Doug's Computer Information

Web design essential for your business

2009-01-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Web design essential for your business

Regardless of the business you operate either it is a multinational company or sole proprietor organization you need to have a web site. Your customers expect you to have a web site containing detailed information about your business and available offers. Internet is so popular now a days and having a web site of your business give potential benefits to the organization. Customer looks with suspicion to those companies that don’t have own web site.But it is not enough to having a web site with small information or simple design. It is necessary for your web page to have attractive design that reflects not only your type of business, but that also refract the tone of business you want to be. In the very competitive industries you have to take care of all aspects. If you can’t attract the customer on first glance you will not get a second chance. Your competitor always try to make some batter than you so, you have to provide best web site to your valuable customer.When you are planning to launch a new website or redesign the website you already have, what you will do? Most people in who giving attractive offers don’t have the skills necessary to design their own website. You need to decide whether he/she have enough skill to give batter design to your site, as you wouldn’t want to leave your company’s image in the hand of an amateur. For that your really need to hire a web designer with professional web design experience – more specifically a business web page designing, you can find good web design India as per your requirement.
When you're looking for a web designer, the best place to find one is listed below.

www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

PC buying guide: How to buy a desktop Windows PC computer

2009-01-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

PC buying guide: How to buy a desktop Windows PC computer

Need help with buying a new Windows desktop PC? Desktop PCs still offer a number of advantages over laptop/notebook PCs. For example, they generally come with more powerful processors, support for larger amounts of memory and bigger hard disks, and are generally easier to upgrade.

Here is some advice on choosing the right desktop for you.

PCs for different applications

There are a number of different types of desktop PC available, depending on what you want to do - everything from very basic office PCs to a high-end gaming PCs, and everything in-between. Here are the different types of PC you’re likely to come across:
Office PCs: These are designed for general office duties, such using Office applications and checking email. Generally speaking they’re not very powerful and aren’t usually very expandable.
Home PCs: These types of computers are designed for general home use – doing office work when required, surfing the web, and playing low-end games. They are not really intended to be used for heavy duty gaming. Prices will vary.
Gaming PCs: An avid gamer will spend at least $1,800 on a system and a third of that could easily go into the graphics card.
Home theatre PCs: A home theatre PC is designed to form the centerpiece of your home audio-video system – so it will be used to acquire, store and playback video and audio component though your TV and sound system.

Where to buy your PC

From a manufacturing/branding/retailing perspective, there are four different approaches you’ll come across when shopping for a PC:
No-name (aka “off-brand”) PCs– cheaper and often available from mom-and-pop computer stores
Brand name PCs – refers to big brand PCs like HP, Dell, Acer, or Lenovo, which are available directly from the manufacturer or from larger retail chains
Build it yourself PCs – you build the computer yourself, so you buy the components at electronics and computer shops
Custom built PCs – here the PC is built to your specification, so you get a custom machine, without you having to get your hands dirty
Brand-name PCs come from companies that well known, like Dell or HP. While these companies have their detractors, you can be pretty sure they’ll be around if something needs to be fixed.
A problem with building your own PC, other than for it not to work once you’ve assembled it, is that there is no one person responsible for the warranty. Online shops such as Newegg and TigerDirect are good about replacing parts that are found to be “DOA” – dead on arrival. You may not be so lucky with other stores.
If you just want to deal with a single company, but still want a computer tailored to your needs, you might consider a custom built computer from companies like WidowPC, Falcon Northwest or Velocity Micro.
Dell and HP, for example, seem to do better with business and budget systems so if that is your need it can’t hurt to take a look there.

Choosing the type of graphics card

There are three main manufacturers of video cards. Intel makes integrated graphics ,with nvidia and ATI specializing in gaming class cards. While Nvidia and ATI do make integrated video cards their specialty is making dedicated cards for gaming purposes. An integrated card is fine for basic office or home use but if any gaming is going to be done you will find it lacking.
These days a decent middle-end card can be had for around $150 which is capable of handling just about all games at a resolution of at least 1280 x 1024 which is low in today’s world. A good card will cost you about $300 and will be able to handle all games at higher resolutions though some graphic details may get cut; the game will be more than playable. In that area you should be covered for today’s games and games to come for two years but after that point you’ll want to consider an upgrade.
Most modern cards will offer you a choice of ports. VGA ports (the older connector that was used for ancient CRT monitors) are on the way out. The most common now is either dual DVI ports or a DVI port with an HDMI port. Some of the cards like the All-in-Wonder will offer you a few more choices but plan on having DVI or HDMI.
Computers that come with only built-in graphics may have only a VGA port, but some are starting to ship with HDMI instead.
If you’re buying a computer to use as a home theatre system, make sure the video card is capable of decoding high-def video are important. All modern video cards are capable of doing so, but choppy playback can result if it is not fast enough. It should have a DVI/HDMI port, optical audio out (but make sure your speaker system supports that before springing for it) and a TV tuner.

Optical Drives

DVD burners have become so common now that it would be difficult to find a computer without one. They are also dirt cheap, $35 will get you an internal DVD/RW drive and for a few more dollars you can get one with Lightscribe. Lightscribe will enable you to burn your own (black and white) images onto the surface of supported discs. DO NOT use the Lightscribe feature on non-Lightscribe discs.
Now that Blu-Ray drives have won over the competing HD-DVD format you may want to consider getting one if you are building a high-end, home theatre or video editing system.
A Blu-Ray burner and DVD/RW combo drive will cost around $300 when purchased individually but manufacturers such as HP have offer them for as low as $99 when built into a computer. A Blu-Ray reader-only and DVD/RW combo drive cost about $140. Whether or not this is important is down to personal preference but the blank discs are still relatively expensive. A 25-pack of blank Blu-Ray (BD-R) discs cost $190 on the low end.

There is never too much hard drive space

The bigger, the better. The most basic computers will include a 160GB hard drive, sufficient for home use but far from what a music/movie/game buff would require. Shoot for at least a single 500GB hard drive but aim higher if it is a gaming or media system.
Some gamers prefer that the boot drive is a faster 10,000 RPM drive in which case you’ll find that is limited to 74GB to 150GB. Plan on three hard drives if that is the case so there is still plenty of room for all those games/movies/music.
It’s easier to fill than it looks, trust me. Get as much storage as the budget will allow. You can always add more later if needed/desired.
Almost every computer will include a card reader for reading the memory cards from digital cameras. This used to be optional but has become a relatively standard feature over the years.

Processor speed

The faster, the better. Only the home/office user will not be concerned with processor speed. This will matter for gaming systems, video editing systems and the like. The “gigahertz” war is pretty much over and now it’s about cramming more cores into smaller spaces.
Only the cheapest desktops now have lowly dual core processors. Most now have a basic quad-core and AMD offers triple-core processors. Intel’s new Core i7 processors are the coolest, most efficient and fastest processors built to date. The front side bus has been replaced with Intel’s QPI (quick path interconnect) which speeds communication between the processor and chipset. If you’re lost, it makes the computer just a tad faster.
If the budget affords, you can’t go wrong with an Intel processor and you certainly can’t go wrong with getting a Core i7 processor. No way, no how. If not then the older Core Quad processors (the Q6600 and up) will keep you humming along for a couple years. But if bleeding edge performance right here and now is what you’re after then its Core i7 all the way.
Of course, in a year we’ll all be saying what a primitive piece of junk the Core i7 was. Such is life in the world of computers.
This whole bit as about speed so something should be said about that. Almost every single quad core processor will operate at 2.0GHz and above. The difference these days is going to be how much cache the processor has and how fast it can address memory but the days where we ogled over pure speeds of the processor itself is over.
The more cache, the better. The faster the memory, the better. In both these areas, higher numbers equal better. It really is that simple.

RAM (Memory)

This is what the computer uses to store running programs and like a lot of things on this list, the more, the better. Even the cheapest computer includes 1GB of memory. That is the bare minimum for running Vista which doesn’t really run well at all.
A smattering of computers will include 2GB but most will have between 4GB and 8GB these days. It is better to have paired sets of memory so you have the dual channel communication (which is faster). It is possible to have other odd sets such as 1×1GB and 2×1GB but you do limit the speed of the memory when doing that.
The newer Core i7 processor on supported motherboards will have triple channel memory. This means you can have just about any odd configuration of memory without any reduction in speed.

Sound Cards

Integrated sound used to be downright awful. Thankfully this has improved greatly over the years and it really comes down to how many outputs you want. Most motherboards come built-in with multichannel outputs and at least one optical output.
Gamers and music enthusiasts will still insist on getting a dedicated sound card and at $60 for a decent sound card, I’m more in favor of than I am against. Home users are not likely to appreciate the difference. It would only really be noticeable on a higher end speaker system and surprisingly not many people want to spend $500+ on speakers for a computer.

Motherboard

You only need to worry about this if you are building your own system. The motherboard must be matched to the processor and slot type. For example an AMD slot 939 processor must be matched to a motherboard that supports AMD slot 939. This is an older slot type but the analogy remains the same. Intel processors cannot be used on AMD motherboards and vice versa.
The only other real differentiation is what kind of graphics is included on the board itself. Either it will or it won’t. If you are going to buy a dedicated video card then you can avoid getting a board with integrated video. Nvidia does offer a feature called “Hybrid SLI” which uses the lower end dedicated cards in conjunction with the integrated chip – speed gains are not significant and it only works with lower end cards.
There are other features such as RAID for data backups, built-in wireless and warranty from the manufacturer. More than anything, Asus and Gigabyte tend to stand behind each and every product they sell. As well as the easiest motherboard BIOS and driver updates I have yet to find, it’s all pretty much automatic.

Choosing a modem, monitor, keyboard, mouse

Modems (meaning broadband modems) are usually provided by your ISP though you can buy them from computer shops. Unless your ISP approves (and they probably won’t) avoid buying your own modem. Sure the ISP may be trying to squeeze some money out of you by selling you equipment, but often the ISP-supplied modems really do work best. For the sake of simplicity and ease-of-setup, just use what the ISP provides you with.
Unless you haven’t owned a previous desktop or don’t yet have a flat screens then read this section otherwise skip ahead. You will want to go for a widescreen monitor at least 19” in size but if you can afford it go for the larger 22” or 24” LCD displays which offer higher resolutions.
Wired keyboard/mouse or wireless keyboard/mouse? A matched pair or separate? This comes down to personal preference. Some say it is better to get a wired mouse and if you are in an area that has a lot of interference (say in a studio setting) then wired is the way to go. I happen to shy away from wires so I like wireless stuff and it’s very hard to go wrong with Logitech.

Using older peripherals

If you have something that uses an older 25-pin parallel port and there is a newer version of the same that has USB my recommendation is to just replace that old piece of junk. If it’s something that can’t be replaced with modern equipment then get the new computer anyway and keep the old stuff for using that one thing. I don’t like old stuff and sometimes it’s just time to move on especially in the cases of something so old that it still has a parallel port.
Windows Vista and Windows Seven also has a tendency not to like old stuff which attracted a lot of negativity from users. Oh well, as I said, sometimes it’s just time to move on.
You may have some luck with older USB devices and any PS/2 keyboard or mouse will still work but if all you have is a PS/2 keyboard or mouse I would say it’s time to replace that. If you ask me PS/2 should have been phased out years ago or the second that USB came about.
Basically using older peripherals is getting harder and harder in this day and age so it’s just better, and maybe easier, to move on to something newer, shinier and possibly backlit. Sorry folks, that’s just how it is.

Warranty, service and support

There are those of you that have a friend or family member that is very good at fixing and repairing any computer ailment that you can conjure up. You do not need extended warranty or support. Then there are those of you who don’t, in which case an extended warranty or service plan could be a prudent thing to have.
Retail chains like Best Buy will be around for a few years, so you can be a little more confident about the extended warranties you may be offered.
If you’re buying direct from a manufacturer, you’ll find that they also usually offer some kind of extended warranty with onsite service. For example, Dell has begun offering US-based support for $99 per year with a new system, or $12.95 per month for everyone else.

Operating system disks

With any pre-built or custom made system you will find that operating system recovery DVDs have become optional. Most will include them for a nominal fee ($19 to $55). All of them will allow you to burn your own recovery DVDs using utilities included with the computer when it boots for the first time. You can opt to do it then or have it remind you later. The sooner you do, the better and make sure to label them. Usually two blank DVD/R or DVD/RW discs will be required.
Hopefully this article has given you the confidence you need to go out an buy the right computer for you. Good luck and have fun.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

One of the Top Four Mainboard Makers Will Leave the Market in Three Years – MSI.

2009-01-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

One of the Top Four Mainboard Makers Will Leave the Market in Three Years – MSI.

