|
Columns | Projects | Reviews |
|
April 20, 2016
SilverStone's PT13: Small, Easily Configured, and Cramped
Do you desire to cram a x86 computer in a case that takes up less than 1.5 liters of space? Than SilverStone may have what you are looking for if your a fan of the thin Mini-ITX standard.
March 16, 2016
Remix OS for PC Beta: Jide Tech is Moving in the Right Direction (Updated March 17, 2016)
A while back I took a look at Jide's Remix Mini (you can check it out here) and I liked what I saw. Now Jide has released the Remix OS for PC Beta and I gotta tell ya I'm pretty excited about it.
January 13, 2016
Jide's Remix Mini: The World's First True Android PC
Microsoft's Windows OS has had some growing pains as of late with their last two OS releases. This has left a lot of people considering a switch in their desktop OS choice. Enter the Remix Mini.
August 6, 2015
Celeron J1900 Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard Comparison: Habey vs. Mitac
A few years ago Intel came up with the thin mini-ITX standard. This standard was full of promise with customizable all in one PC's, small form factor VESA mountable PC's, and custom server appliances. Sadly the market never really grasped the promise that the standard could bring and with Intel's departure from board making the thin mini-ITX standard is all but dead nowadays.
June 30, 2011
ECS's HDC-I2: The Cheapest E-350 Mini-ITX Motherboard Money Can Buy
Are you trying to build low power PC that has the ability to playback full 1080p HD content on the cheap? If so then the HDC-I2 from ECS may just be what you are looking for.
June 15, 2011
APEX's MI-008: Mini-ITX Case Goodness
Have you been looking for a relatively inexpensive mini-ITX case that uses standard PC components such as 5.25" and 3.5" drives? Then Apex may just have what you are looking for.
June 2, 2011
ASUS's E35M1-M Pro: A Near Perfect Low Power HTPC Motherboard
With the introduction of the Zacate platform AMD has created a great all in one solution for HTPC builders that has the potential to be the Holy Grail of HTPC motherboards.
March 27, 2011
GIGABYTE's GA-E350N-USB3: A Good Low Power HD Solution
Intel's Atom chip has dominated in the low power computing market segment since its introduction having only VIA's Nano and C7 series of chips to compete with. Now AMD has entered the fray with its first wave of fusion chips.
March 5, 2011
Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 560 Ti: Overclocked and Ready to Rock
When TSMC canceled its 32nm node in 2009 it forced both NVIDIA and AMD to rethink their strategies for their second round of DX11 supporting GPU's.
February 10, 2011
ASRock's PV530: For a Very Select Market
ASRock has long been a manufacturer known for their innovative designs and their ability to design boards with older chips that fit newer CPU sockets to help the chip designers out when they have a surplus of older chips lying around.
June 15, 2010
PowerColor's Radeon HD 5670: DirectX 11 Goodness Under $100
ATI's latest surge in the PC gaming market has not been built on having the absolute fastest video cards available but giving the customer a video card that has good performance at decent price points. This has helped the value conscious PC gamers out there to see their games play with higher resolutions and quality settings.
May 7, 2010
ECS's Black Series A890GXM-AU: A Good way to Experience AMD's 890GX
ECS is not the first manufacturer that comes to mind when it comes to premium motherboards designed gaming in mind, but they are trying to lose their budget board only status.
April 21, 2010
Thermalright's VRM-R5 VRM Cooler: Serious VRM Cooling
As video cards become increasingly more complex the good old days of throwing on a GPU cooler and some memory heatsinks to achieve great cooling results are fast going the way of the dodo.
April 19, 2010
Thermalright's Spitfire VGA Cooler: Large and in Charge
As GPU's keep getting hotter and hotter with each new release it becomes ever more important to the overclocker or enthusiast to keep the thermals of these chips in check.
April 2, 2010
Jetway's NC94FL-510-LF: Gaming With Intel's Atom Again?
Awhile back we looked at using Intel's top performing Atom processor of the time the N330 for gaming, and found it to be lacking in the gaming performance department. Since then Intel has refreshed there line up of Atom processors. Does the new king of the hill the Atom D510 have what it takes to be used for gaming?
February 9, 2010
JetWay's BI-600 'Kuroshio': X58 Goodness Under $200
JetWay is a manufacturer that is better known for there mini ITX solutions than they are for gaming or enthusiast motherboards.
