Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos

You've likely already seen coverage of Intel's C0-based Core i7s compared to the latest stepping, D0. We wanted to do something different, so we compared the Core i7-965 Extreme to the 975 using base performance, power, and overclocking as our metrics.

Falling hard drive prices make it tempting to replace old disks; anything from 80 to 250 GB hard drives are fair game, since newer terabyte models simultaneously offer more performance and capacity. Today we look at the advantages of this $90 investment.

The Seagate Barracuda LP, WD Caviar RAID Edition 4, Hitachi Deskstar E series, and Samsung Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen battle for the attention of business users. Who offers best performance and efficiency? We test the latest drives with up to 2 TB to find out.

Modern southbridges support multiple RAID levels via software, but do they deliver decent performance? We used six Intel SSDs and tortured the top three by AMD, Intel and Nvidia. As if that weren't cruel enough, we added LSI's 6 Gb/s SAS card to the mix.

The eSATA interface provides a lot more bandwidth than USB, making it attractive for high-speed thumb drives. Maxell, OCZ, and Silicon Image sent us their eSATA sticks, and we also looked at Kingston’s new 128 GB USB thumb drive, too.

Do you need to access data on a hard drive quickly and conveniently? We looked at four storage products that facilitate convenient access to disks that don't require a conventional hard drive installation.

Intrigued by a video on 24 Samsung SSDs jammed into an ultra-fast RAID array, we set out to beat its 2 GB/s performance. Our recipe: 16 Intel X25-E Flash SSDs and two Adaptec 5805 RAID controllers. I/O bottlenecks have you down? We'll fix that.

Hard disk makers are leaning towards longer product transition periods, resulting in more and more similar drives on the shelves. We compared Samsung’s first and second generation 500 GB 2.5” drives as an example. Hint: be sure to buy the newest models.

Did you know that PC power consumption can be reduced by as much as 35 W just by cutting back on CPU voltage? We looked for the best stable undervolt settings for Core 2 Quad and Phenom II X4 processors without giving up performance.

SSDs seem to be the ultimate storage solution, but these drives still don’t provide sufficient capacity. We checked out what $1,000 will get you if you decide to invest in twelve 1 TB hard drives. The nearly 1 GB/s of streaming reads might surprise you.

This is our third RAM scaling story in a series that will conclude next week. In this piece, we're comparing a number of different DDR3 memory speeds using both tight and relaxed timings. Which memory setting is best for your Core 2 Quad setup?

The latest 2 TB hard drives are still expensive, but 1.5 TB disks provide low power consumption at a better cost-to-capacity ratio. We look at offerings from Samsung and Western Digital to determine the value of taking a step down from the flagships.

We compare the latest 500 GB notebook drives from Fujitsu, Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba and WD. Seagate is first manufacturer to reach 500 GB at 7,200 RPM, but which is really the best drive? We loaded up our updated test system to find out.

Hardware and software support for 64-bit operating systems is available, but the full 64-bit reality may still cause you some distress. We created a short summary of things you need to take into account before installing a 64-bit OS for the first time.

Hard drive capacities have increased in large increments over the last few years, while trends indicate reduced spindle speeds of 5,400 RPM instead of 7,200. We looked at three generations of Samsung hard drives to analyze the performance ramifications.

Do you want a quick Core i7 system, but don’t feel confident sticking to Intel's spec and using the DDR3-1066 memory supported by the processor? We benchmark the most relevant memory speed and timing combinations to check the benefit of going faster.

Intel's fastest Core 2 Duo, the E8600, runs at 3.33 GHz. But if you're a performance-hungry power user, we found that you can actually increase the chip's efficiency by overclocking it, thanks to 45 nm manufacturing and plenty of built-in headroom.

DDR3 memory is available in speeds ranging from DDR3-800 to DDR3-2133. Which is the best memory choice for AMD’s Phenom II X4? We tested as many speeds as possible using aggressive and conservative timings to find the sweet spot for your next build.

Hard drive silencers and cases with special suspension hardware promise to reduce hard drive noise. We looked at two different products, and were really surprised by the results. Are these things gimmicks, or is there some real value here?

Big hard drive capacities aren't just for immobile desktops any more. We round up the latest portable disks from Fujitsu, Samsung, Seagate, and Western Digital in order to gauge the performance you can expect from hand-held drives with up to 500 GB.

Uninterruptible power supplies (what most people call battery backup) are essential for protecting servers and bridging power outages. We looked at a high-end solution from Eaton, which offers impressive flexibility in a small business environment.

Samsung’s new 256 GB flash SSD is a screamer, while Solidata created a questionable RAID-based SSD that runs incredibly hot. Check out one example of what a new SSD should be and another example of what not to buy in this increasingly competitive market.

Today we're running a series of benchmarks on the latest SSD offering from Intel and Samsung to see how performance changes over time. We discovered that there are some severe performance issues, but also solutions you should know about.