Vice President of MicroStar International Expects Dramatic Changes on Mainboard Market
One of the top four manufacturers of mainboards will cease to exist in about three years from now, according to a vice president of MicroStar International. The reasons for that is slow desktop computer market growth and the growing popularity of notebooks. Obviously, before one of the top four makers is gone, many second-tier makers will vanish into thin air.
Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, EliteGroup Computer Systems (ECS) and MicroStar International (MSI) are currently the world’s largest makers of both branded and generic mainboards, who control the lion’s share of the market. But one of them will “drop out” of the market in the next few years since limited further expansion of the motherboard business “will not be able to support the growth of the four giants any more”, said Henry Lu, vice president of products at MSI, in an interview with DigiTimes web-site.
There is no secret that shipments of various mobile computers – including notebooks and netbooks – are currently exceeding shipments of desktop systems. As a result of practical stagnation of the desktop market, shipments of mainboards also remain on the same level, which means that if one producer suppliers more, other manufacturers lose.
Just like any other high-tech providers, motherboard suppliers have to invest into research and development, design of their products, production lines improvements and so on. Since those investments tend to get higher every year, amid shipments growth stagnation, at some point one of the top four vendors will not be able to keep the pace and will either have to leave the market of mainboards or unite with another big player.
In the recent years many smaller motherboard producers merged with each other in order to stay alive, but while for some it was the path for prosperity, the other vanished into oblivion. On the other hand, Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology, who wanted to create a joint-venture motherboard supplier Gigabyte United, decided not to combine their businesses. There were also rumors that Asustek expressed interest in taking over MSI.
According to some estimations, Asustek supplied 21 million mainboards in 2008, ECS also shipped 21 units, Gigabyte produced 19 motherboards and MSI delivered 16 mainboards.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

New! "HyperFast" SSD Optimizer Brings Solid State Drive Laptops to Top Performance Levels

2009-01-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

New! "HyperFast" SSD Optimizer Brings Solid State Drive Laptops to Top Performance Levels

Diskeeper Corporation at CES announced the unveiling of new HyperFast(TM) technology -- the first-ever optimizer exclusively designed for faster performance and extended lifespan of Solid State Drives (SSDs).
With the promise of faster computing, SSD laptops or "netbooks" are all the rage right now -- Lenovo, Acer, Dell, Asus and Fujitsu-Siemens are all launching custom editions. But in reality, there is one caveat: PC operating systems are not optimized for this platform. Most SSDs experience a dramatic and noticeable deterioration in performance by as much as 80% over six months. They also possess a limited number of erase-write cycles, resulting in a short lifespan.
HyperFast specifically solves these issues by intelligently eliminating performance-degrading free space fragmentation, and reducing the aggregate erase-write cycles that the SSD would otherwise incur during normal usage. In other words, it preemptively optimizes free space at the operating system level itself, thereby ensuring the peak performance of the drive -- and extending its very lifespan.
No scheduling or maintenance is required whatsoever to experience these benefits. With Diskeeper Corporation's proprietary InvisiTasking® processing technology, all HyperFast operations take place completely automatically with zero overhead and zero resource conflict. It's literally as simple as set it and forget it and your SSD-based laptop or netbook has instant performance. Period.
To demonstrate this fact, benchmark tests were performed on an 8GB SSD in a simulated real world scenario to depict a customer's environment over 6 months. With HyperFast SSD optimization enabled, performance gains were automatically realized with 5.9x faster reads, 19.5x faster writes, 3.9x faster random reads and 9.0x faster random writes (higher numbers indicate higher performance).
About Diskeeper Corporation -- Innovators in Performance and Reliability Technologies®: Consumers, small home offices and the largest businesses rely on Diskeeper software to provide unparalleled performance and reliability to their laptops, PCs and servers. Diskeeper Corporation further provides real-time data protection and real-time data recovery(TM) with Undelete® data recovery software.

Dell shows off ‘luxury’ laptop
Step into style: Former No. 1 computer maker seeks to stay ahead of resurgent Apple, regain ground on Hewlett-Packard.
Dell Inc. teased techies with a sneak peak of a new super-thin high-end laptop it calls Adamo, but executives refused to give any details about the computer other than to say it should be on the market by the end of June.
At a press conference during the International Consumer Electronics Show here, Dell executives showed off the sleek computer, which they call a “luxury” laptop, for the first time and posed for pictures to try to generate buzz about the machine.
They didn’t turn on the computer and wouldn’t give performance specifications or prices, though it’s expected to retail for well over $1,000 and rival Apple Inc.’s highly touted MacBook Air laptop, which starts at $1,800.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell has hinted about Adamo for months now, but executives with the world’s No. 2 PC maker denied that the new luxury laptop line was being delayed amid the recession and tightening consumer spending.
“The product is actually right on schedule, and we can’t wait for you see it in the market,” said Michael Tatelman, Dell’s vice president for global consumer sales. He said the name Adamo came from the Latin word for “to fall in love with.”
The Adamo line is Dell’s latest attempt to transform from a maker of business computers to a leader in consumer computer design. Once the world’s biggest PC maker, Dell also is looking for ways to regain ground on No. 1 Hewlett-Packard Co. and stay ahead of resurging Apple.
Dell was among the first PC makers to add color to its laptops and will make its desktop computers available in different colors and designs, executives said Friday.
About two months ago, the company launched an online site where buyers of its Studio line of laptops can personalize their computers with more than 100 custom designs.
“At this point we’d like to put a stake in the ground and really declare design leadership in our industry, which is something Dell has not been able to do for a long time,” Tatelman said.
At CES, Dell executives also unveiled some other new products they said emphasized the company’s new focus on design and style. Among them:
> A “Wasabi” handheld photo printer that lets users print pictures from laptops, smart phones or other portable devices. Dell expects to start selling the tiny printer by the end of June, but isn’t disclosing prices.
> A 10-inch mini “netbook” computer designed for the Internet. It also is scheduled for release later this year at an undisclosed price.
> A thumb-sized digital TV tuner that plugs into a computer’s USB drive and lets users watch live digital and high-definition TV. The devices will launch in Europe and start at $50.
Dell on Friday also announced a deal with AT&T Mobility to sell its Inspiron Mini 9 netbook computers for $99 after rebates and with two-year contract.

Giving Intel and AMD a run for their money

You've likely never heard of ARM, a small U.K. company that doesn't advertise or put its name on any products. But chances are that as you read this, you're within sight of an "electronic brain" that ARM designed -- its handiwork lives in items as diverse as GPS navigators, camcorders and the Nintendo DS.
While those gadgets are nice, ARM's real claim to fame -- if it were famous, that is -- would be cell phones. Its low-power circuitry is at the core of practically every phone on the planet.
ARM may be obscure, but it's everywhere.
This new year, you'll also find ARM-based chips in netbooks, that emerging breed of mini-laptops that proved a hit with cash-strapped shoppers this holiday season. This netbook explosion, driven in equal parts by a bad economy and consumer lust for all things mobile, is sure to thrust the reclusive company into the spotlight and bring it into closer combat with giant Silicon Valley competitors Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
Oh, and the real surprise? ARM might just give those big dogs a run for their money.
At first blush, it's hard to imagine ARM as much of a threat to anyone. It's a pretty small operation -- certainly not as big as you'd expect considering its customer list. ARM's 1,700 employees make it about one-fiftieth the size of Intel and a tenth the size of AMD. Its annual sales are $397 million -- less than Intel makes in a bad week.
But these details obscure a few important factors: ARM's no-frills business model, its lead in power-efficient technology, and its ability to help customers make unique gadgets.
Unlike Intel, which designs and manufactures its chips and sells them to customers, ARM just sells chip blueprints, and lets customers like Qualcomm and Samsung build the actual chips on their own. ARM makes less money than Intel by selling ideas instead of products, but it also carries lower costs.
Because it sells only designs, ARM doesn't have to worry about building its own multi-billion-dollar factories or deploying an army of marketing specialists to keep those factories busy. So even though its annual sales are so much lower than Intel's, ARM still retains a healthy 32% profit margin -- and the flexibility that comes from its lean structure.
ARM also has some of the best low-power designs at a time when efficiency is the name of the game. Because it originally designed its chips for battery-powered gadgets instead of for computers, it is well positioned to compete as all kinds of technology (including PCs) become more mobile. It makes sense, then, that in 2009, Qualcomm and Nvidia both plan to introduce ARM-based chips that could go into netbooks, potentially stealing business from Intel's Atom chip.
It's not that ARM is spoiling for a fight; in fact, ARM has long insisted it's not particularly interested in tangling with powerful foes like Intel and AMD. But these days the smartphone trend has phones acting more like PCs, the netbook trend has PCs acting more like phones, and Intel has made no secret of its desire to dominate both markets.
This fight, in other words, came to ARM.
The best weapon in ARM's arsenal, though, might be customization. While its competitors sell chips the way restaurants sell food -- you order from the menu, with minimal changes -- ARM instead sells recipes. The structure leaves its customers with more decision-making power, since after paying a licensing fee for ARM's designs, they're free to do what they want with them, including modify them.
In a world where every gadget manufacturer is trying to stand out from the crowd, that's a valuable edge. Intel's chips may be the most powerful on the market, but they're also available for anyone to buy. Come up with a unique, low-power ARM-based design, though, and you'll have something competitors can't easily copy.
That seems to be what Apple has in mind. Rather than rely on an outside company to supply chips for future iPhones and iPods, it recently bought a firm that is rumored to be designing ARM-based chips specifically for that purpose. Apple could eventually take the designs to a manufacturer, controlling the process from beginning to end.
For companies like Intel and AMD, whose business is based on offering the most advanced chips at the lowest price, this is a nightmare scenario. To fight back, Intel executives are already saying they plan to let large customers request more custom features in their chips, though nothing as extensive as ARM allows.
So who will come out ahead, an old-school player like Intel or upstart ARM? In the long run, it will come down to who offers the right combination of horsepower, efficiency and flexibility at the right price. This year, it's anybody's game.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Intel X58 Motherboard

2009-01-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Intel X58 Motherboard

As of November 17th you can officially buy an Intel Core i7 processor - the new heavyweight champion of the world. When it comes to media encoding and 3D animation/rendering tasks, the Core i7 is not only without peer but also provides us the sort of generational performance gap that we've come to expect from Intel every two years. By now you've already decided whether or not you want to buy one, and if you're in a rush to spend money, the next question is what motherboard do you pick?
Current Core i7 CPUs work in Intel's new LGA-1366 socket, currently only found on motherboards based on the X58 chipset. While Intel did a great job of making sure the Core i7 was available at a wide range of price points ($284, $562, and $999), the X58 boards themselves are pretty pricey. We've got a consistent group of $300+ motherboards on the market, and honestly we're not expecting ~$100 Nehalem boards until the introduction of the mainstream Lynnfield/Havendale CPUs in 2H 2009. Boards using the P55 chipset should arrive early next year and at least bring in true sub-$200 options, but for now it's an X58 world.
These boards are very high end - with the exception of Intel's own X58, these motherboards all feature six DDR3 DIMM slots, easily enabling 12GB of memory on a desktop platform. Certification for 24GB and 48GB is coming, but that's absolutely ridiculous on a desktop motherboard. Combine that with the fact that all three Core i7 parts are capable of working on 8 threads at a time and you've got the makings of an extremely powerful system. A desktop Core i7 system has the potential to embarrass quite a few upper end workstations already on the market.
What we've put together today is a roundup of the "midrange" X58 motherboards currently on the market, a sort of first look at the state of the X58 realm for early adopters who are lucky enough to be buying today. We've got motherboards ranging from $220 to $390 in the labs that we will go through over the next couple of weeks; if you're building a Core i7 system before the end of this year, we'll help you pick a motherboard in each category.
Testing Ridiculousness:
It is true, too true unfortunately, about the amount of time it takes to thoroughly test a motherboard, report problems, and then regression test a possible fix. I am anal retentive when it comes to this process as others are also. While the benefits of doing it eventually payoff for manufacturers and users alike, it is a disservice to our readership to delay reviews of new products based on this seemingly never ending cycle of test, report, test, report.
So we are refocusing our efforts in generating quick and to the point reviews in the motherboard section. The manufacturers are going to receive two rounds of the test and report process before we publish our reviews. After this, we will provide short updates about the product over its lifespan in the market. We are also instituting a new process where we will purchase select products at retail and review them as is. This means no conversations with the manufacturers or access to the designers and engineers that we currently enjoy. We will utilize the latest drivers, BIOS, and utilities on the website in the same way you do when purchasing a product.
Our plan is to cycle through each manufacturer so we are not singling out any one supplier but we are going to be brutally honest in our assessments in these particular focus reviews. Our hope is that it will spur the manufacturers to improve their internal QA processes and focus on product usability at launch instead of setting a world record in SuperPI.
That said, let's take a quick look at the number of problems we encountered up until this week with our four boards in today's review.
1. Of the course of the past 30 days we communicated problems, suggestions, and resolution status on our test products via email 896 times and over a 100 phone conversations.
2. We have received 31+ different BIOS releases in the last thirty days to address problems and/or improve performance.
3. Our change log of problems and fixes reads like a bad novel. While we will not ding the manufacturers for performance improvements that we or others suggest, the simple fact that auxiliary storage controllers, power management features, memory and voltage settings, and other basic features on these boards failed to even work or resulted in a non-POST situation just floored us.
We are talking about $300 plus motherboards designed and released to be the crown jewel in the manufacturers product lineup. Of course, there is no excuse for this regardless of price, but one would truly think that the QA process would have noticed simple items like S3 not working, drives attached to certain storage ports not recognized, 12GB memory configurations causing non-POST situations, various BIOS settings not working or auto settings generating out of bounds voltages at stock speeds, power management features that when enabled actually increased power consumption, various over clock bugs, and USB and network controllers operating at half speed. The list just goes on and on. To us, these were simple items that we found just booting the board and trying to use it in a manner that 99% of buyers would, not randomly generated bugs due to weird settings, bad drivers, or a collection of old peripherals.
Even more depressing was the fact that several of our technical contacts did not have the necessary components to recreate our problems in a timely manner. The biggest item was memory, specifically 12GB of memory. All of the boards had some type of problem with a 12GB installation, ranging from over clock performance to non-POST situations. Granted, 98% of the 12GB problems have been addressed now, but it took close to a month, dozens of phone calls, hundreds of messages, and constant pressure for this to happen.
We spoke with several personnel at various companies and they asked why we were so adamant about 12GB compatibility and performance (6GB operation was not much better at first) as one example. The typical response was not that many people will actually use 12GB and we tuned our board for high over clocks with 3GB, this is what the enthusiast wants. Our simple answer was and continues to be, "If you advertise the feature, we expect it to work correctly." This particular problem highlighted one area that seems to drive the current high-end market.
Catering or focusing exclusively to the extreme overclocking community has resulted in initial product launches that are focused on getting the highest possible results from a product at the expense of usability, compatibility, and stability. The quest to release quickly and have the top motherboard in the forums, or HWBot/FutureMark rankings has blinded some of the product teams to the more important issue of ensuring their product actually works as advertised. We enjoy seeing these records as much as anyone else and I am guilty of scouring the Internet everyday to see what record has been broken and more importantly, how it was done.
Overclocking is interesting to most of us and its importance in improving the quality of electrical components and design aspects on the motherboards cannot be overstated. However, we need balance in this area again. Simply, we need to get the basic features and options working right at product launch and then the BIOS engineers can have free reign in tuning the boards to reach their limits.
One of the technical marketing personnel at a particular board supplier kept pressing me on how well does the board overclock. They also wanted to know about 3GB memory performance at DDR3-2000+ and my SuperPI scores. I kept responding with a laundry list of items that needed to be fixed before I would even worry about overclocking. His responses continued to be, those problems are minor and we will get to them, what we need to know is if our board overclocks and performs better than the competition.
I thought the fact that 12GB would not POST correctly at DDR3-1333 or higher, storage controllers were on the fritz, and power management was not even working was more than minor, but it just accentuated the thought processes that we encounter on a daily basis now. The current situation is not acceptable in our book but we would like to hear your opinions on this subject. After receiving three new BIOS releases this morning to address performance improvements and not usability concerns, I just have to repeat Serenity Now, Serenity Now....
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

