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.
HDR -- you’ve undoubtedly seen the three letters stamped on the box of the latest 4K monitors and TVs while passing by them in the store, and while it is still relatively new HDR (High-Dynamic Range) technology is, without question, changing the way in which our senses take in next-gen entertainment. NVIDIA is at the forefront of driving this cutting-edge display technology with new G-SYNC monitors that profoundly impact three primary pillars of how visual entertainment is perceived by the human eye: color, brightness, and contrast. How that translates to today’s visually advanced games is a true-to-life spectrum of vibrant colors, dramatically more intense light...
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The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD we'll be showing you here today is the follow-up to the SanDisk Extreme 510 Portable SSD. This new drive fully embraces USB-C while retaining USB Type-A compatibility for older Macs and PCs. It promises speedy storage (up to 550 MB/s claimed), a wide range of capacities (250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB), and an IP55 rating against dust and water intrusion. The drive’s slim body looks more like a portable charger for your cell phone than the bulky external hard drives of old, and it fits in a shirt pocket easily. It feels rugged, with black soft-touch material covering its back, textured hard plastic on the front panel (also black), and an orange-accented...
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Ask a group of gamers or hardcore PC enthusiasts what they want in a monitor and you’ll likely get a few common answers. High resolutions and refresh rates, adequate size, wide viewing angles, thin bezels, and a fully adjustable stand will likely be on the list, along with support for adaptive refresh rate technology and perhaps HDR (High Dynamic Range). The monitor we will be showing you here today, the 32" Samsung CHG70 Gaming Monitor with Quantum Dot Technology checks many of those boxes, and ups the ante even further with a curved screen, back bias lighting (sort of), and USB pass-through, among a few other things. The Samsung CHG70 is also one of a select few gaming displays currently...
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The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming, and spoiler alert, it was worth the wait. The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ is one of the first monitors to finally bring together a full complement of cutting-edge technologies and combine them into a single offering, like a delicious stew full of tasty gaming ingredients. In this case, the recipe calls for a 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) in-plane switching (IPS) panel with a blazing fast 144Hz refresh rate, seasoned with High Dynamic Range (HDR) visuals, and garnished with NVIDIA G-Sync support. Talk about a drool-worthy dish! ASUS first teased the PG27UQ at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas...in January 2017. Yes, we have been eagerly awaiting...
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Intel recently launched a Core i7-8086K Limited Edition processor, based on the company’s Coffee Lake architecture, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the venerable 8086. Although it wasn’t the first microprocessor employed in personal computers, the Intel 8086 laid the foundation for the x86 architecture, which has been at the core of virtually all “IBM compatible” or “Win-Tel” PCs released since. Before we talk about where Intel is going with Core i7-8086K, however, we need to discuss where it has been. Intel put together this infographic highlighting the major advancements made in processor design and manufacturing over the last 40 years. As you...
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When Intel initially released its Optane Memory line-up, it was one of the most potent and effective storage acceleration products available, right out of the gate. Due to its 3D Xpoint memory technology, which enables consistent, low-latency, high-speed data transfers at low-queue depths, Intel’s Optane Memory is ideally suited for caching smaller chunks of data in consumer systems. Couple Optane Memory’s unique performance characteristics with Intel’s robust caching algorithms and it showcases the effectiveness of Intel’s solution with today’s PCs. Intel has since updated its Optane Memory line-up with a 64GB drive and some new software that enables acceleration...
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Corsair's line-ups of K70 and Strafe mechanical gaming keyboards have been on the market now for quite some time. The Strafe is a more streamlined speedster for performance freaks and the K70 a more full-featured deck with ultra-premium build quality. We recently looked at Corsair's K70 Lux RGB in a 5-way round-up and the board walked away with our Editor's Choice award. Today, fresh off its Computex 2018 unveil, Corsair returns to our lab with buffed-up and decked-out versions of the K70 and Strafe, both sporting some disco RGB goodness, but now in their MK.2 (pronounced Mark 2) incarnations, with new features, the same killer build quality, and a bit more bling. Corsair set the bar with the...
