Reviews Tom's Hardware UK

In Pictures: 16 Of The PC Industry's Most Epic Failures

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:10:01 GMT

We've endured a great many annoyances in the 16 years since Tom's Hardware first appeared online. What follows is a list of 16 of them. Although it's by no means all-inclusive, it represents one seasoned reviewer's worst experiences in technology.

Live From AMD's Financial Analyst Day

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:10:01 GMT

We've been waiting on AMD's Financial Analyst Day for more information on how the company plans to approach new and current businesses moving forward. Ahead of the big event, AMD pre-briefed us on the news.

OpenCL In Action: Post-Processing Apps, Accelerated

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:10:00 GMT

We've been bugging AMD for years now, literally: show us what GPU-accelerated software can do. Finally, the company is ready to put us in touch with ISVs in nine different segments to demonstrate how its hardware can benefit optimized applications.

Upgrade Advice: Does Your Fast SSD Really Need SATA 6Gb/s?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:10:00 GMT

Are you mulling the potential benefit of an SSD upgrade on a system without 6 Gb/s SATA connectivity? We run the benchmarks on several different solid-state storage architectures in order to determine how much performance you give up on an older machine.

AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review: Up Against GeForce GTX 580

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:10:01 GMT

Is the Radeon HD 7970's £450 asking price too high? AMD now has a less expensive derivative based on the same GCN architecture. At its default clock rates, it's fast enough to outrun Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 in many benchmarks. And it overclocks like mad.

Picking A Sub-£160 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:50:00 GMT

We really like to hunt down great values in the processor space. Since our last round-up of affordable CPUs, AMD released its Llano-based APUs and Bulldozer-based FX family. Also, Intel introduced a handful of Sandy Bridge-based Pentium chips.

What Does One Petabyte Of Storage (And $500K) Look Like?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:40:00 GMT

We're big fans of big technology, and with more than 1 PB of capacity, Aberdeen's Petarack is sure something to marvel at. We take a look inside and figure out what it takes to deploy 1 000 terabytes of space in an enterprise environment, reliably.

Install A Hard Drive Or SSD In Your Notebook's Optical Bay

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

You want a performance-oriented SSD in your notebook, but you also need the capacity of a hard drive. Why not just remove your optical drive, drop your hard drive into its bay, and load up a brand new SSD with Windows and your apps?

AMD's FX-8150 After Two Windows 7 Hotfixes And UEFI Updates

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

Introducing a new processor architecture takes a colossal effort. AMD's modular Bulldozer design ran into its share of resistance at launch. Can a handful of software updates turn the company's flagship FX-8150 into the powerhouse AMD promised?

Best SSDs For The Money: January 2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

Welcome to the year's first SSD recommendations. We updated our list to reflect recent price drops on second-gen SandForce-based hardware. There are several good deals in the budget range. Prices are falling, so we're letting you know!

Radeon HD 6990M And GeForce GTX 580M: A Beautiful Lie

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

We’ve been more than outspoken about the naming AMD and Nvidia use for their mobile GPUs. Are they really trying to mislead buyers, though? We briefly examine their methodology and frame that against the limitations of high-end mobile computing.

In Pictures: The Girls Of CES 2012

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:50:00 GMT

CES 2012 was packed to the brim with new tablets and 3D display technology, but somehow exhibitors found a way to include booth models as part of their showcase. Take a peek through our picture story to see some of what we saw this year in Las Vegas.

Five Overclocked GeForce GTX 560 Cards, Rounded-Up

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

We were foiled in our quest to find the best vendor-provided GPU cooler for Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560. But out of the ashes sprung a round-up of cards armed with those very same solutions. Which of these five GF114-based boards is right for you?

Mobile: Intel Will Overtake Qualcomm In Three Years

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:50:00 GMT

We know Intel hasn't shipped any phones, while Qualcomm had over $4 billion in revenue last quarter. But when you're done reading, you'll agree with us. To do this, we'll perform a magic trick with all three acts, The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige.

In Pictures: Dear Developers, 15 Games Worthy Of A Sequel

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:20:00 GMT

Most of the time good games get sequels. However, there's always a select few that seem to fall through the cracks. Developers close shop or trademarks get held in limbo. Here are fifteen games that we feel deserve sequels.

Chris Angelini On Tom's Hardware In 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:20:01 GMT

I just got back from CES 2012. And although I’ve attended a great many Consumer Electronics Shows, Computexes, and Comdexes (never a CeBIT), this year’s show was by far the most intense. It wasn’t that there were tons of really awesome products...

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

This month, we talk about new Llano-based APUs with unlocked core and graphics clock multipliers, Intel's upcoming Atom CPU refresh, and a few notable price adjustments. Then, we bid farewell to a few favorite processors that are quickly disappearing.

Storage Performance In Entertainment And Content Creation

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

A number of metrics are used to quantify storage performance. If you're a content creator, you have to be wondering how such dry terminology can apply to your video projects. Rather than telling you, we're going to dissect several media-oriented tasks.

Seven $260-$320 X79 Express Motherboards, Reviewed

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

With 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 connectivity to host all of our high-bandwidth devices, LGA 2011 certainly qualifies as a premium processor interface. Today we examine seven X79-based motherboards that offer high-end features at a more palatable price.

Power Supply Reference: Consumption, Savings, And More

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

In this final excerpt from Scott Mueller's Upgrading And Repairing PCs, 20th Edition, we examine a number of power supply usage factors including power consumption calculations, power savings, power protection systems, and troubleshooting.

In Pictures: The Best Graphics Card Values In History

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:10:02 GMT

A few months ago, we published a list of the fastest, most powerful graphics cards from their respective generations. This time around we honor the sub-$200 boards that brought great gaming performance to the folks on limited budgets.

In Pictures: 2011, A Year In Review

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:10:01 GMT

Another year has come and gone. Do you remember everything that happened in 2011? Before you toss out your old calendar, we remember major events, the passing of several technology greats, and a few memorable products that made their way through our lab.

Nokia Lumia 710 Review: Windows Phone 7 On A Budget

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:10:01 GMT

Nokia's Lumia 710 is designed to make Windows Phone 7 accessible to the masses. How does it fare under our test suite? You might be surprised. We're starting down the path of smartphone testing with a different take and a few exclusive benchmarks as well.

Web Browser Grand Prix VIII: Chrome 16, Firefox 9, And Mac OS X

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:10:00 GMT

Back in August, Mozilla took the WBGP crown with Firefox 7. Can Firefox 9 retain that title? And how are the top Web browsers doing in Mac OS X? We used a Hackintosh last time. This time, we're testing on the world's first Ultrabook, the MacBook Air.

60/64 GB SSD Shootout: Crucial, Samsung, And SandForce

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:10:01 GMT

It's easy to forget that lower-capacity SSDs are also usually slower. Today we're testing the most prolific 60/64 GB configurations to gauge where they fall in the big picture. We emerge at the other end with a recommendation based on our testing, too.