Ivy Bridge
Almost a decade ago, with the launch of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, came the H61 chipset. Compared to the high-end P67 and Z68 models, the idea behind H61 is that it was cheap, and it was long-life. At a time when low power embedded Atom CPUs still didn’t have enough power, H61 was there to be equipped with one of Intel’s new-fangled Core processors, with the systems that designed for it destined to last a couple of decades. We’re now 9 years into that life cycle, and Biostar deems it necessary to create a new H61 design for the new decade. We’re getting to a time now where the cheaply made H61 boards of yesteryear are starting to go pop. When you save a tenth...
Memory Performance: 16GB DDR3-1333 to DDR3-2400 on Ivy Bridge IGP with G.Skill
Memory reviews are, in my opinion, actually quite hard to do. There are plenty of memory kits available that are nice and cheap, and the easy way to...
114 by Ian Cutress on 10/18/2012AVADirect Clevo P170EM Part 2: GTX 680M Grudge Match
We took Clevo’s P170EM for a spin last week, equipped with a Radeon HD 7970M and a variety of other high-end options. Today we have our follow up where...
58 by Jarred Walton on 10/15/2012Toshiba Satellite U845: Ultrabooks Go Mainstream
At CES, Toshiba showed us its forthcoming 14” Ultrabook, a system that they said would debut alongside Ivy Bridge in Q3. At the time, it was overshadowed by their...
57 by Vivek Gowri on 10/8/2012The New Razer Blade: Thoroughly Reviewed
Earlier this year, Razer handed me a Blade evaluation unit and told me to go wild. Considering the company had no previous experience with developing PC laptop hardware, I...
60 by Vivek Gowri on 10/3/2012Acer Announces Upcoming S7 Ultrabooks with Windows 8, We Go Hands On
Last week we met with Acer to go over the fall product stack, and we’ll have a bunch of announcements over the coming two weeks all leading up to...
26 by Jarred Walton & Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/2/2012Alienware M18x R2 Notebook Review: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680M in SLI
Around the launch of the Alienware M17x R3, Alienware essentially bifurcated its high end notebook offerings into single-GPU (the M17x R3) and dual-GPU (the M18x). The M17x R3 was...
50 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/28/2012Lenovo IdeaCentre A7 All-in-One Review: Starting to Get The Balance Right
As we mentioned in our recent review of Dell's enterprise-class all-in-one, the OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One, balancing the needs of an all-in-one system and making it feel like a solid...
33 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/26/2012Alienware M17x R4 Notebook Review: Ivy Bridge and the GeForce GTX 680M
Alienware recently updated their Bronze Editor's Choice award-winning M17x R4 gaming notebook to include Intel's Ivy Bridge processors and optional AMD Radeon HD 7900M series graphics or NVIDIA's new...
61 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/21/2012Dell's Enterprise Windows 8 Rollout Begins
While today we already have a review up of Dell's enterprise all-in-one, the OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One, our meeting with them in San Francisco bore fruit with two additional pieces...
21 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/19/2012Dell OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One Review: Dell's All-in-One Goes Enterprise
The all-in-one market is a tough nut to crack, both for the vendors and in many ways for the press as well. Apple sidestepped the landmine entirely by simply...
21 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/19/2012Ivy Bridge Gets 4K Display Support in October
This October Intel will be providing a driver update for Ivy Bridge that will enable 4K x 2K resolution support as well as hardware accelerated 4K video decode. You'll...
17 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/11/2012Midrange System Buyer's Guide
Intel has dominated the midrange and high-end segments of the desktop processor market since the release of its Sandy Bridge architecture in early 2011. A few months ago we...
95 by Zach Throckmorton on 9/11/2012HP Brings Windows 8 Ready All-in-Ones
At our briefing with HP in the city, we had a chance to see just how far their Spectre branding was stretching by taking a look at their refreshed...
20 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/10/2012Intel’s Pentium and Core i3 Desktop Ivy Bridge CPUs Arrive
We knew the Core i3 Ivy Bridge CPUs were coming, but details on precisely when that would happen and how much they would cost were a bit harder to...
66 by Jarred Walton on 9/7/2012Razer Introduces Blade R2: Faster, Less Expensive
Earlier this year, I took a look at Razer’s first foray into gaming systems, the Blade notebook. I came away pretty impressed overall, particularly with the level of design...
45 by Vivek Gowri on 8/31/2012HP's Convertible Windows 8 Tablet and Bleeding Edge Ultrabooks
I've taken meetings with HP and Toshiba (their press release is impending) in sunny San Francisco, California to see what they have in store for us when Windows 8...
15 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/30/2012ASUS UX31A: Putting the Ultra in Ultrabooks
When Intel first came up with their Ultrabook initiative last year—and yes, it was basically just a rechristening of ultraportables with the thin factor of a MacBook Air—they also...
106 by Jarred Walton on 8/28/2012AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC System Review Part II: Can Ivy Bridge and Kepler Make Up the Difference?
The last time we reviewed AVADirect's Quiet Gaming PC was in January. I was mostly pleased with it, but it went awry in the places that boutique systems often...
17 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/27/2012HP Envy 14 Spectre Ultrabook Review: Something More Than Envy
It's interesting, we recently met up with HP in San Francisco to see what they have planned for the future (and they do have some very compelling stuff in...
61 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/24/2012Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tiny System Review: Pint-Sized Power
It's hard not to notice the direction computing is going, both in the enterprise and at home. Notebooks are getting thinner and lighter, tablets are taking off, and on...
62 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/17/2012