Jason Cross

Some call them “widgets,” some call them “gadgets.” In the end, theyre all really the same thing: little dynamic applets that run on your desktop. The idea has been around for ages, and relatively popular “widget engines” have existed for several years. Stardocks DesktopX product allows for the production and consumption of desktop applets it […]

Typically, our Build It systems are purpose-built. Designed to do something and do it well, theyre laser-focused on providing a single optimal, but realistic, solution. Perhaps its a money-is-no-object Gaming PC or a Media Center PC. But the very nature of the PC is to be flexible and customizable, and we realize that not everyone […]

As prices of LCD monitors continue to drop, larger displays become more affordable for a larger audience. One of the most popular has been UltraSharp 2407WFP. Though Dell sells a lot of monitors, theyre clearly not the only game in town. Going back years, to when LCDs were rich boys toys and 19-inch CRTs were […]

Beta 2. Its a landmark. Its the point where, historically, upcoming Windows releases have been stable and feature-rich enough that testers could use it all day, every day. Sure, there will be some bugs and quirks, but no showstoppers that would make you run the old OS all the time and only pop into the […]

Its a commonly held misconception that playing modern PC games is an expensive proposition, full of $500 video cards and $900 dual-core processors. Sure, you can have an amazing gaming experience if you want to blow thousands of dollars putting together our Killer Gaming Rig, but it doesnt have to be that way. You can […]

With all three major game console manufacturers—Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft—launching their new platforms within a year of each other, its never been a more competitive time in the already cutthroat world of video and computer games. As they do every year, the major console manufacturers have staked out days just before the start of the […]

If we have learned anything from our collective years of testing and writing about PC hardware and related technology, its this: Not everyone has the same needs and budget. Sure, those brand-new, high-end graphics cards make all your games run fast with all the settings cranked way up, but the vast majority of PC enthusiasts […]

Plenty of nForce 4–based motherboards have come across our doorstep in the past couple of months, but we only recently got our hands on one of the newer PCIe, Socket 939 motherboards that uses VIAs K8T890 chipset. The Soltek SL-K890PRO turned out to be a decent motherboard for everyday users, but it failed our overclocking […]

Shuttle is a pioneer of small-form-factor computers, and the company is often among the first to incorporate the latest platform developments into barebones cube PCs. This trend continues with the new XPC SB81P system, one of the first to be built on the Intel 915G chipset and to support new LGA775-socket processors. But the new […]

System memory is often the forgotten cousin among components when youre building a new PC. A lot of PC builders just buy whatevers out there, as long as it works in their systems. Some enthusiasts take the opposite route. They get expensive ultra-high-frequency or low-latency memory, hoping it will give them a big performance boost. […]

Usually, when we do a Build It story, we piece together a rig for a very definite purpose. Typically, the idea is to choose an aggressive price and show our readers how a little careful shopping and part selection can come together to make an impressive…something. Perhaps its a Digital Audio Workstation, an inexpensive gaming […]