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Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2010Jan 10, 2010 - in Reviews
The new year brings us improved Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 availability, as well as some price fluctuations. ATI's Radeon HD 4850 is also back, though its return is likely to be short-lived. We're also seeing more of Nvidia's previously-depleted lineup.
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CES 2010, Day 3: Thermaltake, Gigabyte, MSI, And ShuttleJan 8, 2010 - in Reviews
The motherboard vendors are out in force today. Loyd visited with Gigabyte to see its upcoming USB 3.0- and SATA 6 Gb/s-equipped boards, while MSI was showing off its LucidLogix Hydra-equipped Fuzion platform. Thermaltake has some new accessories, too.
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CES 2010, Day 2: Tegra 2, Asus, CoolIT, And Seagate's USB 3.0Jan 8, 2010 - in Reviews
The second day of CES is now behind us, and Loyd is back with another report on his sightings from the show floor, including Nvidia's Tegra 2 launch, Seagate's move to USB 3.0 external HDDs, new liquid coolers from CoolIT, and Asus' emphasis on P55.
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PCI Express And CrossFire Scaling: Is P55 Good Enough?Jan 7, 2010 - in Reviews
Surprised by the tiny performance difference between our top-two System Builder Marathon machines, we decided to find out if the P55 platform really is good enough for several of AMD’s best graphics cards. How does it stack up against the venerable X58?
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CES 2010, Day 1: AMD CPUs, DX11 Goes Mobile, Fermi SpottedJan 7, 2010 - in Reviews
Loyd Case is back after a first day of running around Las Vegas pre-CES. His meetings with ATI, Zalman, Patriot, and Nvidia have yielded information on the first DirectX 11 mobile GPUs, AMD's CPU strategy for the year, and a sneak peek at Fermi in action.
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MSI Big Bang Fuzion: Pulling The Covers Off Of Lucid’s Hydra TechJan 7, 2010 - in Reviews
After more than a year of waiting, LucidLogix's Hydra engine is ready to ship on MSI's Big Bang Fuzion motherboard. We have the platform in our lab and have spent the past week throwing Radeon HD 5870s and GeForce GTX 285s at it. Read on for the results!
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CES 2010, Day 0: The Calm Before The StormJan 6, 2010 - in Reviews
As Loyd Case, one of our on-site correspondents for CES 2010 in Las Vegas, settles in for the show's big start tomorrow morning, he is already seeing and hearing some of its big themes. Keeping checking back, as Loyd will be publishing new coverage daily!
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Super Talent's 512GB RAIDDrive: RAID On An Add-In CardJan 5, 2010 - in Reviews
Super Talent takes advantage of a powerful Areca RAID controller and four flash SSDs to deliver next-generation storage performance from a PCI Express add-in card. We got out hands on the 512GB RAIDDrive, which, you'll be happy to know, is bootable.
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Clarkdale's Efficiency: Core i5-661 Versus Core 2, Athlon II, And Phenom IIJan 4, 2010 - in Reviews
The new dual-core Clarkdale CPUs from Intel are here, and they deliver impressive performance. Today, we look at how Core i5-661 compares to AMD’s Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2 on the 785G platform. Who’s king of the ring from an efficiency standpoint?
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Intel’s Mobile Core i5 And Core i3: Arrandale Is For The Rest Of UsJan 3, 2010 - in Reviews
We've already given you a first-look at Intel's Calpella platform in the Mobile Core i7-920XM. Now the company is filling out its next-gen mobile lineup with its Arrandale-based CPUs sporting 32nm dual-core processors and 45nm graphics controllers.
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Intel Core i5-661: Clarkdale Rings The Death Knell Of Core 2Jan 3, 2010 - in Reviews
After knocking out the high-end and mid-range with its Bloomfield- and Lynnfield-based processors, Intel is looking for blood in the entry-level space. But that's AMD's turf. Does a Core i5-661 have what it takes to best AMD's Phenom II X4? Let's dig in!
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Quick Look: HP's MediaSmart EX495 Home ServerJan 1, 2010 - in Reviews
We're big fans of media servers, and HP's MediaSmart boxes have consistently impressed us. Of course, every time we look at a configured machine, the comments light up with DIY suggestions, so we went that route as well in today's look at the new EX495.
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Can Bargain SSDs Give Windows A Quantum Performance Leap?Dec 30, 2009 - in Reviews
Do you have a case of the boot-up blues? Are app load times sucking your will to live? Everybody knows that SSDs can accelerate certain system tasks, but can an affordable SSD deliver a quantum leap in everyday Windows tasks? We did the tests
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Do You Need A New Hard Drive With Your Windows 7 Upgrade?Dec 30, 2009 - in Reviews
There are two good reasons for a hard drive upgrade. Reason one: hard drives have become faster and cheaper per gigabyte. Reason two: Windows 7 should be able to take greater advantage of additional storage horsepower. We put these theories to the test.
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Say Goodbye To Your BIOS: Hello, UEFI!Dec 29, 2009 - in Reviews
Alright, so it's not as simple as waving the BIOS away. While the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface is ready to replace the old and inflexible BIOS, most platform vendors aren't prepared, even though we’re about to run into a new storage barrier.
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Experiment: Does Intel’s Turbo Boost Trump Overclocking?Dec 28, 2009 - in Reviews
Now that the Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs include Turbo Boost technology, automatically increasing clock rate when there's thermal headroom to spare, is it still worthwhile for enthusiasts to overclock? We run our updated 2010 benchmark suite to find out.
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DiRT 2: DirectX 11 Game Performance Compared And AnalyzedDec 27, 2009 - in Reviews
DiRT 2 promises to be one of the first compelling games to make use of DirectX 11 enhancements. We have a look at the title, its presentation, and its performance in this month's game analysis, comparing graphics cards from both ATI and Nvidia.
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Managing Backup: Three Software Solutions ComparedDec 25, 2009 - in Reviews
Portable hard drives are great backup targets. But should you use the ubiquitous Windows utility, a higher-end tool, or a brainless, consumer-friendly solution? We looked at Windows 7 Backup, True Image 2010 Home by Acronis, and Rebit’s consumer backup.
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System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: System Value ComparedDec 25, 2009 - in Reviews
Our mid-priced and high-end systems are ready to challenge the notion of value supremacy for low-cost parts. Will Intel’s latest architecture provide enough performance to break the $700 machine’s value winning monopoly? How do ATI's new GPUs factor in?
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System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $700 Gaming PCDec 24, 2009 - in Reviews
Higher prices and out-of-stock parts caused us to rethink how we could pack more gaming power in our budget build. With cheaper DDR2-800 memory, we bet on the overclocking-friendly Intel Pentium E5x00 with two Radeon HD 4870s in CrossFire.
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System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $1,300 Enthusiast PCDec 23, 2009 - in Reviews
Last quarter, we presented you with four Radeon HD 4850s under $1,250. This time around, we put together a very respectable Core i5 system with a couple of Radeon HD 5850s in CrossFire. Let's see how it compares against the previous "QuadFire" system.
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System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $2,500 Performance PCDec 22, 2009 - in Reviews
Can a truly high-end system still be assembled for $2,500? We set out to find the answer and learned some important things along the way. And here's a bit of a teaser: we're going to compare the performance of two Radeon HD 5870s to last quarter's 4890s.
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Intel’s Atom D510 And NM10 Express: Down The Pine Trail With D510MODec 20, 2009 - in Reviews
Intel's Atom processor family showed promise when it launched back in 2008, but it certainly wasn't an ideal desktop platform. Atom is back with an integrated memory controller, on-die graphics, and a new two-chip configuration. But is it any better?
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Quick Look: Notebook Performance With Windows XP, Vista, And 7Dec 18, 2009 - in Reviews
Windows 7 is here, and we've already established that it tastes great, is less filling, and performs well. But do you want it on your notebook? We compared the performance and battery life of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 on an upper-mainstream mobile system.
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Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: December '09Dec 16, 2009 - in Reviews
This holiday season doesn't bring any major processor launches our way, but a handful of price changes do shift some of our sub-$150 recommendations. Come check out the latest Best Gaming CPUs For The Money column for December's hierarchy of top values.
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ioXtreme PCI Express SSDs Anticipate SATA 6 Gb/s PerformanceDec 15, 2009 - in Reviews
Fusion-io has produced enterprise-class flash-based SSDs since 2007. But the firm now offers PCI Express-based flash devices for enthusiasts at more attractive price points. Today, we're looking at the ioXtreme and ioXtreme Pro to see how they stack up.
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P55 On Boost: Five LGA 1156 Boards Between $200 And $250Dec 14, 2009 - in Reviews
Intel’s P55 Express remains a mainstream chipset, so by breaking through the $200 barrier, we have high expectations of superb overclocking, unsurpassed stability, and uncompromising features. Can all of today’s boards meet those enthusiast demands?
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Tom's Hardware's 2009 Gift Guide: Part 2, System Add-OnsDec 14, 2009 - in Reviews
Welcome to Part Two of Tom's Hardware's Holiday Gift Guide. This second edition is loaded with extras that complement the machine we built in Part One, from networking gear to I/O, and a beautiful display. We're even including an Ion-based netbook!
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Windows 7 And Windows Vista: Performance ComparedDec 11, 2009 - in Reviews
Microsoft is hyping Windows 7 as the operating system that everyone should adopt. We'd already done a bit of benchmarking in the new OS, but we revisit a longer list of tests today, including more real-world tasks, like boot-up, hibernate, and shutdown.
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USB 3.0 Performance: Two Solutions From Asus And GigabyteDec 9, 2009 - in Reviews
Intel might have postponed USB 3.0 support for chipsets, but that hasn’t stopped motherboard manufacturers from offering it. We look at solutions from Asus and Gigabyte at two distinct budget levels.