying, because there are no screws required: it snaps into place and is held rock solid by the metal flanges. It stayed in place without screws, even when I turned it upside down.

Installation accomplished. Hooray! Well, almost hooray. There was one other complication.

Prev Page 8 of 15 Next Prev Page 8 of 15 Next Installing the PSU: plugging in the power extension and cables

Plugging in the PSU was a bit trickier. The problem: the power cable that runs from the PSU to the back of the case. It’s angled in such a way to only easily fit one plug orientation, and that orientation happens to be pretty uncommon on power supplies, from what I’ve seen.

Thankfully, bending the power cable into the proper orientation turned out to be pretty simple. It’s blocking the slot where the slim optical disc drive would go, but who needs a disc drive, right?

After that, running the rest of the cables was fairly simple. I routed them through the back of the case to keep the main cavity as clean as possible. I was going to need that space for the graphics card.

Prev Page 9 of 15 Next Prev Page 9 of 15 Next Installing the graphics card: will it fit?

This was the part I was nervous about. As you may have noticed on the last slide, the cables from the power supply extend downward, right into the space where a full-length graphics card will go. Would they both fit? The answer was yes, but it was a close thing.

When I first tried to insert the MSI GTX 960, it was bumping up against the cables and wouldn’t align with the slot properly. So I unplugged the power cables and put the card in. It fit perfectly, with plenty of room to spare, length-wise. But there was a very, very small gap between card and power supply.

I wasn’t sure I could get my fingers into that gap to plug the PSU end caps back in, but pre-bending the cables left me just enough room. In hindsight, I should’ve left the PSU cables plugged in but bent them flat, then put the graphics card in while holding them out of the way. Would’ve been much easier.

The full-size GTX 960 fits just fine, but this would be a great case for a mini-ITX size GTX 970 or an AMD R9 Nano. Sure, part of the appeal of the QBX is that it can support a larger card, but something smaller would be a breeze to install.

Prev Page 10 of 15 Next Prev Page 10 of 15 Next Installing the HDD and SSD

The hard drive and SSD each screw into the side panel easily. You’d need this space if you wanted to use a 240mm radiator, but a 120mm block would fit beside them just fine. We eventually decided to throw a fan into this spot before mounting the panel back into the case.

Prev Page 11 of 15 Next Prev Page 11 of 15 Next Installing the Asus Z97I-Plus wifi-fi card

The Asus motherboard came with a wi-fi adapter, so I figured I might as well install it. This was one of the hardest components to install because I already had the graphics card in place, making it hard to fit my hands into the case. Sliding the card into its slot was no problem, but snapping the two tiny cables onto their connector nubs to link out to the antenna. That took a few sweaty minutes.

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Finally, with most of the components into place, the RAM was as easy to install as usual. The RAM blocks easy access to the SATA and motherboard power ports, however, so I plugged those in first before slotting in the RAM. A larger cooler could’ve gotten in the way of the RAM sticks, but the stock cooler presents no such problems.

I also plugged in the cables to the front panel and the SSD and hard drive, with the side panel still detached, but close enough for everything to reach.

Prev Page 13 of 15 Next Prev Page 13 of 15 Next Last-minute fan addition

The build seemed done—but another fan couldn’t hurt, could it? I grabbed a 120mm LEPA fan and used its rubber gromets to attach it to the side panel. They’re easy to attach with a pair of pliers by pulling them through the fan’s mount points, then pulling the other end through the side panel’s mount point. Who needs screws?

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Build complete! I snapped the QBX’s side panels back on and booted it up, and had Windows running within an hour. The QBX really is a great little case, with room for an incredible range of components, including multiple 120mm fans, liquid cooling, and a full-size graphics card.

While I appreciate the toolless design, I think the flanges holding in the ATX power supply are a drawback. The case could be a bit more flexible and allow more common 160mm PSUs, although the cables attached to those power supplies would likely block a long graphics card from fitting in the case. But the flexibility would be nice, because you could easily fit a short ITX form-factor graphics card in, leaving room for a longer PSU. A different plug design at the top could also make it easier to plug in most PSUs without blocking the slim disc drive slot.

If you’re considering a mini-ITX build, I absolutely recommend the Cougar QBX. Just pick out your parts carefully to ensure they’ll fit. Use a modular power supply to keep cable clutter to a minimum. Once it's built, enjoy having a classy miniature PC that could sit on a desk or in an entertainment center without making too much noise.

Don't worry about needing pro building skills to put together a mini-ITX rig. It's not much harder than a regular build—all you need is a bit more patience and the right parts. A friend with tiny hands doesn't hurt, either.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR As hardware editor, Wes spends slightly more time building computers than he does breaking them. Deep in his heart he believes he loves Star Wars even more than Samuel Roberts and Chris Thursten, but is too scared to tell them.

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The War Z's servers brought down by hackers

The continuing saga of The War Z's misfortune - er - continues, although this time the game's not making headlines for the actions of its creators.

The continuing saga of The War Z's misfortune - er - continues, although this time the game's not making headlines for the actions of its creators. Over the past few days The War Z's servers have been subjected to a variety of attacks, as hackers target the game for whatever reason it is that hackers attack anything. They're bored, I guess.

Hammerpoint Interactive's community manager Kewk posted on the game's forum: "Over the last few days we have been under attack by various forums of malicious attempts to shut down our servers. First we were hit with an attack that would rest our DNS IP so that you could not connect. This was solved a couple days ago early in the morning but took time to actually resolve world wide once the fix went in."

"This morning we are being hit, again, with a DDOS attack on our login server. We are implementing additional DDoS protection and hope to have this resolved asap. Unfortunately with these types of attacks it is very difficult to give a good time frame of when it will be resolved."

