PC Gaming
A coming of age tale at a glance Pro (+) Super sharp screen; extremely portable; fast and quiet; very adjustable hinge. Noob (+) Keyboard sold separately; only one USB port; makes concessions as a laptop and tablet. When the original Surface Pro came out in 2012, it was seen as the awkward redheaded stepchild in…
Overclocking locked Skylake processors Good news, budget builders — motherboard makers are releasing BIOS updates that allow non-K Skylake processors to be overclocked. That isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Like Haswell and Broadwell, Intel “locks” certain 6th Generation Core processors so that users can’t easily make BCLK adjustments to boost base clock frequencies. If…
Top Deal: One day little Billy will be old enough (and responsible enough) to own a decked out gaming laptop with all the amenities. But for now? He just needs something to surf the web and type up his homework. That’s where Chromebooks come in, and if you’re looking for a great price on one,…
Easing tensions Microsoft is participating in a new joint venture that will allow the the company to ship a special version of its Windows 10 operating system to China’s government agencies, the company announced today. Certain state owned enterprises will also have access to the custom Windows 10 build, which will include ongoing support and…
Bark commands at Netflix on Windows 10 On the surface, it looks like Netflix freshened up its app for Windows 10 with a revamped user interface and called it a day. However, there’s more to the update than just a pretty new face. In fact, calling it an “update” might be a disservice. The finished…
What’s the catch? Acer just added what seems like an awesome entry to its monitor lineup, the Predator Z35, a 35-inch UltraWide display with a curved panel, G-Sync support, and up to a 200Hz refresh rate (via overclocking). We always take these things with a grain of salt, but for what it’s worth, Acer rates…
Get more bang for your printing buck Decades ago, the promise was made of the “paperless office.” In retrospect, we can see how unrealistic that plan was. Whether to hand in a school paper, save a tax return, or sign a legal document, the antiquated technology of printing is firmly entrenched for the foreseeable future,…
Top Deal: Remember when Steve Jobs tried to declare the post PC era? We laughed, you laughed, and the PC market kept chugging along. Then more recently Tim Cook said essentially the same thing, wondering why anyone would buy a traditional PC instead of an iPad Pro. We laughed again, you laughed again, and the…
Strengthening Skylake MSI has come up with a metal bracket for socket 1151 motherboards that it claims will help prevent Skylake processors from bending underneath heavy heatsinks. Called “CPU Guard 1151,” the metal bracket installs around the socket area. It’s designed to strengthen the corners of the CPU to withstand more vertical pressure, as there…
Getting pushy with pop-ups Some ideas are just bad, there’s no two ways about it. One such idea is to splash older Windows systems with popups that implore users to upgrade to Windows 10 with seemingly two options, “Upgrade now” or “Upgrade tonight.” Where’s door number three, the one that says, “I think I’ll stay…