| RightNote 2.6.3 - More Than A Note Taking Tool |
| In some ways RightNote is similar to Microsoft OneNote, yet it is much more than a note taking tool. In fact, it does so many things that it is hard to come up with an adequate catch-all description its feature set. Perhaps ‘information organiser and manager’ would be better, but even that doesn’t do it justice. |
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| Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 - Low Noise Chassis |
| Making its first entry into the case market, Nanoxia is a German firm better known for its modder friendly cables and accessories. The Deep Silence 1 targets fans of quiet computing, and is similar in price and design principles to Fractal Design's Define R4, featuring noise dampening foam, fan blanking plates and a heavy steel chassis. |
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| In Win H-Frame - All-Aluminium, Fanless Chassis |
| The premium case market is traditionally reserved for water-cooling-friendly beasts. Cases such as the SilverStone TJ11 and Lian Li PC-V2120 retail for more money than many of the components they house, but are constructed from the finest aluminium, and have oodles of features and expandability. |
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| Lian Li PC-CK101P - The Best Motorized Train PC |
| The first time we laid eyes on the PC-CK101 Was at the Computex trade show in Taiwan - it was pretty difficult to miss, in truth, as it was chugging up and down the length of the Lian Li booth, drawing double takes and inquisitive looks from everyone walking past. |
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| Palicomp Alpha Blade – Affordable overclocked Gaming Rig |
| It’s tempting to spend as much as possible on a new PC, but the proliferation of affordable, effective components means you don’t have to break the bank to get plenty of speed now. Palicomp’s Alpha Blade costs $1498.5 but, on paper at least, it has the power to handle the latest games and applications without breaking a sweat. |
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| Roccat Kone XTD – Great-Looking Mouse |
| Gaming mice have a lot in common with film trilogies - they’re both all about escalation. Everything always has to be bigger and more intense, while packing in more bells, whistles and explosions. Well, okay, maybe that last one is limited to films. |
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| How To Buy…A Desktop PC (Part 2) |
| Desktop systems are about two main things: power and versatility, so you need to pay particular attention to the hardware you look for in order to end up with a system that achieves these qualities. |
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| How To Buy…A Desktop PC (Part 1) |
| For a variety of reasons, full-size computers have fallen out of fashion with casual buyers. It’s not hard to speculate as to why, when you recall the dull, bulky, impractical cases that are instantly associated with this type of system although in all fairness, their current unpopularity has less to do with looks and more to do with buyer behaviour that values portability, disposability and more modern interface methods than a keyboard and mouse. |
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| Keyboard Basher (Part 2) |
| If a choice is available, then PBT is harder wearing, though it usually costs more accordingly. How the key reacts to repeated use is also affected by the means that the keyboard maker uses to mark the key top. |
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| Linux Mint 14: Nadia - Fancy A Minty Fresh Linux Distro? |
| For those of you who aren’t familiar with the dynamic world of Linux, Linux Mint is a distribution that offers both the new user and the advanced Linux advocate an operating system filled to the brim with all the stuff that makes Linux such an appealing alternative to the likes of Microsoft Windows. |
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| Remove Office 2013 Preview Safely |
| Removing Office 2013 Preview from a Windows PC is similar to uninstalling other programs, but there are some key differences. The first thing to bear in mind is that Microsoft only allows each person to install the software on up to five computers. Whenever Office 2013 is installed and you subsequently sign into a Microsoft account, the computer will be registered. |
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| Pay Nothing For PC Help (Part 2) |
| The Help system for Windows and its applications can be searched or its contents browsed by subject. Click the Index or Browse Help button on the Help window's toolbar for this. Windows Help mixes general guidance for a range of tasks with specific advice on various performance issues but it is not much use for specific hardware or software problems. |
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| Pay Nothing For PC Help (Part 1) |
| Computer problems can be the most frustrating of all to fix. Unlike a leaky tap or a kitchen drawer that won't close, finding out why a program keeps crashing or a peripheral will not work properly is seldom straightforward. |
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| EnhanceMy8 Pro v1.1.1 - Windows 8 Tweaking And Customisation Tool |
| Windows 8 hasn’t been out very long, but already there are tweaking tools that enable you to customize it and optimize it. SeriousBit has an EnhanceMy XP, Vista, 7 and now 8 for Windows 8 owners. There are free and Pro versions and it is the more feature rich Pro version that is on test here. |
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| Sony Vaio SVT 11113FGS - A Decent Looking Laptop |
| The VAIO ultrabook deserves some praise in the design department, it’s hard plastic build resembles its metallic counterparts. The shiny edges add to the fashion statement, even though its weight and dimensions make it a bit dated. |
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| Accelerate Your PC |
| A slow PC is frustrating, and even more so if only a short time ago it was humming along like a well-oiled machine. These slow-downs can have a variety of causes, ranging from simple problems such as faulty Windows settings through to more obscure complications, such as hardware that has been badly set up. |
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| Finding Software Bargains |
| As expensive as it is to keep hardware up to date, PC owners also have to factor in the cost of buying the software they need to get the most out of their system. After all, what good is it to have the best CPU and the most RAM if you don’t have any games or applications that can actually use the latest features of the hardware, let alone stretch them? |
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| Get Free Remote Technical Support |
| Windows has long included a Remote Desktop toot that can connect two computers over the internet to allow the screen of one to be shared with the other, but it’s not so easy to set up. A much better option for inexperienced users needing help from a remote friend is a free tool called CrossLoop that does much the same thing, but requires no configuration. |
