PC Components, Peripherals And Gadget Reviews And News
Dig into our deep-dive product reviews and news of PC components from processors, to motherboards, graphics cards (GPUs), sound cards, and storage, along with other gadgets and peripherals that complete the computing experience. Whether you're a DIY PC enthusiast builder or just looking to read-up on what should be inside or connected to your next pre-built PC, here's where you'll find all the nuts and bolts sorted on what makes modern computer systems tick, as well some of the best user interface devices to go with them.
The Plextor PleXCombo 20/10/40-12A Review Covering All of the Bases With a Single Drive By, Jeff Bouton July 10, 2002 As CD-Writers have matured, so has the technology that is integrated into their design. Back when the first CD-R drives were introduced, users were routinely plagued by "buffer underruns." Initially,...
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The ABIT "Legacy Free" AT7 & IT7 MAX Motherboards Innovation Through Elimination... By, Marco Chiappetta July 9, 2002 Over the years, we haven't seen too many "standards" completely tossed aside. For example, analysts have been saying for some time that the "end was near" for the good old floppy drive,...
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Hercules 3D Prophet 8500 128MB Review RADEON 8500 and All the Trimmings By -Chris Angelini July 3rd, 2002 Competing in the video card market is much like swimming in school of sharks. Each manufacturer has the potential to pack a potent punch, but the slightest sign of weakness can quickly incite a feeding frenzy. We?ve seen it...
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The DFI NB76-EA i845G Motherboard A Powerful Package Without a Premium Price... By, Robert Maloney July 1, 2002 Intel and AMD have been dueling it out for several iterations of CPU cores and the benefactor has always been the end user. The result is a new CPU seemingly hitting the shelves just as the old ones are being installed. When it comes...
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The MSI 845G Max-L Motherboard Review Integrated Graphics and Bluetooth Technology By -Chris Angelini June 28th, 2002 The i845 chipset gained quick popularity due to its DDR memory support, providing an alternative to the once-expensive RDRAM standard. In fact, many proponents of the chipset went so far as to call the i845 ?the...
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The Raidmax Aluminum Series PSU 400 Watts of Goodness... By, Robert Maloney June 30, 2002 The Power Supply Unit (PSU) is a critical system component, however, it is often overlooked when building a system. An inferior power supply, or an underpowered one, can cause interference with other components, automatic system rebooting, drive...
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The ABIT KX7-333R Motherboard Review Plain on the Outside, Potent on the Inside By, Jeff Bouton June 27, 2002 Ever since the KT333 was first released, we have seen a wide variety of motherboards incorporating VIA's newest chipset. Some manufacturers developed new motherboards that focused on impressing the user with not only with...
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The Matrox Parhelia 128MB AGP Hands on testing of Matrox's High End Gaming Card By -Dave Altavilla June 25, 2002 When Matrox took the wraps off their next generation GPU, last month, HotHardware brought you a full showcase of the chip's features, new capabilities and estimated performance level. Clearly Matrox is targeting the...
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The Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Motherboard Review The Best That Soyo Has To Offer! By, Jeff Bouton June 23, 2002 Since the KT333 chipset was first released, we've seen a steady improvement in what Athlon-based motherboards have to offer. With the new USB 2.0 and ATA133 standards, as well as 333MHz DDR PC2700 DRAM support, system...
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The Gainward GF4 PowerPack! Ultra/750XP Golden Sample! An Awesome Card With an Insane Bundle... By - Marco Chiappetta June 20, 2002 Over the last year or so, Gainward has done an excellent job differentiating their NVIDIA based video boards from their competition's. Gainward's designers and marketing team seem...
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The ASUS P4T533 i850E Motherboard Review i850E Armed with 32-bit RIMM 4200 By -Chris Angelini and Dave Altavilla June 17th, 2002 ASUS first earned acclaim with the hardware enthusiast community for building reliable motherboards that deliver industry-standard performance. Their products often feature value-added integrations,...
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nVIDIA's "Cg" Language An Interview With David Kirk, Chief Scientist - NVIDIA Corp What's on the horizon for next generation graphics By Dave Altavilla 6/14/02 The 3D Graphics arena is getting a little bit more interesting these days. The competition is heating back up in a big way, with a host of players looking to...
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ATi's New "Catalyst" Software Package Improved Performance, Reliability & More! By, Jeff Bouton June 13, 2002 In a quest to maintain their position as a leader in the video card market, ATi is constantly looking to improve the end-user's overall experience. This applies to their latest hardware releases, as well...
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AMD's Athlon XP 2200+ Processor The "Thoroughbreds" at .13 Debut! By, Marco Chiappetta June 10, 2002 Approximately one year ago, AMD Athlon processors based on the "Thunderbird" core, were reaching the end of their lifespan. The "Thunderbird" had long been a favorite of the enthusiast community. ...
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Abit's Siluro GeForce 4 Ti 4600 Does Abit's Overclocking Legacy Live On? By - Robert Maloney June 6, 2002 The GeForce 4 series by Nvidia is indisputably the most powerful line of video cards available on the market today. At the top of the line is the GeForce 4 Titanium 4600, but this comes with a hefty price tag. A number of companies, both...
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The Unitech Optimus 8500 eXP A RADEON 8500 tweaked out for the masses By -Chris Angelini May 29th, 2002 Like it or not, NVIDIA is currently dominating the high-performance video card market. With an aggressive release schedule and undeniably impressive array of graphics processors, NVIDIA has maneuvered into a comfortable position...
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SOYO Unveils 10 New Motherboard Designs and Integrated Serial ATA-133 Storage Interface Technology At Computex Taipei 2002 May 28, 2002 Fremont, California ? May 28, 2002 ? SOYO, Inc. will expand its line of motherboards with 10 new designs at Computex 2002 in Taipei, Taiwan. Utilizing the new chipset technology from Intel,...
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E3 2002 Wrap Up A quick take at the Los Angeles Gaming Extravaganza By, Chris Angelini May 26, 2002 Thousands of gamers annually trek to Los Angeles for one of the largest entertainment industry tradeshows in the world. Luckily, I live 15 minutes away, making the journey an easy one. A combination of PC and console...
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Abit's Siluro GeForce 4 Ti 4200 A Sub $200 Power-House! By - Robert Maloney May 23, 2002 With every revision of the GeForce line from Nvidia, there seems to be more and more variations, each fulfilling a certain need in the graphics card market. First released in the GeForce 4 line were the Ti 4400 and Ti 4600 models, which undoubtedly provide...
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The MSI K7D Master Dual Socket A Motherboard Athlon Power X 2! By Marco Chiappetta May 21, 2002 There is no denying that AMD has done very well with their Athlon line of processors. A few years ago, back in the K6 days, AMD CPUs were found only in low-end desktop systems. The terms "high-performance" and "K6"...
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The Matrox Parhelia 512 Matrox Re-Enters The 3D Graphics Ring - Big, Bad and Pretty By -Dave Altavilla May 14, 2002 We know you've been waiting for this, haven't you? Of course you have. Since the launch of the Matrox G450, we don't know of any hard core PC Hardware Enthusiast that hasn't been waiting for Matrox to step...
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The Shuttle AK35GT2/R Motherboard Review Improving on a Proven Design By, Jeff Bouton May 16, 2002 We see a lot of hardware come through the Hot Hardware labs. Every once in a while a piece comes along that stands out from the rest, making a lasting impression. A few recent items that come to mind is the Hercules Game Theater...
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