When it comes to the Christmas period, we normally associate it with the season to be jolly. For civilians that may be true but, in the hard fought world of system builders, it's more a case of desk the halls with guns and ammo. The shoot out for your Xmas …
Read More »Inside the OC Lab at MSI HQ in Taipei: KitGuru TV
At a recent gaming event, Beat IT 2014, KitGuru was able to get an exclusive look inside the MSI OC Lab for a quick interview with main man Manny Chang. Look out for the horrific attack with LN2 at the end! For mainboard manufacturers, the world of overclocking is like …
Read More »Sapphire speak to Kitguru TV about custom R9 290X
For every generation of hardware (from nVidia and AMD) there will be a champion-chip – the quickest of its kind, cranked up to the fastest clocks etc. For AMD right now, an overclocked R9 290X is as fast as it gets. KitGuru invited Bill Donnelly from Sapphire into the studio …
Read More »Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate is the sound of silence: KitGuru TV
High end graphic cards are cool and sexy, but what if your single biggest concern is reliability or noise? When you can't have a moving part fail or you need a genuine zero decibel count, then Sapphire's Ultimate series is one of the more popular choice. We bring Bill Donnelly …
Read More »Fnatic COO tells us what it takes to make it in eSports
Spend any time around kids and you will be asked, “Can I be a gamer when I grow up?”. When there was no money in electronic sports (eSports), the question was moot – there was no living to be made. Then a handful of plucky players started to earn some …
Read More »MSI Beat IT 2014 winners take over 100k in prize money
Technically, the reason KitGuru spent 18 hours travelling to the other side of the planet was the MSI Beat IT 2014 Gaming Finals. Along the way, we got first hands on a brand new laptop, graphics card and main board. In our final ‘live' report, we cover the gaming itself. …
Read More »Where do cards like the Sapphire R7 240 fit in?: Kitguru TV
Naturally for a publication like KitGuru, we spend a lot of time looking at graphic cards that cost hundreds of pounds and which rip through the latest games at phenomenal frame rates. But, in the real world, those cards represent only a fraction of the GPUs sold. We speak with Bill Donnelly from …
Read More »MSI X99 Gaming 9 ACK revealed to KitGuru at Beat IT 2014
The array of mainboard options facing enthusiasts toward the back end of 2014 is nothing short of astonishing. With four mainstream manufacturers vying for position and several chipsets available, everyone is looking for any advantage they can get. KitGuru spies the latest step forward in this competition. For the most …
Read More »KitGuru picks up an MSI Gold Edition GTX970 at Beat IT 2014
The launch of nVidia's high end Maxwell cards has been a bit of a game changer. Not only were the first cards into the market astonishing performers, they also managed to deliver so much in-game performance with so little wattage. Now MSI has pushed the boat out just a little …
Read More »KitGuru first to get hands-on to the MSI GT80 gaming laptop
While the world will need to wait a while for the actual review, it's fair to say that we have had hands-on with the latest gaming laptop from MSI. At the Beat It 2014 gaming event in Taipei, we managed to convince the guards to remove the protective perspex just …
Read More »Silverstone will release higher wattage 80Plus Gold SFF PSUs in 2015
At Beat IT 2014 in Taipei, alongside a whole heap of new hardware from MSI, its partners were also on hand to show their wares. KitGuru spoke with Chris Liu, hardware guru for Silverstone. With the move toward smaller form factor PCs (SFF) and emphasis on performance-per-watt etc, you would …
Read More »VP Eric Kuo reveals some interesting MSI plans for the future
Over at MSI Beat IT 2014, the main focus is on the global gaming competition which brings together teams from across the planet for a chance to win over $113,000 in prize money. At the same time, there is some interesting hardware on show – and a lot of senior MSI …
Read More »Laptop design challenges – exclusive interview with Alex Lin from MSI
As MSI prepares to launch a brand new, top of the range gaming laptop, KitGuru took the opportunity to spend time with Alex Lin, the Product Manager for notebooks. We were interested to know what kind of challenges he and his team face when trying to bring a new product …
Read More »The heroes of Wired Gaming at MSI Beat IT 2014
With a load of the world's top media in attendance, Saturday will see the action begin for the finals of the MSI Beat IT 2014 gaming championships. While the clever money is going on the American and Far East teams, one story stood out a mile for KitGuru. We hunker …
Read More »AMD Chief Gaming Scientist responds to the OcUK forum
When you've been working in gaming since you left university – and you were a key member of the team that helped create DirectX in the first place – then you have opinions on just about everything. We partnered with the folks on the Overclockers.co.uk Forum to get the toughest questions possible for AMD's …
Read More »Parallels demonstrates Windows apps on Yosemite
