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Hardware News

Learn about the latest developments in PC hardware and enthusiast computing. We cover processors, graphics cards, chipsets, desktop and mobile systems, tablets, input devices and more.


Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance

Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance
  • Posted May 20, 2013, 1:41 AM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware Breaking News
  • The idea behind the Thin Mini-ITX form factor, besides the obvious which is to create seriously compact computers, is also to allow for DIY all-in-ones (think of little PCs you can attach to the back of your monitor). Having that said, we don't fully intend to go the all-in-one route in this article, but are aiming to build a powerful Thin Mini-ITX system that can be used in the office or at home as a media PC.

    This is what our finished system should look like: extremely compact, powerful, and near silent operation, as in no-moving-parts silent. For less than $700 including a 256GB SSD, we believe you'll love what the final product will look like.

Asus' new lineup of Z87 Haswell motherboards revealed

Asus
  • Posted May 17, 2013, 5:00 PM by Jesse Schoff | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Asus is showing off its new line of Z87-based Haswell motherboards, and one of the more immediate updates you’ll notice is the fit and finish. Asus has made moderate adjustments to the ROG and TUF product families, but has completely…

Nvidia Shield arrives in June for $349, pre-orders open now (update)

Nvidia Shield arrives in June for $349, pre-orders open now (update)
  • Posted May 17, 2013, 9:09 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Gaming, Hardware With Video
  • Nvidia has decided to open pre-orders today instead of May 20th as originally announced. You can buy yours for $350 at Newegg, GameStop and Nvidia's Shield site. The estimated ship date also appears to have moved up from 'end of June' to June 4th.

Sharp to begin production on three new IGZO notebook displays

Sharp to begin production on three new IGZO notebook displays
  • Posted May 16, 2013, 11:00 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware, Mobile Computing
  • Sharp is moving forward with their notebook-minded IGZO LCD panel initiative at a steady pace and will begin production of three new panel sizes next month at the company’s Kameyama Plant No. 2. The corporation is ramping up to build…

Das Keyboard launches 'Quiet' mechanical keyboard for office use

Das Keyboard launches
  • Posted May 16, 2013, 9:31 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware
  • Das Keyboard, one of the most popular mechanical keyboard manufacturers, has announced a new model that eliminates the iconic audible feedback they are most known for. The Model S Professional Quiet utilizes Cherry MX Red switches to produce near-silent operation…

Billionaire investor says Sony should sell off entertainment business

Billionaire investor says Sony should sell off entertainment business
  • Posted May 14, 2013, 2:00 PM by Dave LeClair | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Daniel S. Loeb, a major Wall Street hedge fund manager for Third Point, thinks Sony should sell off part of its Entertainment arm. When people think of Sony, televisions and video games are generally the first thing that comes to…

PCIe flash: It solves lots of problems, but also makes a bunch - so what's its future?

PCIe flash: It solves lots of problems, but also makes a bunch - so what
  • Posted May 14, 2013, 8:30 AM by Rob Ober | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • It’s worth pointing out that almost all the "magic" that has been developed around flash was already scoped out in 2007. It just takes a while for a whole new industry to mature. Individual die capacity increased, meaning fewer die are needed for a solution – and that means less parallel bandwidth for data transfer…

Gigabyte U2442F 14-inch Ultrabook Review

Gigabyte U2442F 14-inch Ultrabook Review
  • Posted May 13, 2013, 1:26 AM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware
  • It was 2011 and Intel saw a surging trend in mobile computing. Notebooks were to become thinner, batteries had to last more, optical drives were going away, and performance, performance didn't have to suffer too much. So Intel pushed forward by investing $300 million of its own money to make it happen. That's what we know today as the ultrabook initiative.

    Today we are checking out Gigabyte's flagship ultrabook, the U2442F which comes armed with a 3rd-Gen Core i7 processor, plenty of memory, and a quality SSD. The U2442F is as capable as a high-end desktop.

Quantum computer dominates traditional PC in head-to-head battle

Quantum computer dominates traditional PC in head-to-head battle
  • Posted May 10, 2013, 1:00 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware
  • Computer scientists have been singing the praises of quantum computers for years but the question remains: How do they stack up against a traditional high-end PC? We finally have an answer to that question as Catherine McGeoch from Amherst College,…

Nexus 7 refresh expected at I/O: upgraded SoC and display, same price

Nexus 7 refresh expected at I/O: upgraded SoC and display, same price
  • Posted May 10, 2013, 12:00 PM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Mobile Computing, Hardware
  • With Google I/O just around the corner, speculation is starting to mount about what the company might show next week in San Francisco. The next major update to Android seems like a given, but according to KGI securities analyst Mingchi…

Meet BRCK - the rugged backup generator for the Internet

Meet BRCK - the rugged backup generator for the Internet
  • Posted May 9, 2013, 6:00 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware With Video
  • A non-profit tech outfit from Africa has taken to Kickstarter to help fund what they describe as a backup generator for the Internet. Ushahidi claims the versatile BRCK (pronounced 'brick') can provide you with an affordable, reliable connection to the…

WD talks SSHDs: Black hybrid details revealed

WD talks SSHDs: Black hybrid details revealed
  • Posted May 9, 2013, 4:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Earlier this week, Western Digital debuted the fruit of a partnership with SanDisk: a line of solid state hybrid drives bearing its "Black" branding. In light of the announcement, WD vice president Matt Rutledge recently discussed with The Tech Report…