There's a whole list of updates to the original post, as the team attempt to get the servers back up to 100%. While it seems that the game is now fine for people who directly downloaded it, Steam users are still encountering problems. The War Z is no longer availablefrom Steam, but anyone who previously downloaded it from there can still access the game through the client.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 trailer is all sexy ladies, but pre-order bonus swimsuits will be equal opportunity

Tekken has never been regarded as the sexy fighting game - Anna Williams showing a bit of leg is about as raunchy as its ever got. But a new trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is all about the femme sexy, focusing on the various legs, boobs and strategically suggestive posturing of its lady fighters. There's hardly an ugly man in sight. Put some sexy lady visuals in your eyes: The sexy doesn't stop

A New Beginning demo is eco-thrilling

The first English language demo of 'eco-thriller adventure' game A New Beginning has been made available.

has been made available. From German developers Daedalic Entertainment, A New Beginning puts you in the shoes of Fay, one of small group of humans left alive on Earth in the year 2500. With the planet ravaged by climate change Fay is sent back in time to try to steer humanity from a path to disaster.

The demo features the prologue and parts of the first chapter of the game. The point and click adventure game picked up three trophies at the German Developer Awards, including Best Story and Best Soundtrack. You can download the demo from Strategy InformerorWorth Playing.

Whoever said games can't teach us anything about the environment clearly hasn't played this.

The best case mods from Computex 2016

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Computex. The final frontier. The case modder's mission: to explore strange new methods of water cooling. To seek out new color schemes and new LED components. To boldly go where no modder has gone before.

Ahem. The Enterprise just brings it out in us, you know?

Computex, meanwhile, brings out the best in case modders. All the big component companies sponsor modders to build extravagant systems, which in turn draw awed visitors into their booths to snap pictures and check out the products. It worked on us! We scoured the show floor to find the coolest custom rigs, most of which sport elaborate water cooling systems with intricate hard piping and some equisite lighting and cable management work. The pressure is even higher when you have to build in an open air frame, or fit your parts in the cramped space of a unique shape, like the Enterprise or R2-D2.

Here's a gallery of our favorite case mods from Computex 2016. We'd proudly display all of them on our desks at work. Well, except for the one that's also a car. That can go beside the desk.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR As hardware editor, Wes spends slightly more time building computers than he does breaking them. Deep in his heart he believes he loves Star Wars even more than Samuel Roberts and Chris Thursten, but is too scared to tell them.

Topics

The War Z creator apologizes to players for "arrogance," promises improvements

In an open letter to the The War Z and PC gaming community , creator and executive producer Sergey Titov apologized to disgruntled players for his "arrogance" that resulted in a failure to communicate with players and properly address issues within the game.

, creator and executive producer Sergey Titov apologized to disgruntled players for his "arrogance" that resulted in a failure to communicate with players and properly address issues within the game. "I need to admit that we failed to effectively communicate some of our plans and actions to both our existing players and to our new prospective players," Titov writes.

"I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others. This failure is entirely on my shoulders and if anything I owe thanks to that vocal minority and admit that I should have paid attention sooner."

Controversy has been building recently due to misleading descriptions on the game's Steam pageand poor community management, resulting in The War Z being pulled from Steam altogether. A contrite Titov even told us in an interview that he agreed with Steam's decision.

In the full letter, which can be read on The War Z's forum here, Titov outlines changes in how Hammerpoint Interactive will communicate with its fans and respond to criticism going forward. He also makes a final plea for players to give the game a second chance.

"I know that to some people my words won't matter much, " writes Titov. "I understand that. I hope that will change as we move forward and deliver the features that our players have been waiting for. I can promise you that from now on things will be much more transparent, and we'll provide better communication and engage our community to discuss upcoming features way before they appear in the game."

Canadian Videogame Awards finalists announced, Solid Snake to host

Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP are just a handful of Canada-born nominees set to take a bow during the 2012 Canadian Videogame Awards. The awards will honor 28 games over 14 categories, and are reserved for games and/or major game components that were primarily developed within Canada's borders. “We are all incredibly excited about the

The Witcher 2’s Tomasz Gop on non-linearity, maturity and player choice

The Witcher 2’s Tomasz Gop on non-linearity, maturity and player choice games™: We’re now approaching the release of The Witcher 2. What kind of improvements over The Witcher can we expect and how have you evolved as a studio to further refine the Witcher experience? Tomasz Gop: We’re not doing a completely different game and we definitely did not want to reinvent the genre. We just want to do a game

Opinion – Oculus Is Fumbling The Rift Launch In New And Exciting Ways

It isn’t easy launching a new consumer-electronics product.

It isn’t easy launching a new consumer-electronics product. That goes double when you are pioneering a new media format that has been discussed, dissected, and debated for more than three years. But even with those considerations, Oculus is making big mistakes as it works to get the Rift to market.

The company recently threw mud in the eye of people who have been waiting months since pre-ordering. Rather than focus on fulfilling outstanding orders, Oculus is diverting hardware to retail and other online outlets.

This weekend, Best Buy will be demoing the Riftin 48 locations with a very small number of units on hand for purchase. Oculus encourages pre-order customers to try their luck there, and if successful, you can keep your benefits (early access to Touch controller ordering, discounts on Rift-compatible PCs, and copies of Lucky’s Tale and EVE Valkyrie).

A brick-and-mortar presence isn’t the piece that is alarming. Starting to get in front of more consumers is crucial, and something I’ve been advocating since launch day. The small number of units on hand is necessary from a retailer perspective, as Best Buy is offering space to demo and understandably needs something actionable in return.

