Today Google announced a number of new Chrome OS products that will be available in the future from their OEM partners. The main focus of all these devices appears to be pushing the price of Chrome OS devices even lower so that they become accessible to more people.
The first two devices announced are the Haier Chromebook 11 and the Hisense Chromebook. Both of these laptops have 11.6" 1366x768 displays, 16GB of eMMC storage, 2GB of DDR3L memory, and surprisingly, 2x2 802.11ac WiFi. The main aspect that they differ on is their processors, and subsequently, their battery life. The Haier Chromebook 11 uses a Rockchip RK3288 SoC which has four Cortex A17 cores with a max frequency of 1.8GHz, and a 600MHz ARM Mali-T764 GPU. It advertises a battery life of up to 10 hours. The Hisense Chromebook also uses the Rockchip RK3288, but despite using the same name as the chip in the Haier Chromebook, it has a max CPU frequency of 2.5GHz. Hisense advertises a battery life of up to 8.5 hours. Both of these devices are sure to be popular with educational institutions and anyone looking for a very inexpensive machine to browse the web on.
Possibly the more interesting announcement of the day is the Chromebit. There's very little information about specifications, but the Chromebit is essentially a Chrome OS computer on a stick which can be connected to a display and other peripherals to be used as a computer. The Chromebit will be launching in the summer of this year for less than $100, and we'll likely see more concrete pricing and information about specifications as we approach closer to its release date.
Intel has introduced seven new processors that will make their way into affordable laptops and desktops.
The new chips, from the Braswell family, are manufactured using a 14nm technology and will take
over Bay Trail parts in the long term.
Interestingly, all the announced Celeron parts cost the same except the N3150 (the top range model) and come with four cores clocked at 1.6GHz with 2MB of cache.
Braswell (for desktops) and Cherry Trail (for tablets) are both part of Airmont, which is a die-shrink of the current Silvermont architecture.
The popular Geekbench 3 application suite shows that the N3150 scored 843 and 2689 respectively on its single-core and multi-core benchmarks, both very decent numbers. The newcomers are likely to find their way into Intel's next generation NUCs (Next Unit of Computing), in addition to entry-level desktops and laptops.
Braswell was announced last year in China as part of a concerted push by Intel to produce Chromebooks and similar devices costing as little as $199 (about £120, AU$240).
That said, if Intel wants to hit that price point, it will have to significantly reduce the suggested retail prices of the newly-released processors which hover around the $100 (about $60, AU$120) mark.
Despite all the noise notebook manufacturers make about how great their products are for gaming, the truth remains that, pound for pound money-wise, a desktop computer will perform better than its svelter counterpart.
That said, the dilemma about whether to build or buy your next gaming rig remains. There are a few good reasons to actually buy a gaming computer, believe it or not, even if you're a seasoned veteran.
You save time, you reduce the risk of frying components (or slicing open your finger), you often get a "free" operating system and you often only need to deal with one shop (rather than a fair few). Today though, we're on a mission to build you the best rig for £500 (around $743), give or take £5. Ready? Let's roll.
Let's start by using components that are common to both AMD and Intel processor bundles. They are likely to be the ones I would reuse if I were to upgrade the rig. As a rule of thumb, always start with the components that will usually last longer.
For the casing and PSU, we've gone for a Cooler Master CM FORCE 500 (£59.99, around $89). That's a great price for a mid-tower from a reputable brand and one that comes with a 120mm fan to boot. It supports USB 3.0 and has a lot of features that will make DIYers jump for joy — like tool-free access for ODD, accessories and HDD. Note that it also comes with a 500W Elite PSU from the same maker. You can buy a cheaper brand but as many builders will tell you, when it comes to the PSU, you get what you pay for.
As for the storage, I'm going overboard by RAID-zeroing twin Kingston SSDs, two 240GB V300 models at £59.98 (around $89) a pop. At less than 25p per GB, they are the cheapest SSDs from a recognised brand. Getting them on RAID-0 will make any system fly, just make sure you backup.
The last four components will have to share a budget of around £380 (around $565).
For the memory, I opted for Kingston's 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL10 HyperX Fury memory modules which automatically overclock to the highest frequency possible without having to reach out to tweak anything in the BIOS (1866MHz in most cases). Available in four colours, the cheapest is the blue one (£47.24, around $70).
For the graphics card, I've chosen four possible combinations: two from the green team (the Palit GTX 960 OC and the Zotac GTX 960) and two from the red team (the XFX R9 285 and the PowerColor R9 285). The Nvidia cards cost £150 (around $223) each while the AMD cards are on sale for £140 (around $208). Mileage will vary but on the whole the GTX 960 should match the R9 285 pretty evenly across the board with power consumption being much better for Nvidia.
