<rss version="0.91">
<channel>
<title>HotHardware.com Article Rss Feed</title>
<link>http://www.hothardware.com</link>
<description>HotHardware.com Article Rss Feed</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<webMaster>dominic@dplouffe.ca &lt;Dominic Plouffe&gt;</webMaster>
<managingDirector>davea@hothardware.com.ca &lt;Dave Altavilla&gt;</managingDirector><item><title><![CDATA[ASUS Xonar DX PCI Express 7.1 Audio Card]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/ASUS_Xonar_DX_PCI_Express_71_Audio_Card</link><description><![CDATA[Just a few years ago, if someone said that integrated audio would deliver&nbsp;great performance with&nbsp;many of&nbsp;the features of a full-blown&nbsp;add-in card, it might have raised an eyebrow or two.&nbsp; Today, however,&nbsp;thanks to&nbsp;vastly improved integrated technologies,&nbsp;today's integrated audio solutions are often more than satisfactory for a large portion of consumers.&nbsp; Nonetheless, there are those who want a better audio experience, which can only be delivered from the likes of]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI Motherboard Round-Up, Asus, MSI]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_nForce_780a_SLI_Motherboard_RoundUp_Asus_MSI</link><description><![CDATA[It is hard to believe that it has been almost two full years since NVIDIA released a new flagship chipset for the AMD platform.&nbsp; Since the nForce 590i SLI's official release in May of 2006, NVIDIA has introduced a handful of mid-range and more affordable chipsets for the AMD-platform, but the 590i SLI was it at the high-end, despite AMD's release of their quad-core Phenom processors and competing 7-series chipsets. Early this year while out at CES, we told you about NVIDIA's plans to mix things up at the]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2008 08:55:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3650 1GB]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Diamond_Viper_Radeon_HD_3650_1GB</link><description><![CDATA[While the average PC enthusiast may gawk endlessly over pages of reviews of high-end power-hungry graphics cards, jaw-slackened by the frame rates and 3DMark score that he or she might find there, at the end of the month it is the low to mid-range card that is purchased most often than not.&nbsp; Price typically comes into consideration, but it's not the only concern.&nbsp; Availability, compatibility, and other issues factor in to a buyers decision as well.&nbsp; Sometimes it simply boils down to the fact that]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Smooth Creations Broodling Unboxed]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Smooth_Creations_Broodling_Unboxed</link><description><![CDATA[The intoxicating smell of fresh paint was the first sensation to greet us when we opened up a very special package from Diamond Multimedia and Smooth Creations. This was quickly followed by jaw-dropping awe as we admired the meticulous detail of the system's custom paint job. Speculating at the power waiting to be unleashed under its hood, we were jonseing to fire the rig up and pwn some noobs. But before we could do that, we wanted to share our experience of unboxing the machine with&nbsp;you--minus the heavy]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2008 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dell XPS 730 H2C Unboxing and Preview]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Dell_XPS_730_H2C_Unboxing_and_Preview</link><description><![CDATA[In the last half year, Dell has been busy revamping their entire desktop XPS lineup. First came the XPS 420 late last year, a premium multimedia workstation. Then Dell introduced a new mid-range gaming oriented desktop, the XPS 630 early this year. The 630 is a mid-tower sized gaming desktop styled after the flagship XPS 700 series but with more affordable components and a&nbsp;relatively thrifty price tag. We found the XPS 630 to be an excellent machine in our evaluation. While these new additions to Dell's]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[ASUS LS201 20" LCD Monitor]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/ASUS_LS201_20_LCD_Monitor</link><description><![CDATA[Earlier this year we stumbled upon a widely circulated You Tube video (at least in tech circles), in which a man is seen ruthlessly abusing a poor LCD monitor. The protagonist starts by letting a child draw on the screen with a black permanent marker. Taking matters into his own hands, the man proceeds to take a pen-knife to the surface of the screen, followed by multiple strikes with a hammer. Deciding that he isn't quite done, he gets out the big "guns" and holds up a crossbow. To show us he means business,]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Futuremark Unveils 3DMark Vantage]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Futuremark_Unveils_3DMark_Vantage</link><description><![CDATA[Futuremark has just officially unveiled the latest version of their 3DMark&nbsp;benchmark suite, 3DMark Vantage.&nbsp; Like PCMark Vantage which was released a few months ago, this latest version of 3DMark was designed for testing Windows Vista-based systems.&nbsp; This latest version of the 3DMark, however, is specifically bound to Windows Vista because it uses some&nbsp;advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10, which you may know isn't available on previous versions of Windows.