| Keyboard Basher (Part 1) |
| A typical review that I write here contains around 3,000 characters (more if you include spaces), and on average I write about 500 pages a year. That works out at around a quarter of a million words and at least 1.5 million key presses. |
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| Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Top Flow SR1 |
| Despite having an enviable reputation, Be Quiet! hasn’t branched out into liquid cooling, like Zalman or Cooler Master, and its coolers have previously fitted firmly in the premium tower cooler category. However, the company has just released the Shadow Rock Top Flow SR1 which, at less than 13cm tall, is short enough to fit into most HTPC cases. |
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| Enermax ETS-T40-TA – Good For Quiet Low-Mid Range System |
| CPU coolers towards the cheaper end of the market rarely vary greatly in terms of their key design features, and the ETS-T40-TA is an example of this. It has a copper baseplate and four copper heat pipes that ascend into a single aluminium fin stack, which is in turn cooled by a 120mm fan. Fan clips and rubber vibration pads are provided, meaning a second fan can be added if needed. |
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| What New Technology Will 2013 Bring Us? (Part 2) |
| 2013 might be the year that 3D printing becomes mainstream too. In other countries, some shops, theme parks and shopping malls have started to get 3D printing kiosks, and that looks set to happen here too. With a 3D printing booth in your local stationery shop or outside a department store, the technology will become more well-known, and it’ll start to be used in more industries. |
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| What New Technology Will 2013 Bring Us? (Part 1) |
| Let’s assume the Mayans were wrong and 2013 is actually going to happen (apologies to anyone alarmed by that possibility). Since the march of progress is pretty much unstoppable, global economic crisis or no global economic crisis, that means we have all sorts of exciting technological developments to look forward to. |
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| Get The Best Value Home Network (Part 2) |
| Wireless access points are the hubs that allow a wireless network to be established between several wireless capable devices. While it is possible to buy a stand-alone access point, it’s normally better value to buy a router with access point capabilities routers share an internet connection between the devices on a network, and it’s a safe bet that any home user who needs a wireless access point will also require a router to go with it. |
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| Get The Best Value Home Network (Part 1) |
| In a world where games consoles and phones are just as likely to have network capabilities as your computer, home networks are quickly becoming an essential part of the modern household. The need for a not-insubstantial investment in hardware, however, means that any way you can save money is worth doing. |
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| Top 10 Geek Accessories – Jan 2013 |
| Wacom’s Hi-Tech doodler writes like an ordinary (albeit slightly chunky) ballpoint pen, but you wouldn’t want to chew on it. Its clever insides track each pen stroke before transferring and converting your sketches to layer-separable digital versions. Neat. |
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| Picking Up Last Generation Bargains (Part 2) |
| AMD’s current line of graphics cards is a good example of how new hardware can sometimes offer a better deal than old hardware. It goes against common sense, but AMD’s latest generation cards use new architecture and new production process. |
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| Picking Up Last Generation Bargains (Part 1) |
| There’s always something tempting about owning the latest hardware. It’s hard to say exactly what makes it so enticing. Could it be the buzz of being one of the first to try new features? Knowing that you’re on the cutting edge? Having access to technologies almost no one else has undoubtedly all this and more. |
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| Which Components Have Hit The Sweet Spot? (Part 3) |
| One terabyte drives (1024GB) are easy to find priced around $96 (17GB per pound), but Seagate has more or less destroyed the competition at this price/capacity range. They currently offer a 1.5TB Barracuda for $88, which is a massive 27.9GB per pound. Whether this is a limited time or end-of-line offer isn’t clear, but it’s available at virtually every online store and is immensely good value. |
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| Which Components Have Hit The Sweet Spot? (Part 2) |
| In absolute terms, Intel CPUs invariably perform far better than AMD’s for the same money, especially in real-world situations like gaming. The multi-core design of AMD chips mean benchmarks results often look higher than they are, because benchmarks can use more than four cores together in ways that ‘real’ software doesn’t. |
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| Which Components Have Hit The Sweet Spot? (Part 1) |