So we end our journey with just over £230 (around $342) (assuming you opt for Nvidia) to spend on the processor and the motherboard. Go for an ATX model as it will provide you with room to grow.
Let's start with AMD, possibly the easier of the two. At £158.64 (around $235), the AMD FX-8370 Black Edition is not the most expensive processor in AMD's desktop line-up. But it is the most powerful one that can run at 125W or less. It has eight cores, 8MB of cache, runs at 4GHz and has a TDP of, wait for it, 125W. Pair it with the MSI 970A-G45 motherboard at £44 (around $65) and you get a decent AMD rig (actually the best you can buy from them) for less than we had to spend. You will likely need a solid cooler for this little baby though.
The piece de resistance has to be the Intel bundle. We opted for the MSI B85-G41-PCMate ATX motherboard, a socket 1150 board with a B85 chipset. Not only does it have four USB 3.0 ports, it also has four DDR3 memory slots. A real bargain at £52.54 (aorund $77). Which leaves us with about £180 for the CPU, which will have to be the Core i5-4690K at £173 (around $257), Amazon's current best-selling processor and an absolute beast of a processor. Based on Devil's Canyon, it has four cores, comes with a heatsink/fan, clocks at up to 3.9GHz, has 6MB cache and a TDP of 88W, and oh, is also unlocked.
One thing that immediately jumps out is how late AMD are to the game. Other than price cuts and some minor improvements, it looks as if the company has given up on the enthusiast market almost completely. The FX 9590, a 220W CPU, actually being more of a swansong than anything else. Intel's K-series runs circles around anything AMD currently has on the market.
So there you have it – a sub-£500 (around $743) build based on either Intel or AMD and using either Nvidia or ATI.
For the sake of simplicity, I have assumed the following:
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Semiconductor giant Intel is said to be in talks with Altera, a specialist in the FPGA (field-programmable gate array) market for a potential outright buyout worth more than $10 billion (about £6.8 billion, AU$13 billion). That would dwarf its previous big acquisition, that of security firm McAfee back in 2010.
Wall Street appeared to be pleased by the prospect of this transaction, sending Intel's shares up by 6% at one point. Intel's hegemony on microprocessors is currently being challenged by ARM in the embedded and mobile markets.
However, Altera is likely to be used at the opposite end of the CPU spectrum, within the entrails of data centres. Intel used it already in a range of semi-customised Xeon processors that have been employed widely across a range of selected customers.
So what's the deal with FPGA technology then? It essentially allows hardware manufacturers (Oracle, Huawei, Cisco) and hyperscale customers (Baidu, Amazon, Microsoft) to fine-tune/tweak/hack the processor to fit their workload. It can be done very quickly and most importantly, without human intervention.
It's essentially a middle-ground between ARM's laissez-faire and Intel's regimented approach to who controls the CPU. Speaking of ARM, Altera, like Intel, is a licensee of the Cambridge-based fabless company.
Samsung may be considering acquiring AMD if a rumour emanating from Hankooki, the South Korean newspaper equivalent of the Financial Times, is to be believed.
AMD is currently not in the best of shape with its x86 CPU products, finding it harder to keep up with Intel's relentless onslaught while its graphics chips battle out with Nvidia's newly introduced Maxwell GPUs.
The only bright spot has been AMD's slow progression towards an ARM chip and heterogeneous computing on which it seems to have bet everything including the farm.
The move could prove to be a "win-win for both companies", says Hankooki, as AMD has some unique IP that complements what Samsung has nicely.
In a recent interview with TechRadar Pro, Samsung highlighted how important data centres could be for the company in the future, and while Samsung has all the parts it needs to build a Samsung-branded DC, the only bit missing is a server chip, something that AMD has being toiling on for a while.
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Whoever buys AMD will very likely lose access to x86 technology due to a long standing agreement with Intel.
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Hey everyone, my name is Joe, Reviews Editor for TechRadar, and I've never built a PC. Until now. Yes, I work for a technology media outlet and have never tangled my fingers in SATA cables. This is my shame. But recently all that changed.
I've been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember, but the hand-me-down systems my parents received from friends and family were just enough to handle Wolfenstein 3D and later Star Wars: Tie Fighter. When Everquest hit, I needed a beefier rig, which took months of saving (and a little help from my parents).
When World of Warcraft (my ultimate PC gaming obsession) came around, all I needed to do was buy a better graphics card (and have a surly fellow at the local CompUSA install it for me). Soon after that, laptops began taking off, with rising power and falling prices. That sparked my passion for mobile computing, and I didn't look back until a few months ago.
