General Purpose PC

We travelled to the home of Overclockers UK to take a look at some of the fastest PCs money can buy. Ian '8PACK' Parry shows Briony two of the updated ultimate watercooled PCs in the 8PACK range. Each system can be fully customised in a range of colour combinations and only the best performing components make the final cut!

The Asus G11CD is a compact gaming PC featuring a Core i5 7400 processor and Nvidia GTX1050 graphics

In a show that proves the ZX Spectrum community is alive and well, an attempt to build the most legitimate successorto the ZX Spectrum computer – in spirit and in physical form – has met with great success on Kickstarter after being completely funded just 48 hours on-line. The project …

PC Specialist has launched its Fusion Zen PC which is built around the new AMD Ryzen 7 1700X CPU and a GTX 1070 graphics card. KitGuru has been impressed by Ryzen 7 with its eight cores and 16 threads and it is quite mind boggling to consider that Intel charges …

Built around the Skylake Core i5-6200U processor, the Shuttle XPC Nano NC02U5 is perhaps most interesting because it supports a 2.5in disk drive. Whereas most barebones kits typically have just a single spare M.2 connector, the XPC Nano NC02U5 allows users to install any 2.5in drive of their choice – potentially …

Gigabyte have impressed us previously with their BRIX family of devices. We last reviewed the BRIX Gaming UHD, a slightly larger, Mac Pro-style device which focused on being a small gaming machine. Today we look at the latest-and-greatest BRIX i7A-7500, featuring a brand-new Kaby Lake i7 processor. Can this tiny …

The Revo One RL85 is a nifty mini-PC on offer from Acer. While there are several models available – from Celerons up to Core i5 variants – the particular Revo One we received features a Core i5-5200U, 8GB RAM, a 60GB boot SSD and two 2TB hard drives configured in RAID 1. How …

Although many KitGuru reviews might show off the most powerful and expensive hardware in the world not everyone can afford a £3,000 system, or fit that giant tower case into a small bedroom. That is why today you do not necessarily need a monstrous ATX case, high end motherboard and …

Zotac has introduced its new miniature personal computer designed for gamers. Despite of small form-factor, the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN970 PC can deliver rather high performance in video games thanks to powerful specifications and a unique GeForce GTX 960 graphics adapter with 3GB of memory. The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN970 …

Small form-factor personal computers are gaining popularity these days. One of the drawbacks that modem SFF PCs have is poor upgradeability. Sometimes it is hard to get appropriate components and it is generally hard to install them into a tiny system. Acer Group proposes a stackable PC concept, which makes …

Even though the market of personal computers has slowed down in the recent years, the PC continues its rapid development. Not only PCs are becoming more powerful, but they also change their form-factors. According to market analysts, one of the most promising segments of the PC market is the segment of highly …

Virtually all high-tech companies who sell PC hardware or personal computers recently complained about poor sales of PCs in the past few quarters. While many expect their revenues to improve in the second half of 2015, analysts warn that factors, which negatively affect sales of PCs now, will continue to slow …

Microsoft Corp. needs to install Windows 10 on as many devices as possible to capitalize on it in the coming years, which is why it made its latest OS available free of charge to existing customers. The approach makes sense for Microsoft. But is it good for the market in …

In a bid to offer the right solutions for different classes of desktop personal computers, Intel Corp. recently presented its vision of desktop platforms to makers of PC components. Apparently, the world’s largest maker of microprocessors sees as many as six distinctive segments of today’s desktop market. Sales of personal …

As fashions and technology have changed in the PC industry over the past few decades, systems have invariably become smaller. That means that while you can get yourself a monstrous double sized desktop gaming system from the likes of Chillblast, you can also order much smaller form factor machines with …

Intel Corp.’s ultra-small form-factor NUC [next unit of compute] desktops have become pretty popular on the market and many makers of mainboards, PCs and barebones are now trying to offer something similar. Asrock at Computex 2015 introduced its first NUC-like PCs that feature Intel’s new-generation ‘Braswell’ system-on-chip and boast with …

Elitegroup Computer Systems has introduced one of the world’s first desktop personal computers with Intel Corp.’s Core M processor inside. The new system is very tiny and is completely silent, but it has features similar to those supported by full-size desktops. The new Liva Core personal computer is based on …

At the Computex Taipei 2015 trade-show Asustek Computer has introduced its first high-performance all-in-one personal computers. The new Zen AIO systems can deliver performance of high-end desktops thanks to usage of powerful processors, graphics adapters and solid-state drives. Asustek’s new Zen AIO personal computers look very stylish and resemble the …

Asus VivoPC comes in a number of versions. This model is the VM62B with a Core i3 processor and integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics which puts it in the middle of the pecking order. You can also buy it with a Celeron 2957U (we prefer to avoid Celerons) or Core …

Advanced Micro Devices has published specifications of its Radeon R9 300-series graphics cards intended for OEMs on its web-site. As it appears, despite of new model numbers, the graphics adapters will be powered by GPUs that are already available commercially. The company has also added two new Radeon R7 300-series …

Acer Group used to be one of the world’s top PC makers half a decade ago, but in the recent years the company’s market share dropped rather dramatically. Acer announced major reorganization efforts in 2013 and while all of them yet have to prove their viability, the company is confident …

Although Microsoft Corp. plans to make its Windows 10 operating system available to PC makers this summer, actual systems featuring the new OS will not hit the market ahead of the important back-to-school season, market analysts believe. Recently Lisa Su, chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices, said that Microsoft …

Although sales of personal computers in general are declining nowadays, demand for inexpensive mini desktop PCs remains strong. As a result, Intel Corp. intends to strengthen its platforms for such systems, a media report claims. Among other things, the world’s No. 1 microprocessor supplier intends to improve performance of small …

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 …

If you’re stuck for space on your desk and you don’t need a full power PC for gaming, then HP might soon be able to help. HP Pavilion Mini Desktop and the HP Stream Mini Desktop, are two new additions to it’s lineup, with both due to be released in …

Intel Corp. has published images of its forthcoming new-generation NUC (next unit of computing) small form-factor personal computers based in the Core i-series “Broadwell” microprocessors. The upcoming SFF PCs will be slightly smaller than existing NUCs and will support optional technologies that are not available today. Pictures of Intel’s new …

An accelerated processing unit from Advanced Micro Devices could power yet another gaming device, chief financial officer of the company implied this week. The high-ranking executive did not provide any details, but given the revenue opportunities the company outlined with the deal several weeks ago, we are talking about a …

Global PC shipments will decline by several percent points this year, but will still total over 303 million units, according to Gartner. Therefore, many PC makers will enjoy great sales of personal computers this year and going forward. Unfortunately, profit margins of loads of smaller PC makers will decline so …

A number of executives of high-tech companies and some market observers have said that the effect of Windows XP’s end-of-life and increased sales of PCs will last for several quarters. However, Meg Whitman, chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, believes that the effect is about to end. However, a good news …

Khronos Group, the organization responsible for multiple open-standard application programming interfaces (APIs), such as OpenCL, OpenGL and WebGL, this week announced intention to rebuild the OpenGL API from scratch. The purpose of this is to be able to compete against Microsoft’s DirectX 12, AMD’s Mantle and other possible APIs (e.g., …