Component

When we saw the be quiet! Silent Base 800 chassis in KitGuru Labs, one thing that struck us was the lack of a windowed side panel.  We caught up with Aaron Licht who explained just how much engineering has gone into be quiet!'s latest chassis technology. Dual, scratch resistant polycarbonate …

Intel Corp. is negotiating with Altera Corp., a developer of system-on-chips, field programmable gate arrays and other specialty devices, over a possible takeover. The acquisition could strengthen Intel’s positions across many markets. The transaction could top $10 billion, which will be Intel’s biggest purchase ever. Altera develops and sells field …

SK Hynix is about to announce new multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips that are expected to boost performance of solid-state drives in various applications. The new chips also promise better reliability than previous-generation NAND flash ICs [integrated circuits]. The world’s third largest producer of NAND flash memory is …

Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. this week said that they have finished development of vertically-stacked 3D NAND memory devices. The BiCS [bit cost scalable] NAND flash memory from the two companies will be mass-produced in 2016 and will enable new solid-state storage devices with enhanced reliability and performance. Toshiba’s three-dimensional …

While the overall success rate of be quiet! in KitGuru Labs testing has been high over the past 5 years, one thing always gets a comment – and that's the cost-saving choice to go with non-Japanese capacitors. We're not sure why it's taken them so long to arrive at the …

Triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory is dramatically less durable than traditional multi-level cell (MLC) or single-level cell (SLC) NAND. However, it has one distinctive advantage over competing technologies: it is more affordable to manufacture. This single advantage drives its popularity among makers of various devices and by the end …

The recently introduced code-named GM200 graphics processing unit will not power only the GeForce GTX Titan X as well as the Quadro M6000 graphics cards. According to a media report, Nvidia Corp. is working on the GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics adapter, which is expected to rival not only the …

Traditionally, once a technology becomes obsolete, it falls into oblivion and only a handful of people actually remember it. Today, not a lot of people recall, what is diskette, cathode-ray tube display or 5.25” hard disk drive. But while diskettes and CRTs are not coming back, 5.25” HDDs may get …

Nvidia have had huge success with their Maxwell architecture. The GTX980 has not only held the performance crown since the launch but sales figures have helped Nvidia reap in record revenue. As we know, technology development never stands still, and today we look at the new (single GPU) flagship model, …

Caseking UK, a major distributor of various computer components, on Thursday said that it had been made the official distributor of Phanteks, a renowned maker of computer cases and accessories, in the U.K. Caseking UK will supply Phanteks products to retailers in the channel. “We are delighted to become official …

Advanced Micro Devices faces hard times these days as sales of its central processing units and graphics processing units have been hitting new lows for many quarters. As a result, rumours about possible acquisitions of AMD resurrect. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, is considering to acquire Advanced …

Shmuel “Mooly” Eden, senior vice president and president of Intel Israel, will leave the company to “seek new challenges.” The legendary veteran, who has been with Intel for 33 years, has held various technical and management positions at Intel throughout his tenure with the giant chipmaker. “I have had the …

After using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. to make all of its chips almost exclusively for nearly a decade, Nvidia Corp. this year signed an agreement to produce a portion of its products at Samsung Foundry. But that could only be a part of Nvidia’s new strategy, according to a financial …

An increasing percentage of our readers have been building systems for use next to a high definition television set, inside compact cases. Our review product today – the Asus GTX 970 DC Mini is designed for just such a scenario. This diminutive solution is just 170mm long and will fit …

Late last year Advanced Micro Devices said that it would use 20nm fabrication technology offered by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., but only for for select products. According to AMD’s recent filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, the company has not yet started to use the 20nm manufacturing process. AMD …

So you're looking for a full E-ATX tower case for your next PC? Well step right this way as In-Win is offering the 707 Gaming Black and its closely related cousin the Silent White. The In-Win 707 Gaming Black is actually dark grey in colour, gun metal perhaps, or charcoal, …

It took professional overclockers less than a week to prove that Nvidia Corp.’s latest GM200 graphics processing unit also known as the “Big Maxwell” can run at clock-rate that exceeds its default frequency by two times. Vince “K|NGP|N” Lucido, one of the world’s top overclockers who collaborates with EVGA and …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Broadwell” microprocessors are not going to have a long lifespan on any markets since their successors – code-named “Skylake” chips – are ready to hit the market. Moreover, if a new media report is correct, the world’s largest chipmaker plans to limit availability of “Broadwell” CPUs on the …

Regular readers of KitGuru will know that OCZ have been making amends to repair their reputation with the enthusiast audience. They feel so confident in their latest technology that they asked us recently to kill 5 of their ARC 100 drives (latest update and links back HERE). Today it is …

Microsoft’s upcoming Direct X 12 API upgrade is on the way this year but so are the first games to utilize it. We will likely start seeing the benefits of this new graphics technology by the end of the year, according to Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, who has …

HGST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., on Tuesday said that its Ultrastar HelioSeal hard disk drives are now field-proven and rated for two and a half million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). In addition, the company said that it had begun to sample its 10TB hard drives …

It is not a secret that Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX Titan X graphics card was designed to be an ultimate graphics card for enthusiasts, who usually overclock their hardware. The graphics adapter offers very high performance out-of-box, but, as it appears, even the best things can be improved by overclocking. …

It has been quite some time since we have analysed an Enermax power supply, so it is with great interest that we take a look at the new DigiFanless 550W today. This supply is a pure modular, fanless design and has achieved an 80 Plus Platinum certification. Enermax also incorporate …

A high-ranking executive of TSMC said this week that in the coming years various ultra-mobile, small electronics and smart accessories will become so pervasive that such devices will not only become a major driver for the semiconductor industry, but will turn out to be a huge part of this industry. …

SK Hynix, the world’s second largest producer of dynamic random access memory, said this week that it would begin to mass-produce DRAM using 20nm fabrication process in the second half of the year. The new manufacturing technology will help the company to better address the needs of the high-end memory …

Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX Titan X graphics card is currently the most powerful single-chip graphics solution for gaming on the planet. But what if you want something else, something even more powerful? The folks over at Overclockers UK know exactly what you need. OcUK advertises a mythical BFG GeForce Titan …

Patriot. A name I haven't heard in quite some time. Years ago we reviewed a steady stream of their products, then they seemed to vanish from view to focus solely on mobile accessories. While the recent shift back may only be a cautious toe in the water today we look …

Nvidia Corp. and Samsung Electronics have quietly signed an agreement under which the latter will produce computer chips for the former. At present, it is unknown whether Samsung will manufacture graphics processors or application processors for the chip designer, but it is obvious that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is no …

The first quarter of 2015 is not over, but manufacturers of various computer components can already make conclusions about demand for their products during the period. A media report citing makers of graphics cards suggests that sales of discrete desktop graphics adapters may hit record low levels in Q1 2015. …

As the AMD PR machine ramps up to full speed on its G-Sync alternative, FreeSync, KitGuru spoke with Bill Donnelly from Sapphire Technology about this new option for gamers.  Traditionally, the refresh rates for screens were fixed, while the frame rate output from a graphics card would vary under load. …