The Tech Report

If you're in the market for a Core i7-based system, our episode starts off with some advice just for you. Geoff talks about a pair of X58 motherboards from Gigabyte and MSI and gives us his pick(s) out of the four he's reviewed so far. Other topics of discussion include the ForceWare "Big Bang II" drivers from Nvidia, our first impressions of Left 4 Dead and Mirror's Edge, a sneak preview of our 45nm Shanghai Opteron review (with a special guest), and the scoop on AMD's upcoming Phenom II processors.

This episode also continues our series of editor biographies. This time, Cyril joins us on Skype to talk about his early tech influences, writing tech articles at the age of 14, playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano, and more.

In the aftermath of Intel's Core i7 processor launch, everyone wants to know: what's AMD going to do to compete? This week on the TR podcast, we examine a flurry of news fresh from AMD's Financial Analyst Day presentation in order to answer that question. Future desktop and mobile processors, foundry spinoff plans, and even an overview of how Radeon GPUs are doing in the marketplace—we cover it all.

After AMD news marathon, Geoff gets very practical with his unruly Eee PC shift key, and our panel reveals what's on their DVRs for this new season of TV shows. Our favorites include: The Office, Fringe, Top Gear, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and a few others. As always, our show finishes with a sneak peek at what's coming up on the site and our podcast.

Our episode starts on a light note as Scott, Cyril, and Jordan have a round-table discussion about Ubisoft's Far Cry 2. Has the game held Scott's attention? Does the driving bother Cyril? And how many weapon sound effects can Jordan imitate? Scott also explains how the upcoming Steam Cloud feature, while great for the average gamer, might interfere with our benchmarking here at TR.

After that, we dive into the meat of the episode as Scott and Geoff discuss the intricate details of Intel's Core i7 processors and their companion X58 Express chipset. We also discuss the possible rollouts of cheaper derivatives and how much you'll have to spend to get the latest and greatest over the next few months. Finally, before our habitual teaser of upcoming TR content, Joshua Buss gives us a vocal walkthrough of his Gigabyte motherboard factory tour. This is certainly one of our most packed episodes in a long while.

Clocking in at under an hour, our shortest episode ever still manages to pack a punch. TR biz guy Adam Eiberger starts us off with a quick recap of our recent Acer Aspire One netbook giveaway. We reveal both the winner (for those that haven't read the news) and the official answers to our three entry questions. Geoff, Cyril, Jordan, and Matt have a little round-table chat about the fresh Windows 7 news coming from PDC2008. Cyril follows up by sharing first impressions of his new MacBook, after which Geoff summarizes his thoughts on Western Digital's latest Caviar Green hard drive. Finally, the podcast gets up close and personal as Jordan quizzes Geoff about his childhood, likes and dislikes, and non-tech hobbies.

This week on the show, we start with a frank discussion of Apple's latest laptop release, in which Scott and the gang (including new TR blogger Matt Butrovich) talk about the pros and the cons of the new MacBooks. The discussion explores the industry trends affecting today's operating systems and should interest even Mac-hating PC hardware enthusiasts. Joshua Buss talks about the Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship he covered from Taiwan. Geoff and Scott follow up with Nvidia's GeForce 9300 chipset, and we finish the episode with a discussion of tech peer pressure, the best netbook yet, and grandma's computer.

Also in this episode, we announce and begin our first-ever TR Podcast giveaway. Jordan starts the show with a quick explanation of the contest and rules, but you should check out our official giveaway post here. Thanks to NCIX for providing the Acer Aspire One that we're giving away to a lucky podcast listener.

We have a nice cross-section of topics for you this week. We kick off this episode of the podcast with a question from an inebriated reader, then we delve behind the scenes of our new, overhauled system guide. After a look at the "product opportunity" AMD filled with its Radeon HD 4830 graphics card, we go over Seagate's new 1.5TB monster hard drive, and we chat about two new goodies awaiting GeForce users: the upcoming ForceWare 180 driver release and Elemental's Badaboom video transcoder. The episode closes with a discussion of the latest games, where Geoff explains what makes Dead Space so scary and Scott gives his impressions of Far Cry 2

Coming to you in this special time of year, when the leaves are turning color, cute little woodland creatures are preparing to hibernate, and large microprocessor companies sell their fabs, this episode of the TR Podcast continues to bring home the proverbial tech bacon. Following a short listener Q and A, our editors discuss the biggest story of the year – AMD spins off their fabrication business. Following this look at the past, present, and future of the industry, we prognosticate and pontificate over the latest Core i7 rumors (all of which come from Asian rumor sites….). In the middle of the episode, Jordan interviews The Perfect Creation (as he is know in the pro wrestling world) – aka PerfectCr (on the forums) – aka Rich Criado (as he is known on his driver’s license). Rich talks about tech, wrestling, and gaming tattoos. To finish things up, our editors discuss the controversy surrounding our latest GPU review, Intels G45 Express Chipset, and of course, what you can expect in the following week on front page and on our podcast.

This episodes spends some quality time catching up on some major tech and TR topics. We start the show by introducing our marketing manager extraordinaire, Adam Eiberger. He talks about his work here at TR and then teams up with Scott to cover the latest TR Tech Share news. If you haven’t been following TR’s latest philanthropic endeavors – you’ll enjoy hearing about the cool tech stuff we are doing in Uganda! Continuing down the road of vocal tech reporting, our editors answer listener mail, talk about Google’s Android platform, discuss one of the latest case reviews, and more.

Join us this week as we try making sense of the netbook market, cast judgment on a surprisingly capable low-end GPU, complain about console-PC warfare, review two of the hottest games, and more!

Put on your favorite 3D glasses and hop aboard the TR Podcast's train of geekiness. In this episode, we cover Scott's shiny new Eee PC, a shareholder's lawsuit against Nvidia, AMD's compelling sub-$100 Radeons, Mirror's Edge, that one law we forgot the name of... and much more.