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WHAT TO DO WITH the old hard drive you just removed from your laptop or desktop? You could just keep it around as a spare--but installing it into an external [...]

EVERY GAMING ENTHUSIAST wants a killer PC, but high-performance rigs tend to be big, hot, loud--and suck up power like a thirsty teen chugging Kool-Aid. These days, though, CPU advances [...]

TODAY, MOST OFF-THE-SHELF desktop rigs--and nearly all laptop PCs--rely entirely on the CPU for video and graphics processing. And yet the market for discrete graphics continues to thrive. If you [...]

THE PRACTICAL EFFECTIVENESS of a particular PC upgrade--a faster processor or GPU, more memory, or a solid-state drive, say--depends to a large extent on how you use your system and [...]

WHETHER YOU'RE UNBOXING a new PC or freshly installing Windows on older hardware, your job isn't done when you boot up your desktop for the first time. Performing just a [...]

Leave Intel outside. This powerful, low-cost PC build packs AMD hardware under the hood. AMD LOVERS, WE HEAR YOU. After building a $1000 Intel-based Windows 8.1 PC (go.pcworld.com/intelpc), we've assembled [...]

NO COMPONENT OF your PC is more vulnerable to heat than your graphics card. But if you take the time to refurbish the card safely, it can run like new--or [...]

IF YOU'RE MESSING around with a new Windows installation, you're probably going to run into driver headaches. Whether you're installing a fresh copy of Windows on a newly built rig [...]

THE NEXT GENERATION of consoles is about to kick off a frenzy of game development that will push the boundaries of gaming hardware--so assembling a top-of-the-line gaming rig would be [...]

ISCSI STANDS FOR Internet Small Computer System Interface. Although SCSI (sans the i) has tong served to connect various peripherals to computer systems, it appears most commonly in storage devices, [...]

THOUGH LAPTOP manufacturers have made great strides over the past few years in increasing the efficiency (and thus the battery Life) of their products, even the most efficient new models [...]

MANY PC GAMERS eagerly await the release of next-generation graphics boards, hoping that the new hardware will boost frame rates and make the latest games look better. But while such [...]

INTEL'S FOURTH-GENERATION CORE processors, code-named Haswell, have arrived. And like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors before them, Haswell is a big step forward, maximizing CPU and GPU performance [...]

THE SIMPLEST WAY to make PC games look better is to buy a better graphics card. If you already have the best card, then the next step is to install [...]

LOSING A USB flash drive full of valuable data can be a disaster. But Windows users can protect themselves by using the free BitLocker to Go utility to encrypt portable [...]

ALTHOUGH IT'S SIMPLE enough to head to the electronics store to buy network cables, premade cables are often too short (requiring coupling) or too long (requiring you to tie up [...]

AFTER UPDATING YOUR system and removing any junk data and malware, run a disk defragmenter to minimize file fragmentation and improve the perceived performance of your hard drive. To defrag [...]

IF YOU DON'T have the latest version of Chrome, take the preliminary steps to install it. Then open the Chrome Web Store, and you'll see an overwhelming array of Chrome [...]

IF YOU'RE STILL wasting time trudging over to PCs to perform routine maintenance on them, check for software updates, and power them down at night, you haven't gotten with the [...]

THE LATEST EDITION of Windows is designed with touchscreens in mind, and includes features that make Windows easier to use on all devices. Windows 8 picture passwords, for example, are [...]

RUNNING BENCHMARKS on a PC helps you assess its performance, identify bottlenecks, and choose upgrades. Some benchmarks evaluate the effectiveness of one component, while others measure total system performance. As [...]

FEW UPGRADES CAN improve productivity as much as multiple displays can. In Windows 8, Microsoft is introducing multimonitor-related enhancements, some of which will help you use your screens more efficiently. [...]

WHAT SHOULD YOU do if you can't access a file, despite being logged in as an administrator? Taking ownership of the file or directory would help you gain access to [...]

FEW THINGS ARE more annoying to experienced users than the balloon tips that pop up in the notification area on a freshly installed copy of Windows. Fortunately, they are easy [...]

INTEL'S Z68 EXPRESS chipset for second-generation Core family processors supports Smart Response Technology, a solid-state caching technology designed to enhance overall system performance and responsiveness. Intel's SRT intelligently monitors data [...]

WINDOWS 7 WITH Windows Media Player supports sharing digital media libraries with compatible devices. For example, you can stream media to a game console, for enjoying in your home theater. [...]

MANY FACTORS AFFECT a broadband Internet connection's overall performance. One of the least-understood factors is the user's Domain Name System server. The DNS translates more-easily remembered domain names into numeric [...]