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:15:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Intel_Core_2_Quad_Q9300_Processor</link><description><![CDATA[Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q9300 has some rather large shoes to fill. This newly shipping, relatively&nbsp;low-cost (~$270) quad-core processor from Intel is a replacement for their long-standing price to performance champ, the Core 2 Quad Q6600. The Q6600 was the first quad-core in Intel’s arsenal which was actually affordable, and even today, it remains one of the best values on the market. Not only is the Core 2 Quad Q6600 inexpensive for a quad-core at around $230, but it is extremely overclockable and&nbsp;provides&nbsp;a]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[XFX nForce 630i GeForce 7150 Motherboard]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/XFX_nForce_630i_GeForce_7150_Motherboard</link><description><![CDATA[As enthusiasts, we aren't too fond of the idea of running a PC with integrated video. Like many of you, we prefer a&nbsp;discreet video card for the performance benefits, even if it has to be&nbsp;an entry-level solution. Despite that fact, though, most of the monitors in homes and offices across the world are connected to IGPs, and not to dedicated video cards. We love the latest flagship graphics cards&nbsp;as much as the next enthusiast, but we aren't completely impractical. We realize that integrated video]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[AMD Phenom X3 8750 Tri-Core Processor]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/AMD_Phenom_X3_8750_TriCore_Processor</link><description><![CDATA[When AMD first announced plans to introduce triple-core processors back in September of last year, reaction to the news was mixed.&nbsp; Some felt that AMD was simply planning to pass&nbsp;off partially functional&nbsp;Phenom X4 processors as triple-core products, making lemonade from lemons if you will.&nbsp;&nbsp;Others thought it was a good way for AMD to increase bottom line profits, getting more usable die from a single silicon wafer and&nbsp;mitigating yield loss.&nbsp; We were somewhat perplexed by the]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:01 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB SATA HD]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Western_Digital_Velociraptor_300GB</link><description><![CDATA[Western Digital's Raptor line of high performance hard drives&nbsp;has been a long-time favorite of&nbsp;PC enthusiasts&nbsp;since its introduction several years ago.&nbsp; When WD's Raptors first hit, their 10K RPM spindle speeds allowed for much lower access times than the more common 7200 RPM desktop drives of the time, and overall relative performance was strong.&nbsp; Many users were put off by the relatively low capacities of the Raptor, which debuted at 36GB and topped out at 150GB, but they were still]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:45:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Ultraportable Notebook]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X300_Ultraportable_Notebook</link><description><![CDATA[While he may not have invented the Internet, Al Gore&nbsp;has played a major role in bringing the issue of Global Warming to the masses.&nbsp; In his book and movie "An Inconvenient Truth", Gore made a compelling case, and whether his message convinced you or not, one thing is certain, it's clear people&nbsp;were listening.&nbsp; Today, there is increased research and development&nbsp;searching for&nbsp;innovative solutions to energy conservation in virtually all areas of our lives.&nbsp; Technologies are being]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:45:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[ATI FireGL V8600 1GB Workstation Graphics]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/ATI_FireGL_V8600_1_GB</link><description><![CDATA[ATI has been particularly aggressive with their FireGL workstation graphics card lineup over the past six months. While their flagship R600-architecture was the basis for the solid (but ultimately underwhelming) Radeon HD2900XT release for the gaming market, our tests have shown that this particular GPU architecture actually is much more competitive in the workstation market. While the R600 may not be the best choice for a high-end gaming rig, it is indeed a powerful chip for high-end OpenGL work, and as such,]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3850 512MB Ruby Edition]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Diamond_Viper_Radeon_HD_3850_512MB_Ruby_Edition</link><description><![CDATA[With recent price cuts to current generation Radeon HD 3800 series cards, due to increased competition from new mainstream graphics cards from NVIDIA, there is a large gap in ATI's product stack between the sub-$200 Radeon HD 3870 and the now roughly $400 Radeon HD 3870 X2.&nbsp; Until AMD readies a new batch of GPUs to fill this hole in their product stack, board partners are left to tweak current designs to entice potential consumers.Diamond is one of a group of manufacturers that continue to release updated]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Asetek Low Cost Liquid Cooling (LCLC) System]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Asetek_Low_Cost_Liquid_Cooling_LCLC_System</link><description><![CDATA[Water cooling has traditionally been considered an extreme solution, pursued by enthusiasts looking for the best cooling performance to squeeze every last drop of performance from their systems. For a long time this wasn't far from the truth and you were unlikely to find a water cooling setup that wasn't hooked up to an overclocked rig. However, in recent years watercooling has become ever more mainstream as evidenced by the number of manufacturers producing entry-level kits. These kits often provide ease of]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:30:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB Toxic]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Sapphire_Radeon_HD_3870_512MB_Toxic</link><description><![CDATA[When we're asked by&nbsp;readers&nbsp;for hardware advice, one of the most popular topics involves the graphics card.&nbsp; With a myriad of options out there covering the price and performance spectrum, it's not always a cut and dried answer.&nbsp; First, we need to consider the person's budget requirements, then assess the rest of their hardware to see what best fits their situation.&nbsp; It's not simply a matter of buying the most expensive card one can afford.&nbsp; We wish it were that simple.&nbsp;&nbsp;In]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G Motherboard ]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/ASUS_M3A78EMH_HDMI_AMD_780G_Motherboard_</link><description><![CDATA[AMD made it very clear in our sneak peek at the 780G integrated chipset and Athlon X2 4850e processor that its platform aspirations were coming to pass. Not only did the company introduce a complementary hardware ecosystem, complete with processor, chipset, and graphics solution, but it succeeded in trumping the best effort of its principal rival. Intel’s G35 simply couldn’t keep up with the 780G’s alacrity in gaming and video decoding.