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…)

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.

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Intel’s own superchilled test rig

Friday, August 6th, 2010

There’s been a healthy response to my render challenge posted last week, in which I pitted a Core i7 980X machine against my dual Xeon workstation and invited you lovely readers to run the same timed test that I was running.

Over 50 people have run it on their PCs so far, and posted the results. Bless the reader, known only as ‘N’ in his post, who ran it on his Atom netbook and achieved a blistering 1,935 seconds’ render time. That’s a mere 26 times slower than the Core i7 980X.

But now Intel has weighed in to the fight, and not surprisingly, it’s winning, thanks to a monster PC overclocked to nearly 5GHz.

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Finally – the self-build PC lives

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

It’s been a long and arduous process: ever since our esteemed Editor challenged me and four of my colleagues to acquire computers for £250 – with Stuart Turton trying to blag one for free – I’ve been scratching around dozens of online retailers to find the cheapest components and the most reasonable component prices.

Last week I finally put together a specification I was happy with and ordered my components, and it was soon time to start building. A somewhat slap-dash assembly proved that the rig worked, and yesterday my three replacement case fans turned up.

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A complete PC package for £250? No problem!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

I’m used to seeing all manner of PC systems turn up the PC Pro Labs. Some cost £3,000, others cost £600, and some choose to include a full range of peripherals – whereas others are simply towers of power that leave you to fork out for the extras afterwards. It really is a study in the sheer amount of variety that there is in the desktop PC market today.

Every machine that we review has two things in common, though: none of them cost £250, and not one of them has suffered the indignity of being thrown together by my unsubtle and leaden hands.

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