How to buy the perfect notebook/laptop computer

2009-01-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

How to buy the perfect notebook/laptop computer

Buying a notebook can be a daunting task, so hopefully, this article will guide you through the key features that you’ll need to look for.
The article has been broken down into several sections, screen size, processor, memory, hard drives, graphics, optical drive and operating system.
Screen size
Screen size will in some way determine the form factor of your laptop. Thin and light laptops will have 11” to 13” displays, sometimes 14” but that’s bordering on “mainstream” laptops. Generally these laptops will have slower processors and may not have as much memory as their “mainstream” counterparts. Also, expect the thin and light laptops to not be equipped with an optical drive; this is done to save space as well as weight and power. Thin and light laptops will have 5 to 8 hours of battery life. Weight for thin and light laptops will be 5lbs or less.
Business travelers should look for laptops with biometric security features (fingerprint readers) for data encryption.
Mainstream laptops will have 14.1” or 15.4” Widescreen displays, faster processors, usually more hard drive space, though that will vary among brands/models and will have built-in (typically) DVD/RW drives. These laptops will come in on the light side at 5lbs and usually top out at 9lbs. Though, encroaching on desktop replacement territory, some mainstream laptops have 17” widescreen displays.
Desktop replacement laptops will feature the most powerful processors possible, 17” widescreen or larger displays, the best DVD/RW drives money can buy, will come with two available hard drive bays, powerful graphics cards but will falter in both the portability and battery life department. Weight will be 10lbs or more not including the adapter you will need to carry because battery life will be 90 minutes or less but while gaming expect no more than 30 minutes, at best.
Processor
The processor will be in some ways influenced by the class of laptop you choose, thin and lights will have dual core processors but these will be the power efficient kind and rarely operate at the fastest possible speeds to save power.
Mainstream to desktop replacement laptops will not have the fastest processors, but will feature usually a Core 2 Duo T-series processor or an AMD Turion mobile processor. As always, going with an AMD processor may be a way to save money but the Core 2 Duo series offer the best price/performance ratio. The price difference in most cases will be minimal but might matter to some.
Memory
Most laptops these days ship with a default of 1GB to 2GB of memory but again, the class of laptop will, in part decide how much it has. It may be possible to still find laptops with 512MB of memory, I would avoid these because even for the most basic tasks will be slower than those with more memory.
Thin and light and business based laptops will have 1GB of memory but if they are running Vista I recommend upgrading that to 2GB but this will depend on your budget. I would classify them as “functional” with 1GB of memory but just barely.
Sometimes it’s possible to save money buy purchasing a laptop with 1GB of memory and then upgrading it to 2GB yourself but there are some things to look for if you do this. Make sure the laptop ships with one 1GB memory module installed and have a free memory bay. This is usually the case but sometimes the laptop will have two 512MB modules installed which means you’d have to buy two 1GB modules and replace both which is not usually a money saver.
Then, of course, make sure you are up to the task of opening the laptop’s case and putting a memory module in.
Hard disk
No need to be too picky here as a hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, just make sure to buy a laptop with enough space for your needs. Generally 100GB to 200GB are sufficient for most users, as laptop hard drives currently top out at 200GB but don’t forget there are those laptops that have two hard drive bays so it’s possible to have up to 400GB of storage built-in to a laptop which is not counting all the external storage options available.
Graphics
The type of graphics card in the laptop will really depend on what is going to be done with it. Integrated cards like those offered by Intel are power efficient, not too terribly powerful and are just barely powerful enough for DVD playback. Thin and light and a lot of mainstream laptops have this type.
Nvidia and ATI also make integrated graphics which are better than the Intel type but are not suited to gaming though, media playback and the occasional “light” game they excel at.
If you’re going to be doing any type of high-end multimedia work or gaming of any kind then you will want a laptop with a dedicated graphics card either from Nvidia or ATI. Though avoid the low-end cards as laptop cards cannot be directly compared to the desktop equivalent. For example a Nvidia GEForce Go 7600 card will not perform the equal of the GEForce 7600 desktop card.

Optical Drive
All laptops (save for some thin and lights) will ship with an optical drive and most of the time it will be of the DVDRW kind for burning backup discs and movies. Additional features to look for are Lightscribe labeling technology and dual layer support but either way, all laptops these days can burn both CDs and DVDs as well as creating backups.
Operating System
It would be hard to find a laptop that doesn’t come with Vista though some companies are still offering XP instead of Vista though that will end next year. If you must have XP, many online stores are still stocking laptops with XP but that number decreases each day.
Also keep in mind the memory requirement. No less than 512MB for XP (though 1GB is preferred) and certainly no less than 1GB for Vista (though 2GB is highly recommended).
If you want to go the Linux route, I do not suggest downloading it and installing it yourself. There are several manufacturers that offer pre-configured Linux based laptops, System 76 is one of them, Dell offers a few as well.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

ASUS Rampage II Extreme

2009-01-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

ASUS Rampage II Extreme

We have received numerous emails about the upcoming X58 motherboards concerning price, availability, and of course performance. Pricing has yet to be determined as we believe each of the manufacturers are waiting to hear what their competitors will charge for a board before committing to a price. What we do know is that the $185 price target mentioned for several X58 motherboards back at Computex has quickly turned into an exclusive $250 and up club from all indications.
Retail availability and launch date is another question that we cannot answer, we know the answer, and it’s just that our hands (and mouths) are tied by an NDA. All we can say it that it will be soon, but soon for some is tomorrow and for others it could be a month for now. Let's just say they will be out sometime this quarter.
Performance is another subject that we cannot discuss either. The reason is the same as above. Starting to see a pattern develop here? That's what an NDA will do for you. At least we can say this without having the legal eagles from the blue team sweep down upon us; the board we are showing today is the fastest one in the labs to date. It will also probably be the most expensive one, but hey, if you have to ask for the price then you probably can't afford it anyway.
That board is the ASUS Rampage II Extreme featuring the soon to be released X58 chipset supporting an i7 processor. Designed for a very niche market and with limited production numbers, this board will be ASUS' primary weapon in the ultra high-end market against some stiff competition from Gigabyte and perhaps others. The Rampage "2 the" Extreme board is the latest and greatest contribution from the Republic of Gamers (ROG) design group.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

7 Key Decisions to turn your Website into an Effective Salesperson and Improve Sales

2009-01-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

7 Key Decisions to turn your Website into an Effective Salesperson and Improve Sales

As you aware today, a website is not only a way to get exposure; it also represents the image, credibility and brand identity of all companies. According to this strategy, if a website is sloppy or unprofessional a potential customer may conclude that the business is sloppy and unprofessional as a whole. Recent studies proved that a customer's decision of whether they make a purchase from your business is made within the first three seconds of viewing the site. That’s why a website actually has the power to be a complete sales force and that is why choosing the right web design company is so vital.This guide enumerates the 7 key decisions a business must make to turn its website into a salesperson. Selecting the best web site design service is definitely the first one. As we went deeper into this first key point we concluded that a design company must understand the importance the website design has on the impression delivered to viewers and they must know how to help you turn "traffic" into customers. Another aspect to take in count and noted as key decision number 2 is choosing the right headline for a page. Split testing has shown that both the text and font used for a headline can have a dramatic impact on the conversion rate. Continuing with the guide, we defined key decision number 3 as the color scheme. Based on this, your design company will be crucial in helping businesses understand how the color scheme sets the tone for a site and influences a person's decision to purchase from a website.Images play a crucial role in setting the mood and tone of a website and the business. That makes image selection key decision number 4. Images can create a strong impression that leads to a purchase decision and that is why key decision number 4 is the selection what images to place and where to place them. A web site design service is able to determine the right images and placement for any business' needs. Now where a visitor first enters a site is crucial, so landing pages as you can imagine, is key decision number 5. It can be a place where you focus on selling one particular item or you may focus on selling them the idea of buying from your website and to take an action either by clicking a link to your full website or selecting the "Buy Now" button. According to our study, “a professional web design is a must for getting the most out of any sales page”.
A web design company must also help you with the SEO for your website to maximize your search engine exposure and encourage your viewers to become customers. This is Key decision number 6.Last key decision, number 7 we defined is “understanding what products to include on your website” Based on this, your web design company must help you develop a strategy that will make the most of your website and turn it into a super selling machine.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Why Vista Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard

