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.
The never ending see-saw battle between NVIDIA and ATi has resulted in quicker card releases to the market. Whereas such events were met with much anticipation and speculation from the online community, the onslaught of new releases with their various "flavors" have also perhaps confused the average prospective buyer somewhat in...
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The fastest single graphics card in the world. This is the goal that NVIDIA was shooting for when they conjured up the GeForce 7950 GX2. Some might argue that a GeForce 7950 GX2, however, with its double stacked dual GPU powered PCB design, is anything but a single graphics card. We'd remind you that it does drop into...
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Market share is the name of the game in the Computing industry and AMD has been slowly chipping away at Intel's market share over the past few years, with the release of faster Desktop processor cores with significantly better...
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Asus has been more cautious compared to most motherboard makers when it comes to using Intel's mobile processors in a desktop environment. In late 2004, when the first Pentium-M desktop motherboards started hitting the market, Asus took a back seat and did not put out a product for this rapidly expanding market, whereas smaller motherboard...
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Intel's current line-up of desktop processors based on the company's aging Netburst micro-architecture may not have the allure it once did with power users, thanks in no small part to fierce competition from arch-rival AMD, but...
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For the last year, Abit's biggest challenge has been conquering itself. Struggling with a combination of internal financial woes, corporate investigations, and a generally un-exciting product lineup, there is no doubt that the once mighty Abit has sagged as of late. Once considered a tier one motherboard maker with a keen ear to the needs...
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Silent computing and overclocking are two topics that tend to be mutually exclusive. Typically, when you overclock something, like a graphics card for example, it needs more cooling, which in turn means higher fan speeds and more noise. Luckily though, there are some companies...
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In 2002, AGEIA's founders broke into the gaming industry with the intention of revolutionizing the way PC games would be played. Focusing their attention on the notion of in-game physics, the ultimate goal was to bring a new level of realism to the latest and greatest titles on the horizon. In short, the company has developed the world's first...
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Just a few short years ago, the graphics card industry was largely driven strictly by the innovations and technological developments made at the flagship GPU level. For the majority of users who cannot either afford or justify the cost of a top of the line graphics card, the industry was painfully boring, as the latest and greatest features...
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ATI's All-In-Wonder series has been popular with the multimedia enthusiast for quite some time now, delivering all the features of a TV Tuner, along with the performance of a dedicated graphics card. ATI has recently released their X1900 AIW series, which is a perfect card to get if you're a gamer and have the cash to spend. But what about...
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ATI has been coming on very strong these past few months, bolstering their GPU line-up with a slew of new products, ranging from the entry level Radeon X1300 all the way on up to the flagship Radeon X1900 XTX. The company's well documented...
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Over the course of the last few years, the PC industry has witnessed a major transition away from the world of traditional CRT monitors, towards products based on LCD displays. With the inception of LCD's, there was no denying the handful of advantages LCD's had over their CRT counterparts. Less eye-strain, significantly thinner depth and...
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If you're familiar with the computer hardware industry, Asus should be a company that needs no introduction. Whether referring to their motherboards, notebooks, or video cards, Asus' products have consistently ranked amongst the best in their respective classes. We've had a ton of experience here at HotHardware.Com working with products from...
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When ATI launched the Radeon X1900 last week, the company didn't simply unveil a single new high-end sku. Instead, they announced a total of four new X1900-based products; the high-end Radeon X1900 XTX, the slightly lower clocked Radeon X1900 XT, the X1900 CrossFire Edition, and the product we'll be evaluating here, the All-In-Wonder...
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In October of '05 ATI officially unveiled a new family of graphics cards based on the company's R520 GPU core and its derivatives. With the R520 ATI introduced a new "Ultra-Threaded" architecture, along with their new Ring Bus memory controller, and a more powerful video engine...
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Intel's launch of their next generation Pentium Extreme Edition 955 dual-core processor last month, marked a solid improvement in overall performance for what is to be the last core iteration utilizing the Pentium 4 Netburst architecture. While this Intel dual-core kicker...
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The onslaught of ATI announcements this quarter continues today, with the official unveiling of the Radeon X1800 XT Master Edition graphics card -- the "missing link" necessary to run a pair of X1800 cards in a dual-GPU CrossFire configuration. From the end of September '05 through to today, ATI has announced and released a top-to-bottom...
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Abit has earned a reputation over the years, as a builder of top-quality motherboards geared for high-performance enthusiasts and extreme overclockers. They've produced some exceedingly popular products in the past, like the legendary BX6 and long-time favorite the TH7-II RAID, and the company continues to innovate today. In our tenure here...
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When NVIDIA first resurrected the term "SLI" from the technology archives, it was welcomed back with open arms. Although the exact definition has changed from it's 3Dfx roots, it boils down to two graphics cards working on the same job. The obvious benefit is that two cards should be...
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ATI has been on tear the past few months, releasing a number of new and interesting products. Since late September / early October of this year, we've been presented with Radeon X850 CrossFire and requisite CrossFire capable dual-PEG slot motherboards to go along with it, a whole series of products based on the new X1K family of GPUs, and...
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An unfortunate side effect of many of today's high-performing PC peripherals is significant heat output. The need to tame this heat has led to bigger, and unfortunately, louder cooling solutions, which is something we at HotHardware are very familiar with. With the number of fans we have in some of our test systems, you'd think we were trying...
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It has only been about six weeks since ATI officially unveiled their new Radeon X1K family of products, but the Canadian based graphics giant is already introducing a new addition to the line-up today. It probably comes as no surprise to many of you that, in parrallel with their X1K family of products launch, engineers at ATI were also hard...
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