But opting to send units to Amazon and the Microsoft Store is absurd. Oculus is setting up a situation in which someone ordering from one of these outlets could very well end up with one before someone who has been holding a pre-order spot for nearly four months.

Oculus' slow slide in the eyes of eager enthusiasts began in January, as the company built excitement leading to the Rift’s pre-order campaign. Oculus held the hardware’s price close, only revealing it at the exact moment it began taking orders.

Given the $600 price tag and the resulting sticker shock, I can forgive the approach. Since Oculus wasn’t taking money up front for pre-orders, people could voice their interest and fully consider later. Or, they would have been able to if the servers didn’t melt.

To Oculus’ credit, pre-orders didn’t “sell out.” The company kept taking orders (and is even now), giving people estimates of when the hardware would ship. Unfortunately, locking in a pre-order even 40 minutes after they went live meant you’d be waiting months beyond the March 28 launch to get your headset. And when the order servers are fighting back as you’re trying to lock one in, it can be frustrating.

But people had a chance to cool off and get used to their order timing. Headset shipment estimates were timed out as late as July, but in the following weeks, disappointment gave way to acceptance.

Then Oculus hit another stumble. On April 2, just six days after launch, the company alerted pre-order customersof a delay. A shortage of an unspecified component had caused a production shortfall, and even those who had been told their unit would be sent in the first three weeks of availability were affected.

On April 12, the magnitude of the delaycame into focus. Rift shipments were now bumped back four to six weeks. However, the company still hasn’t gone into detail about what’s holding things up.

Today, many customers holding pre-orders are watching in disbeliefas Oculus diverts some units to other retailers that could go to assuaging frustrated, but still excited and loyal early adopters. This is, put simply, the quickest way to burn a bridge with the people Oculus needs most in its early days.

VR lives and dies by the enthusiasm of early adopters. Oculus’ decision to allow other online retailers to sell units outside of the pre-order queue douses the flames of excitement in icy cold disrespect.

Worse, the company has made no statement since yesterday’s dumbfounding announcement. The company has said nothing to pre-order customers, has offered no apology or explanation, and has not updated on whether it has fully corrected the component issue or otherwise accelerated production.

It’s time for Oculus to correct course. The company began its life due to a Kickstarter groundswell of consumer enthusiasm. Unless things change rapidly, that excitement will be snuffed out as VR enthusiasts look elsewhere. With HTC in the market and Sony poised for a fall launch, Oculus isn’t the only game in town. The company might be the thought leader, but it’s letting devout followers of the technology it pioneered slip away from it.

DayZ creator Dean Hall on The War Z fiasco

The War Z's abrupt launch and subsequent removal on Steam prompted a strong reaction from the community over the Foundation Release's strange name, missing features, and misleading Steam description.

on Steam prompted a strong reaction from the community over the Foundation Release's strange name, missing features, and misleading Steam description. (The War Z is still buyableon Hammerpoint's website.) Executive Producer Sergey Titov gave us his responseto the ordeal, but DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall (save for this tweet) was quiet. Breaking his silence more directly in a Reddit postyesterday, Hall described his feelings on the issue.

"I've been pretty depressed about the whole situation," he wrote. "From a personal standpoint, this whole 'saga' of the development made me seriously question if I wanted to be involved in the industry, and I gave serious thought to cutting my losses and not being involved in the project."

The most recent project updatefor the standalone version of DayZ—which is also labeled a "Foundation Release"—stated that the game's tentative 2012 release window could be pushed to next year to give the team more time for development. In his Reddit post, Hall said the crush of information requests over both DayZ's progress and his thoughts on The War Z became a little too much to handle.

"I've been getting hammered by a massive amount with requests for information about DayZ's release, interviews, and my reactions to this and that, but for my own sanity, I retreated and have kept to myself," he explained. "Right now, I'm just at home doing bits and pieces on DayZ's development. The rest of the DayZ team is doing the same. I realize that I went back on my word about releasing an update, and I instead went back into my shell for a bit last week. I'll come out when the dust is all settled."

This is what it looks like to play 8-player co-op Mario on an NES

A group of graduate students at the ETH Zurich Game Technology Centre recently cobbled together a device that lets eight people cooperatively play through NES classics, including Super Mario Bros., displayed across the inside of a room via 360-degree projection.

What's especially interesting about this stunt is that the students -- led by Centre founder and Disney Research Zurich associate director Bob Sumner-- didn't crack open either the NES or its controllers to pull off the trick.

As Ars Technica UK reports, the trick is accomplished by routing game input and output through an Arduino-based multiplexer and a PC that does the work of stitching frames of the game together into a panorama and dynamically switching input between the eight NES gamepads.

The whole thing was built as an exhibit for the Eurographics 2015 conference that ETH Zurich helped host earlier this year, and while the eight-player Mario projector rig was only set up on a temporary basis, the developers have adapted a single-player version that can be played in a virtual panorama with an Oculus Rift VR headset.

For more details on how the students pulled it off, check out the above-linked Ars Technica UK report and the academic paperthey published about the project.

Project Bluestreak video looks the same as the old one, but isn't

Cliff Bleszinski, aka Cliffy B, aka The Cliff Man, aka The Blesmeister, is unveiling Project Bluestreak tomorrow .

. The free-to-play shooter has been in development for a while now, and a pre-alpha teaser released in March has, for a long time, been our only glimpse of the title.

That's changed now, but not dramatically: Boss Key has released footage very similar (basically identical) to the pre-alpha teaser, with one subtle difference. Can you see it?

What's the difference? Well, skip to 0:32 in each video and take note of the skybox in the background. You'll notice that there's a tonne of debris floating upwards. It's not a very interesting change in and of itself, but it may have something to do with "The Shattering" – an oft-referenced phenomenon on the game's teaser website.

