How to Choose a Video Card

Want to know what piece of technology is changing most rapidly in the world of computer? That's right - video cards. The rate at which video cards come out is simply mind boggling. We're looking at a whole plethora of video cards based on graphics processors from ATI and Nvidia. Which card should you choose? Will it be good enough to run your most complex business applications and the latest 3D games?

Some video cards available in the market
 

Well, this article will help you make some sense of this fast changing technology and enable you to choose the best video card for your computing needs.

The best way to see what video card to buy is to consider how you're using your computer now. There are several categories:

There are several categories:

• Server
• Simple Applications
• Complex Applications
• General Gaming
• Hard-Core Gaming

Ok, let's look at these in turn.
 

Server

If you're using your computer as a mail server, FTP server, print server, or even a game server, you definitely do not need a high-end video card. What you need is a simple, no-frills low-end video card.
 

Simple Applications

Say you're using the PC for simple applications only, for example, word processing, email or web surfing. Again, you do not need the best video card out there. A cheap and decent one will do the trick.
 

Complex Applications

If you need to perform more complex tasks like 3D computer aided design or video editing, it will make more sense to go for a heavy duty card. Screen resolution and image quality tend to be important factors for this type of work. Look for a video card whose processor which supports a high screen resolution, with ample graphics memory.
 

General Games

If you'll only play simple games like Minesweeper, Reversi or Backgammon, then my advice is to save your money and just get a simple video card. No need for the latest 3D graphics gizmo.
 

Hard-Core Gaming

On the other hand, if you live on intense, real-time 3D games like Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 2, you'll want to get the latest 3D graphics card. These games require extremely powerful cards which support a variety of graphics effects like anti-aliasing, Z-buffering, vertex shaders, etc.
 

Conclusion

In summary, you should always consider your needs first before going out to buy that video card. Video cards, especially the latest models, tend to be prohibitively expensive. If you only need to do general computer stuff, then don't shell out cash for the high-end cards. Go for some of the cheaper video cards instead. Do your homework, read up the manufacturer's online manuals before making your purchase decision.

How to Choose a Motherboard

Are you confused by the vast array of motherboards out there? Choosing a good motherboard is one of the most daunting tasks when building your own computer. All your system's components eventually connect back to the motherboard, so if you choose an inappropriate board, your system is going to have problems. Personally , I feel the motherboard is one component you shouldn't scrimp on - buy the best you can afford. I've seen many otherwise good PCs bogged down by a bad motherboard.

A typical motherboard available in the market

This article will help you choose a good motherboard - read on to learn about the various factors to consider when purchasing one.
 

What's Your Processor?

First and most important thing to consider when buying your motherboard - what CPU or processor are you using? Motherboards are made differently, not all motherboards will support all CPUs. What CPU you select will determine the type of motherboard you get.

For example, if you want to use an Intel Pentium 4 CPU, the motherboard you select must be able to support that brand and model of CPU. The motherboards are also designed to support specific speeds for a CPU, so make sure it can support the speed of the processor as well.
 

Choose Your Chipset

What is a chipset? Well, chipsets are the main controllers on the motherboard - they allow the CPU to interface with the various components and expansion cards installed.

When choosing your chipset, always bear in mind the type of memory supported by the motherboard. Make sure that the board supports the type and amount of RAM you need. Generally, choosing a chipset that supports high speed memory will allow your system to perform better.
 

Expansions Slots and Connectors

If you intend to various peripherals to the computer, then the number and type of expansion slots and connectors is important. By default, most motherboards these days have USB 2.0 ports incorporated into their design. If you do a lot of video capturing and editing, you'll also want to have a Firewire (IEEE 1394) port. If you intend to buy expansion cards, make sure the board comes with an ample number of PCI slots.
 

Do You Need to Overclock?

If you want to overclock your CPU (though I don't particularly encourage it) - you should ensure you get a motherboard that supports overclocking. You'll want a motherboard that has a wide range of adjustments to CPU settings, including CPU voltage and bus speeds.
 

