Desktops

Qualcomm Atheros unveils Killer networking controller

Gamers might buy these just because of their name, which might have been the case of another product offered by Bigfoot Networks awhile ago.

Qualcomm Atheros announced today its latest Wi-Fi and Ethernet controllers called Killer Wireless-N 1202 Wi-Fi Module and Killer E2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller. These are network adapters with built-in QoS designed to "provide unprecedented performance and advanced control by automatically classifying and prioritizing gaming, video, and audio network data," Qualcomm claims. Basically, they are great for games and entertainment-related applications.

Both of these new solutions comes with an exclusive technology called Advanced Stream Detect that … Read more

Colorblind Assistant, can you help me? (eyes-on)

1979: I might have had a crush on her, but that didn't change the fact that she was wrong. My classmate Stacy mocked me for coloring a clown's lips green instead of red. I asked our kindergarten teacher to please explain to my cute but misinformed friend that she was wrong.

"Actually, Jeffrey," she said, "Stacy's right. This is green."

Thus, in short order, I learned some things:

I was red-green color-blind. So was my maternal grandfather. I may as well throw crayons away if the wrappers come off, since reading the name was the only way I could be sure what color I had.

The thing of it is, I see colors, just not always the right ones.

The main drawback of this for me (aside from never being able to work on a bomb squad, at least not more than once) is that with all the confusion I had with colors, it was hard to, you know, learn the right names for the right colors. True story: last week, I had to Google "chartreuse" when my son asked me what color it was. … Read more

Introducing Nasne, Sony's sleek DVR of (Japan's) future

The new Sony Nasne tuner and media device, due in Japan on July 19 for 16,980 yen ($209), sort of looks like a miniature PlayStation 3. However, don't let the aesthetics fool you: Nasne contains many features the game console lacks, such as a built-in 500GB hard drive for recording content from digital terrestrial or satellite TV broadcasts. … Read more

WD VelociRaptor high-end hard drive hits 1TB

Before solid-state drives (SSD), Western Digital's Raptor family of hard drives had always been the fastest internal drive for consumers. And spinning at 10,000 RPM, these drives are still very fast though offering less storage than other 7,200rpm hard drives.

That gap has just gotten narrower; the company announced today the latest VelociRaptor hard drive that caps at 1TB of storage space.

While 1TB seems small compared with other 3.5-inch hard drives that offer up to 4TB, the new VelociRaptor, like the previous two generations, actually comes in the 2.5-inch standard. However, it is extra thick and has an added metal frame to be as physically big as a regular 3.5-inch hard drive. … Read more

G-RAID with Thunderbolt review: Top performance for a price

When it comes to Thunderbolt storage devices, generally the more internal drives it has, the faster performance it offers. This is because the Thunderbolt standard offers 10Gbps speed, while the fastest internal drive, be it a regular hard drive or a solid-state drive, is limited by the SATA 3 standard that caps at just 6Gbps.

The more drives means the vendor can aggregate the performance of each drive into a total throughput that's faster than the top speed of each drive. For this reason, Promise's Pegasus R6, a six-bay Thunderbolt drive has always been the fastest. Now, the G-RAID with Thunderbolt drive can challenge the Pegasus.… Read more

The Black Hole: Los Alamos lab surplus store surprises

LOS ALAMOS, N.M.--I got sucked into a black hole and lived to tell the tale. Fortunately for me, the black hole is the Black Hole here in Los Alamos, a sprawling store full of old surplus equipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The lab's legacy The national laboratory was founded during World War II, giving it ample time to pile up a lot of equipment like oscilloscopes, Teletype machines, RadioShack computers, and cryogenic gear.

All that stuff has to go somewhere when it gets replaced by newer machines. For many years, the Black Hole welcomed this detritus with open arms.

The store's founder, Ed Grothus, passed away in 2009. The former laboratory employee and ardent peace activist collected and sold surplus from the lab. A former Piggly Wiggly convenience store was transformed into the Black Hole. It's still open today.… Read more

Opinion: Is the Razer Blade gaming laptop worth the risk?

After reviewing the bold but polarizing Razer Blade gaming laptop, we were inspired to discuss whether Razer's gamble made sense for a laptop debut, or whether Razer should have pursued a more conventional approach with its first system. We go a few rounds, in which we discuss the Blade's ultrathin form, the second-screen Switchblade user interface, and the value of design versus performance.… Read more

Intel chip tests surface ahead of Apple, Windows laptops

New benchmarks point to decent performance jumps for upcoming Intel Ivy Bridge mobile processors. That should translate pretty directly to faster Apple and Windows laptops.

To date, we've seen plenty of Ivy Bridge desktop benchmarks but few hard numbers for mobile. Ivy Bridge is Intel's next-gen processor packing 3D transistors, improved graphics, and USB 3.0 via the accompanying chipset.

So, let's get right to the nub of the matter. Benchmark tests were conducted with a quad-core Core i7-3820QM Ivy Bridge chip and a current-generation Sandy Bridge Core i7-2960XM.

Testing based on 3DMark Vantage (entry, overall) yielded … Read more

New Toshiba all-in-ones have a certain something

Expect lots of new all-in-one designs between now and the launch of Windows 8 in the fall. Odds are high they will blend together into commoditized, mass-market PC mush. Still, there's something appealing about this new LX800-series design from Toshiba.… Read more