Whatever the case, it seems to indicate that something apocalyptic has happened. We'll find out for sure tomorrow, I bet.

Cougar QBX tested: an incredibly compact mini-ITX case

Shares Cougar QBX mini-ITX build One of the most exciting cases I saw at Computex this year was Cougar’s super compact QBX.

this year was Cougar’s super compact QBX. The mini-ITX case somehow has room for an ATX power supply and a full-length graphics card, as well as a slim optical drive. It’s even affordable at $55! When Cougar sent over a QBX, I decided to test out the case by building a powerful gaming rig inside of it. It was a tight squeeze, but the build was a success, and I came away impressed by a few of Cougar’s clever design decisions for this mini-ITX case. Follow along to take a look at how everything fit together.

Prev Page 1 of 15 Next Prev Page 1 of 15 Next Starting the build

Here you can see most of the planned components of the build, with the Cougar QBX already opened up. It side panels easily snap into place, no thumbscrews required (although the holes are there if you want to use them). In fact, that’s a major theme of the QBX: it’s almost entirely toolless, and doesn’t need screws in most of the places I expected them.

Not pictured: RAM (I grabbed it later), a physical HDD (the QBX had space for it, so I decided to throw one in), and the actual power supply I ended up using (this one, it turned out, was too big!).

Asus Z97I-Plus motherboardIntel Core i5-4790K processorRosewill Valens 500 power supplyMSI GTX 960Samsung 850 EVO SSDWestern Digital Black HDDCorsair Vengeance DDR3 Prev Page 2 of 15 Next Prev Page 2 of 15 Next Inside the QBX

The QBX splayed open. A mini-ITX motherboard fits into the top-left corner, while the top-right holds the power supply. Zoom in on the picture and you can see circular half-globes rising out of the metal. That’s for the motherboard. It’s pre-risen!

Hidden behind the bundle of front panel connector cables is a raised metal bracket that actually holds in the power supply, no screws required. You can see the other bracket in the gap between the motherboard and power supply space. The cable along the top plugs into the power supply, then runs an extension to the plug at the back of the case.

A full-length (350mm, to be precise) graphics card fits along the bottom of the case. In the foreground, you can see the detached panel that includes a 3.5-inch hard drive cage and slots for two SSDs. There’s also space for a single 120mm fan (or radiator+fan for liquid cooling) to be mounted here. Removing the panel is stupid easy: it slides in and out of the slots at the top of the case, so you can also flip it up for easy access to the guts without completely removing it.

One other tidbit: the top panel of the case is removable, and you can fit two more 120mm fans up there. It’s ridiculous how much you can cram into the QBX.

Prev Page 3 of 15 Next Prev Page 3 of 15 Next Installing the motherboard: I/O shield

The first step here doesn’t change with a mini-ITX system: installing the I/O shield is simple, though not always easy. Thankfully, this one snapped into place in just a couple seconds without slicing open my fingers.

Prev Page 4 of 15 Next Prev Page 4 of 15 Next Installing the motherboard: slotting in the Asus Z97I-Plus

Things aren’t too cramped in the QBX yet, so the motherboard is mercifully easy to fit in. At first, I thought I’d misplaced the motherboard riser screws that normally come with PC cases, so I grabbed some spares and screwed them in. Then I realized that I didn’t need them, since the QBX’s metal chassis was had riser globes already punched out. The motherboard nestled up against the I/O plate and I screwed it down.

Prev Page 5 of 15 Next Prev Page 5 of 15 Next Installing the processor: socket time

Installing the processor was, as usual, quick and painless. Taking care not to bend any pins, I lowered the CPU in place and then closed ‘er up.

Prev Page 6 of 15 Next Prev Page 6 of 15 Next Installing the processor: cooler time

I rarely use Intel’s stock coolers. They get the job done, but they’re not as quiet or powerful as aftermarket coolers like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, and I like to have the option to overclock while keeping my CPU cool. But fitting a tall air cooler into the QBX wasn’t an option. It does actually support a liquid cooler (with a 240mm radiator, even!) mounted to the side panel, but I decided things would be cramped enough already.

In this case, the stock cooler felt like a smart choice. For one thing, it’s extremely easy to install: just push the corners down firmly for the plastic pins to snap into the slots around the socket. I didn’t want to try installing a backplate in the cramped quarters of a mini-ITX case.

I didn’t have a low-profile cooler like the Cryorig C7on-hand, but I’d like to try one. The i5 4790K has plenty of headroom to overclock, but I want to keep it cool. And quiet, especially—this case is small enough to sit on a desk, and I don’t want to hear its CPU fan whirring flat-out to stay cool.

Prev Page 7 of 15 Next Prev Page 7 of 15 Next Installing the PSU: Finding one that fits

I thought the first power supply I had, the modular RM550, would fit in the QBX. Turns out, it didn’t—it’s 160mm long, which is a common ATX form factor, but the QBX only supports 140mm power supplies. This is my biggest gripe with the QBX: many “standard” ATX power supplies are actually longer than 140mm, and thus won’t fit into the case because of the flange that holds it in place. Cougar’s website specifies the length requirement, but the case’s page on Newegg does not. It’s easy to grab what seems like a perfectly normal power supply only to find that it’s too long for the case.

I went hunting around the office, and between the component supplies of PC Gamer and Maximum PC, found three more standard ATX power supplies that were all 160mm long. Finally, we found one that fit: a 140mm Rosewill Valens 500.

Fitting the power supply into place is satisfying, because there are no screws required: it snaps into place and is held rock solid by the metal flanges. It stayed in place without screws, even when I turned it upside down.