All of the hype around the launches of the Xbox One and PS4 got me itching for a serious gaming rig at home. Despite their plug-and-play nature, I've grown tired of their walled gardens. I mulled over crafting a Steam Machine for a minute, but I wanted a Windows machine for the wide support. The reality of the situation grew clearer and clearer, I should just build my own gaming PC. And I needed to do it before the World of Warcraft latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor releases this November.
It was time to put a part list together. Over the course of a few days, I pieced together a set of components that was as affordable and compact as I could make it, but also handle Warlords of Draenor at 1080p with all the settings locked at "high".
And I'm happy to say that crushed it. The end result is a marvel. I've managed to assemble a box far thinner and not much taller than an Xbox One that lets me soar through Azeroth on a cloud of gigaflops at a frame rate that would make Peter Jackson blush. All for a total cost of just $486.
That's before picking up a 1080p or Windows install. If you don't plan on hooking your would-be machine up to an HDTV or installing SteamOS, expect to add around $200 to that price.
[Editor's Note: In response to popular demand, here is a link to the part list that I created on PCPartPicker. Note that the price has since fluctuated.]
Click through to see the five things I wish I knew before starting my build that none of the PC building guides told me.
I may have steeled myself for the Iron Horde now, but only after several days of mistakes, missteps and errors. I hope that my experience may save you some of the headache that preceded my eventual PC gaming nirvana, because dude, this rig is sweet.
Our brilliant friends over at Maximum PC told me that all I would need to build my gaming PC was a simple Phillips screwdriver. Lies. To install the included 802.11ac Wi-Fi module on my motherboard, I needed a #00 screwdriver.
To avoid a run to the local hardware store in the middle of your build, take every part out of the package and skim the stack of installation manuals. Find out whether you have every tool and part necessary to build the thing before you begin. Returning to a half-built PC is the stuff of nightmares.
For the uninitiated, mini ITX is the smallest form factor motherboard and case that can accept a discrete graphics card. But leave these to the pros (like I should have). In such a small chassis, things will get tight as you get further into your build. After you get your power supply in there, you'll have room for a few fingers at best. That's when you begin to truly appreciate the amount of computing power packed into the latest consoles.
Because I live in a one-bedroom apartment that another human also occupies, however, I went ahead and used mini ITX. I would like this other human to remain my fiancée, so I built a machine that wouldn't dominate the two-person desk in our living room. But if you have the space, for the love of all that is holy, using a roomier chassis for your first build will save yourself hours of frustration.
My Maximum PC pals told me that before I even started inserting silicon, I should have a plan for where the cables will go. And that no, "I'll just shove them between the 3.5-inch drive bay and case wall," does not constitute as a plan.
Chances are that either your case or power supply came with a pack of cable ties, those little plastic things that zip closed. (If my case hadn't come with them, I would have picked up these velcro cable ties.)You can use those to loop through the metal hooks on the case and around every wire in your PC. Let no cable go untied!
It's a simple, rookie mistake – at least that's what I'm telling myself. It turns out disk and optical drives need power to run just like your fans do. SATA connections do not provide power, only data.
Nothing bad will happen to your machine if you try to boot it the first time without these hooked up to the power supply. (This guy I know tried that once and everything was fine.) In most cases, it simply won't turn on. Just get back in there and use 4-pin to SATA cables to pipe power where it needs to go.
Your build is complete. Everything is connected, your fans are clear. You're ready for takeoff. And nothing's happening on the screen. You've checked all your connections, including the GPU and it all seems good to go. What's the deal?
Without drivers, your motherboard and CPU have no idea how to communicate with that foreign part. These parts don't natively understand the PCI-E connection.
After I worked this out for myself, I turned off the computer off completely – flipping that power switch in the back, too – and connected the VGA cable to the main I/O shield (the CPU in my build packs integrated graphics).
Protip: you must use a VGA cable until you can install the GPU drivers. After all the drivers are installed, turn off the system in the same fashion and switch to HDMI or another connection, like DisplayPort or DVI. I, for one, had to buy a VGA cable, because I threw out the one that came with my old, 15-inch HDTV that I ended up having to replace anyway. Your new monitor likely came with one in the box, but if you're hooking this rig up to an HDTV, you'll likely have to to do the same.
These are all simple problems or mistakes that I didn't need to make. Had I known about or thought through them ahead of time, I could have saved myself several hours of build time.
When the computer finally booted properly and I launched my first game (WoW, natch), the feeling of seeing a system that I put together with my own two hands work as well or better than the ones you see in Best Buy, was well worth it. And yes, that includes the grumbly trips to various stores and nearly spraining my hand fastening the main power supply wire to a cable tie.
Not only do I have a system that eats 60fps for breakfast, I learned an immense amount about how and why computers work, all of which will come in handy when something breaks or it's time to upgrade. Oh, and The Horde best watch its back
