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The development of DDR4 began several years before DDR3 was commercialized and it took DDR4 about nine years to get from the drawing board into actual computers. Right now key industry players are already working on the standard, which will succeed DDR4. According to Samsung Electronics, prototypes of the new …

PowerColor has introduced the world’s first consumer-class graphics card with 16GB of onboard memory. The new adapter carries two AMD Radeon R9 390 “Hawaii” graphics processing units and will be one of the highest-performing graphics cards on the planet. Moreover, to emphasize that the new card is premium product, PowerColor …

Advanced Micro Devices is currently the only company to use high-bandwidth memory it co-developed with SK Hynix and other partners. While usage of HBM is clearly a competitive advantage that AMD has over its rivals, the company is encouraging others to use the new memory type and does not intend …

Toshiba Corp. has introduced its new Q300 family of solid-state drives designed for personal computers and workstations. The new drives support Toshiba’s adaptive size SLC write cache technology, which is designed to dramatically speed up write performance of SSDs based on MLC and TLC NAND flash memory. Toshiba’s new Q300 …

Constrained amount of internal storage is one of the major limitations of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4 video game system, but fortunately the hard drive of PS4 is user upgradeable. Specially for those, who want not only to expand internal storage capacities of their PlayStation 4 consoles, but also to speed …

Western Digital Corp. this week introduced its all-new My Book Pro storage device with up to 12TB capacity, which is claimed to be the company’s highest-performing external storage solution based on hard disk drives. The new My Book Pro relies on Thunderbolt 2 or USB 3.0 interfaces. The new WD …

Nvidia Corp. is gearing up to introduce its GeForce GTX 990M, an all-new graphics processing unit for laptops. Despite expectations, the company will continue to use its GM204 chip for its new adapter designed for gaming notebooks. Nvidia GeForce GTX 990M graphics processing unit for mobile computers will use fully-fledged …

Asustek Computer on Wednesday introduced its new custom GeForce GTX 980 Ti-based graphics card with innovative hybrid cooling solution and increased overclocking potential. The new Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 Ti is not the fastest graphics card in the world out-of-box, but its overclocking potential should be exceptionally high thanks to …

Although DDR4 memory provides higher bandwidth than DDR3 and has very high overclocking potential, it is also more expensive than its predecessor. However, Intel Corp.’s latest “Skylake” processors officially support only DDR4 and DDR3L, but not DDR3. For those, who do not want to invest in DDR4 now, Kingston Technology …

So far in this series, we have made some initial tests and conclusions about the balance between CPU and graphics in a workstation, and then focused specifically on the types of application covered by the industry-standard SPECviewperf 12.02 tests. In this article, we turn our attention to two very significant …

Seagate Technology has announced a unique hard disk drive for mobile computers that can store 2TB of data and is packed with exclusive technologies. The new ultra-slim HDD features shingled magnetic recording platters with extreme areal density as well as all-new mechanics. The new 2TB HDD from Seagate comes in …

Gigabyte Technology has introduced its new mini-ITX mainboard for Intel Corp.’s “Skylake” processors with premium features. The new platform supports a number of advanced technologies, including Creative SoundBlaster audio enhancements, USB 3.1 type-C port, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and so on. The Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 mainboard based on the Intel Z170 core-logic with …

Despite of the fact that sales of personal computers are decreasing, shipments of solid-state drives are rising, according to analysts from TrendFocus. Samsung continues to be the world’s largest supplier of NAND flash memory as well as solid-state drives and it is unlikely that this will change any time soon. Sales …

Fractal Design is known for its silent PC cases and high-quality cooling systems. While independent tests prove that Fractal Design’s chassis are very good when it comes to dampening noises generated by PC components, they are not conducted in ideal environment. To find out precisely how silent its Define R5 is, …

China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund has reportedly approached GlobalFoundries about possible acquisition or cooperation. Chinese investors intend to take over GlobalFoundries in order to significantly improve Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and make it one of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors. China-based Hua Capital Management, which …