Other Features

These days, most motherboards have a whole host of extra features loaded into them. These can include things such as on-board Ethernet, audio, a RAID controller or even graphics. I find such features very handy as they help you save money - you need not buy additional expansion cards. 

Conclusion

In short, make sure you do your homework when purchasing a motherboard. Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and read about its products. Download the motherboard manual and see if its well documented.

At the risk of sounding biased, I've always preferred ASUS motherboards. However, its all up to you. Consider what features are important to you and go get your motherboard. As I said earlier, don't scrimp on the motherboard. Its one of the most important PC components, so get the best you can afford

Seagate 3TB Drive Raises Storage to New Heights

Melissa J. Perenson, PC World

Jun 29, 2010 3:01 pm

Iit feels like we've been stuck at 2TB forever. Not anymore: Seagate announced it's shipping the industry's first 3TB hard drive, the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Drive.

This news is significant because Seagate has figured out a workaround to the long-standing constraint that has kept hard drive capacity maxed out at 2TB. (The first 2TB hard drive debutedother drives in the GoFlex line, you can swap out the USB 2.0 base for optional USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 modules, which will provide better performance. from Western Digital debuted a year-and-a-half ago.) Moreover, not only is the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk the first to break past that limitation, it does so at a reasonable cost per gigabyte: The drive, with a USB 2.0 connector, will sell for $250, which works out to $0.08 per gigabyte. By comparison, Seagate sells its 2TB GoFlex Desk External Drive (also with a USB 2.0 base) for $190, or $0.09 per gigabyte. As with

That's a lot of storage for a single drive. While the company doesn't specify its file parameters, it does say its 3TB drive can store up to 120 high-definition movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos, or "countless" hours of digital music. Already, I'm thinking about how many 18-megapixel RAW images I can store on a single drive.

Why the Limit?

So what's kept capacity back all this time? According to Seagate engineers, the 2TB limitation was neither an issue with the file structure (Window's NTFS) nor with the Windows operating system itself. Rather, the issue lay with the master boot record (MBR) partition table, contained in the first sector of a hard disk drive. The partition table used with Windows XP and earlier Microsoft operating systems was limited to just 2.2TB--which, a decade-plus ago, seemed an unthinkably high number. The table works by using numbers to represent the starting sector and number of sectors of a partition, and it maxes out at 2.2TB (using 512-byte sector sizes).

Windows Vista and Windows 7 introduced a new partition table scheme, dubbed GPT (for GUID Partition Table). The GPT blasted past the previous limitations by supporting up to 8 Zettabytes.(2^64 sectors, which, when using 512 bytes per sector, equates to 8 Zettabytes). For perspective, consider that 1024 Terabytes=one Petabyte; 1024 Petabytes=one Exabyte; and 1024 Exabytes =one Zettabyte. Windows Vista and Windows 7 maintain backward compatibility by also reading and writing MBR partitions.

Seagate's work-around for the 3TB drive is to make the MBR report a 4K sector size to the operating system, in order to accommodate a larger drive inside. As such, the drive can then work with Windows XP-still a major factor in the marketplace-Windows Vista, and Windows 7, as well as with Mac OS and Linux (neither of which ever had to deal with this partition table constraint to begin with).

With this SmartAlign Technology, as Seagate calls it, the 3TB drive achieves its capacity boost without increasing areal density. The 3TB drive has five platters, each with 600GB. That's one platter more than current 2TB drives have. The increased capacity comes from the 4K sector size; as such, it has fewer sector "headers" required on the drive itself. This in turn allows for more space to be allocated to data.

What's Next

As enticing as 3TB sounds, though, this won't be the end of the line for increasing 3.5-inch hard drive storage this year. Storage analyst Tom Coughlin, of Coughlin Associates, notes "I expect we will see up to 750GB to 800GB per platter on 3.5-inch drives before the end of this year. That would give us 3TB or more with a four-platter drive, or approaching 4TB with a five-platter drive." Expect more advances in areal density for 2.5-inch drives, too; there, Coughlin expects us to see a two-platter, 1TB drive that will fit in a standard z-height notebook computer later this year.

