Reviews
Choosing a recordable DVD drive has always been somewhat of a difficult task. There was a bit of initial uncertainty as some wondered which format would win out, DVD+R or DVD–R. After all, each format has its advantages. In the end, however, unlike the Beta vs VHS battles of the early 80s, this war was quelled...
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With the launch of their 900 series chipsets, and LGA775 based Pentium 4 processors, Intel introduced the use of DDR2 system memory on the desktop. DDR1 system memory had been the standard for quite a few years, and DDR2 memory had been used on the occasional...
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When it comes to manufacturing motherboards, Taiwan-based Epox is well respected amongst enthusiasts. While we've only had the opportunity to review a few of their motherboards over the years, the small sample we have tested were fairly impressive. In fact, late last year we reviewed the Epox 4PDA2+ v.2, one of the many Springdale...
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When we think of TV/Video combination cards, we often think of ATI's All-In-Wonder series and NVIDIA's Personal Cinema. Each company has been offering various hybrid cards for quite some time, covering the spectrum from high-priced enthusiast-class to the value-priced solutions. ATI clearly has the name recognition with its All-In-Wonder...
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NVIDIA's ride as a chipset designer and manufacturer has been tumultuous in spots without question. The first two iterations of its nForce product family were immensely popular because they addressed weaknesses that plagued other chipsets, such as memory and integrated graphics performance. However, they are correspondingly more expensive...
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Almost five months have passed since AMD and Intel released new flagship processors. Back in June, AMD launched its Athlon 64 FX-53 and Athlon 64 3800+ processors, and Intel officially took the wraps off of its LGA775 platform and the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560, along with a few lower-speed processors and a pair of supporting chipsets. ...
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With the advent of Personal Video Recorders or the "PVR", TV and Multimedia industries have entered a new realm of technology. The ability to pause, rewind, and record live TV all with the click of a button is not only cool, it is extremely convenient. Let's be honest, how often do you have the time to catch your favorite...
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Although AMD's socket 939 platform has moved into the mainstream with the recent release of 939-pin Athlon 64 3000+ and 3200+ CPUs, products based on the older socket 754 platform are still in demand. While the new socket 939 processors have been met with much fanfare (and relatively high price tags), the older socket 754 Athlon...
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Although they now face some stiff competition from the likes of Biostar, Iwill, Soltek and MSI, among others, Shuttle deserves credit for almost single-handedly spurring the so-called small form factor revolution. When they initially released the venerable SV24 almost three years ago, many PC lovers were immediately enamored by the tiny...
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It seems that high-end graphics cards are always in the lime light upon the initial launch of a new graphics processor architecture from any of the major players. Although there's a limited number of potential consumers, relatively speaking, for these flagship enthusiat-class boards, they pave the way for their more modestly priced siblings,...
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After our previous foray into some old-school arcade action with the X-Arcade Dual Joystick and MAME, we got to thinking about the early years of home-style gaming. We're talking about back in the late 70's, a time when the USSR was still our Cold War adversary, and the thought of a PC in every household was still a fantasy. While...
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With much anticipation and fanfare, the next generation in video card interface has arrived. PCI Express, the successor to AGP, is now available on a number of Intel-based boards starting with the 900 series chipset. VIA, SiS, and others are sure to follow in the coming months. It's still uncertain when the other OEM...
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When AMD's Athlon 64 was initially introduced, all of the major players in the core logic chipset business immediately jumped on board, and introduced, or released, full-featured chipsets for the new processor. And although SiS, ALi, VIA and NVIDIA all had similar Athlon 64 chipsets on their respective road maps, it was VIA and...
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Brutally honest. That phrase is a bit of an oxymoron, is it not? Seriously, what's so brutal about truth and honesty, anyway? Perhaps this term stems from another old saying: the truth hurts. Certainly that is the case with respect to NVIDIA's recent launch of its initially PCI Express-based GeForce 6600GT series product, versus...
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In May of this year, we had the chance to evaluate ATi's Mobility Radeon 9700. When our evaluation was complete, we came away impressed. And we weren't alone. The ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 has been almost universally praised by the press, and declared the fastest mobile 3D gaming GPU of its generation. Then, only a few short months later, ATi...
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"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", at least that's what Jack Torrance (Nicholson) in "The Shining" told us. What he was trying to say is that we all need a break from the usual grind every now and then. Even here at HotHardware, where we're usually knee-deep in testing motherboards, video cards, and the...
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With the release of each new processor platform comes the inevitable wait for "enthusiast-class" motherboards to support them. We've seen the same scenario play out time and again. When Intel released its Socket 478 Pentium 4 processors, for example, it was a few months before tricked-out motherboards, with a full complement...
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The recent trend of PC integration into the user's living space finds the once small and dingy computer room becoming a thing of the past. With manufactures now offering PC solutions which showcase features that rival many mainstream audio components, families are now finding their "digital living room" to be the new...
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On August 12th, NVIDIA took the wraps off their new value-based PCI-Express video cards, introducing the GeForce 6600 and 6600 GT. Back then we were given ample information in advance to do a thorough preview on what both cards brought to the game. With a smaller die size, many of the same qualities of the 6800 series and even...
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As the old saying goes, "hindsight is 20/20". That is to say, if you were in the market for a new high end graphics card, back in early August, as a direct result of the launch of Id Software's much buzzed about title Doom 3, you may have opted to go the way of an NVIDIA product. For sure...
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A tarnished reputation is often the hardest thing to overcome in any business. It is much easier for a company to earn a bad reputation than it is to gain the consumer's faith in any given product. Over the years, ATi struggled to overcome a reputation for having sub-par drivers. This impression seemed to grab hold...
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Recently, several big name memory companies have offered new "low-latency" DDR memory modules capable of running with brisk 2-2-2-5 timings at 400MHz. Based on Samsung's latest low-latency ICs, these chips have demonstrated remarkable stability, compatibility and speed as well as the potential to overclock in excess of 500MHz...
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