Items tagged with how-to
Sony's PlayStation 5 launched in November of 2020 somewhat incomplete. While the hardware had an M.2 slot to expand the internal storage needed by PS5 games, the software didn't know what to do with it out of the box. Earlier this year though, Sony opened up a beta program with early access to firmware that can use that slot, and we managed to get in. To make the most of that, we teamed up with the folks at Sabrent, who sent along a 2 TB Rocket 4 Plus NVMe SSD and a heat sink solution to keep the drive cool. Unfortunately, the PS5's limited internal space prevented us from using the heatsink, but we could pick up a smaller, compatible solution on Amazon for around $10. The Rocket 4 Plus...
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If you are searching for a webcam upgrade to boost your Zoom or other video conferencing quality, you may already have it. Canon has released a free EOS Webcam Utility which allows many of its cameras to function as plug-and-play USB webcams on Windows computers. The idea of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as a webcam is certainly nothing new. Many streamers already leverage these cameras using an HDMI capture card. These capture cards can be pricey – into the hundreds of dollars – and are currently in short supply. Still, they do provide the highest-quality option for cameras that can provide a “Clean HDMI-out” signal. Some cameras can provide HDMI out, but the signal...
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Dell’s XPS 15 2-In-1 is a unique hybrid convertible, premium ultrabook in a couple of respects, partly because of its high quality Dell XPS series machined aluminum and hybrid carbon fiber construction, along with its beautiful 15-inch, 400 nits, near bezel-less Dell Infinity Edge display. However, the machine is also powered by a unique processor that marks the first collaboration of its kind by two archrivals in the PC processor arena, both Intel and AMD. Otherwise known as Kaby Lake G, the new Intel 8th Gen Core Series with integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega M graphics is a potent hybrid chip that offers discrete graphics horsepower and 4GB of HMB2 memory, coupled with Intel quad-core...
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Many long time Windows users have not been pleased with Microsoft’s decision to block updates to Windows 7 and 8.1 for systems running current and future generations of processors. Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen chips are among the first blacklisted casualties of this policy.Microsoft deemed this necessary to improve the deployment cycle of Windows and ease the workload on hardware partners validating their products across multiple generations of Windows. Whether you buy that reasoning or not isn’t for us to decide. The fact of the matter is, Microsoft wants every one of its customers locked into Windows 10.At any rate, some users have decided to take matters into their own hands. Namely,...
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Retro gaming made a major resurgence this past holiday season, with the release of Nintendo’s ultra-hyped NES Classic, a scaled down clone of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Out of the box, the NES Classic has thirty preloaded game titles, though some recent hacks exposed a method for uploading more if you're willing to mess with it. That's all well and good, but if you weren’t able to get your hands on one this past holiday season -- like the majority of people -- getting your retro-gaming fix isn't happening any time soon, unless you fork out an unreasonable sum, paying hundreds to scalpers, for a product that retails for $60.But, why not roll your own? The Elusive NES Classic...
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It's pretty easy to build up a sprawling tower of games through Steam. In fact, it's difficult not to, what with the constant barrage of sales throughout the year. The frequent deep discounts provide ample opportunity to add to your catalog of games whether you have the time to play them all or not. But what if an impulse purchase turns out to be a dud? Not just a stinker of a game, but one that's so bad you want to wipe it from memory forever? Well, it's been discovered that Steam now allows you to permanently delete titles. Simply deleting the game from your PC won't rid your Steam account of the offending game's title. No, it still sits there as if to say, 'Hey sucker, remember when you purchased...
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In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two and Half Geeks, Dave, Marco and our resident ¼ Geek Apprentice Michael (Dave's son) build a custom, high-end Gaming System for the winner of our totally awesome Dads and Grads sweepstakes! Enjoy this bad boy, Lamar! And a BIG thanks for entering the sweepstakes everyone! We’ll be announcing the next one soon! (Be sure to watch all the way to the very end--if you can handle the cuteness!)...
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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 really 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. HTPC Building - A HotHardware How-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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Upgrading your notebook's legacy hard drive to a new, fast SSD is a substantial upgrade that makes good sense for a number of reasons. First, Solid State Drives offer orders of magnitude higher performance under certain conditions, with blazingly fast random access times. They also produce much less heat versus a standard 2.5-inch notebook hard drive and are virtually immune to shock and vibration trauma that will send your old spinning hard drive to an early grave. In this HotHardware Video Spotlight, we show you how to upgrade your existing notebook hard drive, to a new, fast SSD as well as how to quickly migrate your data for absolute minimal downtime....
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Upgrading your notebook's legacy hard drive to a new, fast SSD is a substantial upgrade that makes good sense for a number of reasons. First, Solid State Drives offer orders of magnitude higher performance under certain conditions, with blazingly fast random access times. They also produce much less heat versus a standard 2.5-inch notebook hard drive and are virtually immune to shock and vibration trauma that will send your old spinning hard drive to an early grave.In this HotHardware Video Spotlight, we show you how to upgrade your existing notebook hard drive, to a new, fast SSD as well as how to quickly migrate your data for absolute minimal downtime. Cloning data...
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