&nbsp;&nbsp; The 780G chipset demonstrated somewhat playable frame rates—a]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 512 MB]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Nvidia_QuadroFX_3700_512_MB</link><description><![CDATA[Earlier this year, we conducted a series of reports on both the high-end and mid-range workstation graphics card markets with a range of comparative tests. In our prior tests, we found&nbsp;performance to be exceptionally close between comparatively priced products from AMD/ATI’s and NVIDIA’s high-end and mid-range cards. NVIDIA is typically stronger on the high-end, whereas ATI’s cards are winning in the mid-range;&nbsp;it was pretty cut and dry.&nbsp; However, once&nbsp;you start pricing these cards out, you’ll]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:45:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intel's Ultra-Portable Atom: Unveiled]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Intels_UltraPortable_Atom_Unveiled</link><description><![CDATA[Do you remember the original Pentium 4? It launched at 1.5 GHz and gave us our first bittersweet taste of the NetBurst microarchitecture, which Intel would use to replace the P6 design.When the Pentium 4 began its life, Intel manufactured the chips on a 180 nm node. The 42 million transistors that went into those first Pentium 4s - internally referred to as Willamettes - occupied a die no less than 217 square millimeters. Keep those figures in mind throughout our overview of Intel’s newest mobile processor and]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:30:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Round-Up: BFG, EVGA, Zogis]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_GeForce_9800_GTX_RoundUp_BFG_EVGA_Zogis</link><description><![CDATA[NVIDIA's onslaught of new graphics cards based on the company's G92 graphics processor continues today with the introduction of the GeForce 9800 GTX.&nbsp; As its name suggests, the GeForce 9800 GTX is the successor to the wildly popular and unusually long-lived GeForce 8800 GTX.We're sure you all know by now that the GeForce 8800 GTX was introduced in November of 2006 and sat unrivaled at the top of the 3D graphics food chain until the 8800 Ultra was released, which was essentially the same card with a different]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cooler Master COSMOS S Chassis]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Cooler_Master_COSMOS_S_Chassis</link><description><![CDATA[It's not very often that we see innovation in a PC chassis.&nbsp; Of course, just about every other component in a typical PC is enhanced or somehow improved on a regular basis, but chassis haven't really changed all that much in the last few years.&nbsp; Aesthetically they have gotten more pleasing and diverse, new materials are being used, and there have been some acoustic improvements mostly due to the use of larger, low-RPM&nbsp;fans.&nbsp; However, take away the fans and fascias and underneath most chassis]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Asus Eee PC 4G-X, Windows XP Unboxing Preview]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Asus_Eee_PC_4GX_Windows_XP_Unboxing_Preview</link><description><![CDATA[We're always on the lookout for Asus Eee PC updates&nbsp;and today we've come up with some breaking&nbsp;news for you relative&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Windows XP variant that is due to&nbsp;hit the market in April.&nbsp; Actually, it's more than just some breaking news; we've got one.&nbsp; Though the machine isn't due out until sometime in the next few weeks, we were able to get our hands on a&nbsp;full retail bundle well before they hit store shelves in the US.&nbsp; The included operating system,&nbsp;software]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:40:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[AMD Phenom X4 9850 B3 Revision]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/AMD_Phenom_X4_9850_B3_Revision</link><description><![CDATA[&nbsp; It doesn't take a genius to figure out that AMD's initial Phenom processor launch didn't go exactly as planned.&nbsp; The first batch of retail-ready Phenom processors were clocked lower than expectations and in the days leading up to the launch, the now infamous TLB bug reared its ugly head.&nbsp; If you're not aware, all initial Phenom and Opteron quad-core processors based on the Barcelona architecture were plagued by an errata that could cause a system crash under certain circumstances.&nbsp; The]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:01 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[NVIDIA Quad-SLI with the ASUS EN9800GX2]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_QuadSLI_with_the_ASUS_EN9800GX2</link><description><![CDATA[Last week, NVIDIA formally launched the dual-GPU powered GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card and nForce 790i SLI Ultra chipset.&nbsp; We&nbsp;evaluated&nbsp;both of the products in depth in our coverage of the launch, but had to leave out one important detail per NVIDIA's embargo agreement -&nbsp;that being Quad-SLI.It wasn't that Quad-SLI needed some more time in the oven, however.&nbsp; In fact, we had the drivers in hand to do Quad-SLI testing well before last week's launch.&nbsp; The delay in GeForce 9800 GX2]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[WD Caviar & RE2 GreenPower 1TB HDs]]></title><link>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Western_Digital_Caviar_and_RE2_GreenPower_1TB_Hard_Drives</link><description><![CDATA[We wish the current "green" trend would have happened a long time ago, and we actually hope that it results in a permanent mentality adjustment rather than fading like so many trends do.&nbsp;We are&nbsp;happy to see that companies are now expected to be somewhat environmentally-conscious. We love to see companies compete on metrics like performance per watt and we know we aren't the only ones who have an affinity for new architectures and designs that result in both efficiency improvements and performance gains.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>