Installation accomplished. Hooray! Well, almost hooray. There was one other complication.

Prev Page 8 of 15 Next Prev Page 8 of 15 Next Installing the PSU: plugging in the power extension and cables

Plugging in the PSU was a bit trickier. The problem: the power cable that runs from the PSU to the back of the case. It’s angled in such a way to only easily fit one plug orientation, and that orientation happens to be pretty uncommon on power supplies, from what I’ve seen.

Thankfully, bending the power cable into the proper orientation turned out to be pretty simple. It’s blocking the slot where the slim optical disc drive would go, but who needs a disc drive, right?

After that, running the rest of the cables was fairly simple. I routed them through the back of the case to keep the main cavity as clean as possible. I was going to need that space for the graphics card.

Prev Page 9 of 15 Next Prev Page 9 of 15 Next Installing the graphics card: will it fit?

This was the part I was nervous about. As you may have noticed on the last slide, the cables from the power supply extend downward, right into the space where a full-length graphics card will go. Would they both fit? The answer was yes, but it was a close thing.

When I first tried to insert the MSI GTX 960, it was bumping up against the cables and wouldn’t align with the slot properly. So I unplugged the power cables and put the card in. It fit perfectly, with plenty of room to spare, length-wise. But there was a very, very small gap between card and power supply.

I wasn’t sure I could get my fingers into that gap to plug the PSU end caps back in, but pre-bending the cables left me just enough room. In hindsight, I should’ve left the PSU cables plugged in but bent them flat, then put the graphics card in while holding them out of the way. Would’ve been much easier.

The full-size GTX 960 fits just fine, but this would be a great case for a mini-ITX size GTX 970 or an AMD R9 Nano. Sure, part of the appeal of the QBX is that it can support a larger card, but something smaller would be a breeze to install.

Prev Page 10 of 15 Next Prev Page 10 of 15 Next Installing the HDD and SSD

The hard drive and SSD each screw into the side panel easily. You’d need this space if you wanted to use a 240mm radiator, but a 120mm block would fit beside them just fine. We eventually decided to throw a fan into this spot before mounting the panel back into the case.

Prev Page 11 of 15 Next Prev Page 11 of 15 Next Installing the Asus Z97I-Plus wifi-fi card

The Asus motherboard came with a wi-fi adapter, so I figured I might as well install it. This was one of the hardest components to install because I already had the graphics card in place, making it hard to fit my hands into the case. Sliding the card into its slot was no problem, but snapping the two tiny cables onto their connector nubs to link out to the antenna. That took a few sweaty minutes.

Prev Page 12 of 15 Next Prev Page 12 of 15 Next RAM and cables, cables, cables

Finally, with most of the components into place, the RAM was as easy to install as usual. The RAM blocks easy access to the SATA and motherboard power ports, however, so I plugged those in first before slotting in the RAM. A larger cooler could’ve gotten in the way of the RAM sticks, but the stock cooler presents no such problems.

I also plugged in the cables to the front panel and the SSD and hard drive, with the side panel still detached, but close enough for everything to reach.

Prev Page 13 of 15 Next Prev Page 13 of 15 Next Last-minute fan addition

The build seemed done—but another fan couldn’t hurt, could it? I grabbed a 120mm LEPA fan and used its rubber gromets to attach it to the side panel. They’re easy to attach with a pair of pliers by pulling them through the fan’s mount points, then pulling the other end through the side panel’s mount point. Who needs screws?

Prev Page 14 of 15 Next Prev Page 14 of 15 Next Build complete!

Build complete! I snapped the QBX’s side panels back on and booted it up, and had Windows running within an hour. The QBX really is a great little case, with room for an incredible range of components, including multiple 120mm fans, liquid cooling, and a full-size graphics card.

While I appreciate the toolless design, I think the flanges holding in the ATX power supply are a drawback. The case could be a bit more flexible and allow more common 160mm PSUs, although the cables attached to those power supplies would likely block a long graphics card from fitting in the case. But the flexibility would be nice, because you could easily fit a short ITX form-factor graphics card in, leaving room for a longer PSU. A different plug design at the top could also make it easier to plug in most PSUs without blocking the slim disc drive slot.

If you’re considering a mini-ITX build, I absolutely recommend the Cougar QBX. Just pick out your parts carefully to ensure they’ll fit. Use a modular power supply to keep cable clutter to a minimum. Once it's built, enjoy having a classy miniature PC that could sit on a desk or in an entertainment center without making too much noise.

Don't worry about needing pro building skills to put together a mini-ITX rig. It's not much harder than a regular build—all you need is a bit more patience and the right parts. A friend with tiny hands doesn't hurt, either.

Prev Page 15 of 15 Next Prev Page 15 of 15 Next

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR As hardware editor, Wes spends slightly more time building computers than he does breaking them. Deep in his heart he believes he loves Star Wars even more than Samuel Roberts and Chris Thursten, but is too scared to tell them.

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The War Z interview: Sergey Titov responds to backlash, sale removal from Steam

On Monday, zombie survival shooter-MMO The War Z became available on Steam as a " Foundation Release ." The same day, complaints began to arise that the game's page in the Steam store misrepresented and exaggerated its content by mentioning features that weren't yet integrated.

and exaggerated its content by mentioning features that weren't yet integrated. This morning, Valve took the game off sale, admitting that a mistake was made in "prematurely" making The War Z available for purchase. Valve has extended an invitation to refund purchases through Steam Support, an exception to Valve's usually-rigid refund rules. Those who bought the game through Steam are still able to play it, and The War Z remains for sale on its website.