2009-01-13T15:42:00.001-08:00

Why Vista Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard

My Experience

There has been a lot of talk on the Internet for the past year about how Vista isn't all it’s cracked up to be. There are lists of why folks hate Vista, lists of things Microsoft supposedly stole from the Mac OS, and reports of people switching back to XP in disgust. Amidst all of this negativity, I wanted to share my experience with Vista - which has been remarkably good!I'm the owner of Absolutely Belleville Computers, and so as soon as Vista was released I upgraded all of our workstations to the new OS so that I could talk to customers about it intelligently. I was so impressed with the new look and updated applications that within a week or two I purchased two OEM copies of Vista and loaded it up on my home computers.
Personally I find the new look and feel of Vista quite a bit. I was never a fan of the cartoony look of XP's default color scheme, and I used to set it to look like Windows 98/2000. The glossy look that Vista has is very appealing, though, and I love the way the Aero scheme gives everything a 3D feel. I'll grant that there is very little actual usefulness gained from these sorts of things, but anything that makes working with a computer more enjoyable is a good step in my book. I also like the tabbed browsing in IE7 (which is extremely useful - back in the IE6 days I used Firefox to get the same functionality) and the overall feel of the updated applications built into Vista.
Speaking of built-in applications, one of the most impressive feats in Vista, I think, is the Media Center interface. It gives us one interface for watching TV (live or recorded), DVDs, music (which we've got a massive library of, thanks to our CD collection), pictures, and FM radio. There is also a relatively new feature - Internet TV, which Microsoft appears to be beta-testing. Overall we have more functionality than any other home theater setup I've seen (granted, I haven't seen many) and all controllable from a single remote. Thank you, Microsoft! One thing I am disappointed about is that you have to get Vista Ultimate or Business edition in order to have the better backup and networking features Microsoft offers. I am able to operate my home network just fine with the connectivity options in Home Premium, but being able to remotely log in from work to my HTPC would be nice in case I needed to adjust the recording schedule. I would also like to have the full-system backup utility that comes in the higher versions of Vista, but I found an interesting way of doing what I need with Microsoft's free tool called SyncToy. I have it scheduled to synchronize the documents folder on my home theater PC with the one on the desktop in my bedroom every night - thereby ensuring that I have two copies of all our important documents in case either computer has a hard drive failure.
Vista Rebuttals
So, now you've at least read about one family's great experience with Vista - but that is probably not enough to change your mind if you've read much else on the net about this topic. There is still a lot of ground to cover if you are trying to decide between XP and Vista, so let’s keep going. Here are some charges that have been leveled against Vista, and my responses:"User Account Control is an annoyance! I hate needless pop-ups!" Well, the truth is that making every action that could affect the core of the system requires user approval is about the most fundamental security measure possible. I'll agree that it is rather annoying, though - a way to "always approve" a type of action (or a certain program) would be nice. However, if you really can't live with it then do what I do: turn UAC off. This is a simple process:1) Go to the Control Panel2) Select "Classic View"3) Go to User Accounts4) Select "Turn User Account Control on or off"5) De-select the check box6) Click OK7) Reboot"Vista costs too much!" Some folks like to complain about how much Microsoft charges for Windows, but to me that isn't a huge deal. I paid something like $125 per license for my OEM copies on my home systems, which is about what you end up paying to have it loaded on a computer you purchase (for Home Premium). Retail copies are more expensive - $199-450 for full copies, less for upgrades - which is normal Microsoft policy, but not a whole ton of folks end up purchasing this type of software that way. If you do, part of what you are getting is a better level of support from Microsoft themselves compared to what you get with OEM software (which stipulates that the computer vendor is responsible for support). You also get a license that can legally be moved from one computer to another, which is a lot more lax than the OEM terms of use. When compared to Mac OS, which costs $129, the retail box versions of Windows do seem a little expensive (though OEM prices stack up nicely against that number, and of course one gets Mac's latest OS version included on any Apple computer). Keep in mind, though, that a vast majority of software out there doesn't run on Macs - and while they have their niche purposes I can't endorse an operating system that is limited to one manufacturer's hardware (Apple) and such a small portion of the software that has been written for computers. Also note that whenever a new version of OS X comes out (1.4, 1.5, etc) you have to pay to upgrade. Service packs on Microsoft operating systems are always free, though some would argue that the Mac OS upgrades offer more than the service packs Microsoft churns out every year or two. The real place where Windows looks expensive is when compared to Linux, the free open-source operating system that is slowly gaining in user base. Again it is worth remembering that a lot of software out there will only run on Windows, so you aren't getting the same level of functionality and interoperability, but proponents of Linux tend to argue that you also can't beat the price tag of $0. If you are interested in learning more about the "other" operating system, check out the user-friendly variant known as Ubuntu.
"Why are there so many different versions? Which do I need?" This isn't so much a complaint about Vista itself, but about how Microsoft has chosen to break it up into a multitude of versions. Here I am in agreement with most of the folks who talk about this: it really shouldn't be necessary to have five separate editions of one operating system, and both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of each. Personally I think that most folks can ignore three of the options: only Home Premium and Ultimate are legitimate options for most folks. Home Premium has most of the functionality average users will want, but if things like better backup, remote login, and encryption appeal to you then go with Ultimate. Ultimate and Business are not very far apart in price, and Home Basic is so stripped down that is nearly worthless. Enterprise is the name of the fifth version, and I honestly don't even know what differs between it and the Business edition. The whole 32-bit vs. 64-bit argument also comes into play here, and as much as I wish Microsoft had just pushed straight for 64-bit-only on Vista that won't be a viable option until the vast majority of software and peripherals out there are designed to work properly with it. My thought is that anyone who really needs the additional memory support that 64-bit provides is probably spending enough on their computer that Ultimate would be the logical Vista version to go with. That leaves three "real" options to me for the vast majority of folks: 32-bit Home Premium, 32-bit Ultimate, and 64-bit Ultimate. It is also worth noting that if you purchase the retail version of Ultimate you get both 32- and 64-bit installation media - so you can use whichever works best for you."I've heard that Vista has a lot of bugs in it still - I don't want to mess with that!" Based on my own experiences Vista doesn't seem any buggier than XP was, which is to say that the problems I've encountered are pretty few and far between. I've had Internet Explorer 7 crash a couple times if I had a ridiculous amount of tabs and downloads all going at once, but I didn't run IE7 on XP long enough to know if it is a universal issue or just limited to XP (it has also only ever happened on one of my computers, so it could be something limited to that system). I've run into other oddities in Windows Mail and Media Player on occasion, but nothing that couldn't be overcome or was any worse than XP. So far I've chalked it up to trying to run Vista on older hardware, but I've done an extensive amount of testing. I guess I can only speak from my experience, which has been fine so far. Plus, Service Pack 1 should be arriving soon - and XP only got better with the upgrades it got. Oh, I nearly forgot: whether more buggy or not, Vista at least tends to handle errors and program crashes more elegantly than XP and other previous Windows versions. Having just an application drop rather than then entire Windows environment freezing up is very nice, and I've not seen any blue screens either (though they still exist)."Vista won't work with [insert software title here]! Why did Microsoft break it?" I have heard reports of some applications not working well with Vista (when they worked fine in XP). This can be due to a number of possible causes, but the long and the short of it is that most things that have problems can be fixed pretty easily. Vista has a "compatibility mode" option to try, and running programs in administrator mode can also solve a lot of things. There are still things that don't work properly - especially in the realm of audio editing - but in my opinion if software makers haven't fixed or updated their applications after Vista has been out for a year then the problem is with them. If you are stuck in an unfortunate situation where the programs you need to run won't work with Vista then feel free to stick with XP (better safe than sorry).
"Vista doesn't have anything new - what does it add that I can't do with XP?" This is actually one of the most legitimate complaints against Vista, and it is partially true. Vista does have a lot of new "extras", like the Sidebar, but most of them are things that you could add to XP via various third-party applications. There are some legitimately new features, like full-system voice control and DirectX 10, but a lot of folks will never use them (for one reason or another). For people who have XP-based systems now and are considering upgrading this is something to note: you probably don't "need" to upgrade to get some new killer app. However, it isn't a good reason to stick with an older OS on a new computer either."Where did the File menu go in Internet Explorer/Media Player go? I miss it…" Believe it or not, a lot of online things I've been reading complain about this. It would be a very valid point, if it weren't so amazingly easy to fix! Just press "Alt" and the file menu bar magically appears - and if you want to keep it there forever that is easy too. In IE7 just right-click on the file menu and select "Menu Bar"; for Media Player, just press Crtl-M."My programs seem to run slower in XP than they did in Vista! What's up?" Because of all the new stuff Vista has going on in the background, there is an increased level of overhead (CPU and RAM usage) compared to Windows XP. This can lead to some applications performing slower, though I've found that if one has a multi-core CPU and decent amount of memory (2GB+) the differences are minimal. Games also had issues with lower performance early on, but this has largely been dealt with through updated drivers for video cards since Vista's release. One specific example that has not been fixed yet is zip file performance. In both XP and Vista, the ability to zip and unzip compressed .zip files has been built into the file explorer system. For some reason, Vista is a lot slower about this than XP was - and both are slower than most third-party applications. I don't know why exactly this is, but I have noticed that it depends a lot on the number of files in the compressed folder. I ran a quick test earlier today and a single 5.8MB .exe file in a zipped folder only took 5 seconds to uncompress. Compare that to the 75 seconds that it took to uncompress 5.6MB worth of 31 files of various formats and you can see what I mean. I don't do enough work with zipped folders for it to be an issue, but for folks who do I would suggest a free application like 7-Zip to make this less painful. And just for the record, using 7-Zip shortened both of the above tests to 3-4 seconds.
My Tweaks
That last topic could actually use some more talking about. I didn't mention it earlier, but there are a few tweaks I've made to every computer that Build - and they are things I don't think I'd ever go back on. If you are looking to get a smoother experience with Vista then feel free to try any of these (but don't hold me responsible if something goes wrong):Turn off UAC - If those pesky ‘Cancel or Allow' pop-ups are getting to you, and you are confident in other security measures you've put in place (anti-virus, firewalls, etc), then do what I do and disable this security "feature".Turn off Virtual Memory - I've found that Windows' habit of swapping data from memory to the hard drive to keep some space in the RAM available is poorly executed at best. This isn't just with Vista - it has been this way since at least XP, maybe back to the 95/98 days. If you have enough memory (4 GB, in all of my systems) I would give a shot to turning it off entirely. Note that this means that things WILL crash if Windows runs out of memory to work with, but you should get a little advanced warning before that happens. If you tend to run a lot of stuff at once, or are users of heavier editing applications like Photoshop, then you may want to have more memory before doing this (or just not do it at all).Turn off Super Fetch - This is one of the truly ‘new' features that was added in Vista, and while it is a nice idea it tends to clutter the RAM unnecessarily. If you are going to turn off Virtual Memory, as I described above, it would be best to turn this off as well (to avoid running out of memory).Turn off System Restore - Like Virtual Memory, this is not unique to Vista: I preferred to disable it in XP as well. I've heard of it working well for some folks, and I've heard the version in Vista is improved over XP, but it still seems like a waste of hard drive space and CPU time (when making a restore point). If you have any half-decent backup scheme then this isn't really a critical thing for Windows to be worrying about. Hopefully all of this info helps someone out there. In short, if you are considering a new computer make sure that your software does not have known issues with Vista; if no conflicts exist, feel free to go to Vista! If you have an XP computer now, take a look at the features that Vista does offer. If none of those strike you as worthwhile, then there is no need to upgrade - but if something would improve your user experience and your hardware is up to it then go ahead! Whatever you decide - XP, Vista, or even Linux - I hope you have a great computer experience .
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Why Vista Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard

