Audio/Video Connectors >> HDMI
Keeping in tandem with technological developments, audio/video connectors continue to evolve at a steady pace. Today, the most common digital connector comes in the form of HDMI and we're here to tell you what it is, what it does, and why you might need it.
Cases >> Chassis Airflow
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.
Coolers - Water >> Watercooling
Watercooling for the PC has been around for years in some form or another, for at least as long as Scan have been in business, with basic physics defining why you want to use it. That means for air cooling, to cope with increasing temperature in the heatsink you need to move the air across it faster. That is why thermostatically controlled fans in your PC will turn faster the hotter something gets.
GPU - Graphics >> ATI Radeon 5800 series
All personal computers (PCs) use some form of graphics to output the display on to a monitor or screen. Looking back over the last 15 years, there has seen significant development in what are termed 3D accelerators - dedicated graphics boards designed to render life-like images in real-time - and the market has been dominated by two companies: NVIDIA and ATI.
GPU - Graphics >> CUDA Technology
CUDA technology is the world’s only C language environment that enables programmers and developers to write software to solve complex computational problems in a fraction of the time by tapping into the many-core parallel processing power of GPUs.
GPU - Graphics >> GPU Antialiasing
This TekSpek will assume you know the affects of applying a level of anti-aliasing (AA) on your 3D accelerator, be it via the driver control panel or via a control in your game. We assume you know the effect it has on image quality, so you can think about a before and after scenario. So this TekSpek isn’t about explaining what it does as such, although it will, it’s about explaining the how and why.
GPU - Graphics >> Graphics
Explaining how a modern GPU works in completeness would take a book. Or two. Per class of chip. Per vendor. They're extraordinarily complex pieces of engineering and production, and the end result contains more transistors than multiple modern x86 processors.
GPU - Graphics >> Multi-GPUs
If you’re the least bit interested in graphics cards, we’re sure that you’ve heard the terms SLI and CrossFire bandied about recently. Touted as a means of achieving maximum 3D performance by, effectively, using two or more graphics cards in tandem, multi-GPU technology is here to stay. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look SLI and CrossFire; the two competing multi-GPU solutions from NVIDIA and ATI Technologies, respectively.
GPU - Graphics >> NVIDIA 3D Vision
One of the most interesting technologies in 2010 promises to be 3D TV. Pushed by the likes of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic on their high-end sets, 3D TV will gain traction once broadcasters - such as Sky and the BBC - and movie studios increase 3D content.
GPU - Graphics >> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 / 470 architecture
NVIDIA and its retail partners will be launching a slew of new graphics cards on March 26. Based on the brand-new GF100 architecture, this TekSpek evaluates the technology behind NVIDIA most ambitious GPU design.
GPU - Graphics >> NVIDIA GTX 460
Graphics-chip manufacturer NVIDIA released its GeForce GTX 400-series video cards in March of this year, based on what it called the 'Fermi' architecture. Named the GTX 470 and GTX 480, these cards supported all of the latest technologies and remain the most-powerful GPUs available. However, they were very expensive, used a lot of power and generated a significant amount of heat.
GPU - Graphics >> PCI Express
A motherboard’s main job is to act as a conduit between the various hardware elements that make up a PC. It needs to be able to link the desired CPU(s), system memory, graphics card, hard drive(s), and add-in cards and enable them to work in harmony.
GPU - Pro Graphics >> AMD Eyefinity
Have you ever felt like you've run out of space on your desktop? Do you ever get sick of 'alt-tabbing' between multiple windows just to try and find the program that you're looking for? Unfortunately, even high-resolution monitors don't always have enough space to let you get everything done. That's where multi-monitor systems come into play, and nothing makes that easier than AMD's Eyefinity.
Guides >> Graphics Card Outputs
Modern desktop computers and notebooks comprise of a CPU, motherboard, graphics, storage, and, usually an optical drive. Computers have a number of ports and sockets that enable the user to plug-in various peripherals such as a printer, USB mouse, or, perhaps most importantly of all, an Internet connection.
Monitors >> DVI/HDMI/HDCP
There’s a lot more to High Definition than just having the ability to run your screen at the right resolution. With more than one type of connection available, and the thorny subject of signal encryption to contend with, just because your monitor and graphics are capable of 1,920 x 1,080 or better does not necessarily mean they will be able to display HDTV in all its glory.
Monitors >> HDTV 720/1080
Whether the broadcasters are going HD or not, TV sets and projectors are arriving thick and fast which claim to support higher resolutions than regular telly. But HDTV is far from just one standard – it incorporates a couple of different resolutions, two different scanning modes, and a number of different frame rates. In this article, we present a guide to what all the terms actually mean.
Optical Drives >> Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc is now widely regarded as the physical successor to DVD, we take a closer look at what it is, what advantages it brings, and what it could mean to you.
Sound >> Noise Reduction
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.