ASRock Haswell boards to feature waterproofing, better audio, 802.11ac

ASRock Haswell boards to feature waterproofing, better audio, 802.11ac
  • Posted May 8, 2013, 3:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, Hardware With Video
  • Through a recently published teaser on its website, ASRock has shed some light on its upcoming range of Haswell-based motherboards. One feature, in particular, may surprise you though: waterproofing. That's right -- ASRock is planning to waterproof some of its…

"Dead in five years": The reports of the tablet's demise are greatly exaggerated

"Dead in five years": The reports of the tablet
  • Posted May 8, 2013, 7:30 AM by Wendy Boswell | Filed in Mobile Computing, Hardware With Video
  • There are wildly differing viewpoints on whether or not the tablet is on its way out, as you might guess. One perspective is that of the smartphone taking over what the tablet does; which is basically content consumption and creation, albeit the latter on a more limited scale than, say, a standard desktop or convertible Ultrabook.

Seagate finally joins consumer SSD market, revamps enterprise lineup

Seagate finally joins consumer SSD market, revamps enterprise lineup
  • Posted May 7, 2013, 3:30 PM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Hardware
  • Despite being one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives, Seagate has been somewhat slow or hesitant to jump into the SSD market, especially with consumer-focused drives. But today the company is finally getting serious about flash-based storage…

Hard drive shipments continue to slide as SSDs gain momentum

Hard drive shipments continue to slide as SSDs gain momentum
  • Posted May 7, 2013, 11:30 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • Just when it seemed the hard drive market had fully recovered from the devastating floods that hit Thailand in 2011, the venerable storage media has another threat on its hand: competition from solid state drives. Shipments of PC hard drives…

Intel announces Atom processor redesign, code-named Silvermont

Intel announces Atom processor redesign, code-named Silvermont
  • Posted May 6, 2013, 3:00 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware Breaking News
  • Intel on Monday released details about their upcoming Atom processor redesign, code-named Silvermont. The 22-nanometer SoC, said to deliver three times the performance while consuming five times less power versus current Atom chips, will be the first in a family…

Intel Ivy Bridge-E slated for September 2013 launch

Intel Ivy Bridge-E slated for September 2013 launch
  • Posted May 3, 2013, 5:30 PM by Jesse Schoff | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • The launch window for Intel’s Ivy Bridge-E processor line has been narrowed down to September 2013. Information previously available targeted Q3, but VR-Zone has revealed a leaked slide from Intel giving a more precise date for the new HEDT (high-end…

Microsoft rumored to be announcing a new Surface in June

Microsoft rumored to be announcing a new Surface in June
  • Posted May 2, 2013, 9:30 AM by Dave LeClair | Filed in Microsoft, Hardware
  • A seven-inch version of Microsoft's Surface tablet, as well as some tweaks to the other sizes, could be announced by the company in June, according to a report from DigiTimes. Microsoft is holding its Build developer conference at the end…

AMD quad-core FX-4350 and six-core FX-6350 get official

AMD quad-core FX-4350 and six-core FX-6350 get official
  • Posted May 2, 2013, 7:30 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • AMD recently added two new chips to the FX processor family, the quad-core FX-4350 and the six-core FX-6350. Both chips are based on the Piledriver architecture, support the latest instruction sets including FMA3 and AVX and work with existing AM3+…

Intel Iris: Haswell graphics get a name, 2x-3x performance of HD 4000

Intel Iris: Haswell graphics get a name, 2x-3x performance of HD 4000
  • Posted May 2, 2013, 2:00 AM by Julio Franco | Filed in Hardware Breaking News
  • Intel has disclosed new information about its up and coming Haswell processors, detailing the graphics specs and potential performance improvements versus today's integrated HD graphics. Intel is giving the new graphics engine a brand name: "Iris", touting 2x to 3x…

Most power supplies won't support Haswell's C6/C7 low-power states

Most power supplies won
  • Posted April 30, 2013, 7:30 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware
  • Intel’s Haswell processor is just around the corner and if you are planning to pick up some new silicon, you’ll likely want to keep reading. That’s because it has been discovered that a number of power supplies currently on the…

Wave of freshly minted Chromebooks to arrive later this year

Wave of freshly minted Chromebooks to arrive later this year
  • Posted April 30, 2013, 4:30 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Despite the ostensibly small niche Chromebooks occupy, a recent rumor suggests another wave of Chrome-inspired laptops are on the way anyhow. The bulk of those upcoming models are expected to arrive during the second half of 2013 with a growing number of manufacturers…

Lenovo introduces Windows 8-inspired ThinkPad S431

Lenovo introduces Windows 8-inspired ThinkPad S431
  • Posted April 30, 2013, 4:00 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Hardware, Mobile Computing
  • Lenovo today announced a new edition to the venerable ThinkPad line, the S431. The notebook includes a multi-finger touchscreen that opens to 180-degrees, backlit keyboard with optimized shortcuts and a large, responsive touchpad – all designed with Windows 8 in mind.

AMD's Kaveri solves age-old issue, promises faster on-die GPUs

AMD
  • Posted April 30, 2013, 3:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • AMD has revealed more information regarding Kaveri: its upcoming 28nm Steamroller-based APU. The company is touting Kaveri's heterogeneous system architecture -- a design which aims to greatly increase the performance output of on-die graphics cores. This technological achievement likely mark…

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