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.
If you spent any time on the site or digging for news from GDC last week, you probably heard that NVIDIA’s CEO Jen Hsun Huang crashed one of EPIC’s talks at the show to unveil the company’s next flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX Titan X. The only details Jen Hsun revealed were that the Maxwell-based GPU powering the card packed 8 billion
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Don't beat yourself up if you're not familiar with the Cougar brand. It's a German company that's been in the game since 2007, though its presence in the United States is largely overshadowed by companies like Razer and Logitech, two of the bigger dogs in the gaming peripherals scene. But like Roccat, another device maker headquartered in...
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Intel just wrapped up an event at a location adjacent to the Game Developers Conference where the company talked about its vision for the future of gaming, and how Intel plans to further support the industry. Intel discussed some updates to its 5th Gen Core processor line-up, Intel graphics developments, the Intel...
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During one of EPIC’s “State Of Unreal Engine” briefing session out at the Game Developer’s Conference, Tim Sweeny talked about the need for more powerful GPU technology to bring us closer to true photo-realistic rendering. At that point in his talk, Sweeny asked if there was anyone in the room that could answer that...
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When it comes to the mobile market, Intel is coming on strong as of late, and we’re not just talking about with notebooks. Intel’s Atom processors, while not as potent as their Celeron and Core counterparts, allowed mainstream tablets to run a full-featured version of Windows while still offering respectable...
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When they first came out, solid state drives were cost prohibitive for many people and they remained that way until NAND flash memory prices came crashing down like the careers of every actor on "The Celebrity Apprentice." Now not only are SSDs affordable, they're comparatively capacious and much faster than many of...
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The Western Digital Passport Wireless is a member of a new class of storage devices that combine run-of-the-mill USB storage with wireless hotspot and media center functionality. These devices essentially marry what used to be two separate drives - an external USB device and a media device that can stream data wirelessly to connected devices....
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Last year, Plextor introduced its M6e family of solid state drives. The drives are / were offered in M.2 and PCI Express flavors, though technically the PCIe-based models were the same M.2 drives parked in a PCIe-to-M.2 adapter card. Regardless of the technicalities involved, the Plextor M6e’s specifications and...
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At this point, if you’re an avid follower of PC and gaming tech, we’ll assume that you’ve heard about NVIDIA’s Maxwell GPU architecture and the full line-up of graphics cards it powers. We most recently took a look at the mainstream GeForce GTX 960, but Maxwell is at the heart of the entry-level GeForce GTX 750 / 750...
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Intel promises a lot with its just-announced fifth-gen Core vPro processors, but if there's one overarching theme, it's that the company wants you to be wireless -- even if you need to take advantage of a big screen.
Three major focuses for Intel with this launch include general PC design, wireless displays, and...
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To date, NVIDIA has introduced only a couple of Maxwell-based desktop GPUs. Back in September, the company launched the powerful and potent GeForce GTX 980 (and its little brother, the GeForce GTX 970), featuring the GM204. The GM204 is currently NVIDIA’s fastest single-GPU, though a larger “big” Maxwell-based chip akin to the GK110 powering...
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For decades, one of the most-studied and elusive cures in medical science has been biotechnology that would allow humans to walk again after spinal cord trauma. Other prosthetic devices have advanced enormously over the last 50 years, thanks to the integration of miniaturized motors, space-age materials, and cutting...
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Intel's strategically timed CES 2015 launch of their new 5th Generation Core Series processors for notebooks was met with a reasonably warm reception, though it's always difficult to rise above the noise, with the sea of announcements from competitors and the like. CES is always such a zoo and that's by design...
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CES is the time of year when computing companies of every type show off their next-generation hardware, and AMD is no exception. Hot Hardware sat down with the Sunnyvale-based company to talk about its major plans for 2015 in both gaming and the CPU side of the business.
In gaming, the big news of the event is the...
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The Consumer Electronics Show is about to get underway, and Intel is leading the pack with a set of CPU announcements. It has been six months since the company took the lid off its first 14nm processor, the Core M, but that CPU is designed for the ultramobile, low-power market. Consumers who wanted to tap Intel's 14nm...
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As CES kicks off this year, we're seeing a number of new products from companies that focus on two critical markets: ultramobile computer hardware and high-end enthusiast equipment. Acer is one of the first companies to announce its CES lineup, and it's revealing new hardware in multiple segments.
New 15.6-inch...
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The hard drive market has become a lot less sexy in the past few years thanks to SSDs. What we used to consider "fast" for a hard drive is relatively slow compared to even the cheapest of today's solid state drives. But there are two areas where hard drives still rule the roost, and that's in terms of overall capacity...
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When you're on the path to becoming a power user, you begin to notice certain things that the average person might not. One of those is the difference between typing on a sweet mechanical keyboard with luxurious key action versus pounding away on a run-of-the-mill squishy plank that relies on mushy membranes to register your keystrokes. The...
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Ever since the Sony hack was unveiled, it's been clear that the movie studios haven't given up on SOPA, but an analysis of the MPAA's collective actions on the anti-piracy issue have unveiled plans that go far beyond simply sponsoring legislation or advocating for particular positions. Now, Google has announced it...
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Now that Intel's newest LGA 1150 motherboard chipset is out in full force, numerous enthusiast-class boards abound. We've already taken a look at five Z97 motherboards from Gigabyte, EVGA, and MSI, and this time around we're reviewing the Asus Z97-Pro (Wi-Fi ac). This board is one of Asus' mid-range offerings in the $200 price range and is...
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AMD this week delivered its Catalyst Omega drivers that are the culmination of six months of development work. AMD Catalyst Omega brings over 20 new features, a wealth of bug fixes to the table along with performance increases both on AMD Radeon GPUs and integrated AMD APUs.
Some of the new functionality brought...
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Samsung is at the ready with a brand new family of mainstream solid state drives, targeting the market segment previously occupied by its popular SSD 840 EVO series. The new Samsung SSD 850 EVO series is the follow-up to the company’s current flagship SSD 850 PRO, but the new EVO is Samsung’s first to pack 32‐layer 3D V‐NAND 3-bit MLC flash...
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