following the resignation of Kevin Rollins. Dell is also the current Chairman of the Board for the company. Dell started the company back in 1984 with a $1,000 and a dream of putting small, independent computer builders out of business cutting out the middleman and selling PCs directly to consumers. As for the future, now that he’s CEO again, things are only going to get better. “Dell… → Read More
CPU cooling is all thermo electrics these days. Ultra Products joins the fray of Peltier-effect processor coolers with the $149 Ultra Chill-TEC. For the unfamiliar, the cooler uses a solid-state active heat pump that takes heat from one side of the device to the other. A fan, heat pipes and copper plates then quietly get rid of the heat. The best part is that it can help cool down an overclocked… → Read More
<img src="http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/or don't play on their TVs because using a keyboard and mouse on your couch is inconvenient at best. However, with Vista now able to natively handle an Xbox 360 controller it makes a bit more sense to have a Media Center that’s capable of handling graphics-intensive games. And that’s where the $4,595 OMS-GX300… → Read More
In case you were panicked over how you would buy, upgrade or license your very own copy (or copies) of Microsoft Vista, well, you’ve got issues. But at least you won’t have to wait in long lines to get the new operating system on January 30. It’ll be available worldwide through Windows Anytime Upgrade, Windows Vista Family Discount and Windows Marketplace. Windows Anytime Upgrade… → Read More
Hooray for Tuesday! It’s now the morning of January 9 and I’m headed to a 9 a.m. meeting with Samsung Mobile, but my cab takes the Strip to get to the LVCC making me late. (In case you missed the previous entries, here are Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, parts one and two.) Despite the continued accolades heaped upon Samsung’s phones by others, I’ve always been a bit sour on them. Great… → Read More
So after a long day running around the LVCC it was time to head off to a 3:00 p.m. meeting with iRiver. I was looking forward to this meeting since I set it up and thankfully I was not disappointed. → Read More
Shuttle’s been catering to the commuting gamer for some time now. Its latest however, not only packs in some high-end components, but tackles two of the biggest problems with small form factor PCs: cooling and the noise created by said cooling. The compact-case builder managed to sneak in a liquid-cooling system from CoolIT to bring down the operating temps on the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700… → Read More
Never heard of Vigor Gaming? Maybe you’ve heard of its Monsoon thermoelectric desktop cooling system? Okay, well you’ll just have to take my word for it then that Vigor builds some top-notch performance desktops and notebooks, such as the Vigor Force Recon QX4. Made for what the company’s calling “megatasking” (running multiple apps side by side with multi-threaded… → Read More
With so much tech goodness available, it’s all too easy to forget that some of the best products are the ones that don’t require a Comp Sci degree to master. After all, just because you’re a genius and can figure out how to work the latest cell phone, computer, TV or digital camera, doesn’t mean your friends and family can. To that end we’ve put together a brief list of products and… → Read More
In the process of signing up for TigerDirect’s 20-day Wii, PS3 and Zune giveaway, I apparently ended up on its e-mail newletter lists. Which is how I found out about this deal on an HP desktop. Until December 8, TigerDirect is selling a $299** HP dx2200 desktop. (**It’s actually $499.99, but it’s got $200 worth of rebates on it.) Normally I balk at cheapy desktops, but this… → Read More
So yesterday I mentioned a review from XYZ Computing on Antec’s Nine Hundred gaming desktop case. The big black box is loaded with three 120mm fans and one of Antec’s Big Boy 200mm fans, which the site reported, and in turn I did too, as being “not very quiet.” Well, now I’m starting to wonder if XYZ even turned the fans on. Three other reviews make it a point to… → Read More
Those crappy little 90mm fans cooling your desktop just aren’t cutting it? Antec’s Nine Hundred “ultimate gamer case” sports three, 120mm fans with mounts for more, and a 200mm top-mounted fan. If you’ve never seen a 200mm fan in a case, it’s impressively large. To the point where you might feel the owner is over-compensating for other shortcomings. I’m… → Read More
Well, AMD officially launched its 4×4 platform and three new FX-series processors: 2.6GHz FX-70, 2.8GHz FX-72 and 3GHz FX-74. Or is that six processors? Each one is a set of two, dual-core CPUs. And according to Tom’s Hardware Guide, the platform and processors add up to a whole lotta “meh.” Which, by the way, took them 13 pages to get to. It’s not that the setup… → Read More