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The latest generation of NVMe-based solid state drives have significantly altered the value proposition for performance-conscious PC enthusiasts. Whereas the NVMe drives of “old” were significantly more expensive than SATA-based products, while offering somewhat higher performance, many of today’s drives are only slightly higher priced and may offer 5 – 6x the peak throughput. Case in point, the ADATA XPG SX8200 we will be showing you here today. This ADATA drive is a speedy, yet affordable solid state drive that offers peak read and write speeds of 3200/1700MB per second, with a good warranty and solid endurance rating. The ADATA XPG SX8200’s main features and specifications...
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Although we first caught a glimpse of the SSD that would become the Toshiba OCZ RC100 back at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, they are now ready for public consumption and Toshiba has just begun shipping the drives. If you’re not hip to the OCZ RC100, it’s a new family of solid state drives that’s specifically designed to push the NVMe interface and smaller M.2 form factor further down into mainstream price points. Toshiba accomplishes this feat by using a single-package design that packs the NAND flash memory and controller into a single chip. The drive’s design is also DRAM-less to further reduce costs. The end result is a tiny, power-efficient product that...
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When AMD launched its 2nd Generation Ryzen processors, we initially examined to the two top-end “X” variants -- the current flagship 8-core Ryzen 7 2700X and its 6-core cousin, the Ryzen 5 2600X. Of course, we love looking at the latest and greatest high-end hardware around here, but as is often the case, scaled-down versions of a particular product commonly offer significant value, without sacrificing much in terms of performance or features. With that in mind, we were eager to see what the lower-priced Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 could do. These processor are virtually identical to their X-branded counterparts after all, and because they’re unlocked, tweaking a few settings...
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After the splash that AMD made with Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper in 2017, it should come as no surprise that AMD would follow-up with second generation variants. We've already seen the mainstream side of things with the Ryzen 2000 Series processors, and now at an event at Computex 2018, AMD has just announced its second-generation Ryzen Threadripper family. Like the Ryzen 2000 series, second-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors are based on 12nm Zen+ architecture. That means that the new High-End Desktop (HEDT) processors offer lower latencies, higher clock speeds, and Precision Boost 2 capabilities for finer-grained clock control. AMD isn't giving away too many details...
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Amazon and Google are massive tech giants, for vastly different reasons. Google is the leading search engine provider, a smartphone platform juggernaut, and huge advertising machine, while Amazon is the largest e-tailer in the world and a cloud services powerhouse, though Google is coming up strong. Though they are different animals, these two companies find themselves locked in heated battle with their respective Google Home and Amazon Echo devices; a battle for AI dominance that could determine who will ultimately control a good chunk of the Smart Home market. The Smart Home market has massive growth potential over the next decade and it's an area that Google wants to own. We all remember how...
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Last week, Arm showed off the inner workings of its new Machine Learning Processor design, but that is not all that company had waiting in the wings. Arm is also detailing more cutting-edge technology in the form of its Cortex-A76 CPU, Mali-G76 GPU, and Mali-V76 VPU designs. All three chips are slated to be heavy-hitters in their respective categories, and thanks to some on-campus, in depth briefings earlier this month, we have all of the details to share... Cortex A-76 The Cortex-A76 represents Arm’s most radical overhaul over previous designs. The A76’s brand-new architecture brings decisive improvements to power and efficiency. Arm’s processor engineers worked with a...
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Qualcomm is looking to make Extended Reality (XR) the next big thing in mobile computing. XR is the term that Qualcomm has coined to describe the full gamut of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) experiences. With XR, Qualcomm is looking to provide a single platform that developers will be able to leverage for an array of different devices. This is how Qualcomm describes XR: At some point in the future, we envision the convergence of the smartphone, mobile VR headset, and AR glasses into a single XR wearable. In this scenario, a single pair of XR glasses will primarily be used for AR, but will also occasionally be used for VR. XR could replace all the other screens...
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