Sitting in the middle of ASRock's current Z97 gaming motherboard line-up, the Fatal1ty Z97X Killer targets the fierce sub-£130 marketplace. Can its feature set, overclocking capabilities, and general performance allow it to stand out in a hotly-contested segment of the market? ASRock supplies its Z97X Killer with a number of popular …
Read More »AMD debuts embedded ‘Bald Eagle’ APUs, CPUs with HSA capabilities
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday introduced its new family of embedded accelerated processing units (APUs) and central processing units (CPUs) with heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) capabilities. The new chips code-named “Bald Eagle” are based on the design known as “Kaveri”, which is already available for desktops. The fresh family of …
Read More »BitFenix Shadow Tower Case Review (Midnight Black)
Some system builders will want to create a new PC with up to 7 hard drives, have it booting from an SSD with tool-free accessibility and yet won't want to spend more than £55 for the experience. If that sounds like you, then BitFenix has been working on a case …
Read More »AMD’s ‘Mullins’ APU fails to win designs with tablet makers – report
While Advanced Micro Devices was late to market with its chips for netbooks, the company’s accelerated processing units for inexpensive low-power laptops are quite popular nowadays thanks to relatively high performance, rich functionality and low cost. Unfortunately, AMD’s APUs designed for tablets still have not become any popular. Although AMD …
Read More »Toshiba and SanDisk license technologies for next-gen memory
Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. on Monday announced that they had licensed intellectual property from Intermolecular. The technologies, which were developed under the collaborative development program (CDP) as well as Intermolecular's background intellectual property, are believed to be crucial for next-generation memory. The companies' CDP with Intermolecular, specifically aimed at …
Read More »Intel promises ‘Broadwell’-based PCs in stores by Christmas
Chief executive officer of Intel Corp. said in an interview that personal computers powered by the company’s next-generation code-named “Broadwell” central processing units would reach stores by Christmas, but may not be available during the back-to-school (BTS) season. The new processors will boost performance and cut-down power consumption of the …
Read More »CLUB3D R9 290X RoyalAce Superoverclock Review
With the price of Ultra HD 4K screens dropping this year there has never been a better time to upgrade your system. Today we look at the latest high end graphics card from Club3D – the R9 290X RoyalAce. This card ships with a custom cooler design and a healthy …
Read More »Samsung to boost performance of 28nm chips using FD-SOI
Samsung Electronics and STMicroelectronics this week inked a licensing agreement on 28nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology. The deal grants Samsung rights to produce chips on FD-SOI wafers using a 28nm process technology developed by STMicroelectronics. The FD-SOI wafers will allow chip designers to get better performance or to cut-down …
Read More »First GeForce GTX Titan Z preview: fast, but not fast enough
A Hong Kong-based magazine has tested the highly-anticipated Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card ahead of other media outlets. The review was done on currently available drivers, not the final drivers for the dual-chip graphics card. Even with pre-release software the new flagship solution from Nvidia Corp. delivers remarkable …
Read More »AMD ‘Tonga’ graphics chip to emerge in two or three months
Advanced Micro Devices is reportedly on the finish line with its new graphics processing unit (GPU) code-named Tonga. Actual graphics cards based on the chip are now projected to hit the market in the next two or three months. But while the arrival of almost every new GPU is an …
Read More »Retail pricing for Radeon graphics cards has normalised
Shortly after the launch of AMD's most recent R9 GPU's, retail prices went through the roof thanks to demand from digital currency miners. However, prices are currently back to normal and AMD is promising stability from now on, which will be good news to those looking to build a new …
Read More »be quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler Review
We have already seen the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 stamp its authority on the high-end air cooler market. Now the company is aiming for another fight with its single tower Dark Rock 3 CPU cooler. Can a balance between cooling performance and noise make the Dark Rock 3 a worthy contender? Using …
Read More »Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z launch delayed by inefficient drivers
Nvidia Corp. has already begun to ship its GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics cards to various distributors and stores, but it does not let them start sales before the official launch. The latter is postponed by the lack of drivers which enable the graphics card to show its full performance …
Read More »Asrock boosts bandwidth of M.2 SSDs with ‘Ultra M.2’, but there is a catch
Sometimes mainboard makers come up with rather interesting solutions that truly leap performance of desktop personal computers forward by overcoming limitations of mainstream PC platforms. Unfortunately, in many cases elimination of one bottleneck just leads to creation of another… In a bid to boost performance of solid-state drives, Intel Corp. …
Read More »Win one of three Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE motherboards!
