Reviews
More and more homes these days contain multiple PCs, and in this age of increasingly common broadband connections it's a no-brainer to want to connect these machines together over a WLAN, or Wireless LAN. Doing so will allow you to share files and the broadband connection so that everyone can surf the web...
Read more...
NVIDIA's SLI technology (Scalable Link Interface), which allows two PCI Express GeForce 6800s or 6600s to work in tandem to increase performance, has been getting a ton of press these past few months. So much press that it has some PC enthusiasts wondering what ATi has been up to and what the Canadian-based graphics giant would do to...
Read more...
In the past few months we've seen numerous announcements for PCI Express equipped core logic chipsets, and we have already evaluated a few of them as well. We've previously looked at Intel's 900 Series of chipsets, NVIDIA's nForce 4 and ATi's RADEON XPRESS 200, and hope to get our hands on VIA's K8T890 and SiS' x56 chipsets very soon. ...
Read more...
Shuttle went through a complete metamorphosis as a company a few years back, and they haven't looked back ever since. Their wildly successful line of "XPC" small form factor (SFF) PCs has taken off like no other physical incarnation of the PC has in a very long time. Not even Mr. Jobs could have predicted the kind of...
Read more...
Over the last six weeks, three new chipsets for the AMD processor platform have been announced that all have one very important feature in common. NVIDIA's nForce 4, VIA's K8T890, and ATi's RADEON XPRESS 200 all have support for the emerging PCI Express standard. PCI Express, which was first brought to market with Intel's 900 series...
Read more...
Back in September, NVIDIA released the latest of their line of mid-range or value priced video cards, dubbed the GeForce 6600. The only version available at the time, however, was for PCI-Express, which left many users out in the cold since the standard had only been available on brand new motherboards based on the i915/i925 chipsets. ...
Read more...
With a majority of the market focusing their attention on high-end graphics cards, many forget about the consumers who are seeking a low-cost upgrade or replacement part. These consumers are often willing to sacrifice performance when looking for cards with price points that are substantially lower than enthusiast-class boards. ...
Read more...
Now that the DVD format war is essentially over, thanks to the advent of Dual-Format drives, the market's next big push is towards Dual-Layer recording. One of the most noticeable differences with the next generation of DVD drives is low pricing from the start, unlike the initial DVD offerings of years past. This instant affordability...
Read more...
Using the sheer number of "NVIDIA vs. ATi" articles posted on-line or published in every popular computer magazine as a gauge, it would be easy to surmise that these two rivals battled each other for dominance in the desktop 3D graphics space alone. Numerous head-to-head comparisons between NVIDIA's GeForce 6 series and ATi's...
Read more...
The folks out in Sunnyvale have been releasing new additions to their Athlon 64 processor lineup with the kind of fevered pace we've come to expect from major-league semiconductor manufacturers. So too has the ever-dominant Intel. With 78,000 employees worldwide and almost 10 times the revenue of its nearest competitor at...
Read more...
Choosing a recordable DVD drive has always been somewhat of a difficult task. There was a bit of initial uncertainty as some wondered which format would win out, DVD+R or DVD–R. After all, each format has its advantages. In the end, however, unlike the Beta vs VHS battles of the early 80s, this war was quelled...
Read more...
With the launch of their 900 series chipsets, and LGA775 based Pentium 4 processors, Intel introduced the use of DDR2 system memory on the desktop. DDR1 system memory had been the standard for quite a few years, and DDR2 memory had been used on the occasional...
Read more...
When it comes to manufacturing motherboards, Taiwan-based Epox is well respected amongst enthusiasts. While we've only had the opportunity to review a few of their motherboards over the years, the small sample we have tested were fairly impressive. In fact, late last year we reviewed the Epox 4PDA2+ v.2, one of the many Springdale...
Read more...
When we think of TV/Video combination cards, we often think of ATI's All-In-Wonder series and NVIDIA's Personal Cinema. Each company has been offering various hybrid cards for quite some time, covering the spectrum from high-priced enthusiast-class to the value-priced solutions. ATI clearly has the name recognition with its All-In-Wonder...
Read more...
NVIDIA's ride as a chipset designer and manufacturer has been tumultuous in spots without question. The first two iterations of its nForce product family were immensely popular because they addressed weaknesses that plagued other chipsets, such as memory and integrated graphics performance. However, they are correspondingly more expensive...
Read more...
Almost five months have passed since AMD and Intel released new flagship processors. Back in June, AMD launched its Athlon 64 FX-53 and Athlon 64 3800+ processors, and Intel officially took the wraps off of its LGA775 platform and the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560, along with a few lower-speed processors and a pair of supporting chipsets. ...
Read more...
With the advent of Personal Video Recorders or the "PVR", TV and Multimedia industries have entered a new realm of technology. The ability to pause, rewind, and record live TV all with the click of a button is not only cool, it is extremely convenient. Let's be honest, how often do you have the time to catch your favorite...
Read more...
Although AMD's socket 939 platform has moved into the mainstream with the recent release of 939-pin Athlon 64 3000+ and 3200+ CPUs, products based on the older socket 754 platform are still in demand. While the new socket 939 processors have been met with much fanfare (and relatively high price tags), the older socket 754 Athlon...
Read more...
Although they now face some stiff competition from the likes of Biostar, Iwill, Soltek and MSI, among others, Shuttle deserves credit for almost single-handedly spurring the so-called small form factor revolution. When they initially released the venerable SV24 almost three years ago, many PC lovers were immediately enamored by the tiny...
Read more...
It seems that high-end graphics cards are always in the lime light upon the initial launch of a new graphics processor architecture from any of the major players. Although there's a limited number of potential consumers, relatively speaking, for these flagship enthusiat-class boards, they pave the way for their more modestly priced siblings,...
Read more...
After our previous foray into some old-school arcade action with the X-Arcade Dual Joystick and MAME, we got to thinking about the early years of home-style gaming. We're talking about back in the late 70's, a time when the USSR was still our Cold War adversary, and the thought of a PC in every household was still a fantasy. While...
Read more...
With much anticipation and fanfare, the next generation in video card interface has arrived. PCI Express, the successor to AGP, is now available on a number of Intel-based boards starting with the 900 series chipset. VIA, SiS, and others are sure to follow in the coming months. It's still uncertain when the other OEM...
Read more...
