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Posts Tagged ‘Intel’

NVidia’s founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang was on hand at this years AsiaD conference, and as usual, he put on quite the show. In addition to reconfirming the companies future plans for the Tegra platform, he offered up sage advice for Microsoft on how to manage Intel during the transition to arm, how much his company is spending on R&D, and even openly fantasized about getting his chips in future versions of the iPad. 

When asked about his feelings towards Windows on ARM, Huang was quite specific, don’t call it a PC.

“It’s important for [Microsoft] not to position these … [Read More...]

It’s not as if Maximum PC readers need any more convincing that the whole ‘post PC era’ theory is a bunch of hogwash, but just in case there remains any lingering doubt, Intel just reported yet another record quarter, for the sixth time in a row, as a matter of fact. Intel set new records for microprocessor units shipped, EPS, earnings, and revenue, which the chip maker reports was up 28 percent year-over-year.

“Intel delivered record-setting results again in Q3, surpassing $14 billion in revenue for the first time, driven largely by double-digit unit growth in notebook PCs,” said Paul … [Read More...]

It’s easy to build a gaming machine on a budget if you’re playing at 1650×1080 or 1920×1200, but if you’re rocking 2560×1600, you need a little more oomph

As Maximum PC senior editor Gordon Mah Ung puts it, building a budget gaming rig for a 30-inch panel is the metaphorical equivalent of slapping a Ferrari engine into a crappy Ford car. If you can afford a display that rings up north of $2,000, then why the heck are you trying to cut corners on the system you’re connecting it to?

I can’t answer that one for you. But what I … [Read More...]

Let’s cut to the chase here. If you’re pondering buying the Acer Aspire S3, it’s because you desperately want an Apple MacBook Air but are too freaking cheap to pony up the $1,300 (minimum) for the 13-inch model.

The Aspire S3 is a glorious knock-off of the Air — stripped down to the basics and slashed to just $900. Is a 30 percent price cut a compelling enough reason to buy it over its inspiration? That’s debatable, but it’s at least worth a look.

The tale of the tape tells the story the best: The Acer Aspire S3 is almost … [Read More...]

Last week in New York, ASUS unveiled the ZENBOOK ultra-portable PC. The ZENBOOK represents collaboration between ASUS and Intel on a category of stylish and thin PCs called Ultrabooks introduced by Intel.

The ASUS ZENBOOK features a super-thin design at a thickness of only 0.11” at the front and 0.67” at the back. The top-side of the ZENBOOK has a silver panel with a “concentric” circle design (see below shot) that is designed to refract a halo of light.

The ZENBOOK also packs quite the performance. It comes packing a 2^nd generation Intel Core processor, a SATA 3 SSD … [Read More...]

The battle over the mainstream tablet market all but over, smart competitors are turning to a familiar tactic to attempt to compete with the iPad juggernaut: Slashing prices.

Bargain tablets are set to hit the market in droves — expect CES 2012 to be flooded with the things — as manufacturers race to hit that magic price point that drives so many consumer electronics devices, $200.

Velocity Micro — a brand better known for its ultra-pricey, high-end gaming rigs — is getting there. Its first tablet product, the 7-inch Cruz T301, was met with general disdain, and VM went back … [Read More...]

Looking to get your movie watching on? Turn to Zotac. The company might not be at HP’s level in terms of sales, but when it comes to HTPCs, few companies deliver better small form factor results. The company’s ZBox line has been a go-to brand for video streaming enthusiasts, and now, there’s a new Zotac ZBox available that ditches Intel and AMD in favor of a VIA processor.

The Zotac ZBOX nano VD01 Series – which Zotac says can fit in the palm of your hand – actually sports two VIA processors: both the 1.2 GHz dual-core Nano X2 U4025 … [Read More...]

If you’ve never heard of Intellectual Ventures, get your confused face ready. This patent holding firm, which makes nothing but does hold about 35,000 patents, has filed suit against Motorola Mobility for patent infringement. IV says it has been in talks with Motorola for some time, but has been unable to reach a deal for licensing of the IV patent portfolio. Unwilling to allow “ongoing infringement,” the lawyers are gearing up.

IV has made name for itself acquiring patents from all over the country, and using them to extract licensing fees from organizations large and small. Many of the patents … [Read More...]

Intel introduced the world to the next generation of Thunderbolt controllers at IDF 2011 recently. We were told that the next-generation controllers, codenamed “Cactus Ridge,” will be available next year when chips based on the Ivy Bridge architecture begin shipping. But a fresh rumor suggests that the two Cactus Ridge chipsets revealed earlier in the month aren’t the only Thunderbolt controllers that Intel has lined up.

