Desktops

Here at Crave UK, we're celebrating the end of British summer. But not because we hate Britain's perma-cloud and incessant flooding, oh no--it's because it's back-to-school time! It's that time of year when the government forces our hoodied young to vacate the street corners, put down the cans of spray paint and actually go and learn some stuff.

And since they're all going back to school and leaving us free of harassment, why not reward them with a brand new PC that can aid their studies--or at the very least help them spread their … Read more

Buying a new PC (or upgrading your current machine) isn't merely a question of what to buy, but also when to buy. With cheaper, faster, better, technology always around the corner, you can't completely avoid the feeling of buyer's remorse in the weeks or months following your purchase, no matter how carefully you map it.

Now is a particularly difficult time for desktop buyers and upgraders as both AMD and Intel have major CPU introductions planned for the end of the year. Intel is expected to release its 45nm Penryn chips, while AMD should deliver its native … Read more

Now that Logitech's excellent Z-5500 Digital 5.1 speaker system has been around for a few years, it's available for considerably less than its original $400 asking price. But desktop owners looking for another option now have an even more affordable alternative in the form of the company's just-announced G51 surround-sound system. The all-analog 5.1 speaker system features stereo and 6-channel inputs, the latter matching the outputs found on nearly all surround-capable PC sound cards. The G51 features two matrixing modes--one for games and one for music--that can synthesize a 5.1 surround track from a … Read more

Well, that should teach us. Just minutes after making sport of Swarovski, we came across yet another another category of products that the infectious crystals are attacking: computer screens.

ViewSonic, a respectable manufacturer, has apparently succumbed to market madness by allowing customers to "beautify and customize" their LCDs with "original Swarovski crystals," according to PCLaunches. (As opposed to unoriginal ones?) And you can scream bad taste in grand fashion with a full 22-inch widescreen with 1680x1050 resolution. But you might have to wear sunglasses to cut down on the crystal reflection.

Owners of PCs with Intel's 965 chipsets can finally download drivers that will immediately improve the performance of games running on those systems.

The 965 chipsets were supposed to be a dramatic step forward for integrated graphics performance. Most PCs come with graphics technology built right onto the chipset that connects the processor to memory and the rest of a PC. Serious gamers opt for discrete graphics made by Nvidia or AMD's ATI division, but most people save a little money and get the basic graphics.

Intel wanted to make an integrated graphics chipset with more powerful graphics … Read more

Note: This post was updated on August 17, 2007, to make a correction.

With VMware's official release of Fusion 1.0 less than two weeks ago, there are now no less than four different ways to run Windows applications on Intel-based Macs. Fusion, as well as SWsoft's Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac use virtualization technology to allow you to simultaneously run the Windows operating system as a virtual machine alongside the Mac OS. CrossOver Mac 6.0 from CodeWeavers uses a different virtualization approach by building on the open-source API, Wine, which allows you to run individual … Read more

Apparently it's not enough to have a mirror that sends text messages or even engages us in conversation. We need one that'll run Windows too.

Facing stiff competition in its mainstay telly business, U.K.-based Mirror Media has created a line that incorporates a PC into its reflective TVs in sizes ranging from 20 to 36 inches with frames in wood, metallic and other finishes, according to Chip Chick. It remains to be seen, however, whether they'll be able to create the ultimate convergence appliance by including a radiator.

We tend to avoid computer mods on Crave, simply because we could spend every waking moment collecting examples at the expense of anything else. But there's always the exception that's just too good to pass up, whether it be a bomb mod or perhaps one for the holidays. And, of course, anything to do with our hero, Batman.

Here, an enterprising young man named Kevin Core has created a masterpiece in his "Tumbler Batmobile PC" with an AMD Sempron chip, seven "activity LEDs" and a remote-controlled model of the famed vehicle purchased from Wal-Mart, … Read more

For about the longest time, the background on my Mac had been fairly dull--a Manhattan cityscape plucked from the selection at DesktopNexus. I want my desktop patterns to look good, but I'm not one to put a whole lot of thinking power into it; there are better ways to waste energy.

This morning, however, I switched when I read about Desktoptopia, a new Mac-only downloadable app that lets you easily discover aesthetically pleasing "designer desktop" backgrounds created by innovative digital artists (no generic landscapes here) and switch them up either automatically or manually with a very simple … Read more