The computing relics unearthed in the PC Pro Labs

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

The PC Pro Lab is a dark, dingy place full of cardboard boxes, benchmarks and more motherboards, processors and PCs than we care to count, but it’s also home to a variety of kit that’s slipped through the net –  some of it even dating back to before PC Pro launched in 1994.

From iconic machines like the IBM PC to the silliness of Sony’s £1,190 netbook, we’ve scoured the darkest corners and blown dust off some of the oldest, oddest and rarest kit we can find – starting with a true icon of the industry. (more…)

Liquid nitrogen, 8GHz and plenty of putty: the world’s fastest processor

Monday, September 26th, 2011

It’s rare that we see a review system that doesn’t pack an overclocked punch, but the launch of AMD’s Bulldozer-powered FX processors saw the firm use gallons of liquid nitrogen to break the world record for the highest frequency computer processor – previously held by a Celeron – and run its new FX-8150 at a ridiculous 8.429GHz. (more…)

Nvidia and AMD might not release new cards until 2012 — who cares?

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

I’ve become used to Nvidia and AMD rocking up with new graphics cards on a consistently quick schedule: since 2008 and beginning with the GeForce 9000-series, Nvidia has released six generations of GPUs, and AMD has replied with three of its own, starting with the Radeon HD 4000-series.

Both firms put the finishing touches on their current ranges in the spring, and the trail’s gone quiet since. Nvidia has confirmed that it won’t release any new cards before 2012, and AMD hasn’t mentioned any potential release dates for its new Radeon HD 7000-series — presumably taking extra time to further tweak and perfect the new chips. (more…)

Ultimate PCs (part two): £400 speakers, keyboards with fans and a triple-screen PC

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

This month’s Ultimate PC Labs has been an exercise in excess, as Monday’s picture preview demonstrated, and today’s selection of pictures doesn’t let the side down.

They’re from some of the systems not featured in our first post, and come with a range of features designed to whet appetites and empty wallets. All have at least two graphics cards, some have bespoke water-cooling systems, and there’s even one that’s been designed with input from BMW. And that’s before we’ve got to keyboards that have their own cooling fans. (more…)

Ultimate PCs (part one): water-cooling, dual-graphics and more

Monday, August 8th, 2011

It’s been two years since an Ultimate PC group test found its way into the pages of PC Pro, and this year’s selection showed exactly what we’ve been missing. Seven systems arrived to fight for the title and, with every single one boasting an overclocked processor and dual graphics, we knew we were in for a fierce battle before we’d even unpacked.

(more…)

How a cheap graphics card could crack your password in under a second

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

I was pointed in the direction of a blog posting talking about the use of GPU processors to launch brute-force attacks on passwords. GPUs are extremely good at this sort of workload, and the price/performance ratio has changed dramatically over the past few years. What might have seemed impossible even 36 months ago is now perfectly do-able on your desktop computer.

In this report, the author takes a fairly standard Radeon 5770 graphics card (you’ll find it on our A-List under Value Graphics Card), and uses a free tool called ighashgpu to run the brute-force password cracking tools on the GPU. To provide a comparison point with the capabilities of a standard desktop CPU, he uses a tool called “Cain & Abel”.

The results are startling. Working against NTLM login passwords, a password of “fjR8n” can be broken on the CPU in 24 seconds, at a rate of 9.8 million password guesses per second. On the GPU, it takes less than a second at a rate of 3.3 billion passwords per second.

(more…)

HP Pavilion dv6 and Pavilion dv7 review: first look

Monday, May 16th, 2011

It’s not often we get too excited about mid-range laptops, but HP’s makeover of its Pavilion dv6 and dv7 series laptops has just made our hearts skip a beat. With its all-new brushed aluminium chassis and a selection of Sandy Bridge processors, the Pavilion takes more than a little inspiration from HP’s Envy series.

(more…)

AMD: losing the battle on all fronts

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Remember AMD Barcelona? Delayed and disappointing, the architecture behind AMD’s first Phenom chips finally turned up in November 2007, six months behind schedule, with performance that left us “a little underwhelmed” after months of anticipation – and that’s before it was compared against its Intel equivalents.

At the same time, Intel was preparing to release its Wolfdale-based Core 2 Duo processors, which appeared in January 2008 using the more efficient 45nm architecture – a key improvement over AMD’s 65nm chips. The result? Our review concluded that the new Core 2 Duo E8000-series “wipes the floor with the [older] E6000 series” and that Intel’s new processors were an “unqualified success”.

Fast forward three years, and the similarities are startling. (more…)

AMD Radeon HD 6990 review: first look

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

We’ve seen some big graphics cards in our time but AMD’s new Radeon HD 6990, which has just been hauled into the Labs by a team of four burly couriers, takes the cake. You’ll have to take our word for it, as AMD is only allowing us to show you these pictures at this time, but we’ve just tried to cram the new card into our test rig — which uses not-inconsiderable Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced chassis — and it wouldn’t fit, blocked off by the hard disk cages before getting anywhere near the motherboard. (more…)

The real story behind Intel’s Sandy Bridge woes

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

In the space of 24 hours, Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors have lost some of their sheen, after the firm announced a recall of the Series 6 chipsets used by all Sandy Bridge processors.

The cause, it said, was a problem with the SATA controller which over time, if left unchecked, would “potentially impact the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices”.

Since Intel’s been proudly boasting that its new chipsets are its first to support SATA 6Gb/s, that’s a bit of an embarrassment – but what’s actually gone wrong? (more…)