Sometimes I just like saying “VoIP” even when it doesn’t pertain to anything I’m actually talking aobut. VoIP. Anyhoo this time it does though as PC maker Systemax (the house-brand for TigerDirect.com) announced a new partnership with VoIP-and-videophone communications company 8×8, Inc. yesterday (yes, I know this is late, but I wasn’t around yesterday and that… → Read More
So, AMD’s ownership of ATI now means that anywhere you once put the graphics chip-maker’s products, you’ll now be putting in AMD. In this case, it’s the newly available ATI Radeon X1900 G5 Mac Edition. The card is your best option for delivering high-end 3D graphics performance to an older Power Mac desktop with a x16 PCI Express slot. For $349, you get 36 pixel shader… → Read More
So the verdict’s officially in on Intel’s new quad-core processors: Four cores is better than two. On the surface that might not seem like a big shocker, but as I’m sure you all know not all new technologies live up to their promises. There’s more than a smattering of coverage coursing through the Internets’ pipes today, but ComputerShopper.com popped out a full… → Read More
Memory manufacturer Corsair is having a very good year with its high-end performance RAM modules. Year-to-date the company’s total premium module shipments have surpassed one million units. To celebrate the acheivement and its general market dominance, Corsair is giving away five, custom 2GB DDR2-8888 gold-plated DOMINATOR memory kits. The DOMINATOR sticks are pretty awesome with an advanced… → Read More
This is pretty simple really—it’s a notebook stand that puts your screen at eye-level and includes a built-in, full-size keyboard—and I’m surprised, with all of Logitech’s accessory and peripheral knowledge, the company didn’t crank something like this out sooner. The keyboard is complete with a number pad, a media panel and a key layout that’ll be… → Read More
If you’re rocking a particularly small, small-form-factor PC or are looking to get a little extra performance out of your laptop, you’ll want to pay attention to this. Kingston Technology, memory-vendor extraordinaire, has made available 2GB 533MHz and 667MHz ValueRAM SO-DIMMs. Although, by “Value” it simply means that the modules don’t fall under the company’s… → Read More
It’s always fun to look at, dream about, lust after the high-end stuff, but when it comes down to it, most of us go right for the midrange option on whatever we’re buying. That’s what makes the new CrossFire-ready 256MB X1650 XT so appealing. It’s reasonably priced at $149 and has a good helping of the features you’ll find on the more expensive cards from the company. → Read More
Not that you couldn’t build your own small-form-factor gaming PC in a Silverstone case before, but now you can get the satisfaction of doing it and still pretend you spent thousands of dollars on a pre-built system from a boutique vendor. Priced at $299 (pricey for sure, but it includes an ATX-sized 750-watt PSU), Falcon Northwest’s FragBox 2 chassis is now widely available through… → Read More
With standard consumer hard drive disk sizes quickly approaching 1TB for a single drive, this 16GB Flash-based drive (with a street price of about $500) from memory manufacturer Super Talent is puny. However, the company’s IDE Flash drives (available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities) are perfect for UMPCs and laptops because they are lightweight, have low power needs and are highly reliable. → Read More
With HP buying VoodooPC last week and Dell purchasing Alienware earlier this year, there’s been more than a few comments around the Web on how these mainstream vendors will impact the quality of the boutiques. The fact is, many companies have high-end, mainstream and value brands, so why should computer vendors be any different? HP and Dell deserve some credit for realizing that just because… → Read More
This is sort of out of nowhere for HP, but it just picked up Canadian boutique computer vendor Voodoo PC. HP made an attempt at building gaming desktops a couple years ago, but didn’t seem to put too much time or effort into that market segment and shortly dropped the venture altogether. I’ve always liked Voodoo’s systems, despite their being pretty freakin’ costly and… → Read More
Along with other news coming out of the Intel Developer Forum today, Velocity Micro unveiled its updated ProMagix W160 workstation with Intel’s upcoming quad-core processor (code-named “Kentsfield”). What does this mean to the average consumer? Not a whole lot. But if you’re a day trader with massive spreadsheets and you like to listen to music, download pirated movies, and game all at… → Read More
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