Reviews Of Desktop PCs, DIY PC Builds, All-In-Ones, And Small Form Factor PCs
In-depth product reviews and news of Computer Desktops, DIY PC Builds, All-In-One PCs, and Small Form Factor PCs. If it crunches numbers, pushes pixels, throws down the frag or provides a digital canvass for content creation, you'll find it there.
Considering how close HP came to selling off or severing its world leading PC division, it's products like the new TouchSmart 520-1070 all-in-one (AIO) that make us glad somebody switched out the company's water supply. Actually, it's HP's old CEO, Leo Apotheker, who was responsible for the OEM's temporary insanity, and not some tainted H2O, but that's a rant for another time and another place. What we're focusing on here is an AIO system that comes well spec'd and offers a surprising amount of performance in a form factor typically more focused on aesthetics and convenience than raw computing power. The TouchSmart 520-1070 is a fairly remarkable AIO equipped with high-end hardware and a robust...
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We just recently ran a contest on HotHardware in which we planned to give away a high-end, custom-built gaming system (built by yours truly), to one lucky reader who came up with a creative name for our weekly video podcast. The parts for the system were as follows… CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight Motherboard: Asus CrossHair IV Formula Graphics: Asus EAH6870 Sound: Asus Xonar D2X RAM: 4GB OCZ DDR-1333 SSD: WD Silicon Edge Blue 64GB HD: WD Caviar Black 2TB PSU: OCZ 850W Z-Series Optical: Asus Blu-Ray Drive Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Audio: Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset ...
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It's that time again. The time of year where students and parents frantically hit e-tailers with overnight shipping deals in order to get that all-important back-to-school technology into a dorm room or backpack before classes begins. It's back-to-school season, and whether you've started classes recently or are awaiting (dreading?) that first 8AM lecture, there may be a few bits of techno-shopping that need to be taken care of before you can be on you're on your way to that straight-A report card. Whether you're about to begin the Fall semester of college or your senior year in high school (or something else entirely), you'll probably need the right hardware to...
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Building a Home Theater PC is often times a much better option for enabling your entertainment center for various forms of digital media playback capability. Rather than stepping up to additional discrete components, like a stand-alone Blu-ray, DVD or CD player, why not infuse your living room entertainment center with real intelligence and multimedia muscle and build an HTPC (Home Theater PC)? In this video, we'll give you some suggestions on a few component selection options for building an HTPC, as well as a high-level overview of its assembly and a few key design points to look out for. We'll then of course demo our systems for you to show you what you can do with an HTPC. ...
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With a claim of “nearly 30-years of touch innovation” under its belt, HP is no stranger to touch-input technology. The company has recently integrated touch input into a number of its consumer and business product lines, such as tablets and displays and perhaps is most well-known for its line of TouchSmart all-in-one desktop PCs. In fact, when the TouchSmart first debuted in 2007, it was one of very first multi-touch desktop PCs to hit the market, though touch technology has come a long way since then, especially with the advent of Windows 7's touch capabilities.Taking advantage of a good thing when they see it, HP has produced a few major updates to the TouchSmart line, culminating in the latest...
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A short while after Dell purchased Alienware late last year, news broke that Hewlett Packard had acquired boutique system vendor Voodoo PC. Voodoo PC is best known for their high performance gaming PC's that feature custom cases, some with lavish paint jobs, unique cooling solutions, and impeccable wiring jobs. We evaluated a Voodoo Omen some time back and found it to be an excellent product. If you check out the Omen, you'll see why HP was interested in Voodoo. After HP's acquisition of Voodoo PC, many speculated that the company's entrance into the high-end gaming PC market was imminent. After all, why else would they have bought Voodoo, right? But since then, not much has...
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So what does a PC Geek and EIC for a Hardware Enthusiast site do on a holiday long weekend? Well, beside sipping a few umbrella decorated drinks by the sea, at night you can find this odd breed playing with the latest Tech Toys of course! This weekend I built a new high performance Workstation/Gaming Rig - something I haven't done in a VERY long time... The case I chose is the bomb... ThermalTake's VA7000BWA Shark. In all seriousness, this case is REALLY nice. Light-weight aluminum, 300mm fans and an HD rack with trays that have rubber bushing screw mounts for vibration dampening - like I said "da bomb"! System Specifications...
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