Computers

One of the cool things about PCs is that nothing ever stands still. Whether it’s new video games that redefine immersion, or the ability to edit photos at full resolution with a 4K monitor, progress often means pushing the limits of a video card. If you’ve hit a wall when it comes to your computer’s graphics capabilities, or maybe you made a New Year’s resolution to upgrade your PC so you can use that big 4K monitor to full advantage, the good news is this doesn’t need to mean shelling out for an all new system. Chances are you can get back to enjoying the best PC technology has to offer by simply upgrading your video card.  

As you no doubt know, when it comes to trying to pack the performance needed to undertake serious video gaming in a laptop, it comes down to a very tricky balance between speed and portability. Try to shove too much power in a gaming laptop and for all intents and purposes, it ceases to be a portable PC —heavy, bulky and with little battery life. Go too far in the other direction, though, and you end up with something that’s svelte but unable to play games on anything but the lowest settings. I just spent some quality time with a gaming laptop that manages to strike the perfect balance: the Eurocom M3. It’s a compact, lightweight laptop with the power to chew through pixels and polygons while keeping frame rates high. Eurocom says the M3 is the most powerful 13-inch notebook ever made and everything I’ve seen supports that claim.

Got an older iMac, MacBook Air or other Apple computer you’re thinking of handing down to someone in your family? It’s tempting to pass your old Mac on to someone—especially a student—but new Macs bring a lot to the table. In many cases, it may be better to buy them a new Mac than to give them your old one.

Is your computer or laptop feeling a little sluggish lately? One of the best upgrades available for adding a whole new level of performance to a PC is to replace its hard drive with a solid state drive. SSD capacities continue to increase even as prices fall, so adding new life to your older PC is easier than ever.

Many of us have more data than we know what to do with. Digital photos, digital movies, MP3s and old school stuff like documents and spreadsheets can start to take up a lot of space on your PC. On your smartphone or tablet, it’s even worse —a lot of those photos get snapped on a smartphone and with limited storage, it doesn’t take long to fill them up. Cloud storage is always an option, but then you’re at the mercy of the provider and there may be charges associated with the service. Western Digital offers a compelling alternative —a “personal cloud”— with its My Cloud series of network hard drives. I tested a 3TB My Cloud drive and came away convinced that this is the best thing to happen to hard drives since USB.  

One of the big stories from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was the official launch of Intel’s full line-up of 7th generation “Kaby Lake” computer processors. Read on to learn the scoop about what the new CPUs will mean for laptops and computers hitting shelves in 2017.

 Microsoft Office has been around longer than most of its users and it keeps getting better.  In fact you may be surprised at how many different applications are included. Stream the live Facebook event with experts from Microsoft and Best Buy so you can learn about how many different things you can now do with Office 365. Ask questions during the event and you may win a fantastic prize, including a new Surface Pro 4 computer.

Eyestrain and electronic devices has been in the news a fair bit lately, with the use of backlit  smartphones and tablets at night being linked to a number of eye and sleep-related health issues. But there’s another screen many of us are staring at for eight hours a day and it can also cause eyestrain. Here’s how setting up an ergonomic office can prevent eyestrain and other health issues while using your computer.

If you've been thinking your computer is getting a little laggy, don't think about buying a new one until you check out my tips for how to speed up an old computer.

Are you in the market for a new laptop with the power to chew through whatever applications and programs you throw at it, but at the same time won’t devour your budget? I tested out the ASUS X-Series X555QA AMD Quad-Core laptop recently, and I’ll tell you why this computer deserves a closer look.