Saitek has been one of our favorite controller manufacturers ever since I have been in the business of reviewing PC hardware.  With some of the most outrageous, while still functional controllers on the market, Saitek’s products offer uncompromising value and performance found nowhere else.  The latest in the lineup is the massive X-52 HOTAS. ...

What do most computer geeks have in their hand more than anything when sitting in front of their computer?  If you said their mouse, you would be correct.  If you said something else, then perhaps you need to get outside more often.  Yes, the mouse, that tiny little marvel of modern technology.  Once an ugly box connected to the computer with...

Saitek is known in the gaming community for building uniquely styled controllers, that sell for a very reasonable price.  We’ve reviewed many of their products, and have been generally pleased with the form and function of nearly every controller to grace our desktops. The original R440 wheel a perfect example of Saitek’s style and innovative...

The idea of moving a computer into the living room is not a new one.  Video-out, surround sound, and DVD drives make the PC a versatile multimedia component, and this did not go overlooked by tech savvy users.  Adventurous case modders turned old stereo equipment into computer cases, while manufacturers released a variety of colored enclosures to meet...

Ok, stop what you are doing, and tell me what is in your hand.  And I don’t mean that, you pervs.  We are talking about mice here.  The computer kind.  Of all the input devices hooked to your computer, the mouse is easily the one used the most, yet gets the least amount of attention.  We toss them around, shove them in the corner,...

Hercules has emerged in the sound card market as a viable, high quality option to the Sound Blaster dominance.  We’ve reviewed two of their high-end cards, the Game Theater XP and the DigiFire 7.1, with both cards offering excellent performance and stability across all of our test platforms.  The Fortissimo III 7.1 extends the Hecules line,...

Many years ago, there was a game called Unreal.  The game shocked the community with huge, open levels, awesome graphics, and decent singleplayer gameplay.  The begining sequence where the main character emerges from the downed spaceship and finds himself in a massive open level was ground breaking to say the least.  Gamers were used to the Quake...

A common mistake for the first time PC builder is buying cheap memory.  It’s easy to jump onto Pricewatch, and order 512MB of the least expensive DDR memory around, commonly called House Brand (whatever the hell that means), then spend months trying troubleshoot random lockups and crashes. The new TwinX Matched Memory Module Pair is a high-end...

We’ve reviewed a lot of cases here over the years.  Some of them are very expensive, and boast gigiantic towers full of fans, hidden panels and high-end power supplies.  But, invariably when someone comes into the office and looks around at our current hardware stockpiles, they are always drawn to the cases from ColorCases.  No matter the...

Logitech stormed the PC audio market last year with the amazing Z-series of speakers.  The Z-560 system was a massive, powerful system that rivaled the best speakers on the market, while the price was considerably less.  The Z-560 was a solid 4.1 system, that took top honors in review after review.  This led to the inevitable question, Where is...

The story of AMD’s rise to fame starts several years ago.  Some of you may not even remember the early days of the K7, way back when CPUs were still in slots, and a video card called Voodoo was still around.  Yes, kids, those were exciting times.  AMD was challenging the great Intel, and early reports said that this new K7 was quite the...

PC audio performance has truly come of age in the past two years.  What was once a simple system speaker beeping, is now a full-featured surround sound system with input and outputs to satisfy even the most tech savy gamer.  The emergence of high end sound has taken the PC from simple toy to a viable home theater system.  One of the major players...

To say that I am excited about this card would be an understatement.  Not since the days of the Voodoo5 5500 have we had a serious contender for the NVIDIA speed crown.  Don’t get me wrong, I love NVIDIA’s products, and own several of them; but serious competition only makes the market better for all of us.  The Radeon 8500 was a...

Remember when a case was just a case?  A couple years ago painting a case was considered a mod, and a window kit was for the experienced computer geek only.  These days, even a guy with limited Dremel skills can still have a trick case to show off at the LAN parties, thanks to companies like ColorCases.  Let’s face it, not all of us have the...

Just a Fan…or not. When is a fan not just a fan?  This is a question for the case mod junkies out there, who are constantly looking for new and exciting ways to dress up an otherwise drab computer case.  With the internal temperatures of a computer case being such a concern, adding additional cooling fans is not only a trick mod, but a...