nVidia’s 860M, 870M and 880M bring 4k video and double a laptop’s runtime, writes Agam Shah Laptops will get console-like gaming framerates and run for up to twice as long with nVidia’s GeForce GTX 800M mobile graphics processors. The GeForce GTX 860M, 850M, 840M and 830M GPUs are up to 60 percent faster than their … Read more
Exquisite looks, but you pay for them SUPPLIER www.dabs.com Many of the top-runners in the NAS world offer similar boxes and software, but QNAP has taken an entirely different physical approach with one of its latest NAS boxes. Its HS-210 TurboNAS looks more like a giant media streamer than a NAS box, but inside there’s … Read more
A great pint-sized mix of low noise, great cooling and sensible design This year looks set to be a great year for mini-ITX fans and Corsair has, at last, finally got on the bandwagon too. Rumblings of a Corsair case mini-ITX have been felt for some time, but the Obsidian 250D has finally hit the … Read more
A professional-grade ultraportable with fab battery life, but is it compromised in other areas? Lenovo is on a mission with its ThinkPad laptops – not just making them thinner and lighter, but easier to use, more stylish and more versatile too. The ThinkPad T440s is one of Lenovo’s most recent attempts to modernise the ThinkPad … Read more
Extreme power, design and storage, but this gaming laptop has a price to match T oshiba has never been shy about showing off its gaming laptops’ high-end heritage, and that’s certainly true of the new Qosmio X70. There’s a ring of red metal trim around its base, the same material is used to circle the … Read more
Q: WAYNE KLAWUHN USED the Darik’s Boot and Nuke utility (www.dban.org) to securely wipe his hard drive. Unfortunately, the erasing procedure also wiped the tools necessary for reinstalling Windows. A: EVERY COMPUTER THAT’S sold with Windows preinstalled must come with a tool for reinstalling the operating system. The most common approach puts the restoration tool … Read more
THE WINDOWS XPOCALYPSE is upon us: Microsoft is no longer providing security patches for Windows XP as of April 8, 2014. Nearly 30 percent of Internet-connected PCs still run XP. They’ll continue operating normally, but they’ll be rotting inside, suffering from increasingly numerous security holes. If you’re using Windows XP, and you can’t upgrade your … Read more
W e’ve been following Valve’s first foray into the operating system business via its Steam Machine initiative with interest. Chances are good that you have been, too, whether you’re a staunch card-carrying member of the PC Master Race or just a fan of games regardless of the platform on which they’re played. We first covered … Read more
GeForce GTX 750 Ti GIGABYTE www.gigabyte.us I t’s true, we spill more ink writing about flagship GPUs, architectures, and the high- priced graphics cards that house them than we do about entry-level and mainstream cards. But for a vast majority of the general PC gaming populace, the mainstream graphics card is what will ultimately end … Read more
Premier Pro SP920 256GB ADATA www.adata-group.com Continuing its assault on the SSD market, ADATA has come out guns blazing with a brand-new lineup of drives. The Premier Pro SP920 family of 6Gbps SATA SSDs has a little something for everyone, in terms of capacity. Maybe you want a fleet-footed boot drive and nothing more. Perhaps … Read more
DESKTOP WHO? WINDOWS what? The classic Windows-based PC remains Intel’s bread and butter, but it has needed to diversify its diet for a long time. At an event at the Mobile World Congress in February, the company announced two new Atom chips, code-named Merrifield and Moorefield, that could be its first truly competitive mobile solutions—and … Read more
NORMALLY, AN UNEXPECTED pop-up is a reason to worry: Is your PC infected with a virus? Is this pop-up an ad? With one particular pop-up from Microsoft, you’re supposed to worry—but the message is legit. In its ongoing bid to encourage Windows XP users to move to Windows 7 or Windows 8, Microsoft began pushing … Read more