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.
AMD is launching a brand new flagship desktop processor today, dubbed the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. As you can probably surmise from its name--if you're familiar with AMD's naming convention--the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is virtually identical to the 955 it supplants at the top of AMD's desktop processor line-up, save for...
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Let's face it: the mobile arena is more crowded than ever, and with that overpopulation comes confusion. Specifications begin to run together, prices seem to be all over the map, and actual standout features are harder than ever to locate. If you've grown frustrated by trying to separate the worthwhile from the worthless, trust us, we feel...
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Regardless of their size or industry, most businesses depend on ready and secure access to their data. To a business, "secure" means that its data is protected from hardware or software failures and is safe from prying eyes. But small and even some medium-sized businesses often can't afford to maintain a data center, let alone a dedicated...
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For the last several years AMD has delivered a series of solid, cost-effective mainstream chipsets with integrated graphics. First with the original 690G which offered a wealth of features and surprisingly competent IGP performance. Then later with the 780G and 790GX chipsets, which added a little more graphics horspower and IGP features,...
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After years of delays (including one cancelation), developer change-ups, and a lot of hard work, Terminal Reality succeeded in bringing a Ghostbusters game to market for the PS3, XBox 360, Wii, and PC. Terminal Reality committed to building their own graphics engine—dubbed the Infernal Engine—to facilitate game development; we recently had...
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A few months back NVIDIA "released" the GeForce GTS 250 priced at just around $150. The reason behind the quotations in the previous statement is that the GTS 250 is not exactly something new. While a lot of NVIDIA's R&D dollars have gone into their higher-end products such as the GTX 285 and GTX 295, to satisfy...
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When doing research for a new graphics card, mainstream users might come across a professional workstation-class video card and wonder what all the fuss is about. On the surface, one must look at the enormous price differences and question the justification when technically the hardware used to build the cards is very similar. But those...
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When Intel released their first generation 50nm SSD product, the market buzzed with appreciation for the product and its overall performance profile. We in fact took you through the ins and outs of Intel's new MLC-based Solid State Drive product line-up for the consumer market and agreed it was one of the fastest on the market at the time. ...
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In early June, Apple released what is arguably its most significant upgrade to Safari yet: Safari 4. In typical Apple fashion, the company was quick to deem it the "world's fastest and most innovative browser." Today, we're setting out to find if that bold claim is indeed true, and we'll be breaking down the features and performance profile...
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Although the worldwide economy may be shrinking, our needs as consumers to store large amounts of data continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Whereas only a few years ago it was uncommon for most PC users to have more than just a few digital images or media files, today virtually every aspect of our lives has some sort of digital component....
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Synopsis: EVGA's Interview Dual Monitor System incorporates a pair of 17" widescreen LCDs with an innovative rotatable stand that allows the user to flip a panel over to share a desktop display with someone sitting across from them on the other side of the desk. These twin TFT displays support a native resolution of 1440X900 and...
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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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Disruptive technology; it's a term thrown around these days by industry marketing types and quite frankly it's just plain getting worn out as of late. In the mid 90s, a Harvard Business School Professor coined this phrase to describe a product innovation that breaks current convention and exceeds market expectations so vastly that market...
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Thanks largely to all of the attention surrounding the Intel Atom platform and its alternatives like the Via Nano and NVIDIA Ion, small form factor (SFF) systems have been generating tech news in a big way for the past half year. While tiny toaster-sized machines have been relevant for some time, as proven by the continued success of...
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Nearly every motherboard manufacturer on the market today makes at least one line of products for the "enthusiast" market. Typically, these motherboards are a bit flashier, offer better cooling, enhanced overclocking, more features and are priced significantly higher than their mainstream variants. In the majority of cases, these boards are...
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Within the enthusiast scene, there exists an elite group of overclockers who push the limits of hardware to the breaking point. With the help of phase change coolers, dry ice, liquid nitrogen and even liquid helium, these enthusiasts achieve the seemingly impossible. In this world, maximum frequencies and world records are the motivation...
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The more well-known industry trade shows, like CES, Computex, and E3, are not necessarily the only venues where technology journalists can get a gander at the latest-and-greatest offerings from a bevy of tech companies. Pepcom is a Florida-based company that holds mini tech trade-shows for the media throughout the year, and its most-recent...
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It was not too long ago that the web was buzzing with dual-core versus quad-core debates. Sides were taken and lines were drawn. At that time, one of the main arguments against quad-core processors was their high asking price. But as time passed and manufacturing refinements were made, costs steadily decreased and quad-cores found their way...
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How cold can you get your PC? It seems like enthusiasts and overclockers constantly find new and creative ways to cool down the heat producing parts of their computer. We've already brought you coverage of liquid helium and liquid nitrogen being used to achieve sub-zero temperatures in order to achieve huge overclocking results. But using...
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Bigfoot Networks generated quite a bit of buzz back in 2006 when the company launched the original Killer NIC M1. As many of you probably remember, the original Killer NIC was / is a PCI-based device that featured an on-board network processor, or NPU, that was supposedly able to lower in-game ping times and free up CPU resources, which in...
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The PC world was treated to one of those rare occurrences a few weeks back--a 1-2 punch into the 3D graphics fray from both ATI and NVIDIA. We're talking about the near simultaneous launches of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275. Both of their names lead to obvious suggestions about where they fit into their respective...
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QNAP, purveyor of Network Attached Storage devices large and small, has just recently introduced what it's calling the world's most affordable NAS server with iSCSI. The device they speak of is the single-bay TS-119 Turbo Pro, which we've taken into our labs and scoped out across the pages to come. The device itself is just marginally larger...
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