January 30, 2010
Palit's GeForce GTX 275: A Good Take on the GT200
A while back I took a look at NVIDIA's GTX 275 and overclocked it. The GTX 275 has good performance, but was a bear to overclock if one where to add aftermarket cooling at that time.
December 17, 2009
ECS's 945GCD-M: Gaming With Intel's Atom?
When it comes to innovative motherboards ECS is not a company that first comes to mind.
November 8, 2009
Thermalright's VRM-R2: Serious VRM Cooling for Your HD 4870/4890
VRM cooling is something that you have to address if you are adding an aftermarket GPU cooling solution to your HD 4870/4890.
October 23, 2009
Cooler Master's Elite 335: A Quality Case for the Money
When building a PC one of the biggest decisions you have to make is your choice of housing or lack thereof for all of your components.
October 9, 2009
XFX's Radeon HD 5870: ATI is Back on Top for Now
After the glory days of the 9800 Pro for the ATI camp NVIDIA turned up the heat on ATI forcing them to fight an uphill battle ever since.
October 2, 2009
Thermal Compound Roundup: Helping to Keep Your Chips Cooler
Often times when you buy an aftermarket CPU or GPU cooler the manufacturer supplies the user with some sort of generic thermal compound. Some people use this included thermal compound and never give it a second thought, but there is a better way.
September 3, 2009
ZEROtherm's CoolMaxx 2000 VGA Cooler: One Good Way to Cool an HD 4890
Zerotherm has been making aftermarket GPU coolers for awhile now and it shows in the CoolMaxx 2000.
August 22, 2009
Intel's D945GCLF2 mini-ITX Motherboard: Featuring the Dual Core Atom 330
When Intel hit the low power computing scene they ignited a market segment that needed a little shot in the arm and then they proceeded to dominate that very same market segment.
August 19, 2009
Jetway's JNF77-N1G6-LF: VIA's Nano Put to the Test
With environmentally friendly or 'green' computing solutions being all the rage nowadays I thought it a good time to check out a low powered motherboard featuring VIA's Nano processor.
July 3, 2009
Thermalright's Ultra-120 eXtreme & True Copper CPU Coolers: Do All Copper Components Make a Big Difference?
Today we will be looking at a couple of CPU coolers from Thermalright.
May 24, 2009
Zalman's CNPS9900 LED: Great Air Cooling Performance for a Price
With the dog days of summer fast approaching it seems to be a good time to check out a good way to keep your CPU cool through the hot summer months.
April 26, 2009
EVGA's GeForce GTX 275: NVIDIA's Party Spoiler
AMD has had a renewed since of success in the graphics market of late driving down prices and giving serious competition to NVIDIA. Couple this with the recent manufacturing problems NVIDIA has been having recently and it is plain to see that the green giant of the graphics market is getting a little beaten down.
April 24, 2009
The HD 4890 from MSI: A Factory Overclocked Card Sporting Reference Cooling
With the RV770 putting AMD back into a favorable position in the graphics game last year the hopes are high for the much touted RV790 or HD 4890.
April 12, 2009
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250: Very Nice But Incomplete
Have you bee looking for a well rounded TV tuner for that HTPC you are building? Are you looking for a dual tuner solution?
March 22, 2009
S3 Graphic's Chrome 540 GTX: Fully DRM Infected with HDMI and DisplayPort Output
If you want to watch Blue-ray movies the way the tech gods want you to complete with all the DRM then the only series of video cards you should be looking for is the Chrome 500 series from S3 Graphics.
Feruary 22, 2009
AMD's Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition: Can the Phenom II Compete with a DDR3 Enabled Kentsfield?
It has been awhile since AMD was able to give Intel any serious competition. In January AMD released the Phenom II X4 series of processors for there aging AM2+ platform.
Feruary 8, 2009
SCEPTRE X32BV-FullHD LCD TV: 32 Inches of 1080p Goodness for Cheap
Have you been thinking about upgrading your TV for Blue-ray playback, or the eventual digital TV transition that might happen sometime this year?
January 18, 2009
Cooler Master's Centurion 590: Sub $100 PC Case Goodness
Today we are taking a look at a PC case from Cooler Master that was most obviously inspired from there popular CM Stacker 810.
January 8, 2009
OCZ's OCZ3X16004GK Intel Extreme Edition: 4GB of DDR3 1600 Memory Done Right
The right memory can make all the difference when one is overclcoking or looking to get the most frame rates from there gaming rig.
December 27, 2008
Xigmatek Porter N881: Just What the Doctor Ordered?
