Reviews
As one of the pioneers of the gaming notebook, it comes as no surprise to see Alienware coming to the table with yet another innovation. In 2002, the original Area-51m represented the world's first gaming-specific notebook. In typical Alienware fashion, the notebook carried a pricetag that was equally as breathtaking as its performance....
Read more...
When LCD screens were first introduced they were plagued by many problems, but they also had some advantages over CRT monitors. LCD's were lighter, thinner, and used less power. And so they caught on and the technology incrementally improved. Early generations were limited to lower resolutions, tight viewing angles, really slow response...
Read more...
Although performance has been greatly enhanced over the last few years through the use of faster spindle speeds, larger caches, and newer interfaces, hard drives still tend to be a bottleneck in a typical PC. Mechanical devices, by their very nature, require time to seek the data requested, read it, and then transfer that information back...
Read more...
This weekend Intel sponsored an event for the Global Gaming League, the TransAtlantic Showdown, that pitted some of the best gamers from North America against rivals from across the Atlantic. The TransAltantic Showdown was more than just a gaming tournament though. There were a couple of interesting twists that made the TransAtlantic Showdown...
Read more...
About three months ago, we took a look at the Pentium Extreme Edition 955, which was Intel's first Extreme Edition processor built using the company's then brand-new 65nm manufacturing process. Each of the 955XE chip's two cores hummed along at a lofty 3.46GHz, and we found its performance to be quite good when compared to Intel's previous...
Read more...
In 2002, AGEIA's founders broke into the gaming industry with the intention of revolutionizing the way PC games would be played. Focusing their attention on the notion of in-game physics, the ultimate goal was to bring a new level of realism to the latest and greatest titles on the horizon. In short, the company has developed the world's first...
Read more...
When most home and workstation users think of NAS (Network Attached Storage), they think of big, bulky rackmount servers packed to the brim with terabytes of hard drive space (and terabyte-style price tags to match). NAS became a buzzword in the late 90's, during the dot-com explosion, where the product was targeted at companies who were just...
Read more...
For the better part of the last decade, there has only been two major players in the discreet graphics field, and as one of those players, nVidia needs no introduction. The GPU manufacturer has stayed at or near the forefront of technological advances through the years. Although there has been a misstep or two along the way, you generally...
Read more...
Fresh from the show floor of Intel's March 2006 Developer's Conference, and after spending some time behind closed doors with Intel, we have a sneak peek at Conroe performance for you today. The following is a run down of benchmark numbers we recorded with hands-on testing of an early 2.66GHz Conroe-based dual-core system, versus...
Read more...
Product refreshes in the Graphics world have tended to become rather casual, commonplace occurrences. A little tweak here, a clock speed bump there and presto, there's a new SKU to fill the store shelves and something new to look at in the benchmarks. Historically, refreshes or "kickers" as they...
Read more...
Just a few short years ago, the graphics card industry was largely driven strictly by the innovations and technological developments made at the flagship GPU level. For the majority of users who cannot either afford or justify the cost of a top of the line graphics card, the industry was painfully boring, as the latest and greatest features...
Read more...
ATI's All-In-Wonder series has been popular with the multimedia enthusiast for quite some time now, delivering all the features of a TV Tuner, along with the performance of a dedicated graphics card. ATI has recently released their X1900 AIW series, which is a perfect card to get if you're a gamer and have the cash to spend. But what about...
Read more...
ATI has been coming on very strong these past few months, bolstering their GPU line-up with a slew of new products, ranging from the entry level Radeon X1300 all the way on up to the flagship Radeon X1900 XTX. The company's well documented execution problems from 2005 are behind them, and they seem to be firing on all...
Read more...
Over the course of the last few years, the PC industry has witnessed a major transition away from the world of traditional CRT monitors, towards products based on LCD displays. With the inception of LCD's, there was no denying the handful of advantages LCD's had over their CRT counterparts. Less eye-strain, significantly thinner depth and...
Read more...
While the majority of our coverage here at HotHardware.com tends to favor enthusiast class products, the fact of the matter is affordable mainstream products are far more prevalent in the marketplace. Flagship video cards and overclockable motherboards are certainly nice, but there is a much larger market for highly integrated motherboards...
Read more...
Using water to cool the components in a PC was once considered and outlandish idea, and maybe even a little crazy. We all know what happens when water gets spilled onto something electronic, so why intentionally pump it into a system? Well, the short answer to that question is that water is far more effective at absorbing and removing...
Read more...
Over the past few months, we've posted a multitude of graphics related articles here at HotHardware.com. Since September, we've covered no less than seven product launches from ATI, five from rival NVIDIA, and even S3 chimed in with one of their own. Some of these products were mid-range or entry-level offerings, but a couple of them redefined...
Read more...
As we've said in the past, Corsair's XMS (Xtreme Memory Speed) memory modules have been longtime favorites amongst the computer enthusiast community. Corsair has memory kits available in many different capacities and speeds, and virtually all of them are regarded as some of the best modules available in their respective classes. Some...
Read more...
With all the praise that has been heaped upon NVIDIA for their 7800 series of graphic cards, it was bound to cause a bit of dismay for rival ATi. For nearly two years ATi had been riding high on the success of their 9700 and 9800 series of cards, while NVIDIA had been trying to save face after a few mishaps of their own. ...
Read more...
If you're familiar with the computer hardware industry, Asus should be a company that needs no introduction. Whether referring to their motherboards, notebooks, or video cards, Asus' products have consistently ranked amongst the best in their respective classes. We've had a ton of experience here at HotHardware.Com working with products from...
Read more...
AGP was supposed to fade away after the insurgence of PCI Express, wasn't it? Well yes, it was and it will in time, but as we're showing you today you can still breathe some new life into an aging AGP based system, thanks to NVIDIA. While PCI Express is the current interface of choice for new graphics products, the existing installed base...
Read more...
When ATI launched the Radeon X1900 last week, the company didn't simply unveil a single new high-end sku. Instead, they announced a total of four new X1900-based products; the high-end Radeon X1900 XTX, the slightly lower clocked Radeon X1900 XT, the X1900 CrossFire Edition, and the product we'll be evaluating here, the All-In-Wonder...
Read more...
