HTPCs and HD content are growing more and more around the GPU industry. ATI and NVIDIA have been working on technologies to playback and enhance this video content for many years. NVIDIA started working on their Purevideo technology and added the Purevideo HD some time ago. ATI on the other hand, has their own AVIVO technology and as it was obvious, they name their latest technology AVIVO HD. Now, while these technologies have been marketed too much, I´ve noticed that the big consumers majority doesn´t even know how to use them. The real problem is that neither NVIDIA nor ATI have done enough to help people use their technology. They can bombard you with so many pictures, images and text but neither of these things will offer a simple guide on how to use the software tools in the real world. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we will teach you how to use your GPU to playback and enhance HD video content, and we´re not limited to DVD or Blu-ray content, because we´ll also address *.mkv files so that you can enjoy your stored multimedia. There is so much content available for download from Internet which can be reproduced without using your CPU, that it makes good sense to enhance the image quality whenever possible. Please, have a read at our AVIVO-HD PureVideo-HD DXVA GPU Acceleration Guide and enjoy the Full High Definition experience as it was meant to be!

Many gamers swear by the proven stability that is Windows XP, but there's a new player on the market: Windows 7. While Windows XP is heralded by some as the best OS to ever come from Microsoft, Vista is the Windows ME of the 21st Century. Enter Windows 7. Built on the proven NT platform and in many ways appearing much like Vista, that's where the similarities end. Today, Benchmark Reviews will take a look at some of the different methods of installation, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion many of you may be having. I think some people will be surprised by how easy it can be, plus we will show you how to possibly bypass having to reinstall Windows XP or Vista during an upgrade.

The proliferation of multimedia audio and video formats, including Blu-Ray, and an increasing array of TV and web based services have made the home theatre personal computer (HTPC) a powerful convergence device. With the imminent release of Microsoft's Windows 7 Operating System, Benchmark Reviews explores the evolution of the Windows HTPC Platform. We will also examine the efforts of a global community of users and premium developers, who have used Microsoft's product to showcase their skills and highlight their passion to make the PC a core component of the home entertainment setup.

Historically most people couldn't justify the expense of a dual-monitor setup in spite of the productivity gains multiple screens afford. So most people were relegated to drooling over the possibility while watching movies like "Swordfish" (possibly the most eye popping multi-monitor setup ever) or the 2008 remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" which reflects not only the broad adoption of multi-display configurations, but also demonstrates currently available "next generation" display technologies like Microsoft's "Surface". Today, even entry level PC's as well as nearly all laptops have graphics cards capable of multi-monitor support - so at Benchmark Reviews we decided to address the most important questions: "Will you really be more Productive?", "What do you need to know?", and "What will it cost?". Benchmark Reviews will answer all of these questions in-depth in this article on Using Dual-Monitors to Optimize Productivity.

Frequently, we find that new technological breakthroughs make old hardware that was just fine seem quaint. Be it a race toward higher clock speeds, faster front side buses, multiple cores, etc, computers become disused and replaced. Green attitudes have dissuaded people from tossing out components that are, for all intents and purposes, quite harmful to the environment. Moreover, current operating systems are becoming more power hungry let alone the software that runs on them. What's interesting about these computers is that in many cases they're perfectly useable. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we'll provide our list of uses for recycled computers.

In this article, Benchmark Reviews sets out to detail the performance differences between SSD products attached to the JMicron JMB322 host-based controller and the Intel ICH10R, but instead discovered a larger problem. While read and write performance can sway unpredictably between SATA controllers, the most disturbing subject is the inconsistency between test tools. One version of ATTO Disk Benchmark can record result different from another, while HD-Tach gives different results on the same version and driver. Please read more to learn of the pitfalls and perils when testing SSD's between platforms.

Benchmark Reviews tests a lot of very good computer hardware, which is a result of our selection process for product reviews. Although it would be most ideal for a hardware review website to test each and every item sold on the retail market, it's just not feasable due to limited staff and budget. As a result, many of the products featured here are among the best consumers will find. This year Benchmark Reviews Executive Editor Olin Coles delivers his nominations for the 2008 Editors Choice Award for each category: CPU Coolers, Desktop Processors, Solid State Drives, Desktop Graphics Cards, Computer Cases, System Memory, and Desktop Motherboards.

Overclocking can take on many forms, and experiments can range from minor product improvements to a total re-engineering project that completely alters the hardware. Because of their long history of successful product launches, NVIDIA is the most recognized name in the graphics industry. Their GeForce series of desktop graphics accelerators has become an enthusiast favorite, primarily because of excellent overclocking potential. For gamers, overclocking unlocks a hidden potential to change the graphics quality settings from medium to high without a hardware upgrade. The results are often times worth the risk, and in this article Benchmark Reviews will focus on achieving the most gain possible from any NVIDIA GeForce video card through overclocking, while using the least amount of effort.