AMD decided to shake things up a bit with its last major driver release of the summer, Catalyst 11.8. The new driver package integrates the chip maker's CPU Overdrive utility into the AMD Vision Control Center, putting CPU and GPU overclocking controls at your fingertips from a central location (note that the software only supports CPU overclocking of Black Edition chips).

When you're finished overclocking and ready to get down to the business of playing games, Catalyst 11.8 promises to deliver up to 20 percent better performance in Call of Duty Black Operations for both single- and multi-GPU setups running … [Read More...]

With the Black Hat security conference going on right now, it’s the season for new hacks. Although, we didn’t really expect Google’s cloud-based Chrome OS to be a star this year. Google highlighted the increased security of Chrome OS when it was announced, but a team of security researchers has managed to use web tools to gain access to user data.

Matt Johanson and Kyle Osborn spent a few months looking at Chrome OS, eventually finding a flaw in the ScratchPad extension included on ever ChromeBook. ScratchPad is used to take notes and save them to the cloud. The exploit … [Read More...]

Were there a Mount Everest of PC builds, the see-through PC would likely be it. The difficulties are great, and the possibilities for failure high, but there’s nothing that gets me more excited than the opportunity to crack my knuckles and customize the lighting and electrical setup of a transparent desktop system.

The most fearsome part of this build is the acrylic case I’m using: There’s nowhere to hide any mistakes. Nor can I just stuff a mass … [Read More...]

Just how much power can you stuff into a small form factor rig? Ask that question of Digital Storm and the company will likely lay its fabulous Black Ops Enix on you.

Using Silverstone’s wickedly cool Fortress FT03 case, the Enix is like your typical small form factor lunch-box design, turned on its head. This gives it a couple of big advantages. The most obvious one is as clear as a skyscraper: a footprint that’s little larger than a piece of binder paper. The second advantage is thermals. Heat likes to rise, and with … [Read More...]