Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler

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.

This TekSpek explains the technology and market positioning behind AMD Phenom II CPUs.

This TekSpek discusses AMD’s triple-core and quad-core processors, what they are, what the technology offers and the targeted market.

Intel’s Core 2 Duo is now slugging it out against AMD’s Socket AM2 Athlon 64s with DDR2 memory support. So what is next on the roadmap from the two chip-vending foes?

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.

It’s a debate that’ll carry on until we have thought controlled PCs that respond to our cerebral synapses, but until then the argument over how best to move that in-game version of ourselves will continue.

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.

Green is one of the biggest buzz words these days, and even computer manufacturers are getting involved in trying to be kinder to the environment. While the first thing that may spring to mind when you think of 'green computing' is simply using less electricity, there's a lot more to it than that.

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.

This How-2 Guide explains what BIOS is and how it can be upgraded to the latest revision. BIOS, which stands for Basic Input/Output System, is a integral software program that comes pre-loaded with your computer. Its purpose is to initially identify computer hardware and prepare the system to run other software such as operating systems.

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.