| Whether you’re looking to buy upgrades or pricing up an entire system, the final say usually comes courtesy of your wallet. Unless you’re part of the small percentage of society who can buy things without having to worry about their price, you’re always going to reach a point where you have to trade off the performance of hardware against its cost. |
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| What Can You Buy For Under $160? (Part 2) |
| Intel’s entry-level line of Ivy Bridge Core i3’s has only been on shelves for a few months, but their prices are already dropping under $159. The Core i3-3220T is a dual-core desktop chip with quad-core Hyper-Threading functionality. With Intel’s HD Graphics 2500 GPU and a clock speed of 2.8GHz, this isn’t a gaming CPU, but it is a strong all-rounder. |
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| What Can You Buy For Under $160? (Part 1) |
| If you have Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, one of the best ways to spend it is to buy a present for yourself to combat the drudgery of the New Year. The January sales are a good time to go searching for bargains, but obviously you don’t want to spend too much. So what can you buy for $159? |
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| Ready Clip - Take Advantage Of These Pen-Sized Bags |
| Ready Clip cable of Aviiq also has the size of this bag: 4.7 inch long, 0.5 inch wide, and quite flat, ¼ inch thick. One end is a standard USB 2 connector, the other end is Apple 30-pin dock connector, mini-USB or micro-USB. |
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| LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt |
| Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt is similar in size and design with LaCie Mini Ruged that we reviewed; both metal and plastic shells are wrapped in an orange rubber mattress (bumper). Latest Rugged Mini has rotating 500GB hard drive, while the Thunderbolt drive contains 120GB SSD. |
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| Tech Briefing: AMD Gets ARM’d |
| The end is nigh for the era of x86 computing. And that means the PC as we know it is not long for this world. It’s awfully tempting to draw that conclusion right now, what with devices and chips powered by the alternative ARM architecture popping up all over the metaphorical shop. But is it actually true? |
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| Thermalright Macho Rev.A - Take The Low Noise Crown |
| Large heatsink and fan combos have, for the past few years, come under pressure from all-in-one liquid coolers like the Corsair H80, which provide the very best cooling available for CPUs in a single device. |
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| How To Buy…A Printer (Part 2) |
| In terms of printer categories, you’re probably aware of the three basic options by now: inkjet, MFP and laser. We’ll first explain where you might want to use those, and then go over the features you should look for in them. |
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| How To Buy…A Printer (Part 1) |
| In a world increasingly dominated by digital information, printers can sometimes feel like a relic from times past. After all, the underlying technology in most printers hasn’t really changed since the introduction of the home inkjet, Hewlett Packard’s original Deskjet, and that happened in 1988! |
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| Primer – Choosing And Using Peripheral Buses (Part 2) |
| Esata, being intended for storage devices, doesn’t provide power over the bus, but a powered variant – known as eSATA or eSATA/USB – is offered a hybrid USB 2 port with 5V power, and one or two optional 12V lines, but isn’t a general standard and is likely to be eclipsed by USB 3. Thunderbolt carries power down the present copper versions of its cable and can supply up to 10w of power. |
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| Primer – Choosing And Using Peripheral Buses (Part 1) |
| Just as we’ve got the hang of plugging in existing printers and other peripherals, in a few months Apple has revised every Mac model, so they now sport with new strengths and foibles. Although we should still see support for past standards such as FireWire and Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2 for a while to come, and there should be adaptors to hook up the latest Macs with older peripherals, you should look now to using newer, faster connections such as USB 3 and Thunderbolt. |
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| SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB - Caching Solution SSD |
| There is almost nothing about the SanDisk ReadyCache that followed our preconceptions. The drive looks like a regular 2.5" SSD, but it's peculiarly light at 30g thanks to its use of a plastic casing. The other curiosity about the casing is that it doesn't use any screws to hold it together but instead it uses a hook mechanism in the centre of the casing that locks the cover in place. |
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| Bits Of Bytes |
| The burgeoning world of tech-jargon is a bewildering place, and it’s easy for newcomers to become confused. However, as computing nomenclature ebbs and flows, there’s one – or rather two - things we need to get straight. |
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| Intel SSD 310 40GB - A Sophisticated Nightmare |