Its giveaway month! To celebrate Intel's recent launch of the Z97 platform we have another great competition for our readers – the chance to win one of three Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE motherboards! The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE includes the usual high-end motherboard features like USB 3.0, HDMI and PCI-E slots, as …
Read More »Rambus joins JEDEC committee to co-develop next-gen server memory
History always repeats itself. Rambus and JEDEC have a history that began in the early nineties and greatly influenced the whole dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry in the 2000s and 2010s. That history is about to repeat itself. Rambus, a developer of high-speed interfaces and owner of multiple standard-essential …
Read More »Computer memory prices to remain stable for now, but future is unclear
Despite of expectations that Micron Technology will increase computer memory prices this month because its rivals cannot meet all demand, the actual increases were not significant and average contract prices of DRAM [dynamic random access memory] in May are projected to remain generally on the same level as in April. …
Read More »Toshiba to build a new fab to produce 3D NAND flash memory
Toshiba Corp. on Wednesday said it would demolish one of its fabs in Yokkaichi, the company's NAND Flash memory manufacturing complex in Mie prefecture, Japan, and build an all new factory specially to produce 3D NAND flash. The new fab is expected to be complete next Summer and will go …
Read More »Palit GTX780 Jetstream 6GB SLi (Ultra HD 4K) review
Nvidia have always said that the GTX Titan and GTX Titan Black graphics cards were never released to target the gaming audience, however that hasn't stopped demanding enthusiast gamers buying them by the bucket load. As the GTX780 Ti is ‘only' equipped with 3GB of GDDR5 memory the move to …
Read More »Phanteks Enthoo Pro Review
Last summer Phanteks won our hearts with the Enthoo Primo aluminium case – which claimed a ‘Must Have' award despite a price tag of £199.99. This success led to a huge amount of anticipation for the upcoming Phanteks Enthoo Pro as we were promised a case that carried over the …
Read More »SanDisk unveils its first fully-encrypted solid-state drives
SanDisk Corp. on Tuesday announced its first family of solid-state drives that support all the certified encryption technologies. The new drives are designed for corporate laptops, so expect to see them in the upcoming Lenovo ThinkPads and HP EliteBooks. The drives will be made in 2.5”/7mm and M.2 versions. The …
Read More »Intel officially rolls-out Z97 and H97 chipsets
Intel Corp. has officially unveiled its latest core-logic sets for desktop computers, the Z97 and H97. The new chips support all existing microprocessors in LGA1150 packaging that belong to the Haswell and Haswell Refresh families as well as the upcoming code-named Broadwell central processing units. The fresh platforms do not …
Read More »YOYOTech launches Warbird Z7
As you'd expect, with the advent of a new Intel chipset, every major computer brand is pushing through new ranges of systems that promise to be better, faster and more feature-rich than anything you've seen before. KitGuru casts an eye over the interwibble and picks out one such newbie. We …
Read More »Samsung begins to mass produce 3D V-NAND flash in China
Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s top makers of NAND flash memory, last week announced that its new memory fab in Xi’an China has begun full-scale manufacturing operations. The new facility will produce Samsung’s advanced NAND flash memory chips, such as 3D V-NAND. Vertical NAND (V-NAND) memory stacks memory cells …
Read More »Intel finalizes specs of Core i “Devil’s Canyon” chips
A Chinese web-site has revealed the final specifications of Intel Corp.’s Core i-series “Devil’s Canyon” microprocessors that promise to offer better overclockability than existing chips based on the Haswell micro-architecture. As it appears, in addition to higher overclocking potential, the new flagship LGA1150 chip will offer very high performance out-of-the-box …
Read More »VESA adds Adaptive Sync technology to DisplayPort standard
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) on Monday announced that the future implementations of the DisplayPort 1.2a standards will feature Adaptive Sync technology that is supposed to synchronize refresh rates of displays with actual frame-rate that is displayed. The feature will make games and video run much smoother than currently. …
Read More »Kingston M.2 Sata SSD: a quick look at engineering sample
Intel's 9-series chipset has launched and one of the most interesting features that it delivers is native support for M.2 SSDs. Devices using the M.2 (formerly NGFF) connector can differ in their connection to the chipset. Two common approaches used today are the M.2 PCIe variant, which uses PCIe connections, …
Read More »MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard Review
Gamers have long been one of the core consumer groups for the DIY computing industry, but recent months have seen the popularity of gaming-branded components hit a new level. Motherboards are a great example of this; in the eleven months since the inception of Intel's Z87 chipset, the number of …
Read More »Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 Motherboard Review
Intel's Z97 chipset has launched and TUF series motherboards are part of the Asus welcoming party. Sporting the new Intel chipset and old TUF features that have made previous generation Sabertooth boards lucrative components, we put Asus' Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 in the firing line of our critical analysis. Do …
Read More »Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition Motherboard Review
Intel's Z97 chipset has arrived, bringing with it a handful of new features, including native support for PCIe-based storage. Motherboard manufacturers have been busy working on their boards based on the 9-series chipset. As of May 11th, the LGA 1150 socket motherboards with Z97 and H97 chipsets are available to purchase. We …
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