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.
Back in December 2004, NVIDIA introduced their latest evolution in the budget graphics card market with the release of TurboCache technology. The focus with TurboCache was both system resource utilization and economics, in an effort to deliver a quality business-class/casual...
Read more...
It has been a little over two months since we first got to play with ATI's Radeon X800 XL, and we have now begun to receive retail products based on this eagerly anticipated GPU in the HotHardware labs. For those unfamiliar with the Radeon X800 XL, it is a .11 micron GPU, with 16 pixel pipelines, 6 hardware vertex shaders and all of...
Read more...
It's no secret that Intel has occassionally been playing a bit of catchup this year in the desktop and workstation processor arena. AMD's Athlon 64 releases have recently positioned the company in the lead from a general...
Read more...
Over the years, Abit has cultivated a well deserved reputation for building some of the most overclockable, and feature rich motherboards available. So, anytime a new core-logic chipset is released, knowledgeable enthusiasts inevitably wonder what Abit has in store. Abit tends to incorporate features that make their motherboards...
Read more...
Until Intel's next-generation chipsets arrive, with support for upcoming multi-core processors, the 925X and 925XE will remain the flagship chipsets for LGA775 based Pentium 4 processors. The 925X and XE are very similar, as Dave pointed out in his introduction to the P4 EE 3.46GHz last...
Read more...
It used to be the case that the fastest optical drive was, by default, the best. Reducing CD burn times from 12 minutes to eight and then to six was considered significant evolutionary progress. But then a barrier was encountered, where the imperfect nature of mass-produced compact discs precluded, or at least made it much more difficult,...
Read more...
Refinements and performance optimizations in PC motherboard designs often track chipset re-spins and tweaks, as a new base architecture matures. Intel is absolutely famous (or shall we say infamous) for releasing a new chipset only to set sail with a re-spin or further characterization of the product, just a few months later. ...
Read more...
VIA is perhaps most notable for its contributions as a supplier of chipsets for AMD's Athlon XP/64 processor families. The company's work with Intel's offerings has ranged, over time, from clandestine manufacturing of unlicensed core logic (in Intel's eyes, at least) to the manufacture of a respectably leading edge product in the form...
Read more...
One of the major up and comers in the video card industry is HIS. In recent months, HIS has garnered some attention with several impressive additions to their product line. They put a major emphasis on overclocking, cooling and stability, while providing competitive...
Read more...
If you are looking to add a TV tuner card to your computer, there are a broad range of choices currently available, ranging from economical solutions to high-end cards that offer more advanced capabilities. However, if you are looking for a TV/Video card combination, there are fewer choices, namely NVIDIA's Personal Cinema, S3's OmniChrome...
Read more...
Even though DDR2 memory may be the current talk of the town, thanks to Intel's platform upgrade, there are plenty of P4, Athlon, and Athlon 64 owners that still use standard DDR based systems. Reason being, it's almost always...
Read more...
When DDR2 first saw the light of day, the memory marked the next level in DDR technology. However, with improved frequencies, lower voltage requirements and improve packaging also came higher latencies. With intial offerings coming in at CAS 4-4-4-12 and even higher, the performance improvements over DDR1 were minimal at best. ...
Read more...
This years 2005 CES show, was certainly a whirlwind adventure for us as we literally ran from meeting to meeting in the two short days we were able to attend the event. For us this year, the show was about meeting up with all the good people at all of the various OEMs we work with and hearing about their roadmap product efforts, as much...
Read more...
Competition can be a blessing for consumers, a headache for manufacturers and a driving force for an entire industry. Where a market once may have been dominated by one or two big companies with a handful of smaller competitors striving for their piece of the pie, nowadays the scales are...
Read more...
A few months ago, we took a look at a sampling of Athlon 64 Socket 939 motherboards, and ended up giving an Editor's Choice award to the NVIDIA nForce 3 Ultra based MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. At the time, the K8N Neo2 Platinum struck the best balance between features, performance, overclockability, and price. Another motherboard tested...
Read more...
Over the past year, DFI has made a name for itself with a crowd that is traditionally very hard to please. A company that once built parts strictly for the OEM / white box folks, is now catering to the enthusiast and overclocking communities with a bold, feature laden line of...
Read more...
We've been hearing details about NVIDIA's on-chip programmable video processor ever since the NV40 originally launched about eight months ago. Back then NVIDIA had stated that the NV40's on-chip video processor incorporated a high-quality adaptive de-interlacing engine, along with better filtering and scaling techniques, video de-blocking...
Read more...
When Intel released the first batch of Pentium 4 processors based on their Prescott core, which were built using a .09 micron manufacturing process, analysts found that the CPUs generated more heat and consumed more power than similarly...
Read more...
Back on December 1, 2004 ATI officially announced their latest flagship GPU, the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition. The GPU powering the Radeon X850, previously code named R480, is an evolutionary product designed to improve yields and hit higher clock speeds than the older R423 GPU used on PCI Express variants of the Radeon X800. ...
Read more...
The performance and capabilities of 3D graphics cards for the PC have been increasing at an exponential rate these past few years. High-end video cards that debuted at $500 just over a year ago, are now being surpassed in features and performance by cards being introduced at prices at or below $200. This unyielding drive to push...
Read more...
As Intel's Alderwood and Grantsdale chipsets have brought a whole new platform of technology to the P4, OEMs are now in full swing, bringing their own flavors to the mix. With support for Intel's new LGA775 processors, DDR and DDR2 and PCI-Express, the playing field has certainly...
Read more...
There's a certain allure in being able to make the claim that you can double the performance of anything. All too often, overzealous marketing campaigns in the high-tech field have made a "theoretical" claim of this sort, all the while falling well short in real-world performance...
Read more...
