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.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT: $949 - $979 (expected) The new XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT offers higher clocks and beefier cooler than AMD's cards, but that results in a larger form factor and higher price. Faster Than AMD's 7900 XT Good Overclocker Rigid, Well Built Useful Accessory Bundle BIG Card...
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The Radeon RX 6600 XT officially launched earlier this week, bringing AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture down to more affordable price points (relatively speaking). Radeon RX 6600 XT cards target mainstream, 1080p gamers, and the two models we previously looked in our initial coverage proved to be decent...
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We all know that bigger is better, right? At least in generalities, it's often true. More CPU cores help performance in multi-threaded workloads, while high frequencies boost performance in lightly-threaded tasks. With graphics, it's all about more as well; more shading resources, more ROPs, more VRAM, and a wider bus means more frames per...
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Intel’s X58 chipset made for great platform performance, and even though the chip maker has unleashed many more chipsets since the X58 came out, there hasn’t been a true successor in the high-end of their product line-up (not even the Z68 chipset) until now. The X79 chipset looks to pick up the X58’s poll position, so we...
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After years of work and a few false starts, Intel is finally ready to take the plunge into the smartphone market. At the CES keynote tonight, the CPU giant is officially launching Medfield, the 32nm smartphone SoC the company has built to take it into the next generation of smartphones (and a few tablets). The chip, now officially named the...
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Many positive commentaries have been written about Intel's current flagship Core i7 processors and its companion X58 Express chipset, due to the solid performance gains offered by the platform. In addition to the increased performance offered by Core i7 processors though, the X58 chipset also brings with it native...
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If the recent release of Intel's X58 chipset has taught us anything, it's that change can be good. In our first two forays with these new boards and Intel's Core i7 processor, we've been firmly impressed by the performance gains seen over legacy Core 2 architectures, much less AMD's recent advancements and new offerings. Now, with...
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When first evaluated in June of 2008, we concluded that the GeForce GTX 260 and 280 series offered the most raw power of any gaming graphics cards available at that time. This premium performance, however, came with a hefty price tag, making these models too costly to justify for some folks. A week after their introduction,...
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As enthusiasts, we aren't too fond of the idea of running a PC with integrated video. Like many of you, we prefer a discreet video card for the performance benefits, even if it has to be an entry-level solution. Despite that fact, though, most of the monitors in homes and offices across the world are connected to IGPs, and not to...
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By now, we assume just about everyone knows the GeForce 8800 GT's story. NVIDIA launched the 512MB 8800 GT in late October of last year and touted a price range of $200-250. But retail prices initially ended up being over $300 due to supply issues. You can bet that ATI was smiling a couple weeks later when the company launched...
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Many of us have fond memories of playing video games in the arcade of a local bowling alley, popping 25 cents into the machine on a regular basis to keep the fun going. Back then, that was the main way to get your game on, displaying your skills for all to see. If you can remember dropping quarters into the slot of a...
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If silence is golden, then silence plus overclocking is platinum. Hardware enthusiasts have loved squeezing every last drop of performance out of their hardware for quite some time. Noise levels are not a concern for many of these enthusiasts, but over the last several years, more and more of them have become not only performance enthusiasts...
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Here we are, barely 12 weeks out from the initial introduction of the GeForce 8 series, and NVIDIA is ready with yet another new product based on the GPU formerly code named G80. The new GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB we'll be showcasing here today is essentially the same card as the original 8800 GTS, except that the 320MB model simply has half...
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Last week NVIDIA officially launched the $199 GeForce 7900 GS, and jointly announced the $299 GeForce 7950 GT. In our coverage of the GeForce 7900 GS, we were able to reveal the 7950 GT's specifications and features, but were asked to reserve posting any benchmark results until the cards were made available. Well, here we are only...
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Over the course of the last few months, the vast majority of news coming through the doors of NVIDIA has been in regards to enthusiast-class products such as the GeForce 7950 GX2 GPU and nForce 570 chipset. However, today the company is launching two new GPUs aimed squarely at the more mainstream price segments of the gaming community....
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As of late, due to reported issues with overheating and graphic anomalies with overclocked GeForce cards, many gamers are starting to think twice before purchasing factory overclocked cards. Some hesitation before buying the highest overclocked card makes sense, but XFX along with the other companies affected by this problem are...
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Around this time last month, ATI made a lot of noise with the launch of their new X1000 series of graphics cards. With much of the buzz still continuing a month later, it's little surprise that NVIDIA is feeling the need to showcase something new. With their 7800 boards covering the enthusiast market, and the new 6800 GS tackling the mainstream,...
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Without question, it is typically far more interesting to read about the latest flagship $600 graphics card than it is to hear about a budget card's performance. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us doesn't have the luxury of being able to afford those high-end cards and must instead focus our attention on some more realistic alternatives....
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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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The X-Micro Hulk V GeForce 2 MX New kid on the block... By, Jeff Bouton December 14, 2000 I'm sure most of you are looking at this article and wondering, "Who is X-Micro"? Wasn't the Hulk a bad television show from the seventies? Well X-Micro is a relatively new company to enter the video card market. Formed in...
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The X-Micro Impact 4 Ultra Haven't I seen you somewhere before? By, Jeff Bouton January 25, 2001 Today we?ll be taking a look at yet another product from Taiwan based X-Micro. Not long ago I had the pleasure of taking the Hulk V GeForce2 MX card for a ride around the block and as you may have already heard, I liked it! In fact,...
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