Akasa AK-CC017 Freedom Tower CPU Cooler 4x Nickel Plated Copper Heatpipes S775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3

The modern PC is potentially a mass of heat output and heat production hot spots. With CPUs rated at more than 100W of heat output, single graphics boards carrying similar ratings (and people want to run two!), multiple hard drives the norm, lots of memory and mainboards covered in heatpipes to combat toasty core logic and PWM circuits, a PC appreciably warming up a room when it’s working hard is no joke.

This TekSpek explains what AMD’s AMD64 CPU instruction set architecture (ISA) is, shows what CPUs implement it from both AMD and Intel, and explains what software is available to run on those 64-bit consumer processors.

The purpose This TekSpek quickly and easily explains AMD’s new processor socket and related technology to the reader, comparing it to AMD’s previous socket types.

There’s been a lot of hype about Intel’s Core 2 recently, even since they launched Core in fact. Words like Conroe, Badaxe and Allendale have been flying around. The bottom line is that Core 2 is the name of Intel’s latest line of CPUs, based on a new micro-architecture, designed for speed and efficiency.

Over the course of the last year or so we’ve seen GHz become less of a focus when it comes to processors. Instead, we’re seeing a shift towards processors that do more work per clock, have larger caches, are more power efficient, and of course we’ve seen dual-core processors hit the market. So what is dual-core all about, and how does it weigh up compared to single-core?

It’s been a long time since MHz were the only part of a CPU’s specification that concerned people. Manufacturers take different approaches to CPU design, even when using the same architecture. That means for example, at the same clock speed, an Intel and AMD processor will deliver different performance.

Intel’s been on a mission of late. That mission revolves around grouping and standardising key technologies under various banners that are designed to ensure hardware compatibility and consumer ease of use. We’ll take a closer look at three such technologies that fall under the headings of Centrino, Viiv, and vPro, respectively.

Intel has plans for a new brand structure that it claims will be less confusing for customers. In this TekSpek we'll take a look at Inte's proposals and speculate on its future line-up of processors.

The purpose of this TekSpek is to delineate the publicly known features of Intel’s next generation desktop microarchitecture. Codenamed Conroe and officially titled Intel Core 2 Duo, it’s loosely based on the current mobile Yonah (Core Duo) underpinnings.

Intel launched the consumer-oriented Core i7 900-series processors back in November 2008, and the chip giant has known that it's been on to a winner with Nehalem, the codename for the underlying architecture. This is the reason we've seen little innovation on Core i7, and pricing has remained relatively steady since launch.

This TekSpek gives a brief overview Intel's new ' Nehalem’ generation of Central Processing Units (CPUs).

In the same way that Centrino technology defines Intel’s vision for mobile computing hardware requirements, Intel’s vPro technology platform amalgamates a collection of hardware requirements for better management of a business PC network.

This TekSpek discusses Intel’s 45nm process technology. What it is, what it provides, and how it benefits the consumer.

This TekSpek explains why you’d want to overclock your graphics board, the risks in doing so and how you can go about doing it.

This TekSpek explains what Green Computing is, what it means to the consumer, and how energy-efficient components can be beneficial in the home.

This TekSpek explains what DDR3 is, how it works, where you’ll find it, and what it means to the consumer.

What makes a PC tick? Is it the processor, graphics card, RAM, or a plethora of other peripherals. It’s all those and more, but none would be much use without a means of connecting said components in an efficient manner. That’s where your humble motherboard comes in. Its job is to ensure that all devices can communicate correctly, and the beating heart of any motherboard is the chipset it’s based upon.

Anybody who has been near their share of computer systems will appreciate that not all systems make the same amount of noise. There are a number of reasons for why this is so. Firstly, a computer makes noise for different reasons. Generally, anything mechanical is going to make noise.