2009-01-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

Why Vista Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard

My Experience

There has been a lot of talk on the Internet for the past year about how Vista isn't all it’s cracked up to be. There are lists of why folks hate Vista, lists of things Microsoft supposedly stole from the Mac OS, and reports of people switching back to XP in disgust. Amidst all of this negativity, I wanted to share my experience with Vista - which has been remarkably good!I'm the owner of Absolutely Belleville Computers, and so as soon as Vista was released I upgraded all of our workstations to the new OS so that I could talk to customers about it intelligently. I was so impressed with the new look and updated applications that within a week or two I purchased two OEM copies of Vista and loaded it up on my home computers.
Personally I find the new look and feel of Vista quite a bit. I was never a fan of the cartoony look of XP's default color scheme, and I used to set it to look like Windows 98/2000. The glossy look that Vista has is very appealing, though, and I love the way the Aero scheme gives everything a 3D feel. I'll grant that there is very little actual usefulness gained from these sorts of things, but anything that makes working with a computer more enjoyable is a good step in my book. I also like the tabbed browsing in IE7 (which is extremely useful - back in the IE6 days I used Firefox to get the same functionality) and the overall feel of the updated applications built into Vista.
Speaking of built-in applications, one of the most impressive feats in Vista, I think, is the Media Center interface. It gives us one interface for watching TV (live or recorded), DVDs, music (which we've got a massive library of, thanks to our CD collection), pictures, and FM radio. There is also a relatively new feature - Internet TV, which Microsoft appears to be beta-testing. Overall we have more functionality than any other home theater setup I've seen (granted, I haven't seen many) and all controllable from a single remote. Thank you, Microsoft! One thing I am disappointed about is that you have to get Vista Ultimate or Business edition in order to have the better backup and networking features Microsoft offers. I am able to operate my home network just fine with the connectivity options in Home Premium, but being able to remotely log in from work to my HTPC would be nice in case I needed to adjust the recording schedule. I would also like to have the full-system backup utility that comes in the higher versions of Vista, but I found an interesting way of doing what I need with Microsoft's free tool called SyncToy. I have it scheduled to synchronize the documents folder on my home theater PC with the one on the desktop in my bedroom every night - thereby ensuring that I have two copies of all our important documents in case either computer has a hard drive failure.
Vista Rebuttals
So, now you've at least read about one family's great experience with Vista - but that is probably not enough to change your mind if you've read much else on the net about this topic. There is still a lot of ground to cover if you are trying to decide between XP and Vista, so let’s keep going. Here are some charges that have been leveled against Vista, and my responses:"User Account Control is an annoyance! I hate needless pop-ups!" Well, the truth is that making every action that could affect the core of the system requires user approval is about the most fundamental security measure possible. I'll agree that it is rather annoying, though - a way to "always approve" a type of action (or a certain program) would be nice. However, if you really can't live with it then do what I do: turn UAC off. This is a simple process:1) Go to the Control Panel2) Select "Classic View"3) Go to User Accounts4) Select "Turn User Account Control on or off"5) De-select the check box6) Click OK7) Reboot"Vista costs too much!" Some folks like to complain about how much Microsoft charges for Windows, but to me that isn't a huge deal. I paid something like $125 per license for my OEM copies on my home systems, which is about what you end up paying to have it loaded on a computer you purchase (for Home Premium). Retail copies are more expensive - $199-450 for full copies, less for upgrades - which is normal Microsoft policy, but not a whole ton of folks end up purchasing this type of software that way. If you do, part of what you are getting is a better level of support from Microsoft themselves compared to what you get with OEM software (which stipulates that the computer vendor is responsible for support). You also get a license that can legally be moved from one computer to another, which is a lot more lax than the OEM terms of use. When compared to Mac OS, which costs $129, the retail box versions of Windows do seem a little expensive (though OEM prices stack up nicely against that number, and of course one gets Mac's latest OS version included on any Apple computer). Keep in mind, though, that a vast majority of software out there doesn't run on Macs - and while they have their niche purposes I can't endorse an operating system that is limited to one manufacturer's hardware (Apple) and such a small portion of the software that has been written for computers. Also note that whenever a new version of OS X comes out (1.4, 1.5, etc) you have to pay to upgrade. Service packs on Microsoft operating systems are always free, though some would argue that the Mac OS upgrades offer more than the service packs Microsoft churns out every year or two. The real place where Windows looks expensive is when compared to Linux, the free open-source operating system that is slowly gaining in user base. Again it is worth remembering that a lot of software out there will only run on Windows, so you aren't getting the same level of functionality and interoperability, but proponents of Linux tend to argue that you also can't beat the price tag of $0. If you are interested in learning more about the "other" operating system, check out the user-friendly variant known as Ubuntu.
"Why are there so many different versions? Which do I need?" This isn't so much a complaint about Vista itself, but about how Microsoft has chosen to break it up into a multitude of versions. Here I am in agreement with most of the folks who talk about this: it really shouldn't be necessary to have five separate editions of one operating system, and both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of each. Personally I think that most folks can ignore three of the options: only Home Premium and Ultimate are legitimate options for most folks. Home Premium has most of the functionality average users will want, but if things like better backup, remote login, and encryption appeal to you then go with Ultimate. Ultimate and Business are not very far apart in price, and Home Basic is so stripped down that is nearly worthless. Enterprise is the name of the fifth version, and I honestly don't even know what differs between it and the Business edition. The whole 32-bit vs. 64-bit argument also comes into play here, and as much as I wish Microsoft had just pushed straight for 64-bit-only on Vista that won't be a viable option until the vast majority of software and peripherals out there are designed to work properly with it. My thought is that anyone who really needs the additional memory support that 64-bit provides is probably spending enough on their computer that Ultimate would be the logical Vista version to go with. That leaves three "real" options to me for the vast majority of folks: 32-bit Home Premium, 32-bit Ultimate, and 64-bit Ultimate. It is also worth noting that if you purchase the retail version of Ultimate you get both 32- and 64-bit installation media - so you can use whichever works best for you."I've heard that Vista has a lot of bugs in it still - I don't want to mess with that!" Based on my own experiences Vista doesn't seem any buggier than XP was, which is to say that the problems I've encountered are pretty few and far between. I've had Internet Explorer 7 crash a couple times if I had a ridiculous amount of tabs and downloads all going at once, but I didn't run IE7 on XP long enough to know if it is a universal issue or just limited to XP (it has also only ever happened on one of my computers, so it could be something limited to that system). I've run into other oddities in Windows Mail and Media Player on occasion, but nothing that couldn't be overcome or was any worse than XP. So far I've chalked it up to trying to run Vista on older hardware, but I've done an extensive amount of testing. I guess I can only speak from my experience, which has been fine so far. Plus, Service Pack 1 should be arriving soon - and XP only got better with the upgrades it got. Oh, I nearly forgot: whether more buggy or not, Vista at least tends to handle errors and program crashes more elegantly than XP and other previous Windows versions. Having just an application drop rather than then entire Windows environment freezing up is very nice, and I've not seen any blue screens either (though they still exist)."Vista won't work with [insert software title here]! Why did Microsoft break it?" I have heard reports of some applications not working well with Vista (when they worked fine in XP). This can be due to a number of possible causes, but the long and the short of it is that most things that have problems can be fixed pretty easily. Vista has a "compatibility mode" option to try, and running programs in administrator mode can also solve a lot of things. There are still things that don't work properly - especially in the realm of audio editing - but in my opinion if software makers haven't fixed or updated their applications after Vista has been out for a year then the problem is with them. If you are stuck in an unfortunate situation where the programs you need to run won't work with Vista then feel free to stick with XP (better safe than sorry).
"Vista doesn't have anything new - what does it add that I can't do with XP?" This is actually one of the most legitimate complaints against Vista, and it is partially true. Vista does have a lot of new "extras", like the Sidebar, but most of them are things that you could add to XP via various third-party applications. There are some legitimately new features, like full-system voice control and DirectX 10, but a lot of folks will never use them (for one reason or another). For people who have XP-based systems now and are considering upgrading this is something to note: you probably don't "need" to upgrade to get some new killer app. However, it isn't a good reason to stick with an older OS on a new computer either."Where did the File menu go in Internet Explorer/Media Player go? I miss it…" Believe it or not, a lot of online things I've been reading complain about this. It would be a very valid point, if it weren't so amazingly easy to fix! Just press "Alt" and the file menu bar magically appears - and if you want to keep it there forever that is easy too. In IE7 just right-click on the file menu and select "Menu Bar"; for Media Player, just press Crtl-M."My programs seem to run slower in XP than they did in Vista! What's up?" Because of all the new stuff Vista has going on in the background, there is an increased level of overhead (CPU and RAM usage) compared to Windows XP. This can lead to some applications performing slower, though I've found that if one has a multi-core CPU and decent amount of memory (2GB+) the differences are minimal. Games also had issues with lower performance early on, but this has largely been dealt with through updated drivers for video cards since Vista's release. One specific example that has not been fixed yet is zip file performance. In both XP and Vista, the ability to zip and unzip compressed .zip files has been built into the file explorer system. For some reason, Vista is a lot slower about this than XP was - and both are slower than most third-party applications. I don't know why exactly this is, but I have noticed that it depends a lot on the number of files in the compressed folder. I ran a quick test earlier today and a single 5.8MB .exe file in a zipped folder only took 5 seconds to uncompress. Compare that to the 75 seconds that it took to uncompress 5.6MB worth of 31 files of various formats and you can see what I mean. I don't do enough work with zipped folders for it to be an issue, but for folks who do I would suggest a free application like 7-Zip to make this less painful. And just for the record, using 7-Zip shortened both of the above tests to 3-4 seconds.
My Tweaks
That last topic could actually use some more talking about. I didn't mention it earlier, but there are a few tweaks I've made to every computer that Build - and they are things I don't think I'd ever go back on. If you are looking to get a smoother experience with Vista then feel free to try any of these (but don't hold me responsible if something goes wrong):Turn off UAC - If those pesky ‘Cancel or Allow' pop-ups are getting to you, and you are confident in other security measures you've put in place (anti-virus, firewalls, etc), then do what I do and disable this security "feature".Turn off Virtual Memory - I've found that Windows' habit of swapping data from memory to the hard drive to keep some space in the RAM available is poorly executed at best. This isn't just with Vista - it has been this way since at least XP, maybe back to the 95/98 days. If you have enough memory (4 GB, in all of my systems) I would give a shot to turning it off entirely. Note that this means that things WILL crash if Windows runs out of memory to work with, but you should get a little advanced warning before that happens. If you tend to run a lot of stuff at once, or are users of heavier editing applications like Photoshop, then you may want to have more memory before doing this (or just not do it at all).Turn off Super Fetch - This is one of the truly ‘new' features that was added in Vista, and while it is a nice idea it tends to clutter the RAM unnecessarily. If you are going to turn off Virtual Memory, as I described above, it would be best to turn this off as well (to avoid running out of memory).Turn off System Restore - Like Virtual Memory, this is not unique to Vista: I preferred to disable it in XP as well. I've heard of it working well for some folks, and I've heard the version in Vista is improved over XP, but it still seems like a waste of hard drive space and CPU time (when making a restore point). If you have any half-decent backup scheme then this isn't really a critical thing for Windows to be worrying about. Hopefully all of this info helps someone out there. In short, if you are considering a new computer make sure that your software does not have known issues with Vista; if no conflicts exist, feel free to go to Vista! If you have an XP computer now, take a look at the features that Vista does offer. If none of those strike you as worthwhile, then there is no need to upgrade - but if something would improve your user experience and your hardware is up to it then go ahead! Whatever you decide - XP, Vista, or even Linux - I hope you have a great computer experience .
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

What is Hard Disk Recovery?

2009-01-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

What is Hard Disk Recovery?

Normal use eventually can lead to a breakdown in the inherently fragile device, which makes it essential for the user to periodically back up the data onto a separate storage device. Failure to do so will lead to the loss of data. While it may sometimes be possible to recover lost information, it is normally an extremely costly procedure, and it is not possible to guarantee success. Data recovery basically means getting back the lost and inaccessible data.
Generally, the data gets corrupt due to natural disasters, human errors, software errors, hardware failures and virus attacks. In most cases, the majority of data is recoverable either through data recovery software or through the services provided through class 100 clean room facilities. Around 50% of data loss is caused by hardware failure. It’s important to make sure that you immediately shut down your system if you suspect that hard drive has corrupted.
Today, recovering lost data by using disaster recovery management system is very important for every computer individual or enterprise. There are other subsets of hard disk data recovery system such as simple data recovery, file recovery, email recovery, password recovery, database recovery, backup recovery, etc. Out of these subsets, data recovery implies simple data recovery system to manipulate and test integrity of data in the system. This data can be in the form of text, images, video, audio or binary format. Simplest method to recover these data is to use parity algorithm on this kind of data. File repair software provides a best range of access Recovery, word File Recovery, excel Recovery, power point recovery and publisher data recovery. Email recovery software provides a best range of outlook express recovery, OST recovery, PST recovery, incredimail recovery, exchange server recovery, NSF to PST conversion, convert group wise to outlook, convert notes contacts to outlook, convert notes calendar to outlook convert outlook to notes and outlook express to notes. Password recovery software provides a best range of access password recovery, VBA password recovery and outlook password recovery.
Database recovery software provides a best range of access database recovery, DBF recovery, paradox database recovery and SQL database recovery. Backup recovery software provides a best range of BKF repair, zip repair and tape recovery. The achievements, experience and client satisfaction percentile makes nucleus data recovery stand amongst the excellent data recovery solution providers.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Water Cooling

2009-01-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

Water Cooling

The heat produced by different computer chips has been a main concern with increase in the clock speed of processors. Therefore some sort of cooling mechanism is required to minimize the risks posed by extensive heating up of a computer system. The system processor is most prone to heating up very quickly.
Water cooling is much better than air cooling. Water is a good coolant compared to air because its thermal conductivity is much higher. It allows more heat absorption and cools down the system quickly. You can also mix a small percentage of some other coolant and antifreeze to make an ideal cooling liquid, but it is recommended that the percentage of water is at least 60%.
An air cooling system might work for you if you live in a cold place and don’t over clock your processor. Some people also get annoyed by the noise made by the fans so they also opt for a water cooling system, but it is a very expensive alternative. Mostly gamers, who wish to over clock their CPU and minimize the risks of overheating, choose this option.
If you wish to opt for water cooling in your gaming pc then there are two options. One is to have me create and install a high-quality internal liquid chilled system. The other option is that you make your own kit by assembling different components available in market at cheap prices, but this solution is risky, especially if you are new to computer hardware. Some manufacturers offer cooling kits along with computer casings. Most famous kits manufacturers include Corsair, CoolerMaster, Zalman Tech, Evercool and Aquagate.
Setting up your own homemade cooling kit is the cheapest solution but it poses some risks to your system. A leak is very dangerous to all computer parts. It requires regular maintenance tasks like filling water and checking the pumps. But if you have purchased a kit from a good and well reputed manufacturer then you won’t experience these problems.
A water cooling system has is composed of different parts, which include a reservoir, radiator (mostly a fan) and pump. All of these components are linked through tubes. Pump helps in circulation water through the tubes, heat is absorbed from the system and pumped to the radiator, and there it is cooled down and again pumped back. A reservoir is an optional component; its purpose is to remove the air bubbles that might form in the cooling system.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Video Cards

2009-01-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Video Cards

The basic purpose of a video card is to show you some visual information. It basically tells the monitor or any other display device to light up specific pixels with specific colors. These days most new motherboards are equipped with a reasonable graphic card that is adequate for basic tasks and light multimedia applications. However, if you are a serious gamer then these built in graphic cards are inadequate.
Before 1996 video cards were only meant to be fitted in the PCI slots. After 96 support for AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) was added. The AGP pushed the gaming experience to a much higher level by increasing the speed and efficiency.
With the growth of gaming industry 3D accelerator cards were introduced that produced realistic visuals while supporting both 2D and 3D graphics. These days high end graphic cards also support HDTV and multimedia projectors as output devices.
Recently another interface for graphic cards has emerged, PCI Express. PCI Express has the advantage of being more efficient while using less power.
There are two types of graphic cards i.e. Integrated and Expansion. Integrated cards are those that are integrated on the motherboard. They mostly share some of the system memory. These boards also have to option to increase or decrease the amount of memory shared by the graphic card. Because these cards do not have a dedicated CPU of their own, they use the main processor. This leads to low quality graphics and a slowdown in system performance.
Expansion cards have much better performance than the integrated ones because of their own dedicated processor (GPU-Graphics Processing Unit) and memory. With the improvement of graphics cards in recent years, games have become more realistic. High end graphics cards can make up a large part of overall price of the system.
There are a variety of options to consider while analyzing the performance of a graphic card:
Clock speed is the operating frequency of a video or graphic processing unit. The clock speed is measured in megahertz.
If the memory for the card is DDR-SDRAM instead of SDRAM than it will operate at twice the frequency making it twice as faster as one with SDRAM. There is another new technology for the memory GDDR3 which offers a extreme gaming experience.
As far as the memory architecture goes; it is either in a 128-bit or 256-bit setup.
Memory size plays an important role with system. With memory sizes e.g. 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB etc. Greater memory offers the ability to load more textures into memory to provide a more detailed gaming environment.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Top 10 things you should be doing to maintain your computer

2009-01-13T15:32:00.000-08:00

Top 10 things you should be doing to maintain your computer

Everyone loves computers when they work. Everyone screams at them when they don't. Here's ten ways to keep your computer running smoothly into its old age. While I can't promise that these tips will keep your computer from ever having problems, it will at least help prevent them, and make recovery easier when they do occur.

1. Back up your data.

When was the last time that you backed up your data? Not ‘when was the last time you thought about it', or ‘when was the last time you told someone how important it is', but when was the last time you actually backed up your data? And how much will you lose if your current hard drive fails right now and you have to rely on that backup? Think about that for a second. Now, go create a backup. If you don't know how, don't have a regular plan, or just want to see what's new in the field, Consumer Reports has a good overview of the most common options. Another decent solution is to use a program like Foldershare to synchronize your files between two computers (even better, two locations). If you have the opportunity, make a full disk image (a ‘snapshot' of your entire hard drive) immediately after reloading the OS and all your programs. This gives you a clean starting point to go back to if you need to reload everything again, and will be much faster than redoing everything manually. Acronis True Image 11 is good for the job.

2. Clean dust from your computer.

Computers are some of the most efficient dust collectors known to man. Aside from looking gross and possibly being an allergy hazard, a dusty computer will trap heat, which can reduce its performance and lifespan. The easiest way to clean it is with compressed air - open up the case, take it outside, and blow the dust out. The exterior of the case can be wiped down with a damp cloth. Be careful about using household cleaners, as they can easily destroy circuit boards. For most computers, cleaning once every year or eighteen months should be adequate. Beyond just getting the dust out, here are some other steps to consider: Dust often collects inside the CPU and video card heat sinks, consider disassembling and cleaning them if you're comfortable doing so, or at least using compressed air to specifically blow them out. While the case is open, plug in the computer and turn it on long enough to make sure all the fans are still spinning. Replace any that are dead or noisy (a common sign of a worn-out fan). If there is sticky residue or dirt on the circuit boards, it can be removed with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, which will evaporate cleanly. (Make sure the computer is unplugged first!) If you're not comfortable with working inside your computer or suspect your computer has chronic overheating issues, Puget Systems or another professional repair service can help you out.

