Hauppauge have been creating a plethora of TV oriented products now for many years and today we are looking at their Colossus video recording card which can capture real time H.264 compressed recordings at resolutions up to 1080i. Is this ideal for capturing video console footage? Hauppauge currently make several …
Read More »Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro CPU Cooler Review
These days there are a vast number of CPU coolers on the market which can make the decision on which one to buy for your system very difficult indeed. We've tested numerous models from the budget friendly Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro to Zardon's personal favourite, the Noctua NH-D14 ‘Austrian …
Read More »HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix Review
Many months after the initial launch there are a wide variety of HD6970's available on the market, some with custom coolers and others with enhanced PCB designs. Today we are looking at the new HD6970 board from HIS, which features both. The HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix is the latest high …
Read More »Upgrade: Does DiRT 3 play better with six cores?
When Dirt 3 was released the developers pointed out that their advanced code took advantage of extra physical processing cores. Putting this to the test, we decided to investigate this further, by comparing an AMD quad-core and hex-core processor, on the basis of an upgrade. DiRT 3 was only released …
Read More »Sasa Marinkovic analyses the launch of AMD’s A8
Intel’s Sandy Bridge series is powerful. No doubting that statement. But while most of the media attention has been focused on the 2500k and 2600k processors, that’s quite far away from what the average user will be buying in terms of price and performance. Most people won’t spend much more …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Intel’s John Hengeveld about parallelism
KitGuru has long been fascinated with the increased levels of parallelism in modern processors. The move to Core, showed the world that doing more work per cycle is usually much more powerful than simply cranking up the clock. Intel's research teams rapidly embraced this increased parallelism and now we're moving …
Read More »Asus Crosshair V Formula Motherboard Review
A few weeks back AMD launched their new 990FX chipset which provides support for the new AM3+ socket. Motherboards based on this chipset and socket will support the new Bulldozer (Zambezi) line of CPUs when they are launched. We looked at the Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard on launch day which …
Read More »Corsair Obsidian 650D Case Review
Corsair is a relatively new player in the case market as they've only been selling cases for about two years. But every case they've produced to date has been very well received by enthusiasts and most have won a number of prestigious awards. In fact, their Graphite 600T case won …
Read More »Why there is no X78? Chinese sauces reveal truth
Intel likes roadmap and planning. It likes to smooth transitions from generation to generation. As whole world prepare for the arrival of the strongest processors ever, KitGuru must ask. Why is the new name not logical? The X48 happily hosted something like 70 processors. Whether you have a lowly Celeron …
Read More »Cougar GX 1050W Power Supply Review
Many readers might not have heard of Cougar, but they are a retail subset from parent company HEC, who also produce computer cases in Europe. They manufacture a full range of power supplies, including 600, 700, 800 and 900 Watt models, and today we are looking at their highest rated …
Read More »Antec Basiq Line PSU Series additions
The Basiq series is an entry-level solution that will appeal to users with its reliable dual rail output system and best-in-class design. The VP350P, VP450P and VP550P expand upon the necessary PSU functions with Active Power Factor Correction (PFC), which yields higher efficiency levels and less power grid pollution. For …
Read More »Corsair Announce H80 and H100 liquid coolers
The Hydro Series H80 and H100 feature the latest cooling performance technology, simple installation, and maintenance-free operation. Both include a low-profile, light-weight cooling unit with a micro-channel copper cold plate and a split-flow manifold for superior cooling. They also include digital fan control, allowing the user to select between quit, …
Read More »VTX3D HD6870 X2 Review
Not many people were expecting the HD6870 X2 when it was initially announced. Powercolor have been one of the key players behind the launch and we highlighted some pictures from Computex a while ago. Today we are looking at the VTX3D version of the card. For those of you who …
Read More »Bulldozer engineering sample overclocked to 5.1ghz on air
Thanks to reader Milosevic for the heads up with this news today. A chap from the Czech Republic who goes under the name of ‘CzechPCTuning' has managed to get an engineering sample of a Bulldozer chip (FX-8130P) to over 5ghz with merely air cooling. According to his blog and youtube …
Read More »Silverstone Strider Plus 1000W Review (SST-ST1000-P)
A few weeks ago we reviewed the Silverstone Strider Gold 1200W power supply and we were very impressed with the results. If you can't quite stretch to the £200+ asking price, then today's review product might just hit the spot. The SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W power supply costs around £100 …
