Guides

Once the domain of external, bus-powered hard drives, these days the market for external storage has been almost completely consumed by portable SSDs. Rapid technological advancements in NAND flash technology (including the advent of 3D NAND) has allowed their capacity to eclipse 2.5-inch HDDs, all the while multiple improvements in host interface speeds (such as the move from USB 2.0 to 3.0, and onwards to 3.2 Gen 2 / Gen 2x2 / USB4) has made portable SSDs faster and more reliable than the hard drives they replace. All of which has helped to make portable SSDs the go-to solution for external storage, both big and small. For our latest storage buyer's guide, we've rounded up some of the best portable SSDs we've looked at in...

Pre-Built Desktop Buyer's Guide: Holiday 2011 Edition

While we at AnandTech recognize that a good portion of our readership prefers to roll their own as far as desktops go, not everyone is that way. Sometimes there...

42 by Dustin Sklavos on 11/30/2011

Holiday Budget System Buyers' Guide

The recent launch of Intel Sandy Bridge-based Celeron CPUs and the proliferation of budget-priced LGA 1155 socket motherboards bring fresh competition to the budget desktop computer market segment, long...

95 by Zach Throckmorton on 11/8/2011

File Server Builder's Guide

The proliferation of mobile devices, multi-computer homes, broadband internet access, inexpensive mass storage, and the replacement of many other home electronics by the PC (such as media devices like...

152 by Zach Throckmorton on 9/4/2011

Back To School Technology Buyer's Guide

It’s that time of year again, when thousands of wide-eyed 17- and 18-year-olds will be setting foot on college campuses for the first time. Many more students will be...

95 by Zach Throckmorton on 8/4/2011

Sandy Bridge Buyer’s Guide

Almost a half-year after the launch of the second-generation Core processors, Intel’s newest CPUs remain dominant in the mid- to high-end desktop computing markets. Since the January release of...

90 by Zach Throckmorton on 6/17/2011

Small Form Factor Buyers’ Guide

Last month our builder’s guide focused on nettops: low power, less capable, physically diminutive desktop computer systems. We included a non-nettop CPU (Intel Core i3) system as a substantially...

71 by Zach Throckmorton on 5/25/2011

Nettop and Mini-ITX Buyer’s Guide

Most of our Buyer's Guides focus on full desktop builds, but what about something a little smaller? Perhaps you're looking for an inexpensive yet sufficiently powerful system to function...

101 by Zach Throckmorton on 4/22/2011

Futuremark Announces PCMark 7 for Windows 7

When 3DMark11 launched earlier this year, it seemed like the time was right for an update to PCMark Vantage as well. While we don't have an exact release date...

15 by Jarred Walton on 3/21/2011

Budget System Builder’s Guide February 2011

With the recent launch of Sandy Bridge, we had hoped to put together some Buyers' Guides covering the changes in the market. Unfortunately, with the recall/bug of the 6-series...

58 by Zach Throckmorton on 2/14/2011

Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide

Since there are so many smartphones on the market, we figured that the holiday season was a great time to write our first smartphone buyer's guide. And so we...

52 by Vivek Gowri on 12/4/2010

Holiday 2010 System Builder's Guide

We haven't updated our various system buyers' guides for a while, and what better time to rectify that oversight than the holiday shopping season? We're going to take a...

112 by AnandTech Staff, edited by Jarred Walton on 11/19/2010

Holiday Buyer's Guide: Notebooks

Yes folks, it's that time again: time to open your wallets and let a ravenous technology industry take its cut so you can have the shiniest, latest gadgets on...

50 by Dustin Sklavos on 11/15/2010

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SDRAM (Memory): But Were Afraid to Ask

It started off as a simple enough memory review, but somewhere along the way we decided to dramatically expand the scope of our discussion and avoid the monotony...

47 by Rajinder Gill on 8/15/2010

Laptop Buyer's Guide: 14-inch and Smaller

In the second half of our Mobile Buyer's Guide, we focus on portable machines with screens smaller than 14". The market as a whole is getting a thorough overhaul...

79 by Vivek Gowri on 7/19/2010

Mobile Buyers' Guide: 14" and Larger Notebooks and DTRs

The back-to-school season is coming and refreshed product lines are already starting to appear on store shelves. Intel's dual-core Arrandale processors continue to dominate in terms of raw performance...

64 by Dustin Sklavos on 6/30/2010

System Buyer’s Guide: $1700 Performance Midrange

Many things have changed in the nine months since our last midrange system guide hit the press, some for the worse—a moment of silence, please, for the passing of...

102 by Mike Jones and Jarred Walton on 5/12/2010

Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta

That old design lasted us a long time, didn't it? :) Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta. We've done a lot of updating behind the scenes as...

277 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/29/2010

System Buyers' Guide: PCs for Under $1000

Old system got you down in the dumps and you're tired of sinking more money into a black pit of despair? It's time to start fresh, and we've got...

87 by Sean Hollister on 2/12/2010

Mobile Buyers' Guide, December 2009

Looking for a laptop, netbook, or even a notebook this holiday season? We've put together our thoughts on the various price segments and have selected a few laptops worthy...

50 by Jarred Walton on 12/6/2009

System Buyers' Guide: $700 to $1700

We have some changes in our AMD recommendations as the Phenom II platform has matured. On the Intel side are a few small refinements while we wait for the...

72 by Wesley Fink on 7/27/2009

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