Hardware Review: Acer B326HK 4K Monitor

It was only when I plunked the Acer B326HK 4K monitor -- a less catchier name than just about anything -- on my desk did I realize just how big a 32" monitor actually is. Suddenly, it felt like I should be an additional 4 or 5 feet away and initially that's what I thought would be necessary when I had to turn my head to look at different parts of the screen.

After some fine tuning and fiddling -- the stand is quite versatile, too; vertical movement and tilt is easy -- I'm a little further away from the screen; just far enough that I don't necessarily have to move my neck to view everything.

Hardware Review: Dell Venue 8 Pro 5000

The Venue 8 Pro (from Dell) reminded me – again – that I'm getting old.

In the hands of a 15 year-old me, a tablet computer like this would have figuratively melted my brain. You have to remember though that digital cameras were only just appearing in 1993 and compared to current digital technology, those first contraptions are akin to pin-hole cameras. So, something like this would have cracked open a door to the Twilight Zone. The tablet is packed with features, some of which I'm sure I didn't even see let alone use as I found myself sticking to standbys like Twitter, Netflix, Facebook and OneDrive (Microsoft's cloud storage) rather than exploring the Marketplace to find the best apps or put the thing to use in unexpected ways.

Hardware Revisited: Alienware M18x at Three Years

Here I am at Year Three with the Alienware M18x, a gaming laptop that continues to justify it's $2,000 price tag even if I've finally found a game that puts the boots to the system. While some of that might relate to the optimization of the game -- Dead Rising 3 -- it feels like the first time the system just couldn't keep up.

Hardware Review: HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset

There's something to be said for the simple approach and it's often that same approach that's often eschewed in favour of extra doo-dads and poppler-danglers.

Kingston's HyperX Cloud gaming headset takes the simple approach and still offers some great sound and recording capabilities. Though it's somewhat over-packaged, you'll spend more time removing the outer box then opening the heavy interior box than it takes to get the HyperX Cloud working. Plug in the headphone jack (and mic if you need to record something or communicate a multiplayer games) and it works.

For this review, I used the HyperX Cloud with my laptop.

Hardware Revisited: Alienware M18x Gaming Laptop

An aspect of most hardware reviews that's always missing is the prediction of how durable a piece of equipment is unless the thing falls to pieces while it's in use. With that in mind I thought it was time to revisit a piece of hardware I reviewed back in 2012, but have been using since late 2011. That piece of hardware is the Alienware M18x.

The casing of the unit has held up extremely well, even under heavy use. I travel a lot with this thing even though it weighs a ton and it has suffered it's fair share of knocks and toddlers slamming the screen down, and the only evidence of it's use is a small nick out of the paint. (See picture below.) I've done my best to minimize exposure to dents or scratches during transit, to the extent that I hunted down a (second-hand) official Alienware shoulder bag made specifically to accommodate the oversized nature of the laptop. The laptop picks up the typical amount of finger prints and dust, but the overall look of the machine is almost flawless.

Hardware: Zotac GeForce GTX 560Ti

There's nothing quite like a new graphics card to provide a quick and very obvious boost to games experienced on a PC.

That's precisely what the Zotac GeForce GTX 560Ti supplied.

After the easiest installation and set-up I've ever experienced -- I had the card up and running in what felt like a matter of minutes -- I had the Zotac GeForce GTX 560Ti chewing on games like Batman: Arkham City. And over the last number of months, I've had the opportunity to play many current and older games (2-3 years older) with no issues whatsoever (provided I stayed on top of ensuring I always had the latest drivers installed).