Own an Skylake or Kaby Lake processor with Hyper-Threading? It may be a good time to update your system UEFI/BIOS and CPU microcode. A critical flaw in Intel’s implementation of Hyper-Threading was recently revealed by the Debian Linux mailing list.

The critical flaw, which exists on all Intel 6th Generation “Skylake” and 7th Generation “Kaby Lake” processors with Hyper-Threading may cause “unpredictable system behavior” under a specific set of circumstances.

According to the Intel’s official documentation:

Errata: SKZ7/SKW144/SKL150/SKX150/SKZ7/KBL095/KBW095 Short Loops Which Use AH/BH/CH/DH Registers May [...]

Several days ago, we covered where to download a Windows 10, 8.1, or 7 ISO image file, but a common question is what do you do once the image is downloaded? The answer is make a bootable USB drive out of it!

Creating a Windows installation bootable USB drive is incredibly easy thanks to an application called Rufus. Assuming you have your Windows ISO (or Linux/other bootable ISO) ready, the whole process should take no more than 5 minutes.

Here’s how it’s done.

1. Download Rufus.

2. Plug in a USB drive that’s at least larger than the Windows ISO (or other ISO) file you’re trying make bootable. Keep [...]

When Intel launched the Broadwell-E platform earlier this year, Intel’s X99 chipset saw a surge in interest as many users became interested in upgrading their systems which required a suitable motherboard to match. Today we have an X99 platform motherboard that sits at below the $250 pricepoint and has the features to keep up with most users needs.

Today we’ll be reviewing the Gigabyte X99P SLI which is a motherboard that falls into the $200 range with a fairly extensive list of features making it quite competitive on paper.

The original X99 SLI motherboard from Gigabyte was priced at the $200 price point [...]

According to a recent announcement, ASUS is launching BIOS updates for their entire lineup of Socket 1151 based motherboards to support Intel’s upcoming 7th Generation Core processors, codename Kaby Lake. Owners of ASUS Z170, H170, B150, and H110 motherboards will be able to find BIOS updates for their respective motherboards directly through the ASUS Support website.

Intel’s upcoming 7th Generation Core Processors for desktop systems are expected to launch in January following Kaby Lake’s launch on notebooks by the end of this year. According to recent leaked performance figures, the Kaby Lake based Intel Core i7-7700K could offer at least 15% [...]

Several years ago, we published our first SSD Optimization Guide for Windows 7, which was very popular among our readers. At the time, SSDs, or Solid State Drives, were still a relatively new product and while Windows 7 had a number of optimizations for SSDs built in, there were still quite a few things to tweak to achieve the best performance and the longest lifespan out of the SSD.

With Windows 10 however, things are a bit different as SSDs are now a relatively well known technology with years of development behind them. They’ve also seen mass adoption recently thanks to huge growth in the tablet and ultraportable notebook market. As such, [...]

As a PC owner, one of the most important things to know is the manufacturer, model and BIOS version of the motherboard you have in your system. This is one of the first questions I ask people when they ask me if they can upgrade their system or when they ask me for help because something isn’t working correctly. The motherboard is the one piece of hardware in your system that interconnects everything else so any hardware upgrades will need to be compatible with the motherboard. Depending on the motherboard manufacturer and how active they are on updates, the motherboard’s internal software, or BIOS/UEFI, also needs to be upgrade to support newer [...]

Before NVMe and PCIe SSDs became as well known as they are today, SSD manufacturers had to find creative ways to bypass the limitations of the SATA bus for customers looking for more performance than was possible on SATA. Among the companies spearheading the PCIe SSD market was OCZ with their RevoDrive PCIe line of SSDs. While they were able to provide performance far exceeding what’s possible via the SATA interface, the first RevoDrive SSDs which were Frankensteined creations built with multiple SandForce controllers and custom OCZ virtualization chips that made everything extremely expensive and very cumbersome.

Since then, [...]

Last year I had the opportunity to be one of the first to witness the launch of the Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD at Samsung’s Global SSD Summit in Seoul, South Korea. Prior to its launch, we had already tested both the AHCI and NVMe version of the OEM-oriented Samsung SM951 SSD, which was a precursor to the final retail Samsung 950 Pro.

At its launch, the Samsung 950 Pro took the top spot for the fastest consumer SSD Samsung has to offer. It’s primarily targeted towards professionals, content creators, and enthusiasts who require the highest performance possible.

EVGA is a company known for selling top-notch enthusiast hardware such as graphics cards, power supplies, and motherboards. The subject of this review is centered around one of its top motherboard branded under the ‘FTW’ moniker. The ‘FTW’ branding stands for “For The Win”, which our young whipper-snappers would tell you symbolizes a nod of approval on the internet. More than just an internet slang, EVGA’s FTW branding is part of EVGA’s penultimate performance tier, of which the Classified brand reigns supreme.

Despite such a winner’s naming scheme, the EVGA X99 FTW actually [...]

Generally speaking, motherboard manufacturers try to release BIOS/UEFIs that are stable and have all the features you’ll ever need for the motherboard on day one however, this rarely happens as bugs get discovered or new features need to be added to support newer hardware released after the motherboard.

As a result, motherboard BIOSes need to be flashed, or updated, once in a while for improved functionality and while the process was quite difficult and even dangerous in the past, motherboard makers have made the process a lot easier with plenty of checks to ensure that the risk of something going wrong is minimal.

Today we’ll be showing you [...]