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.
Intel held an Architecture Day in Los Altos yesterday, where it disclosed a number of details regarding next-generation CPU and GPU architectures and manufacturing process technologies. In addition to the technical disclosures divulged to an exclusive group of attendees, Intel also talked about a shift in the company’s design and engineering model based on six strategic pillars -- Process, Architecture, Memory, Interconnect, Security, and Software – which it hopes will allow it to better address the needs of the current computing landscape moving forward. In addition to the architecture...
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Last week, we had the opportunity to chat with Ari Rauch, Vice President of the Core And Visual Computing Group and General Manager of the Visual Technologies Team at Intel. We had a long discussion about Intel’s current plans to enter the discrete GPU market in 2020 and what made this most recent endeavor different from the company’s previous attempts. If you’re relatively new to the PC graphics scene, you may be unaware that Intel has tried this before. In 2010, the company cancelled plans to introduce its Larrabee GPU architecture to the consumer market. Larrabee was first...
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Patriot is perhaps one of the lesser-known PC component and accessory manufacturers in comparison to large players like Kingston or Corsair, but the Northern California-based company has actually been around since 1985. About 10 years ago, Patriot launched its Viper Gaming brand, which offers high-performance gaming memory and peripherals. The product we have today, the Patriot EVLVR, is from Patriot's more business-facing product lines and it is an external, portable NVMe SSD which employs the Thunderbolt 3 interface for full PCIe Gen 3 performance capabilities. The Patriot EVLVR Portable...
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We have seen a flurry of product launches over the past few months from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. While we get to reap the rewards of technology’s ever steady march of progress, their partners have been hard at work ensuring their offerings can withstand the ever increasing demands of bleeding-end hardware, and appeal to consumers at the same time. In this spirit, Gigabyte recently invited us to a launch event in Miami for its newest Aorus branded motherboards, graphics cards, and peripherals. Technically, everything Gigabyte showed us had already been announced, but the presentations...
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Intel has been uncharacteristically vocal about its most recent plans to enter the discrete GPU market. Over the last year or so, the company has disclosed some tantalizing information and made a few high-profile hires, in its bid to build-up and flesh-out a plan that was first set in motion a few years ago. Like any major semiconductor player, Intel is continually looking for growth opportunities in areas where the company may potentially shape the future direction of a particular market segment. As GPUs have morphed from targeted gaming and graphics devices alone, into massively-parallel AI and...
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Every year, Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season seem to become more momentous. We have already seen several large retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft, Sam's Club, Staples, and Target "leak: Black Friday adds in an attempt to offer select deals early. Even with so many deals out there, however, it can be exceedingly difficult to pick the perfect gift for tech-loving friends and family. But we're here to help! This guide aims to help you pick the perfect gift by listing items that are perfect for the tech enthusiasts in your life. Of course, many of these gifts...
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AMD has had a fairly sizable hole in its graphics card line-up for quite some time now. Disregarding the craziness crypto-miners caused for a while there, pricing on the Radeon RX 580 has hovered around the $200 mark, whereas most of the Radeon RX Vega 56 cards currently available sell for over $400 – give or take a few bucks. In addition, there have been no current-gen offerings released in between the two. Fortunately, AMD hopes to address this situation today, however, with the launch of a semi-new GPU, the not-so-secret Radeon RX 590. Over the last few weeks, news of the Radeon RX 590...
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When Intel officially announced its 9th Generation Core processors at an event in NYC a few weeks back, it used the opportunity to also unveil a beastly, unlocked 28-core Xeon processor that’ll be arriving at a later date, and a refreshed line-up of 9th Gen-branded Core-X series processors as well. Unlike the 9th Gen Core i products, however, which leverage an updated Coffee Lake microarchitecture, the “new” Core X series remains based on Skylake-X – just like the 7th Gen Core X series processors we evaluated here. Some folks are likely to shout “re-brand” from...
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Black Friday is just around the corner and retailers have been releasing “sneak peaks” and ads since October. Walmart recently revealed their own Black Friday ad. The superstore will be offering discounts on items like smart TVs, PC and console gaming gear, Chromebooks, and even a PS4 Spider-Man bundle. Smart TVs are one of the hottest commodities this year. Customers will be able to nab a 65" Class 4K Roku Smart TV for $398 USD. The Samsung 32" Class Smart TV will run you $178 ($72 off), while the Samsung 55" Class 4K Smart TV will ring in at $398 ($300 off). The Vizio 60" Class...
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You do not need to wait until Black Friday to snag a sweet tech deal. A number of devices are on sale during the Sam’s Club Super November Event. You will even be able to nab some devices for $500 USD off of their regular price. This may be a good time to purchase a smart TV. The Samsung 82" Class 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR is currently available for $500 off its original price of $2,479.00. You can grab the Vizio 80" Class XLED 4K Home Theater Display and Vizio 36" 5.1.2 Home Theater Sound System with Dolby Atmos for $1,999. This is a particularly good deal because just the television...
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There's no question that Intel has held a stranglehold on the enterprise CPU market with its family of Xeon processors. However, that all began to change last year with the introduction of AMD's first Zen-based EPYC processors which offered impressive performance at eyebrow-raising price points for potential customers. While AMD has gained some server market share thanks to EPYC, it is really looking to turn the tide with its second-generation EPYC products based on 7nm Zen 2 architecture. These new processors are part of the "Rome" family and are currently sampling to customers. AMD CEO Dr. Lisa...
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Gaming headsets are a dime a dozen these days, particularly with the explosion of eSports drawing the attention of PC peripheral companies, new and old. Be that as it may, HP figured out a way to stand out from the crowd with its new Omen Mindframe, the first audio headset to employ an active cooling solution inside each of the earcups. Say goodbye to sweaty ears, if that is something you find yourself battling against amid the throes of the frag. Before we dive into the headset, let's quickly reflect on the Omen brand. Omen is essentially a rebirth of the VoodooPC acquisition HP made more than...
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When AMD launched its initial salvo of 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors back in August, it consisted of the beastly 32-core / 64-thread Threadripper 2990WX and powerful, but more svelte, 16-core / 32-thread Threadripper 2950X. Those processors represent the pinnacle of their respective line-ups; the 2990WX is AMD’s flagship workstation processor and the 2950X is the top HEDT CPU. Although they were all announced at the same time, the processors we’ll be showing you here today, the 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX and Threadripper 2920X, are just now being made available....
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It has been about a month since NVIDIA officially launched the GeForce RTX 2080 and flagship RTX 2080 Ti. Having thoroughly tested the cards, we know that the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in particular is a powerhouse; if you want to see how it compares to other high-end graphics cards, you can check out our numbers right here. Today, however, we are going to dig in a little deeper and see how a pair of GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards perform when linked together in SLI mode over the new second-gen NVLink connectors integrated into NVIDIA Turing cards... The Most Powerful GPUs Available Today -- Dual RTX...
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