Reviews
Lenovo's IdeaPad series of notebooks is quite different than the company's popular line up of ThinkPads. Ideapads are currently available in three series of products. The "U" series designates an ultraportable style with 11.1" or 13.3" widescreen displays and Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The "Y" series is for family entertainment...
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When AMD launched the Radeon HD 4870 X2 a few months back, the company hinted at the impending release of another, more affordable, dual-GPU powered card aptly named the Radeon HD 4850 X2. Like the more powerful 4870 X2, the 4850 X2 would sport a pair of RV770 GPUs on a single PCB, but on the 4850 X2 they would be clocked somewhat lower...
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Innovation seems to be sporadic at best in the PC case market. We tend to see many more copycats and trend followers than trendsetters. Several true innovators come to mind, though, when we think about cases, and one of those innovative companies is Cooler Master. Sure, not every case designed by Cooler Master is a massive success or...
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Whether you’re an amateur photographer or someone who’s more serious about photography, a D-SLR can provide a lot of benefits over a simple point and shoot camera. With a D-SLR, you’ll get faster shooting speeds, better optics (and therefore a better quality picture), the ability to change lenses for ultimate flexibility, complete control...
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When first evaluated in June of 2008, we concluded that the GeForce GTX 260 and 280 series offered the most raw power of any gaming graphics cards available at that time. This premium performance, however, came with a hefty price tag, making these models too costly to justify for some folks. A week after their introduction,...
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When Windows Vista first hit the scene, it was quite a departure from Windows XP. It had been a while since a major desktop operating system release from Microsoft, and consumers along with many businesses, were slow to adopt the new OS, if at all. Add to that the new and sometimes cumbersome security features and reports that Vista...
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One short week ago, NVIDIA unveiled the GeForce GTX 295, and with it reclaimed the overall 3D performance crown from a resurgent AMD. As you may know by now, the dual-GPU powered GeForce GTX 295 features a pair of re-worked GT200 GPUs, manufactured using a more advanced 55nm fabrication process than its 65nm predecessor. Looking at the specifications...
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Though this year's CES was unusually quiet in terms of attendance, and even a few exhibitors pulling no-shows, Asus had a plethora of new high tech gadget goodness on display, true to their usual form. We stopped by the booth and spent some time on a tour with David Ray, Vivian Lien, Brian Jang and Peter Clark...
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On our yearly jaunts to the Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show, we meet with numerous companies and see a myriad of products--some we can, and some we can't talk about--in what is always an absolute whirlwind of a trip. This year was no exception. Although the show itself wasn't quite as big as it has been in previous years...
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At the Consumer Electronics Show this past week, NVIDIA was demonstrating a new reference platform for an ultra small form-factor multimedia PC and we should underscore the word "ultra". To say this new product concept is tiny would be an understatement. Consider if you will...
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We've got a couple of editors out in Las Vegas currently at the whirlwind that is the Consumer Electronics Show (myself included), and saw some cool stuff at an event this evening that we thought many of you would like to check out. There are a few big announcements coming over the next couple of days that we'll be talking about in due...
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There's no doubt that the 3D Graphic Card business is what you'd call a proverbial "tough gig". There was a time when discreet graphics card options were available from numerous GPU vendors, but over the years, the relentless pace of technology and fierce competition has homogenized the market down to virtually two primary...
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Back in August of last year, at the NVISION visual computing conference in San Jose, NVIDIA publicly demonstrated some new stereoscopic 3D technology. While stereoscopic 3D in and of itself is not new, the devices on display at NVISION were, and featured new hardware, monitors, wireless glasses, and software. At the event, the technology was...
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AMD has been fighting an uphill battle on two fronts for the last few years. For a time, fierce competition from NVIDIA, coupled with some of their own problems executing, put the ATI graphics division in a deep hole. And ever since the introduction of the original Core 2 processors, and more recently the Core i7, AMD's processor division...
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Immediately after ASUS launched the Eee PC into an unsuspecting notebook market over a year ago, the short term answer from competitors was, well, nothing, save perhaps for the XO-1 from the OLPC organization. At the time, there was still speculation about whether or not anyone would even be interested in a low power, low cost, ultraportable...
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With the introduction of the new Intel Core i7 processor architecture, the company affectionately known as "Chipzilla" from Santa Clara has once again topped itself on the performance charts. Core i7 chips deliver significantly better performance per clock cycle, while at the same...
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We evaluated the original Dell XPS 730 in early May, shortly after its initial release. At the time, it was Dell's latest high-end gaming machine and the word on the street was that it would be the last to carry the XPS badge. Moving forward, Dell was to concentrate on their...
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Earlier this quarter, we teamed up with Intel and our publicist, Federated Media, in an effort to hold a very special sort of contest and promotion called "Need A Tech Makeover". The contest allowed us to give back to the community and help out three deserving...
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Intel's recent launch of the Core i7 processor and its accompanying chipset platform, was met with plenty of buzz and splash, due not only to the product's architectural enhancements but also its performance gains. However, the new serially enabled Core i7 also brought fairly significant platform changes as...
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While NVIDIA has released a number of new graphics cards for the gaming market over the last year and a half, we have seen relatively few updates to their workstation lineup in that same timeframe. It's been since mid-2007 that we saw the last major performance update to the QuadroFX lineup...
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In the last few years Virtualization has gone from a buzzword to a platform of choice in the world of Information Technology. Consumers already reap its benefits on a day to day basis as Banks, Internet Service Providers, online merchants, and many other companies have adopted the technology...
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As the holiday season rapidly approaches, there’s one question that you’ll hear very frequently: Have you been naughty or nice? Of course, we all know that a lot hinges on this seemingly simple question. If you’ve been nice, then perhaps Santa will bring you an awesome gift, that one piece of hardware you've been jonesing for, like Intel’s...
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