3. Clean up your cabling, and everything else too.

There are probably two things behind your computer: a mess of cables, and dust bunnies. If you're moving your computer, take the opportunity to clean your desk and floor as well. While I can't claim that a clean work area will improve your computer's performance or lifespan, it will certainly improve your peace of mind, and clean cabling will help prevent snags and stresses on your computer ports. If you have a lot of peripherals, consider using cable management of some type. Twist ties work fine, or make a trip to any large office supply store. You can use a full out cable solution, but even a five dollar cable wrap can neaten up your desk considerably.
While you're wiping down your desk, wipe down the monitor too. CRT screens can be cleaned with any mild glass cleaner, but LCD screens can't tolerate it. Use a dampened cloth or a product specifically made for LCD screens.
Keyboards can be turned upside down to dump out crumbs and dirt, or keys can be pried off and the whole assembly cleaned with compressed air. There are some good step-by-step guides available on Lifehacker. Take a picture first so you can put the keys back in the right place! If you're feeling adventurous (or just have a really disgusting keyboard), some people advocate running it through the dishwasher.
This is a good time to take a look at where your computer is located. Is there adequate ventilation? Is the computer out of direct sunlight, and away from heat sources? What is it plugged in to? There's no excuse for not having a good surge protector (not just a plastic power strip!), and battery backup units have become affordable for most users. This will affect the lifespan of your computer.
Smoking will make a mess of a computer faster than anything else I know of. While we at Puget Systems have never seen one quite this bad, we can always identify a smoker's computer as soon as we unbox it. Electronics absorb the smell very easily, and even an all-metal case will retain the odor after all the components have been removed. Plus, there's usually a layer of dust and tar on the circuitry that tends to be a giveaway as well. Please, if I can't convince you to quit smoking all together, at least take it somewhere away from the computer!

4. Organize your installation disks

Keep software, peripheral, and driver disks in a single location, preferably close to the computer. A shoebox works fine. Make sure you have them handy before attempting computer maintenance or repairs - it's amazing what can become necessary in the middle of a lengthy troubleshooting session, and it is common to not know what you're missing until you need it!

5. Run antivirus and spyware scans regularly.

This item should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Any computer that is connected to the internet needs to have some sort of antivirus software. There is a tremendous variety available, everything from AVG Free to enterprise-level solutions. Use whichever you like best. Most antivirus software will monitor the system for threats in real time, so a full daily scan probably isn't necessary, but do make time to run a full scan every month at the least. Some antivirus programs also protect against adware and spyware, but not all. If yours doesn't, or if you just want an extra layer of security, AdAware and SpyBot are two of the best known (and free!) products available. While they may not be as destructive as viruses, adware and spyware will compromise privacy and slow your computer drastically. Run scans for them at the same time as your antivirus.

6. Clean up your software.

Every few months, look through the ‘Add or Remove Programs' interface that is found in the control panel. If there's software on there that you don't use any more, remove it. This goes triple for browser toolbars, free games, and other resource-eating bits of fluff. Be a little cautious, though - some system drivers appear in this list, and can cause hardware to stop working if you remove them. There's an excellent scanning utility on Steffen Gerlach's website that gives a graphical representation of the data stored on your hard drive. This will give you a good idea of just how much room your music collection really takes, or how much space is going to old games.

7. Clean up your OS

Windows is not the most efficient operating system, and sometimes needs attention itself. It saves a large amount of unnecessary information, mostly in the form of ‘temporary' files (which never get deleted) lists of recently performed searches, and the like. There's an excellent program called CCleaner, which will clear out most of the unneeded data automatically.

8. Update everything

Check for updates for your hardware and software. This includes running Windows Updates, checking for updated drivers, and checking for software patches. The easiest way to find these is to go to the manufacturer's website, to their support section, and then look for a ‘downloads' section or search for your product's name. If you've been having problems with a piece of hardware or software, be sure to check for patches or updates - if other people have been having similar problems, it's likely the manufacturer has released a fix for it. The exception to this is motherboard BIOS updates. Flashing BIOS can be difficult, and if it's done incorrectly you may need to send the computer for professional repair to get it working again. If the update was specifically released to address problems that you've been dealing with, it's probably worth it. Follow the manufacturer's directions carefully! Otherwise, leave it alone.

9. Defragment

Once your hard drive has been cleaned up, it's a good time to defragment. This organizes your files, leading to faster disk access times and improved system performance. The Windows defragmenting tool (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter) works well, or there's a list of open source and commercial defragmenting software available on Wikipedia if you'd rather use something else.

10. Read more articles like this one

Last but not least, continue to read articles like this one, and anything else computer related that catches your eye. The computer industry is constantly changing - even if you have the same computer, there will be innovations that affect you. At the very least, you'll go into your next computer purchase far better informed than you would be otherwise. At Absolutely Belleville Computers, I always encourage customers to learn about computers in general and their system in particular. Well educated users tend to have fewer difficulties with their system, and besides, I love computers and think everyone else should too! My commitment is to create a computer to meet your needs and budget, using my experience to assist you every step of the way from the first visit to my website to tech support calls two years later. I accomplish this in part through friendly sales and support, an informative website, and publishing articles on a regular basis. Give us a call or email; I'd love to hear from you!

http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Things to Consider When Shopping for a Computer

2009-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

Things to Consider When Shopping for a Computer

First Choice

There are three major decisions to make when purchasing a new computer. The first decision is whether to purchase a name brand computer, or have one custom built. As you will read in greater detail later in this article, custom built computers offer much greater flexibility with respect to upgrades and repairs. Another major factor is the store from which you choose to make a purchase. Typically, the larger superstores cannot offer the level of service you will find at a good custom computer shop. My recommendation is to shop at several places before you make a purchase. Your comfort level at a given store can be a major indicator of the level of service you can expect after you make your purchase. The superstores do not offer true custom build options. So your decision as to whether to buy custom or name brand is tied closely to your comfort level at a given store. If a sales person pressures you in any way to buy a computer right away and you are not sure of your decision, do not make a purchase.

Second Decision

Your second decision is whether to purchase an AMD or Intel-based option. This is a rather complex decision and we recommend speaking to a knowledgeable sales person to help you with this choice. As an example of one of these choices, the Intel Core 2 Duo offers the home user marginal performance differences over an AMD alternative such as the Athlon X2 Dual-Core, which does offer greater future upgrade ability. You will typically pay around $80 more for a similarly equipped Intel Core 2 Duo.

Third Decision

Once you have decided on a processor, you will need to find a compatible main board. This decision will affect to a very large degree the systems capability of receiving future upgrades. There are several things to consider when making this decision. A salesperson will be able to explain the differences to you. Keep in mind that the better the quality of the components, the longer the service life of the machine. These quality components cost a little more up front but will save money in the long run, because you can have at least one major upgrade during the life of the computer.

Independent Computer Stores

Industry wide, independent computer stores that custom build computers account for more than 45% of the total computers sold in the United States. The ability to have a computer custom built to order and to be able to talk to a technician or have service performed quickly are two of the main reasons customers patronize the independent computer store. From reading this you may get the impression that all independent computer stores are wonderful places to shop. This is not always true. We suggest shopping at several stores, getting written price quotes and information on how warranties are handled. You should also ask about any partnerships and certifications such as, Microsoft, AMD, Intel, ASUS and Cisco among others.

Rapid Depreciation

If you are going to buy a computer, the first thing you need to realize is that computers and computer products depreciate more rapidly than any other consumer or business product in the world. Something you might pay near to $1200 for may only be worth two or three hundred dollars a year from now. The fact that your new computer is worth only a fraction of what you paid is irrelevant if it still does the job you want it to. New chips, boards, video cards, etc. have been released in the year since you bought your PC and they are priced very attractively, thus driving down the market value of your old PC. You may want these new chips and cards to run that new business application or perhaps the hottest new game on the market. These are some of the reasons I suggest buying the more readily upgradeable components.

Upgrading or buying new?

If you currently own a PC, you might wish to upgrade it to run or utilize the newer more current software and or hardware. In some cases this is a feasible option. Your best bet is to take it to a shop that specializes in upgrades or rebuilds and get a written quote. Whenever you consider an upgrade, always compare the cost of the upgrade to the price of a new computer. Since some upgrades are not economically feasible, be very careful in making your decision. Many computer stores will encourage a customer to upgrade when it is not in the best interests of the customer to do so. The sales people at that store are typically paid on commission thus have an incentive to sell you an upgrade and would make nothing by referring you to the new computer department. At Absolutely Belleville Computers, we freely give advice to the customer based on what we think is in the best interest of the customer. Since upgrades can be as simple as putting in a memory chip or as complicated as rebuilding the entire computer, please feel free to bring your computer in for a consultation and written estimate. No charge and no appointment necessary.

Upgrades on Name Brands

If your computer is a name brand PC your upgrade options are often limited or more expensive because almost all name brand computers, by design, are what we call "proprietary". This simply means that the manufacturer of the PC is using parts that cannot be purchased through external channels and in many cases are not available after 12-18 months. The biggest problem consumer's encounter with name brand computers is the fact that most main boards cannot be replaced with anything but the original board that can only be obtained from the manufacturer. These boards can cost as much as a new computer. The general idea is to get the consumer to buy a new machine rather than spend the same money on a replacement part.

Upgrades for custom built PC's

If your computer is custom built your upgrade options are, quite simply, greater. These systems are non-proprietary and can be upgraded or repaired easier, quicker and cheaper than any name brand computer. If the main board fails it is a simple matter of taking it to any reputable repair shop and having it replaced. These main boards are currently priced as low as $70 depending on the features you want. In the case of a custom system from Absolutely Belleville Computers repairs can be handled within an efficient time frame. We use only the best components when building systems and the same is true of our repair work. Large superstores simply don't have the repair staff to handle the amount of tech work that customer's demand. They are more interested in selling lots of new computers and letting the manufacturer support them. I am always available to solve customer problems quickly and efficiently.

Price is not the most important factor

Making a computer purchase based only on price can be a costly mistake. The major computer makers are in competition to make their product the cheapest in comparison to others. This usually causes them to cut corners that cost the consumer in the long run. These cheap advertised specials are often closeouts or machines that have almost no capacity for upgrades at all. In many cases these machines are assembled using cheaper components that offer very limited warranties.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Dual Core processors by AMD

2009-01-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Dual Core processors by AMD

The new wave of Dual Core processors by AMD (AMD Athlon X2) and Intel (Intel Pentium D) allow consumers to take advantage of multi-tasking to a whole new level. The main concept behind dual core technology is have the ability to dedicate both processors to separate tasks. For instance, you can be burning your DVD and processor 1 would be maxed at 100% while the other processor would be surfing the web and playing music.
The reason why dual core processors have been launched by both companies is due to a new barrier of the GHZ clock speed race. Newer more efficient processors are now being made with two cores, small die size, or bigger cache sizes.
The future of Dual core processors is very strong because it allows unique possibilities. In gaming, imagine one processor dedicated to computing the games graphics, while the second processor computes physics, AI, and sound processing. This bond of two processors will allow a much more immensely realistic gaming experience.
Dual core technology allows us to bring the power of high-end server/workstation platforms to home users and gamers.

www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

The new line of Nvidia graphic cards

2009-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

The new line of Nvidia graphic cards

The new line of Nvidia graphic cards allows customers to experience a high-definition home theater experience straight through your Digital Storm computer. Pure Video technology enhances your videos by removing artifacts and imperfections of standard digital media. Pure Video also provides a boost to high-definition videos with smooth playback and awesome clarity.
Pure Video Delivers:
High-Definition Video: Nvidia series graphic cards allow high-definition video to be played the way the producers meant it to be. Imagine hardware accelerated DVD, MPEG-2 video streams, and the new Microsoft Windows Media (WMV HD) to a whole new level. This is all possible by removing the stress on the processor and transfer it to the GPU on the graphics card to produce stutter-free, smooth, high resolution high definition playback. Rest assured, NVIDIA's Pure Video technology has been designed to stay with new releases to digital media formats.
Superb Picture Clarity: Using innovative techniques Nvidia has finally resolved the issue of flickering and jagged playback. Imagine awsome picture clearly free of any imperfections. Pure Video takes advantage of the most advance de-interlacing methods to produce a crisp image without double images similar of traditional de-interlacing techniques. Enhanced 3:2 and 2:2 pull downs eliminate blurring and ghosting which is commonly associated with other video processing solutions. The featured image above demonstrates the very common blurring and ghosting with standard processing. Pure Video technology dramatically enhances the image to remove imperfections and provide a true high-definition image.
Scale Videos: Computer videos are obtained from many different types of sources such as: internet streams, web cams, camcorders, etc. Rarely, will you find a high-definition crisp video for the size of high resolution display. With Pure Video’s accurate scaling and sub pixel calculations videos can be finally enlarged to full screen without looking blurry or blocky. The image above demonstrates a video that has been enlarged to full screen. Without Pure Video, the image appears blurry and blocky; however, the image with Pure Video provides a crisp detailed picture.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

The Dummy's Guide to Power Supplies

2009-01-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

The Dummy's Guide to Power Supplies

Introduction
Power supplies -- they're probably the most overlooked components in any PC, until they break. A failed power supply is one of the easiest problems to diagnose, but a failing or inadequate one is much more subtle and difficult to catch. This article is designed to give you a better understanding of what power supplies do, how they work and how to select the right one for different types of computer set-ups.
What does a power supply actually do?
Everything in a computer needs power. If it doesn't get the power it needs, all kinds of interesting problems crop up. For example, hard drives can crash or go corrupt. RAM can also lose data, resulting in system crashes. Motherboards might reboot randomly and video cards start giving corrupt output, or even stop working all together - all this because one little box in the corner of the computer isn't working correctly. The job of a power supply unit (PSU) is fairly simple: Take the 110 volt AC current from the wall and turn it into integrated circuit friendly DC, and at a fraction of the original voltage. A power supply, however, is much more than just a single transformer. Modern PSUs have at least five separate voltage outputs, and usually more. Each different power output is called a "rail": the -12 volt rail, the -5 volt rail, the 3.3 volt rail, the 5 volt rail, and one or more 12 volt rails. Each rail is an independent power source in its own right, monitoring and adjusting the voltage on its outputs. The -12 and -5 volt rails are small, really only used by the motherboard in a few applications. The 3.3 volt rail is also used by the motherboard, along with SATA hard drives. The 5-volt rail is used by most of the drives, along with the motherboard and other accessories. The most important rail is, by far, the 12 volt rail. It has the lion's share of the wattage, usually accounting for 75% or more of the power output of the PSU. It's used by everything, from the processor (which has a dedicated 12 volt input on the motherboard) to video cards (many of which also have dedicated 12 volt inputs) to the case fans. Most PSUs have multiple 12 volt rails, to share the work load that would otherwise have to be handled by a single rail. The entry level Seasonic 380 watt has two, while on the other end of the spectrum is the giant Enermax Galaxy 1000 watt, which has no less than four.

