On 21 September 2009 Seagate Technology will be the first and only manufacturer to offer a SATA-III 6Gbps hard drive product with the large 64MB cache buffer as the 2TB Barracuda XT ST32000641AS is unveiled. Both combined improvements to burst rate and sustained bandwidth will mark a substantial improvement to the design of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage products, and the new technology is expected to give Solid State Drive (SSD) components some serious competition. The Seagate Barracuda XT series is designed for performance enthusiasts such as gamers, as well as small server systems. Additional enthusiast tools, such as the free Seagate SeaTools software, allow users to custom-define firmware parameters to enable performance features such as 'Short Stroke' and noise reduction. In this preview article, Benchmark Reviews reveals some of the improvements introduced with the Seagate Barracuda XT 6Gbps SATA-III ST32000641AS hard drive.

Antec has been the top choice for system builders and hardware enthusiasts for almost a decade now, which is quite surprising when you consider the competition. But the good old days of beige box computer cases with plenty of fans lining the inside are long gone. To achieve market dominance in 2009, you have to manufacturer a product that features everything more would consider desirable. While visiting with Mr. Han Liu, Antec's product development director present at the 2009 International CES, Benchmark Reviews discussed the Antec P1000 gaming chassis prototype.

Free software is quickly becomming the standard of measure for many tech-savvy consumers. Open Office does for users one thing that Microsoft Office does not: save hundreds of dollars. Linux distributions deliver a fully-funtional Operating System to users, with better stability and security than the expensive Windows and Mac O/S counterparts. In this article, Benchmark Reviews introduces another very helpful software program which will soon improve the user experience without an attached price tag: meet the AMD Fusion Media Explorer.

Every technology starts with a motivation, and throughout the past year Benchmark Reviews has watched the computer hardware industry follow trends that seem all too familiar of yesteryear. In this article by Executive Editor Olin Coles, the past 2008 calendar year is summarized for it's accomplishments, but the real focus is on the coming year ahead. Will 2009 be the year that component computer hardware becomes important again, or will it be relegated to a niche hobby for enthusiast?

It used to be that counterfeit CD and DVD media originated from overseas and found its way onto popular auction websites. But in a wake of widespread technology developments, anyone is capable of creating completely indistinguishable copies of their favorite audio CD or movie DVD. Do most people still purchase the original content, or is everyone stealing from the artists? In this article, Benchmark Reviews offers a candid look into Consumer Home Piracy as we present the Research Findings for July 2008 as provided to us by Futuresource Consulting in partnership with Macrovision.

Each year NVIDIA hosts a invite-only event for industry editors. Everyone from reviewers to magazine editors were on hand to learn the reasons behind NVIDIA's latest graphics processor launch. At this editor's day event, the heads of technology converge for a day of demos and discussion - and a few nice surprises. Benchmark Reviews was pleased to receive an invitation into this exclusive event, and looked forward to the opportunity to share thoughts with the biggest name in the graphics market.

Prior to actually experiencing the NVIDIA Editor's Day event, I was a little bit concerned that my time would taken up with buzz-word marketing pitches and hard-line product comparisons. To my complete surprise, there wasn't a single moment that had me feeling green-washed. Actually, the opposite was true; at several points throughout various topic discussions the NVIDIA staff would often times point out where a competitors product might have done better than their own in a last-generation product lines. In fact, there were many times where the discussion felt more like a tech discussion than the voice of an industry leader. At its core, the NVIDIA Editor's Day event was about a sharing concepts and developmental ideas with the theme Gaming Beyond: Beyond Gaming.

The 2008 International CES is now finished, and while exhibitors use the weekend to tear-down booths there are as many writers who will feverishly extol the numerous technology displays viewed over the past week. Benchmark Reviews was after the only the most notable computer technology highlights and announcements at the show, and this article reveals what we believe to be the most important innovations for Q1/Q2 2008.

This is my short story of a first year visit to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and it suppliments my 2008 International CES Computer Technology Highlights article. Prior to starting Benchmark Reviews in March 2007, I had only heard of the aftermath and accolades from the stories handed down from affiliate webmasters from the previous years' CES. Since I am a resident of Nevada, I feel the gravitational pull of Las Vegas more than a few times per year. But this year I was on a mission: meet the manufacturers, ask the important questions, and attend the parties. This is a diary of the most interesting experiences while I attended the 2008 International CES convention, and the lessons I learned the hard way. This article is dedicated to anyone who is considering, planning, or just slightly curious about joining the crowd in Sin City.