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| IIYAMA Prolite G2773HS - Get A Real 120Hz |
| Enter the memorably named Iiyama Prolite G2773HS and its 120Hz refresh capabilities. Thanks to that high refresh rate, it is in fact compatible with active shutter 3D platforms such as Nvidia’s 3D Vision. But that’s not how the panel is being pitched. Nope, it’s being sold mainly on the all-round benefits of 120Hz, which suits us just fine. |
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| Windows 8 Tips And Tricks – Jan 2013 |
| Windows 8 can be slapdash when it comes to creating its system Reserved areas – those partitions used for such things as System Restore, Refresh and generally reinstalling Windows. On one of our test rigs, this partition was created on the otherwise blank drive we’d set aside for data. |
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| Cooler Master Hyper T4 - A Step Up In Budget Cooling |
| The Hyper T4 looks just like any other four-heat-pipe-equipped tower cooler, albeit with a somewhat tall and thin aluminium cooling matrix. It’s a direct contact cooler, which means that the pipes are flattened at the base of the cooler where they pass through the contact plate, so they make direct contact with the top of CPU heat spreader. |
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| Fractal Design Node 605 – Elegant HTPC Case |
| This case is aimed squarely at the HTPC builder. It supports all motherboard formats, from full-sized ATX down to teeny mini-ITX. This is just as well, because if you want to add an optical drive, you can only do so by using a mATX or smaller board. |
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| Gigabyte Aivia Osmium - Like a 21st Century Dell Keyboard |
| The Osmium is utterly retro, but with enough modern extras to make it relevant in today’s crowded gaming peripherals market. Take away the sturdy wrist rest and the individual LED backlighting, and you’re be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a Dell keyboard from the early 90s. |
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| Epic Gear Meduza - Super Competitive Mid-Range Mouse |
| Epic Gear is a relatively new start-up division from Taiwanese firm Golden Emperor International Limited. Although its parent company is best known for its memory products, Epic Gear is focused on gaming peripherals, and the Meduza gaming mouse is its first foray into the world of handheld rodents. |
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| Cooler Master Blizzard T2 - Bargain Basement Cooling For All |
| Strapped for cash but still on the lookout for a well-built, third-party tower CPU cooler, that does a decent, quiet cooling job? Well, your choices up until now have been pretty limited. Just recently, though, Cooler Master launched a couple of new budget tower coolers to widen that choice, one of which is the cool-sounding Blizzard T2. |
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| Laplink Disk Image Professional |
| I imagine that most people are now aware of the importance of making backups of their files. You only need one catastrophic failure to prompt a backup regime of almost ridiculous proportions. |
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| What Can Your Budget Buy? (Part 1) |
| Stretching budgets is the name of the game when it comes to buying any computer, so what’s the economic difference between buying a PC and customizing one yourself? |
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| Record Onscreen Action In Windows |
| Capturing the contents of a PC’s screen, using either Windows’ built-in facility or a dedicated utility such as Snaglt, is a useful technique. Indeed, all the screen grabs you see in were created this way. |
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| Run Software In A Protective Sandbox |
| If you never used the internet there would be little need for security software but life without the web would be unthinkable. The internet can be extremely useful for a wide range of activities, from social networking with friends to collaborating on work projects with colleagues. |
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| What Can Your Budget Buy? (Part 3) |
| High-end PCs have many advantages. Spend $1612 on a system, and you can expect it to meet any task expertly, whether that’s gaming, photo and video editing, or simply browsing the internet. You can take advantage of the latest technologies, and get access to far more power than most systems could offer. B |
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| What Can Your Budget Buy? (Part 2) |
| Once you open up the budget a little, a custom PC can really come in its own. With a price limit of around $967, you’d expect something powerful enough to run applications and modern games at a reasonable level, and that’s just what we were able to build. |
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| Operating System Options (Part 2) |
| The advantages of remaining with a slightly older operating system are clear: existing users get a familiar user experience, while incomers find themselves upgrading to a robust, field-tested environment with massive support and years of security tweaks already applied. |
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| Operating System Options (Part 1) |
| When you buy a pre-built PC in the shops, you normally don’t get much of a choice regarding the operating system it has installed. If you’re lucky, you might get a choice between two versions of Windows, but the majority of systems come with one OS, and offers you little alternative but to learn to love it. |
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| Managing Your Files In Windows 8 |
| Although Windows 8 has a new user interface, you’ll typically find that you use the traditional desktop for a good proportion of the time. As well as removing the familiar Start menu, Microsoft has overhauled File Explorer (previously better known as Windows Explorer), and added new features. |
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| MSI HD 7850 1GB – It’s The One To Get |
| The HD 7850 Pitcairn Pro GPU features 32 ROPs and 1,024 stream processors. With four 64-bit memory controllers, the card has a 256-bit memory interface and since MSI has left the memory at the stock frequency of 1.2GHz (4.8GHz effective), it boasts 153.6GB/s of memory bandwidth. |
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| Quiet PC Serenity Gamer - Take On All Challengers |
| Unashamedly expensive, the Serenity Gamer has to not only take on all challengers In terms of performance and features but, equally importantly, perform these tasks while remaining whisper-quiet. |
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| Roccat Kone Pure – Accurate & Comfortable |
| Roccat's Kone series of mice has always targeted gamers who need the utmost customization and features from their mouse. Though the Kone Pure is cheaper and simpler than the new Kone XTD it has recently launched alongside, it's still a very feature rich mouse, and comes with a hefty $109 price, which is always going to place it at the niche end of the market. |
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