At the risk of sounding foolish, more and more it seems that Mini-ITX is very much becoming the new Micro-ATX. Each subsequent hardware generation crams a little more performance and flexibility into the form factor, and Intel's Z77 chipset comple…
Extreme Air Cooling: Our Five-Slot (Quiet) Radeon HD 7970
The good news is that it’s possible to cool AMD’s flagship Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition to less than 75 degrees Celsius under full load, maintaining a quiet 32 dB(A) at the same time. The bad news? It’ll cost you five expansion slots and more than $1…
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Review: Functionality meets Competitive Pricing
The motherboard scene contains around fifty shades of grey – whatever size, whatever feature set, if a user cannot get what they exactly want, something similar should be available. The only questions that follow are: does it work properly…
Dell XPS 15 L521X: A Detailed First Look
Last week Dell’s new XPS 15 L512x landed on our doorstep, and we’ve been hammering on it ever since. Combining many of the best elements of the previous generation XPS 15 (L502x) and XPS 15z (L511z), the new model may finally silence the c…
Does Size Matter? Four Very Small Nettops Get Reviewed
We’re comparing four diminutive PCs: ASRock’s Vision HT, Jetway’s Mini-Top JBC700, Lenovo’s Q180, and Zotac’s Zbox Nano XS AD11 Plus. Despite their similar sizes, each tiny computer offers a unique feature set. Are any of them right for you?
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Qualcomm’s Quad-Core Snapdragon S4 (APQ8064/Adreno 320) Performance Preview
If you've been following our SoC related coverage, you'll probably have come across our coverage of Qualcomm's upcoming SoCs in their Mobile Development Platforms (MDPs). It's an interesting way to get both a feeling for the performanc…
Western Digital Red: NAS-Specific SATA 6Gb/s Drives, Reviewed
Western Digital just launched its new Red family of mechanical hard drives, optimized specifically for home and small office/home office (SOHO) network-attached storage devices. The company sent its 2 and 3 TB models for us to benchmark and review.
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Seven Sub-$160 Z77 Express Motherboards, Reviewed
Intel’s LGA 1155 interface is designed for mainstream buyers, yet the firm’s Ivy Bridge-based processors put it in the performance spotlight. We compare seven Z77 Express motherboards that deliver enthusiast-class performance at mainstream prices.
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Biostar TZ77XE4 Review: Dichotomy by Default
Biostar have always been on the radar for motherboard builders, occupying that niche of ‘bang-for-buck’ if your wallet is looking a little empty this month. In the grand scheme of things they usually do okay, perhaps a little imperfe…