Reviews
Peruse virtually any PC gaming magazine, or point your browser to any popular gaming web site, and you're bound to find a myriad of information and accolades for Crytek's smash-hit, first person shooter, FarCry. The game has some of the best graphics to hit the PC to date, and except for a few minor issues like...
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It has been a few weeks since ATi officially unveiled their Radeon X800 line of graphics cards based on the GPU formerly codenamed R420. In our initial look at the Radeon X800 Pro and X800 XT Platinum Edition back in May, we found ATi's latest flagship GPUs to be very capable performers, besting their previous high-end product,...
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Since the release of AMD's Socket 939 processors, motherboard manufacturers have wasted little time transitioning to the newer design, but that doesn't mean previous AMD platforms are now completely obsolete. Like the older Athlon XP, the 754 pin Athlon 64 processors still have some life left as a relatively economical alternative. With...
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Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we? Where were you in 1999? If you were into the technology scene, especially personal computing, most likely you were scampering about like Chicken Little, wondering what you would do when the sky fell at the end of the year, as the clocks ticked over to the year 2000. The Y2K support...
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Our first look at the GeForce FX 5900XT was way back in December 2003, and we were mightily impressed by the performance of the original sample sent to us by e-VGA, one of Nvidia's launch partners. We've reviewed a few other 5900XTs since then, and we've recently received two new models, one of which was the card we took a look at last...
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Anyone who follows the computer hardware industry knows that, aside from developing a broad range of Graphics cards, ATI has carved itself quite a niche in the multimedia market as well. Known for their "TV Wonder" and "All-In-Wonder" series multimedia cards, ATI is a true pioneer in the industry, being one of the...
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Major product launches don't seem to be getting any easier these days, at least on our side of the fence here in the online media community. Competition is fiercer than ever in all of the major functional blocks for personal computing, whether it's Graphics, Platform Chipsets, Drive technology or...
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For video card manufacturers, the drums of technology beat forever. Today's hot new release is tomorrow's eBay listing, because the hardcore enthusiasts are always looking for the next "big thing". It's a hard to stay on top of the list for very long, so we were interested in the recent arrival of two new GeForce FX 5900XT's...
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For years Plextor has set the standard for optical drives in both quality and features, being the first to bring major innovations to market on a number of occasions. These days, the competition fierce, with cheaper offerings available that can compete on the same performance level as slightly more expensive Plextor products. However, what...
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It has been barely over a week since we first took a look at AMD's new Socket 939 Athlon 64s, and motherboards equipped with the new socket have already started to arrive in the HotHardware Labs. The first motherboard to land on our test bench is the fully-loaded Asus A8V Deluxe "Wireless Edition". The A8V Deluxe...
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Water cooling is becoming increasingly more popular amongst hardcore overclockers. Not only does water cooling provide the utmost in cooling potential, short of refrigeration, but it can also quiet things down significantly. With today's processors producing upwards of 100 Watts of heat energy, cooling them down has becomes...
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We've taken a look at quite a few dual format DVD burners over the last few months, and found some to be better than others for various reasons. Most, if not all, of the drives we've reviewed shined in one area, but were lacking in another. Whether it be slower CD-R burning speeds, lack of options, or slow access times, we keep pressing...
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Recently ATi spent time with us going over their soon to be launched PCI Express based offering of 3D Graphics cards. Although we're unable to share performance metrics with you today, due to the current NDA embargo status of Intel's forthcoming i925X, i915G and i915P chipsets (and ATi's coordination of availability for that launch),...
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Since we last took a look at their Athlon 64 FX-53 back in March, AMD has remained relatively quiet. There was a low profile release of the mid-range Athlon 64 2800+ into the channel, but nothing really new has come from CPU lines at AMD for almost 3 months, which is an eternity in "silicon years". AMD's relative...
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Back in October of 2003, we had the opportunity to take a good look at several new Athlon 64 motherboards. We had two high profile boards from ASUS and MSI that came packed to the gills with features, extras and a promise of high performance courtesy of VIA's K8T800 chipset. A third, less prolific motherboard from Shuttle was a...
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The PC has undergone quite a metamorphosis recently. Over the past few years, we've seen the boring beige boxes of yesterday, transform into the multi-colored, windowed and lighted works of art of today. We've also seen (or should we say heard?) the community move away from multi-fan, super-loud cooling techniques, to more...
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Back when I was first stepping into the world of PC hardware, Diamond was quite a contender in the PC enthusiast market. Historically known for their high-end "Viper" graphics product line-up, Diamond's name still strikes home with many a gamer. Unfortunately, back in 2001, Diamond withdrew themselves from the graphics...
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We recently had a chance to talk with representatives from NVIDIA regarding a new initiative they've spearheaded, with the goal of bringing a consistent graphics interface to PCI Express equipped notebooks. Historically, the graphics processors used in laptops / notebooks have been impossible, or prohibitively expensive, to upgrade....
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Foxconn is a relative newcomer to the commercial motherboard market, but they are no stranger to the industry. Like we reported when we reviewed the Foxconn 875A02, they have been producing computer parts for quite a long time, but mostly as a component maker for different OEMs. With the manufacturing facilities already in place,...
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Being successful, especially in the computer hardware industry, is no easy task. While some companies struggle to win over customers with just a smattering of products, NVIDIA's brand recognition almost seemed to guarantee them success on a regular basis. What seems like not so long ago, the nForce2 Ultra chipset was taking the...
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For those of us that like to piece together our own computer systems from the ground up, deciding which piece of hardware to buy can tough. With more and more companies coming to market with competitive products, its never easy to choose which component best suits both your needs and budget. And it's not like one component will...
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There is no question, the year ahead in 2004, is shaping up to be a banner one for leading edge PC technology. New features and performance abound, as new technologies such as PCI Express, DDR2 and GDDR3 find their way into the mainstream. While the past few iterations of platform products have been more or less, "kicker"...
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