Tag Archives: Featured

I will admit it. I am usually a hold out. In this particular case, I held out as long as I could in fear that an upgrade wouldn't work the way I liked it to. For a long time I had been using a combination of WMC (Windows Media Center) and XBMC to front end my Home Theater PC. WMC handled my Live TV streaming with a cable card and an HDHomerun Prime, while XBMC did everything else. To be honest, XBMC had some level of PVR functionality built-in to handle live TV... but it was crap in comparison and a major headache to configure with my setup.

There is nothing like the feel and the sound of a good quality mechanical keyboard. A little background, I guess you would call me an old school gamer. I came from the "good ol'e days" when CRT monitors occupied half of your desk, processors were clocked in MHz, keyboards were PS/2, water cooling wasn't sold in kits, and clans were ranked on N.A.T.O. Everyone I knew had mechanical keyboards, I guess we were spoiled back then. Well, the good ol'e days are back... to an extent. New gamers are on the hunt for a good mechanical keyboard and there are a handful of manufacturers out there that are charging premium prices for the types of keyboards we threw away.

Crucial, the company that impressed us with their M4 series SSD, has expanded their SSD portfolio with a low cost, high performance, MX100 series drive. Their claims of "unrelenting performance" combined with low cost per GB is an attractive marketing campaign. Extreme Energy Efficiency, Adaptive Thermal Protection, and Power Loss Protection mark some of the Crucial benefits on the product page. With all this marketing fluff, the real question is... how does this budget SSD stack up when it comes to spending your hard earned cash?

If you are a road warrior, then you know having only a few GB of space on your mobile device is a complete bummer. Instead of shelling out hundreds more for a device with a few extra GB, what if there was an inexpensive solution that could expand your space to TB instead of just GB. What if I told you that your 16GB iPad or 8GB Samsung could now store up to 1TB of music, movies, photos, documents and more? Well, LaCie thinks they have the answer to your storage needs and they think that their solution, the LaCie Fuel, is the one that should earn your money.

Can you think of a NAS worth buying that costs less than $150.00 USD? I bet you would have a hard time answering that question. I have reviewed a slew of NAS and can't answer that question, until now. Thecus has done what many have considered as the impossible. They may have just set a new standard for affordability, slapped the Thecus badge on it, and dubbed it the N2310.

Have you heard of RAPID? That is the question you need to be asking yourself if you have purchased a Samsung SSD recently. Aside from the speedy little SSD you get in the package, Samsung has a cool trick up their sleeve and it goes by the name of RAPID, or Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data. What is it? And, does it work?

Unless you have been living under a small stone in a field behind Bilbo Baggins' home, you may have heard the term NAS (Network Attached Storage). NAS are becoming more prevalent in the home, the small office, and the Enterprise. These flexible, inexpensive, devices can nearly do it all, which is what makes them so attractive. Well, it seems like everyone and their cousin is producing a NAS of some sort, but only a few have really got their act together. Among that small few, those that have more in R&D than they do in sales, is a company by the name of ASUSTOR. Today, ASUSTOR is no longer just a startup company. Instead, they have been producing some of the best, low-cost, NAS that money can buy. We had the chance to review their AS-302T, as well as the AS-608T and absolutely loved it. Let's see if their AS-204T can live up to our lofty expectations.

I am proud to announce that Computingondemand.com's benchmarking databases have been updated. The new enhancements now allow you to filter the tables in the database to make your benchmarking comparison research easier than ever.

We love speed... and after reviewing the Samsung 840 Pro, we were chomping at the bit to get the 840 EVO in the lab. Not only does the newer EVO model use newer 19nm 3-bit Triple-Level Cell vs that of 2-bit MLC found in the 840 Pro, but it also features a much more attractive price-point and an increased IOPS... on paper.

XBMC is a powerful HTPC front end, but you never truly realize its potential until you start exploring ways of extending its functionality. Add-ons extend XBMC’s functionality bringing you new and incredible ways to enjoy your HTPC. Given the large number of add-ons out there… here is MY list of the top 5 for 2014 so far.