If VR Zone is to be believed, Intel has a third, much smaller controller in the pipeline that should enter production before the end of 2011 and reach vendors in early 2012. Reportedly called … [Read More...]

Despite claiming that Linux infringes on over 235 of its patents for a number of years now, Microsoft has always promised to deal with competitors that make Linux-based products with a fair degree of restraint. Of course, this only applies as long as such competitors don’t “free ride on our innovations” and refuse to sign licensing deals (case in point: Motorola). Anyways, this approach seems to be producing the desired results as more and more companies are falling in line. The latest company to sign a Linux patent-protection deal with Microsoft happens to be Casio.

The two companies announced Tuesday … [Read More...]

Through a series of BIOS updates, Gigabyte last month announced it added native support for PCI Express Gen. 3 technology on over 40 of its existing motherboards, and along with support for Intel’s 22nm Ivy Bridge processors, it was a solid announcement for system builders looking to future proof. At least it should have been, only MSI is taking Gigabyte to task over its PCI-E Gen. 3 claims.

This isn’t some off-the-cuff remark being blown out of proportion by the media, either. MSI put together a multi-page PDF document filled with marketing slides explaining exactly why it thinks Gigabyte is … [Read More...]

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a new Windows 7 slate, which is why I was so interested to check out the brand-new Samsung Series 7 Slate PC, which Samsung debuted today at the IFA conference in Germany. Samsung was cool enough to give me sneak-preview of the Series 7 about a month before today’s launch, so what you’re reading today are my thoughts on the almost-finished version. My unit came with a full-voltage second-generation Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a lightning-fast 64GB SSD. When it hits store shelves in early October you’ll be able to get … [Read More...]

Do you need gigabytes or performance? Laptop upgrades or a screaming new gaming PC? We walk you through what you need to know to pick the right storage solution for your PC.

Storage. Always needed, often overlooked.

Often lost in the buzz surrounding the latest DirectX 11 GPUs and hexacore CPUs is the ability to actually store and retrieve your stuff. Your applications, games, photographs, digital music and everything else lives on your hard drive. But that boring old rotating magnetic disk just doesn’t seem exciting or high tech – even though the technology in a hard drive is actually … [Read More...]

Someone tell the boss we need an in-house masseur. Maingear’s Titan 17 is the third supersize notebook we’ve reviewed in the past few months, and our backs are paying the price. We’re so beaten down by these behemoths that the sight of the enormous power brick alone makes us cringe in terror. The graphics performance of this SLI powerhouse, however, makes all the hardship worth it.

The philosophy behind the Titan 17 is simple. Take a complete high-end desktop PC and cram it into a notebook form factor. Price and weight and size aren’t the limiting factors—all that counts, in … [Read More...]

After our social media background check, are you afraid of what a future employer may find out about you? Rest easy as we have some tips to help you remove your personal information from more than a dozen online background check websites.

How Do These Sites Get My Information?

There are hundreds of online background check websites that gather information on people. In the US, these online databases are populated with information from public records like real estate transactions, arrest records, court cases, marriages, divorces, etc.

Before the Internet, investigators would have to go to the local town hall or … [Read More...]

Ever since Intel laid to rest it’s Netburst architecture, AMD has only been able to look back and reminisce about a time when the Sunnyvale chip maker held the performance crown the way a washed up athlete remembers his days as an all-star on the high school football team. We’re not saying AMD is washed up by any means, it just hasn’t been able to dominate the benchmarks chart. The company’s upcoming Bulldozer could change all that, especially if leaked benchmarks turn out to be legit.

Turkish website Donanimhaber posted a bunch of performance metrics it claims were achieved with … [Read More...]

This is the next in the series of “PC Snapshots” – short 2-3 minute overview of PCs that Ryan and I think are awesome. If there’s a PC that you’d like to see us cover, hit me on Twitter, send me mail, or leave a comment. We’ll try to get to it ASAP!

Today’s PC is the ASUS U36, which I reviewed on the blog a few months back.  It’s a great little PC; lightweight (around 3.5lbs), thin (19mm at its thinnest point), and fast (Intel Core i5, 500GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU).  And it gets around 8 … [Read More...]

Last week I got my hands on a brand new ASUS VX7 Lamborghini gaming laptop.  It’s a beautiful PC, as I noted in my unboxing photo gallery blog, so I wanted to devote this piece to the PC’s performance, which looks to be seriously impressive. 

What’s inside

My VX7 is loaded with a second-generation Intel Core i7-2630 processor, 8GB of memory, a brand-new NVIDIA GTX 460M graphics card, and 1.5TB of storage spread across 2 drives.  It’s a beast of a PC and on paper, one of the most impressive I’ve seen to date, and is on par power-wise with … [Read More...]