Even though Advanced Micro Devices will allow its partners to build their own versions of AMD Radeon R9 Nano graphics cards, it will not let them significantly alter specifications of such graphics adapters. As a result, the difference between the original Radeon R9 Nano and custom versions from AMD’s partners …

MicroStar International has initiated a cash-back program on select products based on Intel Corp.’s Z170 core-logic sets and Nvidia Corp.’s graphics processing units. For a limited time, it will be possible to get the latest hardware at a discount. From 28th of August until 29th of September, MSI offers up …

We'd expect a drive vendor like Seagate to be overly enthusiastic about its SSHD drives, but Ben's interest is solely on delivering Chillblast gaming laptop customers with the best experience possible. Here he is explaining – and demonstrating – his company's mobile storage choice. We recently had Ben in the KitGuru …

The high-bandwidth memory (HBM) introduced along with AMD’s code-named “Fiji” graphics processing unit radically changes the way graphics adapters are built and also dramatically improves potential performance of future graphics processing units. But while HBM looks ingeniously simple on paper, it was extremely hard to develop and is not easy …

Asustek Computer has introduced its TUF Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 mainboard for Intel Corp.’s latest “Skylake” processors, which combines excellent expansion capabilities, advanced connectivity, sophisticated overclocking features with ultimate durability and five-year warranty. The platform is designed for those, who not only want high performance, but maximum reliability too. The …

Nowadays datacentres use solid-state drives to store frequently used data, but continue to rely on hard disk drives to store occasionally accessed files. Intel Corp. believes that in five years’ time everything will change and SSDs will be used more broadly in datacentres. The chip giant forecasts that increasing capacities and …

In a bid to re-start talks about possible acquisition of Micron Technology, Zhao Weiguo, the chairman of China-based Tsinghua Unigroup, this week visited the U.S. The results of his negotiations are unknown, but the visit clearly signals that the government-backed technology investment company considers Micron and computer memory technologies strategically …

The reversible USB type-C connector is something that the industry has been waiting for since the introduction of the original USB bus in 1997. This year PCs, computer components and mobile devices finally started to incorporate USB-C receptacles, but not all implementations necessarily support all features introduced by the latest …

Update: Nvidia has announced that it will be extending its Metal Gear Solid V GPU bundle deal. The promotion was initially due to end on the 1st of September but thanks to the game's overwhelmingly positive reviews over the past week, this has now been extended until the 8th of …

Gigabyte's Z170XP-SLI is aiming to tempt users looking for a motherboard that offers the Z170 platform's core features, but without requiring a significant cash outlay. In the Z170XP-SLI, Gigabyte offers one of the lowest cost boards to support SLI, while also retaining features such as USB 3.1, USB Type-C, and …

The first commercial solid-state drives based on the recently introduced 3D XPoint non-volatile storage-class memory are yet to hit the market, but Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Corp. are already working on the second-generation 3D XPoint technology. Moreover, Micron is also designing an all-new memory technology that will further close …

Even though the market of personal computers has slowed down in the recent years, the PC continues its rapid development. Not only PCs are becoming more powerful, but they also change their form-factors. According to market analysts, one of the most promising segments of the PC market is the segment of highly …

Although 3D XPoint – a new type of non-volatile memory jointly developed by Intel Corp. and Micron Technology – promises to significantly improve performance of solid-state drives over time, do not expect it to revolutionize SSD landscape overnight. According to performance estimates released by Intel, performance of the first-gen 3D …

MicroStar International is preparing to release one of the industry’s first premium mainboards for Intel Corp.’s “Skylake” microprocessors in mini-ITX form-factor. The new motherboard will support all features essential for modern high-performance personal computers and will even have overclocking capabilities. The MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC platform is based on …

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday introduced its highly-anticipated AMD Radeon R9 Nano graphics card, which combines massive performance with relatively low power consumption and ultra-small form-factor. The new graphics card uses fully-fledged “Fiji” graphics processor and its peak compute performance even exceeds that of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX Titan X. …