Following these events, I contacted executive producer Sergey Titov via email to ask about The War Z's troubled release on Steam, if he agrees with Valve's decision to take the game off sale, and what he expects the game's immediate future to be.

Sergey's comments are presented unedited and as they were provided to us from The War Z PR.

PCG: As of this morning, The War Z is no longer purchasableon Steam. Was this a surprise to you, or has Valve been in communication with you after release?

Sergey Titov: No surprise, Valve contacted us to let us know their concerns based on some of the info circulating in the press and we completely understand their need to sort things out and make certain we are communicating correctly to their audience before we relaunch with them. They have an obligation first and foremost to their customers and we recognize that.

Do you agree with Valve's decision to temporarily unpublish the game from Steam?

Titov: Yes, we think this is the best way to serve their customers and we respect their decision. As you know we've been publicly available since October 15. Over that time I think we (the developers) got used to and took it for granted that players knew what state the game was in and how it was a constantly evolving project, with new features being added on and ongoing basis. Clearly the release on Steam introduced the game to players who never followed War Z and we made the mistake of not communicating effectively to the Steam community. Also, during our pre-holiday crunch time with development extending late into the night, there was a major disconnect between our development team and marketing team that resulted in some of the "coming soon" features being listed as current features on the Steam sales page. Namely the following:

1. Servers being able to support up to 100 players—This is actually true, but at the moment we launched the servers were capped at 50 as a result of an in-game survey we had conducted. That information had not been communicated properly to our marketing team that was handling the Steam integration. Currently the servers support both 100 players and 50 players.

2. Map Size—We have always stated that our maps would range from 100—400km squared and that we would launch with one map "Colorado," and then follow up with additional maps in the first quarter of 2013. Nothing has changed, however I believe the wording on the Steam page could have been interpreted as there currently being more than one game world available.

3. Server Rental/Strongholds and Skill Tree—Again, this was not communicated correctly to the marketing team and once it was realized it was corrected.

We recognized the above quickly and made the update to the Steam page within the first day of going on sale, however we completely understand that players were upset and felt that we mislead them. We absolutely take responsibility for these inconsistencies. Ultimately, despite all the controversy that has surrounded The War Z - even since the early Alpha launch, we have cultivated a large and loyal player base that is very active in the game and we want to make sure that new players coming into the game now will be satisfied and feel that they are getting a great game experience.

When will The War Z be purchasable on Steam again? When you do relaunch the game, how will The War Z be different?

Titov: We are working currently with Steam to ensure that they are comfortable that all of our communication is accurate—which it currently is. As for differences—this will be the same WarZ game as available on our own website. For Steam version—our goal right now is to clear up all support requests and refund requests for Steam users.

From our very first hours of being available on Steam and right up until sales were disabled, The War Z was the number one top grossing game title on Steam. We really feel that this is not only a testament to the game's popularity, but also largely due to our loyal and vocal community. We are looking forward to getting things sorted out and being available again soon.

The War Z is still purchasable and playable through thewarz.com, correct? Will the game continue to be playable through your launcher?

Titov: Both the Steam purchased and standalone versions are available to players without any restrictions. That is, anyone who purchased the game through Steam can obviously continue to play it through Steam.

It's since been updated, but why did the game's initial descriptionon Steam not reflect the content of the game? Who's responsible for that error?

Titov: Ultimately, it's our responsibility and no fault of Steam at all. The description on Steam was basically reflecting a list of all the features that either our engine is capable of ( like number of players per server—which can be much higher than 100 for example) as well as our immediate development tasks. The big problem was with some internal communication. As a result of this mistake, our company board reviewed the situation today and we will be making some changes in our structure and with some of our key team members.

The current version of the game changed the amount of time players wait to respawn individual characters from one hour to four hours. You also introduced a paid method for instant respawning. These are significant changes to make as the game appeared on Steam—how would you defend these design and business model decisions?

Titov: Actually this was part of the original design we did for Normal and Hardcore modes. In Normal mode you die and you have a cooldown period before you can play using the same character again. Our original plan was to have this cooldown period be 24-48 hours, but we've lowered it to 1 hour during alpha and beta periods. We conducted a large group survey and asked players what they feel cooldown time should be—starting with 1 hour and up to 24 hours. Most users said that it should be 4 hours—40% out of over 80,000 respondents.

As for ability to revive your character using micro transactions—okay once again that was a convenience feature that we planned from the start. So neither of those features were actually tied to the Steam release itself.

What does your roadmap look like for features in The War Z—what do you expect to add to the game in the next three months?

Titov:

Dec 2012-early January:

Leaderboards Improvements in Clan system

January 2013:

Server rentals, introduction of Stroghold maps to public.We're going to basically introduce whole new meta gameplay for War Z, which we hope will change the game dramatically for those who are looking for a more engaging PVE type of experience. More “barricade” types and new “building blocks” items that will allow you to customize your Stronghold experience.

February-April:

More stronghold maps More characters More items, weapons, content updates Skill Trees

For the time it was available, The War Z was at the top of Steam's top sellers list. How many copies did you sell?

Titov: We can't really comment on this yet, however the game performance on Steam exceeded our expectations. Overall this is a very good thing for us—even with all the bumps, The War Z proved to be a very attractive game for players. Good thing is that our daily performance indicators—number of concurrent users, number of daily players are growing—despite all the negative press recently. I can tell you that as of today we have close to 700,000 registred players, with close to 180,000 players playing the game daily.

The Steam release was labeled as a "Foundation Release." Why did you make the decision to call it that, rather than a continuation of the beta, or full release?

Titov: Basically as all buildings have foundations, every online game has what you can say is a critical set of features. We feel that we've reached this stage. As we move forward—we'll be adding new features to the game to expand on that foundation. The War Z is a game that we will never call "final" because we will continue to develop and add new features based on community feedback.