Picking the right PSU
So, how much power is enough? How much is too much? Is there even such a thing as too much? To answer these questions, you need to consider the power consumption of the two most power hungry components in your computer - the video card(s) and processor(s). Hard drives draw a fairly consistent 10 watts, CD drives about double that. Compared to the variations seen in processor (CPU) power usage (35 to over 150 watts) and video cards (15 to 215 watts), drives and fans are consistent enough that they only really make a difference in extreme cases. While it is entirely possible to go through a system part-by-part and calculate the exact expected power usage, that process is long and boring. Instead, here are the most powerful systems I would trust with each PSU:

380 watt
Low-power consumption CPU: Intels up through the 6600, AMD through the X2 4200+ or so.
Low end video cards without SLI
One or two hard drives
One or two CD drives

550 watt
Mid-range consumption CPU: Any dual-core Intel chip, AMD through the X2 5200+ or so.
Single high-end video card (to the 8800 GTS 640, the 8800 GTX would probably be a bit of a stretch) or mid-range SLI (through two 7950 GTs)
Two or three hard drives

650 watt
Any single CPU system as well as low-powered dual CPU systems. Anything through the Intel Xeon 5130s or the AMD Opteron 2214s should be fine.
Any single video card or mid to high-end SLI set. The 650 watt PSU doesn't quite have enough power to drive SLI 8800 GTXs, but anything other than that should be fine.
Two to four hard drives, or more with less powerful CPUs or video card.

700 watt
Any single or dual-CPU system, including dual quad-core Xeons.
Any video card or cards, the 700 watt will power two 8800 GTX cards in SLI just fine.
However many hard drives you feel like.

1000 watt
Advanced liquid cooled systems with high performance CPUs and SLI video cards.
Run light industrial machinery.
Jump start your car with the 12V rail.

Some other considerations
While, obviously, power output is the main factor in deciding which PSU to buy, there are a few other things to consider as well. First and foremost in my mind is quality. If a PSU doesn't supply clean, smooth power, it can seriously shorten the life of components in the system. Also, low-quality PSUs tend to be more prone to failure, which could mean anything from just needing to replace the PSU (which can be a pain) to melting parts of your computer. High-quality PSUs are also much more likely to weather power surges and spikes, although there is no replacement for a good surge protector. Here at Absolutely Belleville Computers, we have seen power blinks that have turned off systems using cheap, generic PSUs, while those with more expensive PSUs kept right on going. The next consideration is far more noticeable in day-to-day operation. Noise. Some power supplies are designed to be dead silent, some are rather loud and others sound more like little jet engines. While we have tried to keep our options as quiet as possible, some of our offerings, such as the Enermax Galaxy, are not very quiet. It's not loud, per se, but it makes a noticeable amount of noise compared to the very quiet Seasonics.The last consideration is purely cosmetic. Some PSUs have modular cables: If you don't need four cables with SATA power plugs, they can be unplugged and left out of the computer. This makes my job of hiding all the extra cables during a build quite easy (we still send the cables to the customer just in case they want to have future upgrades). Especially in systems with windows and lights, a modular PSU can make the interior of a PC look much cleaner. However, there are who insist that modular PSUs are a bad idea, because the connectors offer slightly more resistance, and provide another point of failure.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

The 64-bit Question

2009-01-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

The 64-bit Question

One of the things we get asked about a lot here at Absolutely Belleville Computers is 64-bit Windows, and more specifically these days 64-bit Vista. Picking an operating system is something that each of our customers gets to do, and while some opt for Linux or have a copy of Windows they are going to install by themselves the vast majority pick from the currently-available crop of Windows versions. That means 32-bit Windows XP (at least until the end of 2008), 32-bit Vista, or 64-bit Vista editions. 32-bit is still generally considered the norm, but in the last few months we have seen a dramatic increase in folks asking about 64-bit; because of this, and the general confusion about the differences between these versions, it was apparent that an article on the subject might be helpful to both our existing and prospective customers.
Advantages
The main thing that seems to be driving interest in 64-bit Windows is the increased memory limit it offers. In 32-bit Windows (either XP or Vista) there is a theoretical limit of 4GB of RAM - though in practice it is usually around 3GB, and can be more or less than that depending on the other hardware in the system. I've even seen systems where 4GB were installed, but Windows could only use 2GB; those drastic cases are often related to a video card or cards with large amounts of onboard memory. In contrast, 64-bit Windows has a much higher limitation: 16GB for Vista Home Premium, and at least 128GB (maybe higher) for Vista Business and Ultimate. The 16GB limitation in Home Premium seems to be an entirely arbitrary decision by Microsoft, similar to how dual-CPU computers (not dual-core, but actual two processor systems) require the Business or Ultimate edition to function fully. As memory has become cheaper over the last few years, and as people run more demanding programs and a larger number of applications at the same time, the need for more than 4GB of system memory has become apparent. Microsoft has been working on this in their OS development for some time, and AMD laid the original groundwork with their "AMD64" processor advancements that debuted in the Athlon64 and Opteron lineup. Intel has followed suit with "EM64T" instructions for its CPUs, and now basically all desktop-class processors sold are 64-bit compatible. Newer motherboards and chipsets also tend to support 8GB or more of main memory, so on the hardware side the 'perfect storm' has arrived in which 64-bit software can flourish. When running a 64-bit version of Windows, one also has access to 64-bit software titles. Right now I don't know of any programs that are exclusively 64-bit, but several games and applications have been released over the last couple of years with versions compiled specifically for the 64-bit platform. The latest of these is Photoshop CS4, and the added performance and memory capabilities it brings to the table should be exciting to any digital photographer. There are also 64-bit versions of many 3D design applications, like Maya and AutoCAD, so I try to check with professional customers to see if they are planning on taking advantage of any of those when helping them configure a computer.
Disadvantages
So, given all of that, why would anyone stick with 32-bit Windows? Well, there are some who want or need to stay with Windows XP - and while there is a 64-bit version of XP it is not as polished as 64-bit Vista, and is likely to have a lot of the same compatibility problems that make XP customers hesitant to move to Vista. Even among those who are ready and willing to get a new computer with Microsoft's latest operating system, there can be legitimate reasons to avoid 64-bit. Primary among those is driver compatibility with older peripherals: in short, any component in a 64-bit computer or connected to one has to have a 64-bit driver available or it will not function. All of the hardware we've been selling in our computers has been 64-bit compatible for well over a year, but many peripheral manufacturers are behind the times. This is getting a lot better, but I still advise my customers to check with the maker of any printers, scanners, drawing tablets, etc that they use to ensure they will still work under 64-bit Windows. I know from my own research that HP has released a lot of 64-bit drivers for their printers since Vista came out, and many other large companies like that are also pretty up-to-date - but I suspect that smaller manufacturers making specialized hardware may not have the manpower to develop both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for their products. It is also worth noting that some software will not work properly in a 64-bit operating system. Microsoft went to great lengths to make 64-bit Windows emulate a 32-bit environment for older software, in a similar fashion to how 32-bit Windows can run 16-bit software (which, by the way, won't work at all in 64-bit Windows). Because it is not native, though, some applications will have trouble - especially those that need "deeper" access to the system's core, or kernel. Anti-virus applications almost always run into this issue, and for that reason there are many 64-bit native versions of AV programs. On the other hand, though, viruses are also mostly 32-bit - so simply having a 64-bit operating system can afford some additional protection.
The Answer
For folks who don't have peripherals or software holding them back, though, I really think 64-bit Vista is the best choice. It is definitely the way to go if you want future upgradability, and I would go so far as to say that Microsoft should phase out 32-bit Vista shortly after they drop XP. It probably won't happen, though, and there is even a good chance that Windows 7 will come out in both 32 and 64-bit versions as well. Just because the choice is there, though, doesn't mean it has to be a hard one to make: when in doubt, go 64-bit!

http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Setting up a Firewall

2009-01-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

Setting up a Firewall

A firewall is a way of blocking unwanted network activities. Such activities can include a program trying to use the internet or other internet users trying to connect to your computer. There are a few different ways Windows users can implement a firewall. If Windows XP with Service Pack 2 is being used, Windows has a built-in firewall that is enabled by default. There are also third-party firewall programs that can be installed. A router, and some broadband modems, should have firewall capabilities. While they all do basically the same thing, each has different benefits and drawbacks for each individual user. The Windows firewall can be configured to block any undesired incoming and outgoing traffic. It is simple to configure, and comes free with Windows XP. However, it does not have many other features, or any useful advanced features. To enable and change any Windows Firewall settings, open the control panel by clicking the “Control Panel” item in the Start menu. If “Windows Firewall” is visible, open it. If not, open the “Network and Internet Connections” section and then open “Windows Firewall.” In the General settings tab the firewall and exceptions can be enabled or disabled. In the Advanced tab, you can choose which connections you want the firewall enabled for. If it is disabled for any connection, all network traffic will be allowed on that connection. Exceptions allow any programs you choose to be able to use the network how you want. For example, you can allow a program unrestricted access to use the network, or you can allow a specific port number to be usable by any program. If you have Windows Firewall enabled and a program tries to access a restricted port (one that you have not explicitly allowed), you might be prompted to either allow the program access or to keep blocking that program. This can allow easy configuration, sometimes. If you run a network-enabled game and are prompted by Windows Firewall, telling it to allow that connection will add an exception for it to have unrestricted network access. Windows Firewall has the benefits of being free with the operating system, and many newer programs can automatically add exceptions when they are installed. However, there is a chance that programs can make undesired changes to the exceptions list and still gain access to the network. Third-party firewall programs allow more fine-tuning of the allowed and blocked network traffic, as well as more advanced features and friendlier logging capabilities. Common third-party firewall programs include Zone Alarm and Norton Personal Firewall. These are installed as any other program would be, and are best used as a replacement for Windows Firewall instead of in addition to it. These programs are usually well-documented and easy to get started with, but are usually not free for full versions. Routers often block incoming traffic by default. This is because multiple computers can connect to a single router, and the router does not (by default) know which device to send the traffic to. Just as software firewalls, exceptions can be set to forward a specific port number to a specific computer. This is known as Port Forwarding. In this form, routers can be thought of as half a firewall. It will block any unwanted incoming network connections, but programs can usually still make connections to the internet without restriction. Some routers include full firewall abilities, but they must be configured before they become active. This is obviously not an option to someone without a router or broadband modem that has firewall support, but this can be the safest method since it cannot be tampered with by rogue programs running on the computer.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Raid Technology

2009-01-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

Raid Technology

Our Raid technology allows us to offer customers with an enhanced workstation based storage solution. Raid was originally designed for servers and workstations to provide fast and accurate data access for web servers and data networks. We now bring that technology to our customers. Raid technology is based upon two different options that provide different benefits.
Stripe 0 (Performance) raid setups combines’ two physical hard drives and combine them into one single drive. Your operating system will only see one drive, for example, if two 300GB hard drives were combined in a stripe 0 setup, your OS will only see one single 600GB hard drive. The benefit behind this setup is due to the performance boost obtained. Imagine a data block of 1-2-3-4 is sent to the hard drives, data block 1-3 are sent to drive 1, and 2-4 is sent to the other drive, splitting the data and reducing write and access times. This provides a more responsive and fast desktop computer. One issue about doing a Strip 0 setup is the chance of data corruption goes up by 2. You run a higher risk of losing your data because, half the data is on one drive and the other, if one drive goes bad; you lose all of your data. Strip 1 (Mirror/Backup) raid setups also combine two physical drives into once single drive, but, its benefit is totally different. If you had two 300GB hard drives in your computer system, your OS will only see one 300GB because the second drive acts as a backup device. Anything written to your main drive is also written to the second drive. This makes it easier to backup your data for safer means, however, if your main drive is attached with a data wipe virus, your second will also be erased. The only thing this will protect is from a defective bad hard disk.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Multimedia and Technology

2009-01-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Multimedia and Technology

