Reviews Tom's Hardware US

Tom's Hardware US

Power Supply Reference: Consumption, Savings, And More

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

In this final excerpt from Scott Mueller's Upgrading And Repairing PCs, 20th Edition, we examine a number of power supply usage factors including power consumption calculations, power savings, power protection systems, and troubleshooting.

What Does One Petabyte Of Storage (And $500K) Look Like?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

We're big fans of big technology, and with more than 1 PB of capacity, Aberdeen's Petarack is sure something to marvel at. We take a look inside and figure out what it takes to deploy 1 000 terabytes of space in an enterprise environment, reliably.

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

This month, we talk about new Llano-based APUs with unlocked core and graphics clock multipliers, Intel's upcoming Atom CPU refresh, and a few notable price adjustments. Then, we bid farewell to a few favorite processors that are quickly disappearing.

In Pictures: 16 Of The PC Industry's Most Epic Failures

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CET

We've endured a great many annoyances in the 16 years since Tom's Hardware first appeared online. What follows is a list of 16 of them. Although it's by no means all-inclusive, it represents one seasoned reviewer's worst experiences in technology.

Eurocom Racer: Radeon HD 6990M In A Truly Mobile Form Factor

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Sporting awesome gaming performance and low power draw, the only thing missing from our previous Radeon HD 6990M benchmarks was an efficient, portable package. Eurocom addresses that with its mid-sized Racer. But can the smaller notebook keep pace?

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2012

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

The new year promises availability of AMD's new Radeon HD 7970 3 GB. Also, we see a spate of surprise price shifts that change some of our most consistent recommendations. We're also getting more information about what will happen in the coming months.

Live From AMD's Financial Analyst Day

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:00 CET

We've been waiting on AMD's Financial Analyst Day for more information on how the company plans to approach new and current businesses moving forward. Ahead of the big event, AMD pre-briefed us on the news.

Presented By:

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CET

AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review: Up Against GeForce GTX 580

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

Is the Radeon HD 7970's $550 asking price too high? AMD now has a less expensive derivative based on the same GCN architecture. At its default clock rates, it's fast enough to outrun Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 in many benchmarks. And it overclocks like mad.

Presented By:

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

In Pictures: The Best Graphics Card Values In History

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

A few months ago, we published a list of the fastest, most powerful graphics cards from their respective generations. This time around we honor the sub-$200 boards that brought great gaming performance to the folks on limited budgets.

Best SSDs For The Money: January 2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Welcome to the year's first SSD recommendations. We updated our list to reflect recent price drops on second-gen SandForce-based hardware. There are several good deals in the $150-200 range. Prices are falling, so we're letting you know!

Chris Angelini On Tom's Hardware In 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:10:01 CET

I just got back from CES 2012. And although Iâ??ve attended a great many Consumer Electronics Shows, Computexes, and Comdexes (never a CeBIT), this yearâ??s show was by far the most intense. It wasnâ??t that there were tons of really awesome products. In fact,

Presented By: Cisco Cius. The Mobile Device for Business.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:10:01 CET

		Offering highly secure remote connections, enterprise ready apps and TelePresence integration. Because itâ??s built for business from the ground up.
		Learn More at cisco.com/cius

Mobile: Intel Will Overtake Qualcomm In Three Years

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

We know Intel hasn't shipped any phones, while Qualcomm had over $4 billion in revenue last quarter. But when you're done reading, you'll agree with us. To do this, we'll perform a magic trick with all three acts, The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige.

In Pictures: Dear Developers, 15 Games Worthy Of A Sequel

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Most of the time good games get sequels. However, there's always a select few that seem to fall through the cracks. Developers close shop or trademarks get held in limbo. Here are fifteen games that we feel deserve sequels.

Presented By: Cisco Cius. Built for Business.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

		Cisco Cius is designed for business, with enterprise-grade mobility and security, a virtual desktop for cloud computing, Android business apps and Ciscoâ??s Collaboration suite built-in.
		Learn More at cisco.com/cius

Web Browser Grand Prix VIII: Chrome 16, Firefox 9, And Mac OS X

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Back in August, Mozilla took the WBGP crown with Firefox 7. Can Firefox 9 retain that title? And how are the top Web browsers doing in Mac OS X? We used a Hackintosh last time. This time, we're testing on the world's first Ultrabook, the MacBook Air.

Upgrade Advice: Does Your Fast SSD Really Need SATA 6Gb/s?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CET

Are you mulling the potential benefit of an SSD upgrade on a system without 6 Gb/s SATA connectivity? We run the benchmarks on several different solid-state storage architectures in order to determine how much performance you give up on an older machine.

