Reviews
NVIDIA's two major launches last week marked a significant advancement in both 3D Graphics and PC Motherboard feature-set and performance. The launch of NVIDIA's G80 GPU with their GeForce 8800 series of graphics cards was the advent of the first truly DX10 capable GPU architecture on the...
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When Shuttle first thrust small form factor systems upon the Do-It-Yourself crowd in 2001, they were deemed niche products that wouldn't likely appeal to the masses, due to inherent expandability deficiencies and limited feature-sets relative to full-sized desktop systems. Over the last half decade though, interest in small form...
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Back in 1992 IBM introduced its Thinkpad line of laptop computers. Since that time the Thinkpad has become a staple in mobile business computing. Thinkpads have had a history of firsts in the laptop industry with the invention and usage of such innovative features as the Trackpoint, Thinklight, Ultrabay, biometric fingerprint reader, and Magnesium/Titanium...
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A couple of weeks ago at an Editor's Day event at their headquarters in Santa Clara, California, NVIDIA proclaimed that they planned to "redefine reality" with their self-branded ultimate gaming platform. The products in the spotlight throughout the event were the new nForce 680i SLI chipset, the upcoming 680a SLI, and a...
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The second phase of NVIDIA's two pronged attack on the gaming and enthusiast community today involves a new family of nForce chipsets for both the Intel and AMD platforms. The nForce 600 family of products is spearheaded by the nForce 680i SLI and 680a SLI. Although the two products share a similar naming convention, they are...
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Stepping back to look at who has the largest market share in the chipset sector for AMD socket AM2 processors, it's clear who is on top and who is not. Take virtually any major motherboard manufacturer and see what they have to offer and in most cases, NVIDIA chipset solutions are going to dominate the...
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When news first broke that Abit was going to be purchased by USI earlier this year, it seemed unlikely that Abit would continue their long-running tradition of producing enthusiast level motherboards. After all, USI is a much more traditional electronics company, and enthusiast/overclocking platforms didn't seem like they would...
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To say this year has been a bit of a whirl-wind adventure would be an immense understatement. We've seen Intel move from a back-seat position versus the Athlon 64 X2 with their Pentium D architecture, to commanding virtually all of the lime-light as of late with Core 2 Duo, not to mention running away with nearly all of...
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Recently, we were given the opportunity to take a look at a preproduction sample of a new gaming platform coming from ASUS. Dubbed the "G2P", this is a robust new product that combines the latest flagship mobile components with a unique new aesthetic and gaming-specific features in one convenient package. Although we've opted...
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About two weeks ago, ATI launched the Radeon X1950 Pro, a new mainstream graphics card with a host of new features. This graphics card was equipped with a single-slot cooler, a relatively low-power GPU that was manufactured on TSMC's 80nm fabrication process, and in a first for ATI, native CrossFire support. Native CrossFire...
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Several months ago, Seagate got the PC industry's attention with the introduction of the company's first 750GB consumer hard drive. As shown within our review of the drive, the Barracuda 7200.10 combined excellent performance with unparalleled capacity and a stellar 5-yr warranty. Fast forward to today and we find ourselves...
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When Intel unleashed the Core 2 back in July, they introduced the P965 as their mainstream chipset, while the 975X Express chipset was upgraded with Core 2 support to cover the high-end enthusiast segment. However, the P965 didn't end up being 'just' a mainstream product. As production boards utilizing the...
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With the release of NVIDIA's nForce 500 Series, NVIDIA opened the door to a broad range of features tailored to both AMD and Intel based architectures. Today, we have a line up of three motherboards outfitted with the nForce 590 SLI chipset for AMD, offering the best the 500 series has to offer. Before...
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It's easy to sit back and say "he was a good boy -- he took it on the chin like a man", or so to speak, as the good folks at Intel would like to say about their rivals at Advanced Micro Devices. Conversely, you might quickly discover the error of your ways, if you've counted AMD out. As we're sure...
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It's been only seven short weeks since ATI officially unveiled four additions to the X1K family of products, and here we are again with yet another new Radeon poised to shake-up the mid-range segment of the market. The new Radeon X1950 Pro is based on the GPU formerly codenamed RV570. but unlike the R580 variants used on the other...
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This year's DigitalLife show in New York City seemed to be just a bit more festive, a bit more "real-deal", or perhaps we should just say a bit more well-attended from both an exhibitor and audience perspective? In fact, since Ziff Davis picked up the gig, it has turned out to be like a mini-CES here on the east...
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The enthusiast gaming notebook has become an extremely viable and desirable alternative to today's desktop systems, which in-part explains why the mobile segment is one of the fastest growing in the PC industry. The latest crop of high performance notebooks are an engineering marvel of sorts, as they come dangerously close to...
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There has been a lot of talk within the industry of consolidation as of late. AMD's acquisition of ATI has been a hot topic ever since it was announced. And that acquisition has spurred rumors of an unlikely merger between Intel and NVIDIA. Both AMD and Intel have talked about integrating a GPU on to the CPU in one form or another,...
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A few members of the crew here at HotHardware have had experience selling or servicing PCs for large retail chains at one time or another, and each one of us can tell a handful of stories about clients that didn't take our advice with regard to power protection and ultimately paid the price. It never ceased to amaze us how someone...
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Intel moved in on a quiet little investment of a UK-based company against the backdrop of IDF the other day. And if you weren't maniacally focused on some of these things, as we are around here at HH, it would have sneaked past you, right under your nose, without so much as a twitch of your...
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DFI has earned a reputation over the last couple of years for producing feature-rich, enthusiast friendly motherboards. DFI's decked out LANPARTY family of motherboards in particular has become known to many around the world as a family of products that cater to the unique needs of the enthusiast and overclocking...
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Though we're running the risk of sounding a bit platitudinal, this is definitely the IDF moment we're sure many of you have been waiting for. We've reported to you on Intel's various technology announcements and architectural initiatives over the past few days. And, from what we...
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