Systems
Intel's Meteor Lake series of processors has had a drawn-out launch since its details were officially presented in September 2023. The series marks Intel's foray into the consumer market with a tile-based chiplet configuration held together with Foveros packaging. Similar to Tiger Lake, the focus of Meteor Lake has primarily been on the mobile market - ultraportables and notebooks. However, this has not prevented Intel and its partners from introducing it as a follow-up to Raptor Lake-P and Raptor Lake-H in the SFF / UCFF desktop market. ASRock Industrial has consistently been the first to market with ultra-compact form-factor motherboards and mini-PCs, with product announcements coinciding with Intel's launch of its latest and greatest mobile processors. Meteor Lake has not been any different, with the...
CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 8500: How Far Can SLI 450's Go?
Prohibitively expensive gaming machines are nice to look at but such a nasty hit to the wallet that they can feel impractical. We thought the recently-reviewed iBuyPower Paladin XLC...
31 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/16/2010iBUYPOWER Paladin XLC: Enthusiast Class
Our readership is composed largely of people who prefer to roll their own, but recently we've had the opportunity to take a look at some interesting desktop machines from...
49 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/2/2010The Acer Aspire M3400: How Much Does $649 Buy?
Reviewing the Dell Studio XPS 7100 recently seemed like a reasonable enough move: we felt it was competitive with rolling your own machine at that price, or at least...
57 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/5/2010Good From the Factory? The Dell Studio XPS 7100
The tricked-out Dell Studio XPS 7100 is an interesting beast. It lacks any overclocking extras and exotic cooling, but it comes priced to move. Packing AMD's latest hex-core Phenom...
69 by Dustin Sklavos on 7/7/2010System Buyer’s Guide: $1700 Performance Midrange
Many things have changed in the nine months since our last midrange system guide hit the press, some for the worse—a moment of silence, please, for the passing of...
102 by Mike Jones and Jarred Walton on 5/12/2010The Clarkdale Experiment: Mea Culpa
Several months ago, I wrote about my little experiment with Clarkdale, where I built a small form factor system, based around a Core i5 661 CPU, an Asus H55...
46 by Loyd Case on 5/4/2010Loyd's New Year - A Trio of Problem Systems
Three systems, three different sets of problems. Loyd Case puts on his problem solving hat and shares what he learned.
109 by Loyd Case on 1/13/2010Windows 7 Performance Guide
After nearly a year of serious waiting, the next Windows is here. Its arrival puts a stake in Vista, and may finally be what Microsoft needs to put XP...
205 by Ryan Smith and Gary Key on 10/26/2009Digital Storm Core i7-965
Our first look at Digital Storm systems, with impressive, raw performance.
52 by Matt Campbell on 5/18/2009Windows 7: Release Candidate 1 Preview
Following closely on the heels of Windows 7 Beta 1, Microsoft has released RC1 to the public. We find out what's new and how it stacks up to previous...
121 by Ryan Smith and Gary Key on 5/5/2009IBUYPOWER Gamer Paladin F860-a
How does a Core i7 940 system with an ATI HD 4870 fare? Let's take a closer look.
32 by Matt Campbell on 4/14/2009CyberPower Core i7-920
CyberPower's midrange Core i7 system takes a spin through our test lab, all without breaking the bank.
34 by Matt Campbell on 3/3/2009Velocity Micro Edge Z55: Core i7-940 with CrossFire 4870
Velocity Micro is a prominent PC supplier with products available both online and in brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S. Has their popularity hurt their performance, or do they have...
28 by Matt Campbell on 12/12/2008Maingear F131: Solid Contender
This is our first look at Maingear systems, and we like what we see. Note however that we say like, not love…
25 by Matt Campbell on 11/12/2008The All-in-One Battle: Dell's XPS One 24 vs. Apple's iMac
These two stylish all-in-ones do battle and believe it or not, it's not as clear cut of a Mac vs. PC debate as you'd think. Faster gaming on...
61 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/30/2008Überclok Reactor: Balanced Performance
Another spin around the block with Überclok, and we're still pleased with this up and comer.
30 by Matt Campbell on 10/10/2008CyberPower: 4.0 GHz QX9770 and SLI GTX 280s
CyberPower is a well-known PC supplier. Today we review one of their monster quad-core machines with dual GTX 280s. How does it perform? In a word, great.
30 by Matt Campbell on 8/22/2008HP Takes on Apple with the New Voodoo
HP and Voodoo finally start taking the Apple threat seriously and respond with one of the most innovative notebooks to come from a major PC OEM. Meet the...
56 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/11/2008ASUS Eee Box Preview & Intel's Atom Benchmarked
We've been playing with a prototype of ASUS' Eee Box and we're finally able to bring you coverage on this sub-$300 PC. Complementing our Eee Box coverage are...
35 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/3/2008iBUYPOWER: 4.0GHz QX9650 and 3-way SLI 8800 Ultras
iBUYPOWER is an established company that offers a wide variety of systems. This time around, we look at one of their high-end overclocked gaming systems to see if it's...
18 by Matt Campbell on 4/10/2008