At the Digital Seasons event in London's Montcalm hotel, an array of tech companies attempted to woo the audience with their latest and greatest innovations. KitGuru was on hand to sip the Chardonnay on your behalf and filter the presentations to find the most interesting. Around the back of Marble …
Read More »YOYOTech Black Box X99 systems are a popular choice claims MD
Whenever a new high end platform is launched, the early adopters (as the industry likes to call them) tend to go for fully laden systems – either because they are nuts for power or they are looking for a system that will last a good few years. With Intel's X99, …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Alvin Chan from Antec
Today we are interviewing Alvin Chan, Product Development Manager from Antec, gives us his take on why Japanese capacitors are the only choice for him, the importance of energy efficiency in 2015 and where the market will be heading next. Established in 1986, Antec has been a favourite with enthusiasts for …
Read More »Synology presents next-gen NAS products in Exclusive Interview
If a data disaster strikes a small/medium sized business then, according to Synology, 48% of them will be bankrupt within 12 months and a further 29% will go down before the end of the second year. If correct for all markets, then that is a staggering statistic. To find out …
Read More »Phones 4U collapses – serious allegations likely to follow
With its roots going back to 1987, the collapse of Phones 4U earlier this evening means a huge hole has opened up in the UK retail phone market – just as Apple and its competitors begin a new roll out of product for Xmas and 2015. The company's original founder …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Dino PC CEO Vladimir Kuznetsov
One of the most unusual names in the UK gaming market, Dino PC has now been supplying high-end hardware to gamers and enthusiasts alike for more than a decade. KitGuru took the opportunity to catch up with the company's founder, Vladimir Kuznetsov. Based in North West London, Dino PC has …
Read More »PC Specialist push 64GB Intel-based tablet at just £217
Although Apple has fallen from its peak tablet market share from 3-4 years ago, it is still the single largest single brand in the market with a constant stream of money and willing App Store customers flooding to its banner/bank. Against that background, what does a local hero need to …
Read More »Nothing stark about Aerocool’s Iron Man inspired chassis
One of the best exchanges in the original Iron Man film was between Tony Stark and his design-bot when it comes to improvements for his suit, as it moved from early prototype to crime-fighting readiness. KitGuru checks out Aerocool's use of Hotrod Red. The Dead Silence range is understated. Aerocool's …
Read More »Top 5 technology gift ideas for Father’s Day
As the conveyor belt of made-up holidays continues its never ending cycle past us punters, the next on the list is Father's Day. This year, it falls on 15th June – which gives you a last window of opportunity to show your appreciation. Go on. You know you want to. …
Read More »SanDisk shows 400GB in each socket of Supermicro board at Computex
In any given month, less than 1 million people read KitGuru. That makes you, the knowledgeable hardware enthusiast, part of an exclusive minority. Your system is likely to be an order of magnitude more powerful than any of your friends and YOU are the person they ring when they need …
Read More »MSI displays Intel-based World Firsts at Computex 2014
Hot on the heels of its ECO drive, MSI has also been showing two World Firsts in the mainboard area. One is set to improve all round performance through superior bandwidth, while the other promises a high-speed interconnect for your everyday peripherals (or, at least, the ones you will buy …
Read More »Phanteks launch Enthoo Pro Chassis
One of the more unusually named items in the history of computing, there's no denying that the Phanteks products we've seen so far DESERVE to stand out. With today's launch of the latest version, KitGuru wonders if this specialist engineering and design company can pull it off again? Not only …
Read More »8Pack leads OcUK team to multiple performance records
Given that our most recent survey shows that 93% of KitGuru's audience are serious PC gamers, we know how much you all crave the smooth frame rates and high levels of image quality. That all takes power. Probably more than you're prepared to pay for. Enter overclocking. KitGuru casts an …
Read More »YOYOTech launches retro chic 901 chassis in the UK
Unusual one this. You'd normally expect a manufacturer to announce the availability of a chassis, but with the InWin designed 901 it looks like system builder YOYOTech has a bit of a deal to control the supply. KitGuru checks to see how customs will be checking the border. While mining …
Read More »Sapphire R9 295X2 price hatches on NewEgg – less than £900
When KitGuru Labs took the Radeon R9 295X2 apart and put it through its paces, one of the key questions that we couldn't answer with 100% precision was ‘Does it represent good value?' – no stores had stock when the review went up. With the latest leaking on to the …
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