Chipset cooling has become just as important as CPU cooling if you are into reaching the maximum overclock for you CPU. Nowadays motherboard vendors are offering some really nice chipset cooling a lot of times using copper and heat-pipes, but what if your motherboard chipset cooling solution just doesn't cut the mustard?
December 14, 2008
Entry Level GPU Roundup: Who Will Emerge as the Budget GPU King?
Today we are going to take a look at three different entry level GPU's from the three different players in the field of entry level graphics.
December 1, 2008
GIGABYTE's S-Series GA-EP45C-DS3R Part II: How Much Performance is Gained When Using DDR3?
In our first look at the GA-EP45C-DS3R we compared DDR2 memory performance to that of a P45 motherboard that could only use DDR2 memory. Learning that with added memory options you tend to lose a little bit of performance.
November 24, 2008
GIGABYTE's S-Series GA-EP45C-DS3R: DDR3 and DDR2 Support for the Budget Minded PC Gamer
The P45 chipset has been a huge success for Intel.
September 30, 2008
ZEROtherm's GX815 Gamer Edition: Very Good but Not the Best Performing Choice for the Money
Today we are taking a look at a GPU cooler from Zerotherm the GX815 Gamer Edition. One of the reasons I wanted to take a look at this cooler was because it has automatic fan speed control by temperature sensor.
September 15, 2008
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 1GB: Does Having Twice the Memory Make a Difference for the HD 4850?
Sapphire has released a version of the much touted HD 4850 that comes with 1GB of GDDR3 memory. We all no that more is better, but this is not always the case when it comes to graphics memory.
August 18, 2008
Foxconn's P45A-S: A Good Choice for the Gamer on a Limited Budget
Today we are taking a look at a P45 based motherboard from Foxconn.
July 21, 2008
ZALMAN's VF1000 LED: Great GPU Cooling for a Price
I have said it before and I will say it again. The stock GPU cooling solutions as of late leave a lot to be desired. This is however a good thing if you are in the business of selling aftermarket GPU cooling solutions.
July 7, 2008
AMD's Radeon HD 4850: $200 Graphics Goodness?
It is common knowledge AMD has been lagging behind in the graphics game. So it was odd to see them launch the HD 4850 under the radar with no fanfare, but instead they have just let the card speak for itself.
June 20, 2008
ARCTIC COOLING's Accelero S1 Rev. 2: Cool Your Ageing 8800GT or HD 3870 Without Noise.
With the reference fans that NVIDIA and AMD put out today it is almost necessary to an aftermarket heat sink.
May 29, 2008
AMD's Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition: Is AMD Still Playing Catch-up in the CPU Arena?
AMD and Intel are selling the fact that more cores are needed in order to accelerate future computers. While the people who sell software drag there feet on making multi threaded apps.
May 15, 2008
KDS K-2626MDHWB 26 in. Monitor: The Line between PC Monitors and TV's is Getting Blurry
What if I told you that for around $450 you could have a 26 in. monitor with HDMI and a 1920x1200 resolution? Would you be interested?
April 25, 2008
Logitech's Cordless MediaBoard: Logitech Dabbles in Console and PC Convergence?
Could it be that Logitech has made the best keyboard for use from the couch and only marketed for the PS3?
April 7, 2008
HighSpeed PC's Top Deck Tech Station: A Handy Toy for Computer Nerds
Get organized save space.
January 31, 2008
MSI K9A2 Platinum: 790FX the Heart of a Spider
Read on to see how the heart of a spider beats.
December 28, 2007
HD 3870 vs. 8800GT: The Fight for the DX10 Mainstream Crown
Who wins in the first round of the DX10 mainstream video card battle?
November 27, 2007
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT KO: Factory Overclocked and Ready to Rock.
Is it really worth $40 bucks to have a company do the overclocking for you? Read on and see.
November 14, 2007
AZiO BTD603-132 USB 2.0 Bluetooth Dongle: With Bluetooth Supported Everything Shouldn't These Things Talk to Your PC
Do you need Bluetooth on your PC? Here is the answer.
November 3, 2007
ASUS M2R32-MVP: Solid Performance Few Flaws
Not all motherboards are created equal find out if this one fits the bill.
October 5, 2007
AMD's Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition: The New King of Socket AM2
Wondering if you should upgrade to the Athlon 64 X2 6400+? Read this to find out.
February 1, 2007
nMEIDAPC HTPC 300: A fine HTPC case for under $100
What can a sub $100 HTPC case get you? A lot if you can live with a few minor cosmetic annoyances.
