TechSpot Reviews

ATI Radeon HD 5570 Review

It's self-evident how AMD has kept us busy over the last few months, showing us new generation GPUs aiming at all possible price points. From the performance-oriented HD 5850/5870, to the mainstream HD 5770 and the extreme dual-GPU powered HD 5970.

ATI Radeon HD 5450 Review

Since releasing the first Radeon HD 5000 series graphics card some four months ago, AMD has continued its assault on Nvidia with an army of new models. Following the Radeon HD 5870 came the 5850, 5770, 5750, 5970 and most recently the 5670, while today yet another new product is set to make its first appearance.

TechSpot PC Buying Guide

One pitfall of our previous buying guides and many others on the Web is that they expire shortly after publishing. Prices change daily, components come and go, and the guides simply degrade in worth until they're eventually rewritten a few months later. Recognizing this, we will be taking an alternative approach in our revamped PC Buying Guide.

Effortless Ways to Download Video Content from YouTube and Other Sites

If you've browsed the Web at all in the last few years, there's a good chance you've watched a ton of YouTube videos. The site serves over a billion every day both on their own and through the zillions of sites that choose to embed videos hosted on their platform. We bet at least once you've wondered about downloading a clip and although there are many tips and services around to help you accomplish such a feat, here's a few we consider to be the best.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 Review

While we usually try to bring you timely and breaking facts from the two main discrete GPU makers, Nvidia and ATI, as of late it's not been up to us to bring balance to the coverage that goes to each company. Out of our last seven graphics card reviews, only one was about a new GeForce GPU, and a terrible one at that.

OCZ Vertex 2 Pro 100GB SSD Review

While we don't expect solid-state drives to become mainstream just yet, they are by all means moving quickly in that direction. Current generation SSDs deliver more value than ever before, plus they have the speed advantage, features, and adequate capacity to become viable alternatives to standard disk drives to most users.

Use a Browser Sandbox for Cross-Browser Testing

Testing browser compatibility can drive any Web developer postal, especially when it comes to Internet Explorer. While there are multiple ways to install different versions of a browser on one computer, it's a headache waiting to happen. Thankfully, there are several solutions to this problem today, and a service from Code Systems is one of the most seamless ones we've come across so far.

Asus Eee PC 1101HA Seashell Netbook Review

A little over a year ago netbooks were the emerging trend that had everyone buzzing. Now the so-called 'internet tablet' seems to be stealing that spotlight. But while these new devices have yet to prove themselves on a commercial scale besides maybe some niche business applications, netbooks have already found their place on the market, at least for now.

Most Anticipated PC Games of 2010: From A to Z

While many publications are wrapping up their look at the best games of 2009, we have decided to peer ahead. Most gamers know what titles came last year, but keeping track of upcoming releases can be a bit more difficult.

G.Skill Falcon II 128GB SSD Review

In our first solid-state drive round-up last year we quickly learned that a SSD can only be as good as the controller working the magic behind it. That was the last time we checked a solid state drive from G.Skill, who is better known for its overclocking friendly memory modules.

TechSpot's CES 2010 in Pictures

With the New Year came CES, the largest consumer electronics expo in North America. We traveled to Las Vegas to attend the event and bring you the scoop on some of the latest products from the main players in the computing world.

Enable Windows 7's Hidden "God Mode"

As indicated by enthusiasts around the Web, there is a simple way to access a hidden "God Mode" in Windows 7 and Vista. With a name like that, your expectations might be a little high -- and no, Windows is not secretly invincible -- but the trick is awesome nevertheless.

Intel Core i5 661 Review: Now With Built-In Graphics

Intel is getting into high gear with their Core processor family early on the new year, as they are set to release 6 new desktop processors and 11 mobile processors this month. Along for the ride will be 3 new chipsets for desktop PCs and 4 oriented towards mobility.

USB 3.0: What You Need To Know

The Universal Serial Bus standard has come a long way since its introduction in 1996. Backed by a consortium of companies led by Intel, Compaq and Microsoft, it offered some unheard-of features for its time, including the ability to connect peripherals without turning off the computer first and to draw power without a separate AC connection. The standard became popular with the arrival of version 1.1 in late 1998, allowing a maximum transfer rate of 12Mb/s, and as we can witness nowadays just about any device comes standard with 'Hi-Speed' USB 2.0 connectivity.

Reclaim Some Storage Space with a Few Simple Tweaks

In the age of inexpensive 2 terabyte hard drives, a few gigs might not matter, but there are situations where you might need that extra space. For instance, if you purchase a solid-state drive to contain your operating system, applications and games, you'll grow to cherish every salvageable gigabyte. There are a few simple adjustments you can make within Windows to regain some drive space.

Hitachi SimpleTough Rugged Portable Hard Drive Review

Just recently we reviewed the A-DATA SH93 portable hard drive which featured a rugged design said to be both shock resistant and water proof -- within reason anyway. After abusing it for a few days the SH93 lived up to all our expectations with flying colors, surviving multiple drops onto a hard surface from up to 4 feet high, and being submerged into the kitchen sink for half an hour with no damage to the drive's contents whatsoever.

Prevent Windows Update From Automatically Restarting Your PC

Windows Update's automatic reboot can be one of the most annoying "features" in Microsoft operating systems. While it's a bit less pushy with Windows Vista and 7, allowing users to postpone the restart for up to four hours, you may not be at the computer to intercept the first or subsequent notifications.

Asrock Ion 330HT-BD Nettop Review

Before we tell you more about Asrock's Ion-based nettop, try to imagine buying a complete desktop PC that costs as little as $350 and is both modern and stylish. Furthermore, this imaginary computer supports many new technologies, runs Windows 7 with ease and provides full HD playback. Additionally it consumes less power than a traditional incandescent light bulb under full load and generates almost no noise.

QNAP TS-809 Pro Turbo NAS Review

While popular among storage-hungry PC enthusiasts, network-attached storage has proven to be particularly useful in office environments, where sharing large amounts of data between several desktop PCs can become quite problematic. Having followed its development for some time, the move to NAS just made sense in my own workplace and today provides a central point to share and store data on a daily basis.

How to Bring a Lost Window Back to your Desktop

At one point or another, you're bound to run into this pesky issue: you can see an application open in the taskbar, but can't see the window on your desktop. A number of things can cause this, such as disconnecting your laptop from a secondary display before dragging the windows back to the primary desktop. It can also occur when you open a program that alters your resolution, among a few others.