How would you evaluate the quality of The War Z right now?

It's definitely a very fun game, though it lacks the polish of titles like COD, Far Cry, PlanetSide 2, etc.—but it's very solid, stable and fun game. And we're working non stop with frequent updates to make it even better. From the feedback we've received from the vast majority of our players, they like the game and feel that it is a good value. I think as we continue to add features that sentiment will grow and we will continue to attract more and more players to The War Z.

How do you intend to win back the trust of players who feel misled by the way the game was initially represented on Steam?

Titov: Well—we really hope that those players will understand that we weren't looking to intentionally mislead anyone. I personally hope that they will give the game another look and find that it actually is worth the purchase—or maybe talk to some of the people playing the game that are really enjoying it.

We are already talking internally about some things we can do to reward those that have been loyal to us and also to help mend the relationship with new players. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do this interview and hopefully explain the facts (without being defensive) and have the community understand that we don't take this lightly.

Assassins Creed Revelations The Lost Archive DLC review

There are really only two questions you need to ask yourself before dropping $10 on The Lost Archive, the first single-player DLC for Assassin’s Creed Revelations: First, did you enjoy the optional, Portal-esque “memory” levels that you played through as Desmond? Second, are you deeply invested in the Assassin’s Creed fiction, and in particular the events surrounding its 2012 storyline? If the answer

The Rise Of Warner Bros. Interactive

The Rise Of Warner Bros. Interactive Major publishers acquiring development studios for astronomical amounts of money is nothing new. Microsoft paid $375 million for Rare. Electronic Arts parted with $860 million for Bioware/Pandemic, and a further $300 million for Playfish. The average person’s brain has no way of comprehending such vast sums, or how one would ever reach a day when you could confidently

RGB LEDs are all over motherboards at Computex 2016

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The War Z now available on Steam

After an alpha period we had mixed feelings on and a feature-laden , The War Z shambles onto Steam today.

, The War Z shambles onto Steam today. The initial launch is being called a "Foundation Release" by developer Hammerpoint Interactive.

The War Z's Steam pagelists three purchasing tiers, with the higher two providing differently-sized piles of the game's cash currency. Hammerpoint Executive Producer Sergey Titov said in the announcement that further features and contentare in the works for the open-world fester-fest after Foundation's rollout and the beta's additionof a larger Colorado map, more store items, and clan support.

In a press release, Hammerpoint claims War Z holds more than 600,000 registered accounts and a daily player count of 150,000. And though the studio didn't elaborate on what a Foundation Release actually is—a full launch? A craftily worded post-beta beta?—the speedy transition between testing periods suggests a marked response to Dean "Rocket" Hall's commitment to pushing out a standalone DayZas soon as possible.

A forum postby Titov confirmed previous purchasers can re-download The War Z through Steam via entering account info on a yet-unreleased conversion page for a Steam key. Titov explained players receive access to Steam Achievements for converting accounts as well as the ability to use their Steam Wallets to purchase in-game store credits.

Assassin's Creed Ezio Trilogy compiles ACII, Brotherhood, Revelations on PS3

PlayStation 3 gamers who haven't met the Assassin's Creed series' renaissance man can become thoroughly acquainted for a reduced price in November. Sony announced the Assassin's Creed Ezio Trilogy this week, a PS3-exclusive compilation of Assassin's Creed II , Brotherhood , and Revelations , which will head to retail November 13 for $40. The three games cover the fictional lifespan of Italian renaissance

Show Us Your Rig: Boss Key's Cliff Bleszinski

Show us your rig
Happy New Year everybody!

Each week on Show Us Your Rig, we feature the PC game industry's best and brightest as they show us the systems they use to work and play.

Happy New Year everybody! This week marks the first Show Us Your Rigof 2015, and it features a man who needs very little introduction. Cliff Bleszinski, CEO and Co-Founder of Boss Key Productions and designer on the Unreal series, uses an absolute beast of a PC. A rig originally builtby Digital Storm, the same makers of our very own Large Pixel Collider, Cliff has since upgraded the GPU from a GTX 780Ti to a Titan Black. He was kind enough to tell us about his rig, show off his desk setup, and introduce his adorable dogs.

What's in your PC? Case: Digital Storm Hailstorm II Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Black Processor: Intel Core i7 4930K 3.4GHz (overclocked to 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz) Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 RAM: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX SSD: Corsair Neutron Series GTX 240GB SSD HDDs: 2x 2TB Hitachi HDDs Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (64-Bit Edition)

What's the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

The fact that the missus and I face each other so we can play multiplayer together and cooperate or play against each other.

What's always within arm's reach on your desk?

Probably one of my dogs, butting in to mess with my gaming!

What are you playing right now?

Far Cry 4 and just got into Divinity: Original Sin.

What's your favorite game and why?

Probably CounterStrike GO, because it’s still one of the most air-tight shooters and game modes ever made. (Never got hooked on 1.6, so it’s new to me!)

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Comments Our Verdict The monitoring and tuning app that does nearly everything For Modern, easy-to-read interface In-game overlays let you know if your CPU or GPU are working too hard New Tuning tab lets you adjust GPU overclocks and fan curves Offers controls for NZXT's Kraken, Hue+ and Grid+ products Popups and alerts let you know if your system needs a break Against Cloud features are extremely limited No logging of frametimes like FRAPS Game performance history is limited to recently played games When you’re getting ready to overclock and fine-tune your PC for performance, you need a few things.

When you’re getting ready to overclock and fine-tune your PC for performance, you need a few things. You won’t necessarily need nerves of steel or iron resolve, but a willingness to void your warranty is required. That takes a little bit of courage. However, the amount of courage required is lessened if you have data on your side.

