PC Components, Peripherals And Gadget Reviews And News
Dig into our deep-dive product reviews and news of PC components from processors, to motherboards, graphics cards (GPUs), sound cards, and storage, along with other gadgets and peripherals that complete the computing experience. Whether you're a DIY PC enthusiast builder or just looking to read-up on what should be inside or connected to your next pre-built PC, here's where you'll find all the nuts and bolts sorted on what makes modern computer systems tick, as well some of the best user interface devices to go with them.
With Microsoft Vista and DirectX 10 poised to flood the mainstream market, those looking to take advantage of all of the new OS's capabilities will need a quality graphics solution to appreciate new graphical features and eventually next generation gaming. Currently, the only DX10 ready graphics cards available come in the form...
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At the end of 2006, AMD announced the availability of processors built using the company's 65nm manufacturing process, which is first being implemented with the Athlon 64 X2 product line. The move to 65nm brings a number of advantages for both AMD and consumers. From AMD's standpoint, the more advanced manufacturing process...
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Nvidia's newly launched nForce 680i SLI for Intel's Core 2 processors is undoubtedly the most lavish, extravagant, and exiting chipset currently on the market. This chipset, which we recently looked at in depth with our review of the high-end Asus Striker board, features such features like DDR-1200 memory support, triple PCI Express...
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There are only a few motherboard makers today who don't design boards with the enthusiast in mind. It's been proven that the enthusiast market, as small as it is, gets the most press coverage of any segment of motherboards. Thus, enthusiast markets do have the ability to influence...
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While NVIDIA is marching forward with its DirectX 10 capable GeForce 8800 series, ATI is still mum on their next generation graphics cards. Which is somewhat surprising, as one would think this time of year would be ideal for new product announcements. But while Vista is due for a broad...
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By now you're all familiar with Intel's Core micro-architecture, as well as the dual and quad-core Core 2 Duo, Extreme, and Quad processors based on it. With the launch of their Core 2 processors, Intel no longer played second fiddle to AMD in terms of overall performance or power...
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In the last two years, we've seen a major push for home theater PC's by big names in the computer industry. Intel is pushing their ViiV initiative for HTPC market, AMD is pushing their competing AMD Live! program, and of course, Microsoft got in the game with their Windows XP Media...
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Stepping back to look at who has the largest market share in the chipset sector for AMD socket AM2 processors, it's clear who is on top and who is not. Take virtually any major motherboard manufacturer and see what they have to offer...
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When news first broke that Abit was going to be purchased by USI earlier this year, it seemed unlikely that Abit would continue their long-running tradition of producing enthusiast level motherboards. After all, USI is a much more traditional electronics company, and...
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About two weeks ago, ATI launched the Radeon X1950 Pro, a new mainstream graphics card with a host of new features. This graphics card was equipped with a single-slot cooler, a relatively low-power GPU that was manufactured on TSMC's 80nm fabrication process, and in a first for...
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It's easy to sit back and say "he was a good boy -- he took it on the chin like a man", or so to speak, as the good folks at Intel would like to say about their rivals at Advanced Micro Devices. Conversely, you might quickly discover the error of your ways, if...
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It's been only seven short weeks since ATI officially unveiled four additions to the X1K family of products, and here we are again with yet another new Radeon poised to shake-up the mid-range segment of the market. The new Radeon X1950 Pro is based on the GPU formerly codenamed RV570...
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The call of most computing enthusiasts or workstation professionals has always been "more power, more bandwidth and more features, please". The advent of serial PCI Express-based computer architectures was the foundation of an enabling technology that provided a much needed solution to the bottleneck problems...
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Last month, Intel officially launched their new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors with much fanfare. Based on the heavily hyped "Conroe" core and utilizing the modern "Core" microarchitecture, as opposed to the NetBurst microarchitecture employed in the Pentium...
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Water cooling for high-end PCs is, in theory, a terrific idea. Using water to cool vital system components like your CPU and GPU allow for cooler temperatures, lower noise levels, longer component life spans and / or enhanced overclockability. Water is simply a more efficient medium for...
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Six to nine months prior to the launch of Intel's Core 2 Duo product line, if you polled the average HotHardware.com reader, regarding their thoughts on an Intel 975X based motherboard, you might well have gotten a luke-warm reception. Back then AMD's dual core Athlon 64 X2 and...
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Although there has obviously been a lot going on behind the scenes at ATI these last few months, i.e. the proposed AMD merger, the company has remained relatively quiet. The last major graphics card launch was for the Radeon X1900 family...
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In recent months, we've seen a major step forward in the image quality of TV Tuner cards on the PC. As we recently saw with our review of NVIDIA's DualTV, an analog signal can now be cleaned up nicely with finely tuned comb filters and other technologies to bring...
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We've evaluated a myriad of Asus-built products over the years here at HotHardware.com, including countless motherboards, graphics cards, notebooks, and optical drives. But to date, we have only taken a look at one of the company's LCD monitors, the PM17TU. There is a good reason for this, however, as Asus has only been selling...
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Energy efficiency and power consumption are major concerns for modern computing architectures, whether you're an Enthusiast, an IT Manager in a Data Center, or simply an ecologically minded individual. Let's face it, the modern high end computer is like a small space heater for all intents and purposes, and where there's...
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Despite the recent trend of using dual and sometimes even quad graphics card configurations, the true benchmark of total gaming performance is how a single graphics card performs. Over the course of the last few years, the industry has witnessed an epic battle between ATI and...
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Rumors have been circulating for weeks, but yesterday the two companies involved made it official. AMD and ATI announced that the two companies planned to merge in a deal worth approximately $5.4 billion dollars. The quote below from the initial press release...
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