HCW

Please Think Twice Before Blocking Ads

Thursday Mar 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

I came across this article at Ars Technica, that talks about ad blocking, and how it affects them. As someone who has been running this website to make a living for nearly 10 years now, it really hits home for me. What I didn’t comprehend at first was just how many people are blocking ads without really considering the consequences. It’s easy to just download a quick browser plugin, turn the thing on, and forget about it. It’s probably even easier to justify than pirating games.

For the huge blogging networks that are taking over the internet, or Facebook, you probably aren’t making too much of a dent. But for sites like this one, which doesn’t have tens of millions of people coming back every day, every single person who blocks our ads is contributing to quite a loss for me and my family. I try to make the ads as non-invasive as possible, completely disallowing popups, pop-unders, blinking ads, ads with sound, expanding ads, auto-playing video ads, etc. Most of our ads are just simple banners, some with basic Flash animation.

All I am asking is that you read the article linked above, and consider whitelisting us in your blocking software if you haven’t already. If you really feel that we don’t deserve to make money by providing content to you, you can still help us out in other ways:

  • Spread the word about our articles – share them on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc. There are links at the bottom of every page that make this very easy.
  • Leave a comment here and there, contributing to our community. We have several conversations going through the site, and have a forum you can check out as well.
  • Link to our reviews on your favourite vendor sites. Many PC and Video Game sites have comment and review sections, and it would be great if you could help spread the word by sharing our reviews with them.
  • Use us as a source on Yahoo Answers. If you know a lot about the topics we cover, you may be interested in helping out on Yahoo Answers. If so, consider using us as a source!
  • Recommend us to friends, coworkers, etc. Help spread the word! If you have friends who may not have come across our site, let them know about it! If you know of a vendor or manufacturer who might want to work with us, feel free to tell them!

Thanks for keeping us in mind.

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HCW | PC Hardware

HCW Reviews Intel Core i7 980X Gulftown Six-Core Twelve-Thread (!) CPU

Wednesday Mar 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Today we’re looking at a new CPU based on Intel’s newest 32nm process technology codenamed “Gulftown”. It is an “Extreme” CPU both in name and price – weighing in at 3.33 GHz (base, Turbo hits up to 3.60 GHz) with six individual cores (and thanks to HyperThreading that means twelve threads) and 12MB of shared L3 cache, the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition will set you back a bit over $1000 when it hits e-store e-shelves “in a few weeks”.

We put it to the test against the identically clocked (and nearly identically priced) Core i7 975 Extreme, and a handful of other $500+ processors to see how it competes in today’s applications (we threw in a Phenom II for good measure, too).

So how does this beast perform today? Read on to find out!

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Video Game Hardware

OnLive is actually launching. Costs $15 a month to even look at.

Wednesday Mar 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

I have to admit, I am pretty shocked that OnLive is actually really launching for real, on June 15th this year. Feedback from beta testers hasn’t been very impressive, due to the fact that even the best internet connections have a few hundred milliseconds of latency, and the games don’t look nearly as good as promised.

But it really is happening, at least for the PC and Mac. And it will cost $15 per month.

What does that $15 per month get you? It allows you to access OnLive where you can then purchase or rent games.

Whaaaaat?

That’s right, OnLive isn’t really the “NetFlix of Videogames”, in which you pay your monthly fee and watch whatever you want. With OnLive, you pay the monthly fee, but still have to pay for individual games. You can think of the $15 per month as akin to renting a console, I suppose. Stop paying the fee, lose access to the games you “own”.

So why would you want to pay $15 to get literally nothing to show for it in the end? After a year, you would easily be able to afford a used console, and from there you can buy used games or play the cheaper downloadable games.

I didn’t think it was possible, but OnLive just got stupider.

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Video Games

Uniqlo Pokemon T-Shirts are Out Now!

Wednesday Mar 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Update March 3, 2010: KidSamurai has finally started carrying some of the Pokemon shirt designs. Probably for a limited time! There is also a wicked Galaga shirt that I may pick up myself ;)

It looks like Uniqlo’s retro Japan Game t-shirts are coming to an end, as supplies are disappearing fast. They have already started carrying Pac-Man 25th Anniversary commemorative T-Shirts, but these lack the cool “8-bit” style of most of the Japan Game shirts. They do somewhat make up for it with totally unique interpretations of Pac-Man designs.

Uniqlo’s next video-game series looks to be based on Pokemon, and are officially licensed as always. Knowing that people who played Pokemon back in the day are now in their 20’s, they have designed 6 shirts that those guys might be interested in wearing, as well as some designs for children who still play the game. Check them out!

Pokemon T-Shirts by Uniqlo - Available at KidSamurai.comSo if you’re an old-school Pokemon fan, you might want to check these out! And don’t worry there’s no Uniqlo store near you – you can buy Uniqlo shirts online at KidSamurai.com from anywhere in the world. They’ll surely carry these shirts when they arrive in September.

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HCW | PC Hardware

AMD vs Intel in a $100-150 CPU Battle

Friday Feb 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

With the introduction of the Core i3, and AMD’s release of several new Phenom II and Athlon II models, the selection of CPUs in the $100-150 price range is tremendous. And never before have you been able to get such well-performing processors for the price, either.

Today we picked 10 of the top CPUs in the $100-150 price range from both Intel and AMD. This covers everything from the new Core i3 to the brand new Phenom II X2 555, AMD’s fastest-ever dual-core CPU. Also included were the impressive (but cacheless) Athlon II X4 and the equally impressive (and now low-priced) Phenom II X4. We even included the seemingly obsolete Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad.

So with so many choices within such a small price range, is there a clear winner? Does HyperThreading allow the Core i3 to keep up with the true quad cores?

Read on to find out!

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