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.
Motherboards are arguably one of the more difficult PC component to shop for. The magnitude of choices available can make the shopping experience confusing and frustrating. Take for example Intel's heralded Sandy Bridge line of processors and the Cougar Point chipset used on a wide variety of motherboards. A popular online e-tailor,...
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The PAX East show has really started to gain traction with a number of major brand manufacturers and this year's event had, dare we say, stellar support and turn-out from the community. We've grown pretty fond of its smaller, more manageable venue, with its casual, laid-back atmosphere sans the stuffed shirt marketing pitch that gets...
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For a time, Intel’s X25 series of solid state drives stood head and shoulders above the rest of the SSD pack. But with the influx of new players along with the rapid pace of innovation in the SSD space, Intel’s aging offerings—while still very good—are no longer a cut above. In fact, in enthusiast circles, it’s...
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When NVIDIA launched the first wave of GF100-based graphics cards in late march, the initial GeForce GTX 400 series line-up consisted of only two cards, the flagship GeForce GTX 480 (reviewed here) and its somewhat less powerful counterpart, the GeForce GTX 470. Since then, NVIDIA has augmented the GeForce GTX 400 series line-up with the more...
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When it comes to the business of building PCs, true innovation is hard to find. There are exceptions—HP had the Blackbird 002, Alienware designs its own enclosures, and there's always the Thermaltake Level 10—but most companies aren't willing to take the financial risk that's part and parcel of designing new and different products....
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When the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series was first introduced a few months back, all of AMD's add in board partners offered essentially the same products, at least at the hardware level. The various boards available during the 'first wave' of Radeon HD 5800 series availability shipped with different accessory bundles and usually had custom decals...
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Some might say that there has never been a better time to be a PC enthusiast. Compelling new products fighting for our attention abound, as the computer hardware scene is bursting at the seams with upgrade options. For example, it wasn't long ago that AMD launched the world's first DX11 videocard and now the company features a full lineup...
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With the growing popularity of inexpensive netbooks and nettop PCs, the Linux operating system (often installed on the lowest-priced budget units) is reaching a wider audience--although nowhere close to giving Windows or the Mac OS a run for their money (albeit Mac OS X is based on a Unix kernel). Some pundits even argue that the Linux OS...
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For many, just the thought of setting up and using a network attached storage (NAS) device makes their eyes cross and their pulses increase. While even the technophobic recognize the benefits of having a network-based repository of files for sharing and backup, the concept can still seem daunting to some. The reality is that NAS devices have...
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The PC scene is constantly evolving as businesses and individuals make use of next generation products that increase productivity or provide higher levels of entertainment. Bigger, better, faster - these are the insatiable desires of consumers. It doesn't matter if we're speaking of gigahertz or gigabytes, the demand endures and companies...
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There is no way to categorize AMD's recent launch of the RV770 graphics processor powering the Radeon HD 4800 series of cards as anything other than a resounding success. Cards based on the GPU hit the scene offering very strong performance in their respective price brackets, and forced rival NVIDIA to react with a quick...
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Late last year, NVIDIA released a pair of new 8800-series graphics cards based on their G92 GPU. The new cards were designed to keep NVIDIA's products at the top of the food chain at their respective price points, while also being a bit more affordable. The first of the two was the GeForce 8800 GT. ...
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When we first took a look at the GeForce 8800 Ultra, back in May, we were left with some mixed feelings. On one hand it was, and still is, the undisputed graphics champ. On the other hand, it didn't introduce any new features and it wasn't a whole lot faster than its significantly cheaper sibling, and former graphics champ, the 8800 GTX. The...
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Power -- It's one of the most important factors for peak system performance and stability. Yet, the PSU is still an often overlooked PC component. While not as sexy as a high-end motherboard, video card or RAM, the power supplying these components is just as important as the components themselves. With the...
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PLEXTOR ANNOUNCES BLU-RAY DISC DRIVE FOR NORTH AMERICAN MARKET Burner Records 25GB to 50GB Discs for Removable Data Storage, Computer Backup, and High-Definition Video FREMONT, Calif. - August 28, 2006 - Plextor Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, today announced...
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When most home and workstation users think of NAS (Network Attached Storage), they think of big, bulky rackmount servers packed to the brim with terabytes of hard drive space (and terabyte-style price tags to match). NAS became a buzzword in the late 90's, during the dot-com explosion, where the product was targeted at companies who were just...
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The old crowd of PCI TV Tuners may need to step aside soon, as their PCIe cousins head into the market. Sure, there are still plenty of people without motherboards equipped with PCI Express expansion slots, but the old PCI bus is eventually on it's way out. Today we're going to take a look at PowerColor's PCI Express based Theatre 550 Pro...
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In recent months, the race between the two major industry playersto bring dual-core processing to the masses has heated up. On April 4th, Intel delivered its first dual-core Pentium offering in the form of the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840. AMD was soon to follow, on May 9th, releasing its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4800+. ...
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Though clock speed is no longer a true measure of processor performance, it's hard to argue with a few hundred more MHz no matter which CPU architecture you'd consider. Regardless, it's clear the industry as a whole, as well as the world's largest chip manufacturer, Intel, has now embarked on an effort to provide more computing...
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When DDR2 first saw the light of day, the memory marked the next level in DDR technology. However, with improved frequencies, lower voltage requirements and improve packaging also came higher latencies. With intial offerings coming in at CAS 4-4-4-12 and even higher, the performance improvements over DDR1 were minimal at best. ...
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Competition can be a blessing for consumers, a headache for manufacturers and a driving force for an entire industry. Where a market once may have been dominated by one or two big companies with a handful of smaller competitors striving for their piece of the pie, nowadays the scales are somewhat more balanced. A good example of...
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The folks out in Sunnyvale have been releasing new additions to their Athlon 64 processor lineup with the kind of fevered pace we've come to expect from major-league semiconductor manufacturers. So too has the ever-dominant Intel. With 78,000 employees worldwide and almost 10 times the revenue of its nearest competitor at...
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