Corsair's Ultimate Living Room Experience - CES 2016
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,419 words · ~7 min read
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Huge thanks to Squarespace for sending Lionus Media Group to CES 2016. Check
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out the link in the video description to learn more about Squarespace. Welcome to
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our second video at the Corsair suite at CES 2016. In my lap, I have one of the
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two working models they have here of the Corsair Bulldog. This puppy's been a
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long time coming, but as a refresher, if you've forgotten since the first time
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you heard about it, this is Corsair's concept for 4K gaming in the living
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room. Because as we all know, the modern consoles aren't capable of it. And I
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mean, you know, if you remember from my Alienware Steam Machine video, a lot of
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the other sort of PC type consoles really aren't ready for it as well. So,
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their concept was that, okay, we need a case that's small and mediacentry
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looking, which unfortunately to Corsair meant glossy plastic on the front. I
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really wish they'd gone with like a a brush finish. And then in addition to
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that, we need adequate cooling for the high performance components inside. in
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order to have it not only run cool enough for them to not thermal throttle,
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but also to be quiet!. So, what that meant was designing more than just a
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case. They actually had to develop an SFX line of power supplies. So, this is
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the 600 watt and then there's also a 450 watt that's going to be available. They
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had to design this really cool well cooler. It's called the H5SF and it's a
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blower design. And it actually reminds me kind of like a heat pipe blower in a
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laptop except instead of heat pipes, it's got water tubes that go to the CPU.
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It's like 40 mm tall by 120 mm wide. And
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they figure it can handle anywhere from a 100 watt heat load like near silently
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up to a 150 watt heat load. They also had to source a motherboard for it. So
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they're actually using a Gigabyte Z170N Wi-Fi as part of like a barebones kit.
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And then they also worked with MSI to develop a liquid cool GTX 980 Ti
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graphics card. So the idea is that if you buy all the components in the
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Bulldog ecosystem, you can put together a kick-ass silent gaming machine. In
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terms of the case itself, obviously any ITX motherboard is pretty much going to
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work. You could use a different SFX power supply. You can buy everything alakart because that's the Corsair way.
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but they intend for people, I think for the most part, to buy them as a
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barebones. For the more um timid buyers
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who don't aren't familiar with putting together a PC completely on their own.
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So, if you do that, you can add yourself up to three SSDs or a single SSD and a 3
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and 12 in drive. And you don't have to do a liquid cooled graphics card. You
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can go air cooled as well. Now, for me personally, I'm not necessarily that
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sold on where the technology is at in terms of 4K gaming in the living room. I
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mean, Corsair brings up to me that with overclocking, their GTX 980 Ti can run
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up to 20% faster than a standard 980 Ti,
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but personally, I don't necessarily think 20% is the difference between
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1080p K 1080p gaming and and 4K gaming.
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So, I think the technology's got a ways to go, but if nothing else, Corta is
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taking a step in the direction of bringing 4K gaming to the living room.
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And at least their solution is actually somewhat capable of doing it when you
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compare it to uh well, game consoles.
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But of course, the bulldog isn't the piece that's actually supposed to go in
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your lap. No, my friends, this is the lap dog. And
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this is the sort of accessory for the bulldog, but also would be appropriate
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for any number of other PC solutions
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that go on your TV, of which there actually aren't that many, but you know,
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we're not too stressed about that. If more are released, the Lap Dog should be
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a good accompiment for them. And actually, I'm a pretty big fan of this
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product. It's gone through some evolutionary changes since the first
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time we saw it, like way back early last year, if I recall correctly. And it
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seems like for the most part, they're not only better than previous iterations, but also better than other
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similar concepts that I've seen in the past. So, I actually unboxed a Phantom
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Lapboard way back in the day. It was
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like functional, but pretty pretty awful. Then I checked out the Nerdy Tech
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Couchmaster, which has the two big cushions on either side of you and the
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big platform with active USB cables and and all that kind of stuff. This takes
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that idea of having a platform with you on the couch, like kind of a TV tray, so
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to speak, and makes it way more ergonomic and way easier to store. So,
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I'll walk you guys through it really quick. You've got a single USB connection that goes over to your
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computer. Comes with I think it's a 16 ft cord. And then there's a four- port
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USB hub that allows you to connect your keyboard, your mouse, and then a couple
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of peripherals on the side, whether you want like a USB stick or something like
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that or whatever the case may be. There's a swappable mouse pad platform
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over on the right hand side. And this is cool, there's a swappable keyboard slot
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on the left. It's compatible with the K65 and the K70 keyboards, not the
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Strafe. Now, with that said, I don't think that you're going to like be
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ripping your keyboard out and putting it back in all the time because if you are
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using it properly, you're probably going to be using the cable management like
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routing tray thing under this handy little hinge up here to make the whole
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thing really clean and really tidy so you don't have any mouse cord drag or
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anything along those lines. This is kind of I personally feel this is kind of
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unnecessary. But the really soft like surprisingly soft. It's like a It's like
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a memory gel kind of like a really nice
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material on the bottom is actually detachable from the main board via
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magnets. I guess one benefit of this would be if you wanted to put it on the
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coffee table in front of you and you wanted it to sit flat, it would be able
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to do that. But from an ergonomic standpoint, I don't really see why you
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wouldn't just want it in your lap because unlike the Couch Master, it's
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not up at an uncomfortable height. I find it's at just the right height for
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me to have my shoulders in a relaxed position and game quite comfortably on
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it. I think this is a huge step in the right direction. And uh I mean more
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modularity is always nice, but it's not like the keyboards that go with it are
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uh you know phantom lapboard class keyboards. We're talking K70 RGBs with
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Cherry MX switches. So, not exactly uh you know, slim pickings as far as that
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goes. So, thanks for checking out video number two from the Corsair booth here
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at CES 2016. Don't miss our other one if you're interested in their new cases.
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And don't miss any of our CES 2016 content by being subscribed. Also, want
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