 

Amazon Juices E-books with Audio and Video

Ian Paul, PC World

Jun 28, 2010 3:28 pm

Amazon has added multimedia content exclusively for e-books viewed on Apple iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Starting Monday, some Kindle e-books include full video playback functionality as well as embedded audio.

Audio/Video Titles include travel books with embedded walking tours by Rick Steves--author of the backpacker's classic Europe Through the Backdoor--for European cities like Paris, London, and Venice. There's a Beatles songbook for guitar with musical examples, and a cake baking guide by Rose Levy Beranbaum with video instruction.

At launch, Kindle is offering one fiction and 12 nonfiction titles capable of using the new functionality, and every title is priced at $10. All audio/video titles must be downloaded to your Apple device via Wi-Fi and not over your carrier's network due to the larger file size.

Amazon has not added the new audio/video features to Kindle software for the PC or Mac or to the bookseller's own Kindle devices such as the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.

What's Inside

While inventive authors may try to take advantage of Amazon's new functionality in the future to augment a novel, the first uses of Amazon's audio/video embeds are decidedly straightforward.

Audio/Video features for William Styron's 1951 debut novel Lie Down in Darkness, for example, are similar to special features you'd find on a DVD. The Kindle edition features an inteview with Styron's widow, Rose Styron; a look at Styron's creative process with his biographer Jim West; and a video of Styron's youngest daughter reading a selection of the author's letters.

Historian Terry Golway's Together We Cannot Fail: FDR and the American Presidency in Years of Crisis features audio of 30 speeches by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. You can find all available Kindle Editions with Audio/Video at www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.

Amazon Gets Serious About Kindle

Amazon's new addition to Kindle books is just the latest move for the online bookseller to improve the Kindle software over its competitors. Earlier this month, Amazon cut the price of the Kindle from $259 xto $189 after Barnes & Noble announced a similar price drop for its Nook e-readers.

The addition of audio/video to Kindle for iDevices also gives Amazon a slight edge over Apple's iBooks application for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad since Apple's e-reading software does not include multimedia capabilities. It's not clear, however, if that advantage will last long. Amazon did not mention whether it has an exclusivity arrangement with publishers for the new audio/video features. If Amazon doesn't have a lock on the new multimedia functionality, it's likely only a matter of time until Apple equalizes the field with its own audio/video embeds.

 

Laptop Buying Guide: Selecting the Right Laptop for You

ecommends

Laptop Buying Guide 2010

Here's everything you need to know to select the ideal portable PC.

• Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications »
• Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips »

Perhaps no common computer product has as many variations, with as wide a performance range, as the modern laptop PC. From tiny netbooks to big and powerful desktop-replacement systems, the differences in pricing, features, and performance are staggering. Follow our comprehensive guide to make sure you get the laptop that's right for you.
Buying a new notebook can be tough because you have so many options to consider, and no shortage of reasons for purchasing one. Maybe you're about to head off to college and you need to take notes in class. Perhaps your current laptop labors when running today's applications, and it's time for an upgrade. Or maybe you're happy with your desktop PC, and you want a companion device for surfing the Web from your couch. Even if you know what you want to do, with so many laptop models available it can be hard to decide among them. The potential for confusion is enough to make you choose something that just looks cool or happens to be available on your warehouse store's shelf--but that approach can end in heartache.
It's best to start by deciding which category of laptop you're most interested in. Laptops fall into four main categories: netbooks, ultraportables, all-purpose laptops, and desktop replacements. The laptop category that is right for you depends on the kind of user you are.
Once you have decided on a category of laptop, it's time to start considering the specs. To learn how to wade through all the product names and acronyms, check out "Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications." And before you ask the store to run your credit card, read our advice in "Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips."