Indianapolis (IN) - Sweeping, critical, fundamental changes in the way we think about and work with our computers and our components, distinguished the top technology news stories of 2005 from prior years. Not the kind of change you read about in the press releases - switching from one brand to another, from one model to another, or to the latest point-release or upgrade or bug fix. Every segment of the computing industry - CPUs, GPUs, storage, memory, operating systems, and administration - has been the beneficiary, or perhaps the victim, of significant changes over the past 12 months, which have altered the way we perceive them and the way we talk and write about them.

In 2005, clock frequency ceased to be the determinant of relative performance in a CPU. While breaking into systems remained a pastime for some, it was no longer 10-year-olds in their parents' basement writing ILOVEYOU Outlook viruses who were the major perpetrators. Instead, there were individuals working to break through the barriers of the newest portable game console, some with the mission of converting it into a home computer, others who would prefer it become a portable software reproduction factory. And thousands discovered their systems had been broken into, in a sense, by simply having inserted a music CD into their drives. In the field of home entertainment, the carefully contrived system of mutually-assured destruction that was supposed to keep two competing technologies in check with one another, backfired dramatically. And with the introduction of new and fully anticipated graphics cards into the market, a new and unanticipated side effect arose: the trend toward rising prices for high-performance components, and the systems that include them.

Here now, based on the statistics generated from the stories you read and responded to from TG Daily and Tom's Hardware Guide this past year, are the top stories that made news in 2005.
Click here to start your journey through 2005