PC

Alienware, a division of Dell that sells high-end gaming PCs, has announced that it will upgrade all newly purchased laptops to Intel Corp.’s latest processors free of charge. Alienware is known for its high-performance gaming laptops with exclusive features and capabilities not available from other manufacturers. However, exclusive things take …

Zotac has introduced its new miniature personal computer designed for gamers. Despite of small form-factor, the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN970 PC can deliver rather high performance in video games thanks to powerful specifications and a unique GeForce GTX 960 graphics adapter with 3GB of memory. The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN970 …

For the second time in two years, chief executive officer of Acer Group denies plans to merge with Asustek Computer in a bid to create one of the world’s largest technology companies. Last month the founder of Acer said sarcastically that he would welcome a buyout of the company by …

The near-simultaneous launches of Windows 10 and Intel’s Skylake processors means a new generation of hardware and software is upon us. The Z170 chipset in particular which has launched with Skylake brings a new set of technologies to desktop computers, particularly faster M.2 PCI-Express storage and DDR4 memory. Chillblast has …

Small form-factor personal computers are gaining popularity these days. One of the drawbacks that modem SFF PCs have is poor upgradeability. Sometimes it is hard to get appropriate components and it is generally hard to install them into a tiny system. Acer Group proposes a stackable PC concept, which makes …

Asustek Computer has announced the world’s first notebook with liquid cooling. The system is designed for gamers and can deliver performance on-par with high-end gaming desktops. Thanks to unique cooling solution and microprocessor with unlocked multiplier, the Asus ROG GX700 notebook even supports serious overclocking capabilities. The unique Asus ROG GX700 …

When Intel Corp. revealed first details about its mobile platforms powered by its code-named “Skylake” microprocessors about a year ago, the company said that the new systems would feature a number of innovative technologies, including wireless charging, fast wireless docking, Thunderbolt 3 interconnection, RealSense cameras and so on. But while …

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 …

Following on from Dell's refresh of its Alienware gaming laptop line, the X51 slim desktops have also received a hardware update, bringing things over to Intel's latest Skylake platform and even adding in all-in-one water cooling units to keep the temperatures down. The Alienware X51 desktop systems have been around …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

Stan Shih, the founder of Acer Group, said at a press conference on Thursday that he would welcome acquisition of the company he founded in 1976. In the recent months Acer’s sales decreased once again and its losses exceeded its net profit for the year 2014. Selling the company could …

Virtually all high-tech companies who sell PC hardware or personal computers recently complained about poor sales of PCs in the past few quarters. While many expect their revenues to improve in the second half of 2015, analysts warn that factors, which negatively affect sales of PCs now, will continue to slow …

Intel Corp.’s NUC [next unit of computing] small form-factor PCs offer decent performance and are rather small. Unfortunately, such systems come with limited choice of processors and cannot be upgraded. By contrast, mini-ITX systems support all types of CPUs, can be upgraded, but are considerably larger. In a bid to …

When Sony Corp. span off its PC division last year, the new company decided to significantly shrink its product lineup and concentrate solely on the Japanese market. Apparently, Vaio Corp. is planning its return to the international PC market with new high-end models with exclusive capabilities. The company plans to …

The Raptor is a watercooled gaming system from DinoPC that combines an unlocked Haswell-E Core i7 with dual GTX 980Ti graphics cards. That's an overclocked CPU with an extra Gigahertz of grunt and two overclocked graphics cards, each running at 1220MHz instead of the usual 1000MHz. Speed is very much …

Microsoft Corp. needs to install Windows 10 on as many devices as possible to capitalize on it in the coming years, which is why it made its latest OS available free of charge to existing customers. The approach makes sense for Microsoft. But is it good for the market in …

Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Corp. and the head of Microsoft Game Studios, said in an interview that the company is not trying to bring virtual reality games to its Xbox One game console because Windows is a better platform for VR while the technology is still at …

In the early days of virtual reality gaming various limitations and trade-offs are inevitable because early hardware and software are never perfect. However, the main challenge for VR games will be performance of graphics adapters. Not all high-end graphics cards will be able to deliver 90 frames per second required …

Sales of personal computers have been stagnating for a couple of years now for various reasons. Many industry executives and market observers believe that to revive the PC market, new programs that demand more resources than contemporary computers can provide are needed. Mark Papermaster, chief technology officer of Advanced Micro …

Nvidia Corp. is working on a new graphics processing unit for mobile personal computers that will feature performance of desktop-class graphics adapters. Not a lot of details are known about the new product, but a media report claims that the new flagship GeForce GTX for notebooks will be released in …

High-performance laptops aimed at gamers have been available on the market for many years. Moreover, it is not a secret that it is possible to overclock mobile processors using BIOS settings. This week Intel announced plans to release mobile central processing units with unlocked multiplier that will be designed specifically …

Avalanche studios, the same team behind Just Cause, is currently gearing up to release the new Mad Max video game on the consoles and PC. The game is due out on the 1st of September, so those looking to play it will probably want to check out the system requirements. …

Intel launched Skylake this week and obviously much of KitGuru's focus has been on the new architecture and supporting motherboards from partners such as ASUS. But what if you need more processing cores and a gaming system that has greater potential to double up as a personal workstation? Overclockers UK …

In the second part of this series, we presented some initial tests to illustrate how CPU and graphics can affect different types of performance in a PC workstation. In this third part, we focus down on one particular, industry-standard benchmark that puts a workstation through a range of tests with …

Rivet Networks on Wednesday introduced its new-generation smart network processor with enhanced performance and improved functionality. The new Killer E2400 chip promises to improve network-related performance in video games, multimedia and bandwidth-demanding applications. Gigabyte Technology and MicroStar International will be the first companies to use the new chip. Rivet does …

As all of the major system builders move across to Skylake, KitGuru invited Ben Miles into the studio to talk through his company's latest gaming rig. Specifically, we were interested in some bold claims that Chillblast is making about the performance increase they have managed to achieve over the previous …

Small form-factor multi-GPU project Quantum concept personal computer that Advanced Micro Devices demonstrated earlier this year was an impressive piece of hardware. Unfortunately, it may never really hit the market, despite of early claims by the company. Richard Huddy, chief scientist of AMD, claims that even if project Quantum will …