Tom's Hardware Interviews Four Android And iOS Game Developers

Four leading mobile game developers divulge their thoughts on the rise of mobile gaming, the iOS vs. Android vs. WP7 industry face-off, the impact of HD tablets like the iPad 3, and whether mobile gaming is now challenging the dominance of game consoles.

How did we get—here? It might have been difficult to predict the sudden popularity of smartphones and tablets five years ago. Today, however, they're snatching all of the headlines, generating buzz for the cool things they can do in increasingly convenient form factors. Can we expect these diminutive devices to displace our PCs any time soon? Most enthusiasts insist not, but it'd be hard to ignore the fantastic sales and consequent growth of smartphones and tablets.

Indeed, for a great many tasks, PCs still reign supreme. But recent embedded processor and graphics advancements are at least blurring the performance line that previously separated tablets and notebooks. Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s fourth-generation Snapdragon are two mobile "super-processors" that emerged over the last year. And with Microsoft’s recent announcement that Windows 8 would support the ARM instruction set, the wheels of change are unquestionably in motion.

With change comes new surprises to look forward to. More muscular smartphone and tablet hardware is enabling software developers to write more demanding (and visually appealing) games. The results suggest that dedicated gaming handhelds could eventually be replaced by more general-purpose mobile devices—and challenge the market dominance of console games.

ASUS Ivy Bridge/7-Series Chipset Q&A

Intel officially launched the Z77 platform earlier this week, and later this month we'll see the official launch of Ivy Bridge, Intel's 3rd generation Core processors. ASUS has agreed to cart nearly everything it makes (including a handful of unreleased products we saw at CES) over to me in NC for a hands on look on video. More importantly - we're going to be doing a Q&A with you all.

ASUS and I will both be answering your questions on camera. If you have any questions you'd like to see us answer or topics you'd like us to address, respond to the comments here or mention@anandtech with the hashtag #asusivy on Twitter along with your question/topic. We won't be able to get to all of them but we'll pick the most interesting/relevant questions and answer them on camera. The topic is obviously going to be Ivy Bridge and the 7-series platform. Simple questions are fine but what I'd really like to see are topics we can have a good discussion about.

When the video goes live, ASUS is also going to let us give away some new Z77 boards as well. We'll have more details on the giveaway closer to the Ivy Bridge launch.

Make the questions good and I look forward to answering them on camera.

Intel's SSD 910: Finally a PCIe SSD from Intel

Solid state storage has quickly been able to saturate the SATA interface just as quickly as new standards are introduced. The first generation of well-built MLC SSDs quickly bumped into the limits of 3Gbps SATA, as did the first generation of 6Gbps MLC SSDs. With hard drives no where near running out of headroom on a 6Gbps interface, it's clear that SSDs need to transition to an interface that can offer significantly higher bandwidth.

The obvious choice is PCI Express. A single PCIe 2.0 lane is good for 500MB/s of data upstream and downstream, for an aggregate of 1GB/s. Build a PCIe 2.0 x16 SSD and you're talking 8GB/s in either direction. The first PCIe 3.0 chipsets have already started shipping and they'll offer even higher bandwidth per lane (~1GB/s per lane, per direction).

Today Intel is announcing its first PCIe based solid state solution: the Intel SSD 910. Read on for our analysis of the announcement!

Capsule Review: GeChic's On-Lap 1302 Laptop Monitor

Just three months ago we took GeChic's 13" USB 2.0-powered monitor, the On-Lap 1301, for a test run. What we found was a compelling concept for a product that was marred by some usability issues. Apparently we weren't the only ones who felt like the On-Lap needed a revision; the On-Lap 1301 proved successful, but it wasn't on the market for very long before being replaced by the new On-Lap 1302.

The big question is: just how much can be revised over the course of just a few months? The answer is more than you'd think, but less than you'd hope.

Intel SSD 330 Officially Announced: Affordable SandForce

We reported on Intel's SSD 330 weeks ago, but today is the official announcement of the drive and its availability in the channel. Unlike previous 300 series drives, the 330 isn't based on Intel's own controller - it's the second SandForce SF-2281 drive in Intel's lineup.

FSP Aurum Xilenser AU-500FL 500W

FSP is one of the largest manufacturers for OEM power supplies and adapters. Now they're launching a new fanless series, the "Aurum Xilenser", for users that want absolute silence. We have the AU-500FL on our test bench today. Like the previous Aurum offerings, the new generation is 80 Plus Gold certified. As for the fanless part, you'll want to be careful if you try for a complete silent (i.e. fanless) PC—it's one thing to have a fanless PSU when there are case and CPU fans to compensate, but entirely fanless systems will need some big heatsinks and an open chassis if you want reasonable performance.

The casing for the AU-500FL has more ventilation holes than we're used to seeing, with arrow-shaped perforations on every available spot! Besides the bottom (where a large fan might normally sit) and the back (to exhaust heat from your system), FSP has holes on the front and sides of the casing. Even the top (not shown, and assuming a top-mounted PSU; otherwise this is the "bottom") has a few extra holes to help with cooling. With no fan, there's obviously a need to remove heat and the extra ventilation should help in that regard.

Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > How To > Tweaking & Tuning > Overclocking: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Versus EVGA X79 FTW Overclocking: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Versus EVGA X79 FTW

Many companies claim to offer the best overclocking for your money, yet only two compete for the best overclocking at the very highest price point. Today we put those claims to the test, including a full set of benchmarks to analyze performance gains.

The editors of Tom's Hardware do our best to cover the broadest selection of hardware that finds its way into your PC, but some components fall through the cracks whenever the steady march of technology pushes us to move on to the next new thing. Such was the case for a few X79 Express-based motherboardspriced over $380.

Reader John Case wrote in a few weeks after our premium X79 motherboard comparison to tell us that one of the products we missed wouldn't support any of his high-end memory at its rated frequency, no matter how much time he spent trying to optimize timings and voltage levels. After several successful RMAs, he was ready to ship us his board for testing. That’s when the manufacturer stepped in to provide a full refund.

We contacted that manufacturer (along with one of its closest competitors) to see how two of today’s top-rated enthusiast-oriented boards would compare to each other in terms of overclocking ease, stability, and features.