Five Overclocked GeForce GTX 560 Cards, Rounded-Up

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

We were foiled in our quest to find the best vendor-provided GPU cooler for Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560. But out of the ashes sprung a round-up of cards armed with those very same solutions. Which of these five GF114-based boards is right for you?

OpenCL In Action: Post-Processing Apps, Accelerated

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CET

We've been bugging AMD for years now, literally: show us what GPU-accelerated software can do. Finally, the company is ready to put us in touch with ISVs in nine different segments to demonstrate how its hardware can benefit optimized applications.

Presented By: The Increasing Cost of Data Breaches

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

		The average cost of a data breach is $7.2 million per event, or roughly $214 per compromised record. A breach puts a strain on every department in an organization. Learn how these costs can be easily avoided by maintaining valid SSL Certificates.
		www.symantec.com

Nokia Lumia 710 Review: Windows Phone 7 On A Budget

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

Nokia's Lumia 710 is designed to make Windows Phone 7 accessible to the masses. How does it fare under our test suite? You might be surprised. We're starting down the path of smartphone testing with a different take and a few exclusive benchmarks as well.

Install A Hard Drive Or SSD In Your Notebook's Optical Bay

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

You want a performance-oriented SSD in your notebook, but you also need the capacity of a hard drive. Why not just remove your optical drive, drop your hard drive into its bay, and load up a brand new SSD with Windows and your apps?

60/64 GB SSD Shootout: Crucial, Samsung, And SandForce

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

It's easy to forget that lower-capacity SSDs are also usually slower. Today we're testing the most prolific 60/64 GB configurations to gauge where they fall in the big picture. We emerge at the other end with a recommendation based on our testing, too.

Storage Performance In Entertainment And Content Creation

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

A number of metrics are used to quantify storage performance. If you're a content creator, you have to be wondering how such dry terminology can apply to your video projects. Rather than telling you, we're going to dissect several media-oriented tasks.

Seven $260-$320 X79 Express Motherboards, Reviewed

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

With 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 connectivity to host all of our high-bandwidth devices, LGA 2011 certainly qualifies as a premium processor interface. Today we examine seven X79-based motherboards that offer high-end features at a more palatable price.

In Pictures: The Girls Of CES 2012

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

CES 2012 was filled to the brim with new tablets and 3D display technology, but somehow exhibitors found a way to include booth models as part of their showcase. Take a peek through our picture story to see some of what we saw this year in Las Vegas.

Samsung Series 7 11.6" Slate: Breathing New Life Into Tablet PCs

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

Tablet PCs are a dying breed, and Windows 8 is still at least a year away. Until we see what Microsoft's next operating system has to offer, one tablet PC shows us why this form factor is still a winner. Samsung's Series 7 11.6" Slate breaks the mold.

Intel SSD 520 Review: Taking Back The High-End With SandForce

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:00:00 CET

If you thought that Intel had conceded the high-end SSD market to its competition, you were wrong. The company's new SSD 520 centers on SandForce's SF-2281 controller, incorporates top-bin IMFT NAND, and is protected by a five-year warranty.

In Pictures: 14 LGA 2011 Coolers For Your Core i7-3000 CPU

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CET

Do LGA 2011-based processors really need to be matched up to closed-loop liquid coolers? Not at all. We collected 14 different high-end heat sink kits able to do the job with air. Keep an eye out for our upcoming performance write-up, too!

AMD's FX-8150 After Two Windows 7 Hotfixes And UEFI Updates

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Introducing a new processor architecture takes a colossal effort. AMD's modular Bulldozer design ran into its share of resistance at launch. Can a handful of software updates turn the company's flagship FX-8150 into the powerhouse AMD promised?

Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

We really like to hunt down great values in the processor space. Since our last round-up of affordable CPUs, AMD released its Llano-based APUs and Bulldozer-based FX family. Also, Intel introduced a handful of Sandy Bridge-based Pentium chips.

Presented By:

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Radeon HD 6990M And GeForce GTX 580M: A Beautiful Lie

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CET

Weâ??ve been more than outspoken about the naming AMD and Nvidia use for their mobile GPUs. Are they really trying to mislead buyers, though? We briefly examine their methodology and frame that against the limitations of high-end mobile computing.

Presented By:

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:00:01 CET

Amazon Kindle Touch Review And Fourth-Gen Screen Quality Update

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:10:00 CET

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet received all of the glory. But the company also has a new e-book reader that features a touchscreen. How does the Kindle Touch stack up, and what's the real story on the display quality of Amazon's fourth-gen Kindles?