NZXT’s CAM software provides you with the data you need to keep your system happy. We first reviewed CAM 3.0 a while back, but the release for CAM 3.1 brought in some new featuresthat I think warrants another look.

First and foremost, CAM is monitoring software. Some of the tuning features require you to have specific NZXT hardware installed on your system. But if you don’t have NZXT cooling parts, CAM is still worth installing for its monitoring capabilities alone. With CAM, I’m able to look at my CPU and GPU loads and temperatures, which is a big plus to testing any overclock. The numbers appear as big, easy-to read numbers on CAM’s main screen.

CAM's basic Dashboard view.

Moving down the window, you’ll see information about memory utilization and drive utilization. In this rig, I’ve got Kraken X61 AIO cooler installed on my CPU, so I can see basic stats about the Kraken here too.

The default dashboard offers yet more information in advanced and extended modes. In Advanced mode, you get running graphs on CPU, GPU temperatures and loads. You can also see memory loads, drive stats, and network usage graphs.

CAM's advanced Dashboard view shows live charts.

When you open up the extended window, you’re greeted with a series of tables with temperatures and other stats. It’s in this mode that CAM shows itself as a competitor to CPUID’s HWMonitorapplication.

The Build tab isn’t as useful as the others. If you built your own PC, there’s a very good chance you already know all the information that will be shown in the tab. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed that CPU frequency is listed at the stock value. On my test rig, the i7-5930K is listed at 3.5GHz, even though I have it overclocked to 4.0GHz. Another thing to notice is that RAM will be listed at half the frequency that’s advertised. DDR RAM is often listed at (at really operates at) twice the base frequency. (DDR stands for "double data rate" after all.) That’s why my 2666MHz RAM is listed at 1333MHz.

The settings let you set alerts.

The settings, on the other hand, are quite useful. You can set CAM to offer popup alerts if your system is getting to hot for comfort, or if the CPU or GPU is just doing too much work. If you have a Kraken, you can have CAM let you know if the liquid temperature rises too much too.

CAM's expanded Dashboard offers a lot of the same information as CPUID's HWMonitor.

The Games tab shows another way that CAM adds value in a single app. In this tab, CAM shows your framerate performance per game, and even keeps record of recent games. In games themselves, CAM provides an overlay that shows system information (you can toggle it on and off with Alt+O by default). The information CAM provides is head and shoulders more useful than data provided by FRAPS. However, CAM doesn’t have any data recording abilities like FRAPS does. That means if you want text files with framerates and frametimes, you’ll still need to keep FRAPS around for the time being.

CAM's overlay in offers more than enough information while playing Rocket League.

Next up, we have the Tuning tab, which is the main reason I like CAM 3.1 so much. In CAM 3.0 the lack of GPU tuning capabilities was a gaping hole the program’s features, which would then require me to run MSI Afterburner or EVGA’s Precision X to do the job.

With the Tuning tab, you can add more voltage, alter clocks and set fan curves. For SLI users, you can set a fan curve for each GPU. If you have one card that needs a little more air, you can keep it cool with very little effort.

The Tuning tab is more intuitive than both PrecisionX and Afterburner.

Finally, we have the Kraken, Hue+, and Grid+ tabs. These tabs will only appear if you have the requisite products installed in your system. In my test PC, I only had the Kraken, so I didn’t get hands-on time with the Grid+ fan controller.

If the Kraken control is any indication of how the Grid+ control works, users with fan controllers will find CAM to be a godsend. While I’ve built many systems with Corsair’s Hydro line of AIO coolers, Corsair’s Link software leaves a lot to besired in terms of usability and intuitive interfaces. This is something CAM gets right. It can even recognize other Asetek-based coolers. I can set my fan curves, change LED colors, and set the fan curves to be a function of liquid, CPU or GPU temperatures. (Yes, you read “GPU” right. NZXT sells a bracket that lets you mount AIO coolers to GPUs.)

The Kraken tab lets you set the options for NZXT's Kraken line of AIO coolers.

And now, let’s talk about the cloud. You can download the CAM app for iOS and Android so you can see how your system is performing on your smartphone. Besides keeping track of how my PC is doing looking for aliens while I’m away, I haven’t found a great use case for this, especially since CAM offers the overlay in-game anyway. Besides being able to store several PC profiles in the cloud and being able to monitor them remotely, the cloud is mostly useless. There’s a lot of potential here that isn’t being used by NZXT.

I’d love to see the CAM cloud offer the option of keeping framerate and performance data permanently stored for access later. As it is now, you have historical data, but it seems to only go back so far. An easier and more intuitive way to see historical data over months would be a great improvement.  That would make storing benchmark data a breeze, and let gamers see performance trends over time. You’d be able to see if your average CPU temps have risen over time, or if that new AIO cooler is really doing what it’s supposed to.

While CAM still has plenty of room for improvements and new features, I think CAM 3.1 is great piece of software as it is now. Even if you don’t have any NZXT products in your system, CAM offers a wealth of system monitoring capability that can be useful for diagnosis and fine-tuning. I certainly keep it in my Windows software toolkit.

You can go get CAM for free. It's available on Windows, Android and iOS.

The Verdict

NZXT CAM 3.1

The monitoring and tuning app that does nearly everything

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex first built a PC so he could play Quake III Arena as a young lad, and he's been building desktop PCs ever since. A Marine vet with a background in computer science, Alex is into FOSS and Linux, and dabbles in the areas of security and encryption. When he's not looking up console Linux commands or enjoying a dose of Windows 10-induced schadenfreude, he plays with fire in his spare time.

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