About

About HCW – BS Free since 1999

hardCOREware.net was launched online in February 2000 by Carl Nelson in Vancouver BC, Canada. The intention was to provide in-depth reviews on PC hardware and accessories without the pandering to hardware companies often seen on ‘hobby sites’ at the time. HCW became known for their tough view on PC hardware, and no-punches-pulled attitude.

HCW has grown a lot over the years. Originally, we would mostly cover cooling products along with some hardware. Today we focus mostly on the hardware that matters to you most: motherboards, processors, video cards, memory, etc. At the same time, we still cover the stuff we think you should know about; new cases, power supplies, and other quirky products that may grab our attention. We also attend the major PC trade shows, such as CES and Computex, as well as bringing you information from factories tours all over the world.

We also cover video games from the unique perspective of someone who needs to know how things work from the inside. Our coverage of video game hardware is unparallelled, and we also provide what we think is the most interesting news on games.

HCW Milestones:

  • We were the second site to review the Thermaltake Golden Orb in 2000, helping Thermaltake build to what became one of the largest PC cooling companies in the world. We went on to become the first site to review most of their early cooling products and cases, the good and the bad.
  • We first started covering silent PC hardware back in 2002, before most people considered it. Our coverage of Zalman helped launch their initial product line.
  • We were the first ones to review Abit’s famous AT7 board, which set the standard for motherboards for years to come.
  • In 2003, we reviewed the very first Lanparty motherboard from DFI. It was one of the first to put a lot of focus on aesthetic design of motherboards.
  • We were the first to review a wireless batteryless mouse, back in 2004.
  • We were among the first to cover the process of building a motherboard, in 2004. Before then, it was rare to see pictures from inside a motherboard factory.
  • We were the first site to ever review a dual GPU NVIDIA video card, in 2005.
  • We were also the first to review a hybrid motherboard – ECS’ proof of concept board that could run both Intel and AMD processors.

Quick Facts:

  • HCW is hosted at at WiredTree in Chicago.
  • The current web design is based on Newsroom by WP Bandit
  • The previous two designs were done by Apaja Designs in Finland
  • Our first review was of the Creative Labs GeForce DDR, Carl’s personal video card at the time
  • First motherboard review: Tyan s1854 Trinity 400 (VIA Apollo Pro 133a)
  • First cooler review: Alpha CO-PEP66T Coppermine
  • First CPU review: AMD Duron 1100 MHz
  • HCW is now fully powered by WordPress for its blog and reviews

Current HCW Staff

Carl Nelson
Editor in Chief

  • Founded hardCOREware.net in 1999
  • Favourite games of all time: Final Fantasy 3 (SNES), Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mega Man 2, Half Life, Team Fortress (Quake 1), Street Fighter II
  • Location: Hong Kong
  • Follow me on Twitter

Former HCW Staff

Trevor Flynn
Senior Editor

  • Joined HCW writing crew in 2002
  • Runs several HCW sponsored LAN events, including Hardcore War and LANsomnia
  • Favourite games of all time: Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Fifa RTWC 98, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
  • Location: Eastern Canada
  • Personal blog:

Wolfgang Kritzinger
Software Engineer

  • Wrote HCW’s custom CMS backend
  • Favourite games of all time: Quake 3, Unreal Tournament 2004, Drakan
  • Location: Austria
  • Personal blog:

Privacy Policy

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at carl@hardcoreware.net.

At www.hardcoreware.net, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by www.hardcoreware.net and how it is used.

Log Files
Like many other Web sites, www.hardcoreware.net makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons
www.hardcoreware.net does use cookies to store information when visitors comment on articles. This is purely a convenience, so that the visitor won’t need to re-type all their information again when they want to leave another comment. This feature is optional.

DoubleClick DART Cookie
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on www.hardcoreware.net.
.:: Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to www.hardcoreware.net and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL – http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include ….
Google Adsense
Kontera
Tribal Fusion

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on www.hardcoreware.net send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

www.hardcoreware.net has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. www.hardcoreware.net’s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

Credits


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  • About HCW

    hardCOREware.net was founded in 1999 by the sole owner and author, Carl Nelson. The site's mission is and always has been to offer brutally honest coverage of the latest hardware and gadgets with strictly no BS. In the last 10 years HCW has grown to cover Video Games from the unique perspective of a hardware & tech junkie.

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