It started off as a simple enough memory review, but somewhere along the way we decided to dramatically expand  the scope of our discussion and avoid the monotony of a typical memory piece. The end result? An in-depth look at some of the more fundamental aspects of SDRAM operation. If you'd like to expand your understanding of memory transaction minutia while learning more about which key performance factors need to be tuned and why, then have we got the article for you! Set some good time aside, grab a tall mug of your favorite, frosty beverage, and prepare for an exercise in reasoning. You're not going to want to miss what we have to share.

HP's EliteBook 8440w is the smallest workstation on the market, making it an intruiging notebook for on-the-run engineers and professionals who do a lot of CAD and simulation analysis work on their portable systems. But with the low end graphics chip necessitated by the smaller chassis, can it keep up with larger and more powerful rivals from other companies? Let's find out.

Just shy of 9 months after the FTC’s lawsuit began, Intel’s conflicts are starting to come to an end. Intel and the FTC have reached a settlement ahead of what would have been next month’s court hearing. With this settlement the FTC is agreeing to drop the case in return for a series of prohibitions and requirements placed upon Intel to maintain and enhance the competitive environment in the CPU and GPU markets. Today we'll be taking a look at just what the terms of the settlement are, what the FTC did and didn't get, and how - if at all - this settlement affects the average computer buyer.

Intel has been talking about using optical interfaces in computing for years. So much so, that silicon photonics sessions at IDF became a regular stop on our coverage tour each year. The demos were always showcasing something too far out in the development cycle to get immediately excited about however. The first time we met Intel’s hybrid laser in silicon was 2006, and even then we were told that it’d be years before we’d see it productized.

Four years later, and we’re seeing Intel make good on its promises of delivering the technology necessary to put together real products.

There's an age-old battle between form and function. Some users will give up performance and features for a devices that looks cool, while for others the benchmarks are all that really matters. The ASUS U33Jc doesn't totally eschew function, with plenty of high-end features, but it does pay more than lip service to aesthetics by placing bamboo surfaces on the top panel and palm rest. The result is a unique look with an organic vibe that is sure to turn a few heads.

Take the fastest desktop microprocessor in the world, lock its multiplier, shave off 133MHz and drop its price by $100. That's basically what you get with the Core i7 970. Despite the name this is the second 6-core 32nm Gulftown processor from Intel. 

If you're tempted by the 980X but wanted something slightly more affordable, read on to get introduced to the new Core i7 970.

Pine Trail netbooks are pretty much all the same: they give you a 10.1" 1024x600 display and pitifully slow CPU and GPU performance, but that's balanaced by good battery life and a low cost. The Samsung N210 has been around a while now, but it stands out from the crowd by being one of the few netbooks to eschew glossy exteriors and LCDs. Is that enough to make it a good purchase? That depends on whether you can live with the Atom performance bottleneck.

Our Ask the Experts series continues with another round of questions.

A couple of months ago we ran a webcast with Intel Fellow, Rich Uhlig, VMware Chief Platform Architect, Rich Brunner and myself. The goal was to talk about the past, present and future of virtualization. In preparation for the webcast we solicited questions from all of you, unfortunately we only had an hour during the webcast to address them. Rich Uhlig from Intel, Rich Brunner from VMware and our own Johan de Gelas all agreed to answer some of your questions in a 6 part series we're calling Ask the Experts. Each week we'll showcase three questions you guys asked about virtualization and provide answers from our panel of three experts. These responses haven't been edited and come straight from the experts.

If you'd like to see your question answered here leave it in the comments. While we can't guarantee we'll get to everything, we'll try to pick a few from the comments to answer as the weeks go on.

Thus far, we’ve spent most of 2010 focusing on mainstream segments for our motherboard reviews, there’s more of that to come over the next few months starting off with a long overdue focus on AMD. Before we get to that though, there are a few loose ends to tie up on Intel’s X58 chipset – today we’re going to take a look at four motherboards aimed at the serious enthusiast.

Four months ago, Alienware turned the mobile gaming world on its head by cramming a reasonably fast GPU into a small chassis with an 11.6" display. We loved the concept of an ultraportable gaming laptop, but we had a few complaints. Now Alienware has returned with the updated R2 model, sporting NVIDIA's Optimus Technology and the same GT 335M GPU. Added to that is an Intel Arrandale ULV processor, our first laptop to use such a CPU. That addresses two of the biggest concerns we had with the original, but does it make for a truly better laptop? Today we'll look to answer that question with our in-depth review.

Ever wonder what a $3,000 notebook looks like? NVIDIA's first DirectX 11-capable GPU makes its way into notebooks to reclaim the fastest mobile graphics crown from AMD, starting with the Clevo W880CU. In this familiar shell beats the heart of a monster, but is the severely cut-down Fermi enough to gain a healthy lead past the Mobility Radeon HD 5870, and is the W880CU worth your gaming dollar?

When it debuted at CES 2009, the 0.65” Dell Adamo 13 gave the notebook world a Windows equivalent to the MacBook Air. With the ultrathin body, the brushed aluminum unibody, and Apple-like attention to detail, the Adamo was truly stunning to behold. The drawback was pricing, which started at $1999 for lackluster specifications. Fast forward to today and you can pick up an Adamo for $999, making it far more palatable. At half the original price and with some of the sleekest aesthetics we've seen, the Adamo is definitely worth a closer look. But even at just under a grand, the Adamo comes in at a higher price than most of it's CULV competitors. Do the standard solid state disk and high feature, high style design make up for the price difference? Read on to find out.

A few weeks ago, Alienware launched a revamped version of the famed M11x, the world's smallest gaming laptop. We've been pestering them to get a review sample ever since the press release, as we know there's a ton of interest in the updated M11x. Much to our surprise, a package arrived unannounced yesterday with said laptop. We quickly unpacked the system and prepped it for testing. We already liked the original concept, and the R2 release improves on several areas. Specifically, the old overclocked CULV SU7300 processor was swapped out for a Core i7-640UM and the GPU now has NVIDIA's Optimus Technology to allow seamless switching between the Intel HD IGP and GT 335M. We'll be running benchmarks over the weekend, but today we wanted to present our initial impressions.

The back-to-school season is coming and refreshed product lines are already starting to appear on store shelves. Intel's dual-core Arrandale processors continue to dominate in terms of raw performance, but AMD K10.5-based notebooks are now available from every major vendor. Intel has also refreshed its mobile line and added some low-voltage kit. It's an interesting market full of options, and sifting the wheat from the chaff requires some research. We've decided to do just that and put together a mobile guide with options for everything from multimedia enthusiasts to mobile gaming powerhouses. We're splitting the guide into two installments, with this first part specifically focusing on the larger laptops and desktop replacement (DTR) options. If you're in the market for a new notebook, this article is for you.

Our previous comparison between AMD and Intel laptops is now a year old, and plenty has changed since then. With a couple of the more recent releases on hand, it's a good time for another head-to-head comparison. Unfortunately, getting the latest AMD-based laptops can be tricky, so we don't have their recently announced "Vision 2" platform (aka Danube/Nile) available for testing (yet). However, there are still many "old" AMD Vision laptops on the market, as well as a ton of Intel i3/i5 units, so we feel it's still useful to see how the two platforms compare. Does AMD have more going for it than the value proposition? Can anyone provide an IGP that's fit for gaming? That's what we aim to find out.