Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com
Recent posts
The price disparity between solid state and hard disk drives often forces mobile and small form factor users into the unenviable position of choosing performance over capacity. Provided they’ve got the budget, desktop users needn’t compromise, because their systems can accommodate multiple drives of different form factors without...
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Solid state drives continue to be all the rage, due to their durability, silence, and high performance versus traditional hard drives, with spinning magnetic media. And while SSD prices have dropped significantly this past year, they remain relatively expensive in terms of cost per gigabyte, and are still many times the price of a hard...
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When considering the physical design of a smartphone, there’s one key dimension that often matters most to the majority of users: thickness. No one wants to carry around a thick, clunky smartphone. Manufacturers realize thin devices sell, which is why it seems every time we turn around they’re constantly fighting for the title...
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Despite what some might view as a hamstrung operating system, the reason that Chromebooks are a tempting option is that most of them are very inexpensive. The one we’re looking at today, the Acer C720 Chromebook, costs a mere $249, which is about on par price-wise for many Chromebooks these days. The question then becomes, can such a...
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iBuypower is offering an AMD-based system in its Chimera 4SE line, which is designed to give users serious gaming performance without a wallet-busting price tag. The Chimera is part of iBuypower’s Signature Series, which includes iBuypower’s highest-priced and most powerful gaming systems, like the Revolt and Valkyrie. The centerpiece...
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Portable devices are becoming ever more powerful, and users are increasingly utilizing them to keep up with news and friends, get work done, and for entertainment. Smartphones and tablets have never been so powerful, and if you're in market for either, it's going to be a fun holiday season, packed with some great options to choose from. Whether...
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In this episode of HotHardware's Two and a Half Geeks, Dave, Marco and Iyaz discuss the just-released Xbox One game console, Apple's super thin iPad Air, Google's hot new Nexus 5 smartphone with Kit-Kat, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 780 Ti beast of a graphics card, and give a few details of our next sweepstakes in which we'll...
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The iPad Air is Apple's fifth generation iPad and the true successor to the iPad 3, whereas the iPad 4 was mostly a speed bump and lacked the fanfare associated with most of Apple's product launches. It also marks the first real redesign of the tablet's form factor to some extent. The iPad Air is significantly thinner than the previous iPad,...
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Cloud storage has emerged as a hugely attractive option for consumers and businesses alike. Consumer cloud storage darling Dropbox has gotten big enough that it warrants its own developer conference, Box is consistently innovating in the business space, Amazon’s storage cloud is massive and popular, and we could go on and on with numerous...
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The Xbox One is more than just a game console. We know that may be blatantly obvious to many of you, but we want to drive that point home from the get-go. The gaming, home entertainment, and mobile/computing industries are vastly different than they were when the previous-gen Xbox 360 launched in late 2005. Since then, there’s been unprecedented...
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The Xbox One is more than just a game console. We know that may be blatantly obvious to many of you, but we want to drive that point home from the get-go. The gaming, home entertainment, and mobile/computing industries are vastly different than they were when the previous-gen Xbox 360 launched in late 2005. Since then, there’s been...
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The first generation of Microsoft’s homegrown Surface RT tablet delivered mixed results. The hardware was solid and well built, but the OS and software ecosystem left a little something to be desired. Many thought pricing was a bit on the high side as well. Finally, competition at the time was also quite fierce, to say the least and...
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The seemingly never-ending onslaught of new graphics cards as of late continues today with the official release of the AMD Radeon R9 270. Like the Radeon R9 270X that came before it, the Radeon R9 270 isn’t a totally new product. This mainstream graphics card actually leverages the same GPU that powered last-year’s Radeon HD 7870...
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Samsung recognizes that the way in which individuals use tablets varies considerably from one user to the next. As a result, Samsung’s tablet portfolio is quite varied, offering something for everyone. Samsung’s tablet portfolio includes models that range in size from 7-inch to 10.1-inch screens. The power and performance associated...
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OCZ is at the ready with a brand new line of solid state drives in its popular Vector family of products, targeted at performance-conscious PC enthusiasts. The new Vector 150 builds upon the success of the original Vector, which debuted last year at about this time, but offers better sustained performance and longer endurance, despite its...
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Today’s launch of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti is somewhat satisfying to us on a couple of levels. First off, there are few things as exciting as a new, high-end GPU launch. We love checking out the latest and greatest processors, motherboards, and SSDs as much as the next geek, but there’s something inherently exciting about graphics...
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OCZ is at the ready with a brand new line of solid state drives in its popular Vector family of products, targeted at performance-conscious PC enthusiasts. The new Vector 150 builds upon the success of the original Vector, which debuted last year at about this time, but offers better sustained performance and longer endurance, despite its...
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This has been an exciting few weeks in the GPU space, to say the least. AMD has released a new line-up of cards that cover the entire spectrum, from entry-level, affordable products, to ultra-powerful, high-end solutions, targeted at hardcore gamers. We’ve also seen NVIDIA react to AMD’s recent releases with significant price cuts...
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This has been an exciting few weeks in the GPU space, to say the least. AMD has released a new line-up of cards that cover the entire spectrum, from entry-level, affordable products, to ultra-powerful, high-end solutions, targeted at hardcore gamers. We’ve also seen NVIDIA react to AMD’s recent releases with significant price...
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Today we're taking a look at Gigabyte’s take on Intel’s latest chipset that supports 4th generation Core Series Haswell processors, the Z87 Express. Gigabyte sent us a sampling of three motherboards that offer a broad overview of the options in the company’s current line up: the solid and affordable Z87X-UD4H, their G1.Sniper5...
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Lenovo just unveiled a duo of affordably priced multi-mode tablets, the Yoga Tablet 8 and Yoga Tablet 10. As their names suggest, the Yoga Tablet 8 features an 8” screen, while the Yoga Tablet 10 sports a larger 10.1 display, and like Lenovo’s Yoga-branded ultrabooks, these two devices also feature a unique design that allows them...
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Just in time for Halloween, HotHardware.com and the team at N3V Games--makers of the very cool Dead on Arrival 2--have teamed up to put together one heck of a spooktacular give-away! This time around we're giving three of you incredibly intelligent, and dare we say, immensely attractive HotHardware fans a chance to...
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