| You can argue that Seagate was the first company to deliver a hybrid hard drive when it released the Momentus XT in 2010, but it was Intel that came up with the technology that allowed the home user to combine a hard drive with an SSD cache drive. |
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| Is Windows 8 Already In Deep Trouble? (Part 3) |
| From the inconsistent stance of the PC makers, it seems obvious that they’re on board with Windows 8, but not to the point of commercial suicide. Many of those who have many specifically business customers have shied away from a total endorsement, offering instead to keep the Windows 7 wheels turning for the time being. |
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| Is Windows 8 Already In Deep Trouble? (Part 2) |
| Microsoft is usually very keen to push its latest OS and will often frame its previous releases in negative ways as a means to encourage users to upgrade. However, that’s mostly for retail customers’ consumption; for business users it would rather that they be happier than no longer a customer of Microsoft. |
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| Is Windows 8 Already In Deep Trouble? (Part 1) |
| It’s an economic reality that those who rely on limited sources of income are vulnerable. That’s as true a statement for those who made buggy whips when the automobile appeared as it is for Microsoft, the world’s largest software house. |
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| Kingston SSDNow mS100 64GB - One Of The Cheapest SSDs Around |
| It didn't take us long to check the contents of the package that contained the Kingston SSDNow mS100, as it consisted of a tiny clamshell case, a tiny 'Getting started' leaflet with print that defied our eyesight and the bare OEM SSD drive. |
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| Linksys EA6500 Dual-Band AC Router - Impressive, But Ahead Of Its Time |
| Here we go again, a new wireless standard merry-go-round is in full swing. If you were around for the 802.11n multi-draft incompatibility debacle in the mid-2000s, then you’ll be rolling your eyes to hear, if you haven’t already, that all the networking companies are currently rolling out Draft 2 802.11ac kit. T |
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| Crucial Adrenaline 50GB - Undeniably A Fine Drive |
| Crucial has given serious thought to the Adrenaline cache drive and delivers a package that looks the absolute business. The outer sleeve contains two inner packs, with one containing the SSD and the other holding the kit. We know that because they're labelled 'SSD' and 'Kit'. |
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| How To Buy…A Media Streaming Device (Part 2) |
| The thing is that modern TV companies – terrestrial broadcasters as well cable and satellite providers – are aware that viewing habits have changed. People like to watch TV on their own terms. That means things like time-shifting and IPTV on-demand apps are increasingly common features in standard pieces of hardware that, not so long ago, would have just been glorified decoders. |
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| How To Buy…A Media Streaming Device (Part 1) |
| The digitisation of TV and increasing popularity of alternate delivery methods such as download stores and online streaming services like Lovefilm and Netflix has made data-driven entertainment more popular than ever before. |
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| Off The Shelf Or Self- Build? (Part 3) |
| The regular, non-extended warranty, however, is a different matter entirely. Normally, you get anywhere from 12 to 36 months of cover for free, ensuring that should your hardware fail for no obvious reason, you can get a quick repair and/or replacement from your supplier without having to pay anything extra. |
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| Off The Shelf Or Self- Build? (Part 2) |
| Using an online system builder is a great way to stop yourself running into problems, because hardware conflicts and incompatibilities should be taken into account for you by the experts building it, if not the system itself. |
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| Off The Shelf Or Self- Build? (Part 1) |
| Building your own PC is a fun experience, one that allows you to choose the components you want and really get to know your PC. Some would argue that everyone should try it at least once. |
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| WD My Net N900 Central 1TB - Humble Broadband Router |
| Western Digital can clearly see the writing on the hard disk wall, and so has now diversified into Wi-Fi routers, it seems. From the outside the My Net N900 Central is a rather unremarkable, and slightly larger than anticipated black plastic box. |
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| How To Buy…Network-Attached Storage (Part 2) |
| NAS devices contain a variety of technologies, none of which should be especially unfamiliar to any computer user. Look for Ethernet support (especially gigabit Ethernet) and on some models, Wi-Fi (although for reasons explained further on, don’t worry too much about that.) Software-wise, you may want to check for iTunes compatibility, a UPnP media server (a standard protocol for media streaming to devices and applications) and some ability to stream over the web too. |
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