Read More »G.Skill 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Review
A short while ago we reviewed the G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-2133mhz kit which was retailing for an incredibly low £50 inc vat. Today we are looking at the latest G.Skill 1600mhz RipjawsX bundle which is an 8GB kit retailing for £59.15 inc vat. Is this an ideal upgrade for your …
Read More »Asus Matrix Platinum GTX 580 1.5GB Review
When Asus put time and effort into creating a modified, custom cooled graphics card the world sits up and takes notice, especially when it is based around Nvidia's stunning GTX 580. Today we are looking at the new GTX 580 Matrix Platinum 1.5GB, which gets the special Republic Of Gamers …
Read More »AViiQ Portable Laptop Stand w/ 11″ MacBook Air
If you have just purchased a new laptop, the next peripheral on the ‘to buy' list is generally a protective carrying case or a stand/cooler. For those people who have just bought a sexy superportable laptop, they certainly won't want to be carting around a bulky stand. The review product …
Read More »IBM announce phase change memory breakthrough
IBM have announced a spectacular achievement yesterday, which could lead to the development of solid state chips which can store as much data as NAND flash technology but with 100 times the performance and greater longevity. NAND flash memory has hit the market in recent years and current SSD's can …
Read More »nVidia counter attack vision – Duke Nukem Forever for Free
While the world plus dog spent yesterday going nuts about the idea of integrated graphics that can deliver playable framerates at 1080p, nVidia was piloting a slightly different course. One that involves 3D goggle action. KitGuru dons the specs and looks into the deal being offered. Seems like only yesterday …
Read More »Corsair CX430 V2 430W Power Supply Review
Corsair certainly seem to have the Midas touch – earning a great reputation within whatever market they decide to target. Their reputation in the power supply sector is already one of the best and today we are looking at the follow up to the original CX430 – the new CX430 …
Read More »Thunderbolt tests show external raid speeds of 700 MB/s+
The Apple and Intel ‘Thunderbolt' co venture seems to have gotten off to a good start, with early tests showing a 12TB Raid Array able to write 700 MB/s to a notebook. Firewire 800 was left trailing in the dust. Anand Shimpi, one of the industries most famous site owners/reviewers …
Read More »AMD Vision A8-3850 APU & Asus F1A75-M Pro Motherboard Review
A couple of weeks back, AMD released the notebook portion of their Llano platform, dubbed ‘Sabine', which we explained in detail over here. This left many people wondering when the desktop variant of Llano would be released, and how it would perform compared to the latest offerings from Intel. Today …
Read More »NZXT Sentry Mesh Review
KitGuru has reviewed many items from NZXT since we opened a little over a year ago. Today we have one of their latest items to hit the market, the Sentry Mesh. The Sentry Mesh is a new fan controller that features 5 individual 30 watt channels and it fits into …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Andrew Wu from Republic of Gamers
On Thursday 30th June 2011, the Asus Republic of Gaming (ROG) gurus will be hosting a special overclocking event at a secret London location. KitGuru was lucky enough to catch up with one of the ROG elite, Andrew Wu, who spends 365 days a year dreaming of new ways to …
Read More »AData selected by Avnet – Kingston watches closely
How much product you can sell depends on a few factors. Do people need it and how much does it cost are important, but once a product line has matured and there is a definite, on-going need, then something else becomes very significant. Distribution. KitGuru dons some dungarees and considers …
Read More »Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z Motherboard review (mATX)
If you enjoyed our review of the new Sapphire Mini ITX H67 motherboard, then today's review product will be just as appealing. We are looking at the latest Micro ATX Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z motherboard which brings the Z68 chipset to the HTPC audience. The Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z motherboard …
Read More »AData first to market with fresh SSDs – Sandforce error free
Right now, everything about SSDs is sexy and exciting, so when the new Sandforce 2281 controller was rumoured – enthusiasts across the world worked extra shifts in their local comic book stores – ready to pay for it. It went wrong, but now it seems that the issues have been …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Tony Sahin from Xigmatek
Companies always come into the technology market with a range of products. You can normally expect a wide variety of colours, shapes, sizes and design philosophies. Not so much with Xigmatek. Everything, including the personnel, seem to be built to military grade. We caught up with Xigmatek's Marketing, Engineering and …
Read More »Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro BQT P9-550W Review (80 Plus Gold)
Be Quiet! are well known in enthusiast circles, they combine quality German engineering with an attractively designed range of products. Today we are looking at their latest ‘P9' version of the Dark Power Pro 550W, a supply that will suit a wide audience of enthusiast user, especially those seeking an …
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