Multimedia has emerged as a great evolutionary change in entertainment and technology. There are many components to be evaluated on basis of which we can measure correspondence effect of changing multimedia & technology. There are various forms of multimedia by which we can entertain in a variety of ways. These forms are text, voice, video, images, animation, special effects and much more. Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. In short, multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms.
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. The term rich media is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application. Multimedia presentations may be viewed in person on stage, projected, transmitted, or played locally with a media player. A broadcast may be a live or recorded multimedia presentation. Broadcasts and recordings can be either analog or digital electronic media technology. Digital online multimedia may be downloaded or streamed. Streaming multimedia may be live or on-demand. Multimedia is often published by broadcasting it onto internet or spreading over news to reach to desired people.
Many television channels are now trying to increase their TRP by giving impact more on multimedia contents like advertisements, songs competition, video songs and animated clips, films. Enhanced levels of interactivity are made possible by combining multiple forms of media content. Online multimedia is increasingly becoming object-oriented and data-driven, enabling applications with collaborative end-user innovation and personalization on multiple forms of content over time. Emerging technology involving illusions of taste and smell may also enhance the multimedia experience. In this kind of multimedia, user will experience and feel all those emotions, taste and smell. This is why it’s important that word multimedia is used exclusively to describe multiple forms of media and content. Multimedia leaves its impact on many other fields.
Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but not limited to, advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, scientific research and spatial temporal applications. Some examples are as follows: Creative industries: Creative industries use multimedia for a variety of purposes ranging from fine arts, to entertainment, to commercial art, to journalism and software provided for any of the industries listed below. An individual multimedia designer may cover the spectrum throughout their career.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Motherboard

2009-01-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Motherboard

A motherboard is the main power house which all major hardware components connect to provide a functional computer system. It provides a interface for connecting different devices such as you’re: mouse, keyboard, processor(s), memory, graphic card(s), and hard drive(s). These devices are either attached directly or indirectly through different cables. Connectors for different external devices are always color coded in compliance with the specifications of PC 99.
There are a variety of options to consider before selecting a motherboard. Most of the boards have in built network ports, fire wire connections, and dual video card slots. Some of the boards also support wireless networking through Bluetooth, IrDA, and Wi-Fi technologies. A Pci-Express slot is also necessary for modern graphics cards to run games and other graphic intensive applications. The motherboard must also have support for DDR2 or DDR3 memories; DDR3 is an improvement in the DDR2 by addition of a faster bus speed. The new motherboards in the market also support dual core technology for processors, hyper threading (HT) and extreme hyper threading (EHT) technology support. HT and EHT are available only in Intel processors. Some motherboards in the market also offer onboard TV tuners.
Motherboards are available in different sizes know as form factors. You would need a larger computer case if your board has large size. In case of notebooks, boards are very compact and are very much customizable. They also support wireless technology Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The selection of a motherboard depends a lot on your requirements and your budget. There is a variety of board manufacturers to choose from; most popular of them would be from Asus which is a recognized industry leader.
Selecting a motherboard for your gaming computer can be a complex task, however, with Absolutely Belleville Computers we do all the hard work for you and pre-select recommended motherboards with each configuration.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

How Antivirus Software Protects Your Computer

2009-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

How Antivirus Software Protects Your Computer
Its getting harder everyday to protect your data from the dangers posed by computer viruses. These malicious programs have evolved into multiple forms and can be contracted through a variety of ways, including opening email attachments, opening spam or by visiting corrupt websites.
Fortunately, just as viruses have grown in strength and complexity over the years, so also have the tools used to combat them. With the latest generation of antivirus software, you can give your computer a level of protection never before possible. Today’s best antivirus software come with multiple virus scans, allowing you to schedule scans in advance, giving you access to a variety of location-specific scans and even real-time scanning, which scan your computer every few minutes for viruses stopping them before they can do damage.
Since new viruses are being created every day, the most effective antivirus programs offers convenient virus updates. Most antivirus software offers automatic updates which regularly and automatically check back with the manufacturer for information on new viruses, providing you the highest-level of protection at all times. However, undeniably, the most valuable thing that today’s antivirus software brings to its consumers is plain, good-old-fashion peace of mind. What to look for in Anti-Virus Software. Top anti-virus software should be easy enough for a computer novice to both use and install. The software should effectively seek out and identify virus threats, as well as clean or isolate infected files.
There should be understandable reporting available for each scan and plenty of help support available, so you can be well informed of the software’s activities and capabilities. Ease of use exceptional anti-virus software is simple to use, regardless of a person’s computer experience or knowledge of viruses. Effective at identifying viruses and worms. The best anti-virus products identify infected files quickly through real-time scanning, searching for viruses in a multitude of sources, including email, instant message applications, web browsing and so on. Effective at cleaning or isolating infected files. Truly capable anti-virus software thoroughly cleans, deletes or quarantines infected files keeping them from spreading throughout the hard drive or network.
Activity reporting anti-virus programs should give immediate notification of viruses found by real-time scanners and should provide an easy-to-read report of scan results, including what it found and what it did with infected files. Feature set a well-rounded feature set allows anti-virus software to provide absolute protection.
The best programs are those that offer a wide variety of tools, from basic real-time scanning to more advanced, heuristic scanning and script blocking when it comes to virus protection, the more options the better. Ease of installation and setup anti-virus programs should be a breeze to install, making it easy to go from installation to initial scan in just a couple clicks of the mouse. Help documentation high-end anti-virus software come with plenty of help, including support via email, online chat or over the telephone. There should also be online resources, such as knowledge bases and FAQs available for quick and convenient help.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me" dougs1951@yahoo.com

Features Of Various Graphics Card And Prices

2009-01-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

Features Of Various Graphics Card And Prices
A graphics card is a piece of hardware installed in a computer that is responsible for rendering the image on the computers monitor or display screen. Graphics cards come in many varieties with varying features that allow for a price range that extends from about $40 US Dollars (USD) to $2,400 USD or more.
The first consideration when buying a graphics card is to be sure it is capable of displaying the best resolution the monitor can support. For LCD monitors this means supporting the native resolution. CRT monitors do not have a native resolution. In this case, ensure the graphics card is capable of supporting the highest resolution, even if the CRT monitor will be frequently used at lower resolutions. The term is usually used to refer to a separate, dedicated expansion card that is plugged into a slot on the computers motherboard, as opposed to a graphics controller integrated into the motherboard chipset.
An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an integrated graphics processor (IGP). Some video cards offer added functions, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, mouse, light pen, and joystick connectors, or even the ability to connect multiple monitors. A GPU is a dedicated graphics microprocessor optimized for floating point calculations which are fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock rate, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 850 MHz, and the number of pipelines (vertex and fragment shaders).
Video cards may use a lot of electricity, which is converted into heat. If the heat is not dissipated, the video card could overheat and be damaged. Cooling devices are incorporated to transfer the heat elsewhere. Three types of cooling devices are commonly used on video cards: Heat sink: a heat sink is a passive cooling device. It conducts heat away from the graphics cards core, or memory, by using a heat conductive metal, most commonly aluminum or copper, sometimes in combination with heat pipes. It uses air (most common) or in extreme cooling situations, water, to remove the heat from the card. When air is used, a fan is often used to increase cooling effectiveness. Computer fan: an example of an active cooling part. It is usually used with a heat sink.
Due to the moving parts, a fan requires maintenance and possible replacement. Enthusiasts may change the fan speed or fan for more efficient or quieter cooling. Water block: A water block is a heat sink suited to use water instead of air. It is mounted on the graphics processor and has a hollow inside. Water is pumped through the water block, transferring the heat into the water, which is then usually cooled in a radiator. Current GPU manufacturers: AMD (acquired ATI in 2006) NVIDIA Matrox VIA Technologies (acquired S3 Graphics in 2001) Intel (currently only manufactures IGPs but has plans for discrete products with its upcoming larrabee) Buying a 2D card these days would be easy enough if there were that many about to buy. Everyone seems to be concentrating on pushing the sales of the 3D Accelerators. While the price of the older 3D cards has significantly dropped in price as newer version are released. If you already have a motherboard and don’t want to get a new one then you will be looking at a standard 2D video card.
You can get AGP or PCI AGP cards are in a faster port but to be honest there will be little difference between the two in these types of cards. Makers of these 2D cards are S3, SiS, and Trident. There are others but most of them have moved on to greater things. They are just the ones I have still seen for sale. Buying online is the best way to get these cards because the large stores such as PC World do not sell them any more as there sales are not great. Just consider the extra few pounds if you have them to get a cheap 3D card because you never know what you will want the computer for in the end. If you really can’t afford it then this is your stop.
This is to be done only if you are planning on upgrading at a later date then this route may prove to be more expensive in the long run even though it saves you money in the short term. While prices vary widely, the average gaming enthusiast is likely to be happy with a graphics card in the $150 - $300 USD range. For someone who uses a computer for more general purposes, a graphics card closer to $65 USD will likely do the job. The GEForce 7950 GX2 is essentially a set of GEForce 7900 cards fused together in a dual core setup to fit into a single PCI slot. What we have here is SLI on a single card If you want to buy the latest, fastest card like GEForce 7950 GX2, feel free to do so. I am sure you will have an exciting time with it. However, remember the probability that most of your PC games you currently own, probably won’t even benefit from the latest cards technology. Its just too new.
This is the single issue which video card users and potential buyers need to understand. Video cards are still being released ahead of the advanced applications that support it. Manufacturers and game engineers try to coincide the releases, but this usually happens for only a few games.
www.absolutelybelleville.com or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

Consider having a Custom Computer Built

2009-01-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

Consider Having A Custom Computer Built
At some point in time, you are going to be in the market for a new computer. When this time comes, you should definitely check out your options with custom built computers.
First off, let me develop a bit of credibility. I have been working with computers and the net for over 20 years. All of this means I am on a computer roughly 15 hours a day during the week and at least six hours a day on the weekends. I love the work, so it isn’t a problem. Regardless, I have gone through at least 15 computers and have built over 400 computers for clients, so I have developed a feel for what works best.
If you work on the computer frequently, you need one thing more than anything else. You need speed. Most computers are built to minimum levels in one area or another. Like the weak link in a chain, one slow area kills the speed of the computer. So, you need a computer that flies on all fronts. So, who sells them? Sadly, the answer is nobody. Instead, you need to have one built for you.
The best recommendation I can give you is to request Absolutely Belleville Computers to build a computer for you. . Avoid the big mega marts or the local overpriced computer store. When you call one of our sales reps, you should tell them the type of work you do, what you want the computer to do and what you don’t care about. If you use the computer for business purposes, you probably need excel. If you don’t, you probably don’t. Also emphasize that you want to the computer to be blinding fast. The computer I am working on now is custom built. The pages load so fast on the web that I can’t actually see them loading. They are just there. This is what you want. Make sure you tell them this clearly.
You are probably skeptical about two things – price and quality. On price, you should expect to pay a little bit more than you would for an off the shelf computer. As to quality, I hate to break the news to you, but name brand computers are made from the same parts your professional will be building. Dell does not make hard drives. IBM does not make video cards. They all are using parts from Intel, Selectron and the basic suppliers. Your computer will be built with the same thing and you won’t have to pay for the “brand name”.
What if you have a problem with the computer? Well, you can call the person that built it. They are like car mechanics. They are always around and they take pride in their work. If there is a problem, they will fix it for free. Now, contrast that with a name brand computer. Let’s say we buy a Dell computer, one of the worst brands on the market. If you have a problem, you call “customer service” This person, of course, is in India, the Philippines or some other location. They are reading a script of solutions to complaints. If your problem isn’t on that script, you are out of luck. Now, which situation sounds better to you?
At the end of the day, name brand computers are a scam. For a little more in price, you can get a custom built computer that blows away anything off the shelf. Try it just once and you will be amazed how much better buying a computer will end up. Hey, that’s my recommendation after years of building them.
http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me : dougs1951@yahoo.com

Computer Systems

2009-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Computer systems
Computer systems, or simply computer hardware, form the backbone of a computer along with its operating software, A computer system is the sum of many parts, namely Monitor, Central Processing Unit, Keyboard, Mouse, and more. The system unit is the actual computer; everything else is called a peripheral device. Hardware includes the physical components, such as the motherboard, chips, memory, and hard drives. Hardware is constantly improving in a kind of leapfrog fashion. It is most often the bottleneck when it comes to data transfer speeds, or how fast a software program can work. Motherboard - A motherboard is the central or primary printed circuit board (PCB) making up a complex electronic system, of a modern computer or laptop. It is the underlying circuit board of a computer.
The central processing unit (CPU), Random Access Memory (RAM), hard drive(s), disk drives and optical drives are all plugged into interfaces on the motherboard. A video interface and sound card can be optionally built-in or added. CPU - Also known as the Central Processing Unit or processor, the CPU is essentially the brains of your computer. Without the CPU, you wouldn’t be able to play games, type research papers, or surf the Internet. Your computer would basically be a very expensive paperweight. Microprocessor - It’s the heart of the computer. The basic functionality of a microprocessor is all based on the inherent ability to respond to and generate mathematical and logical operations. At the core of the design for the microprocessor is a series of logical instructions that regulate the order that tasks are received and executed. RAM - Random access memory or RAM most commonly refers to computer chips that temporarily store dynamic data to enhance computer performance.
The computer can access the data faster than if it to retrieve it from the far-larger hard drive. Random access memory is also used in printers and other devices. Random access memory is volatile memory, meaning it loses its contents once power is cut. Hard Disk - A hard drive, also known as a hard disk drive or HDD, is a fundamental part of modern computers. The hard drive is where all of your programs and files are stored, so if the drive is damaged for some reason, you will lose everything on your computer. Hard drives contain round, mirror-like platters that are covered with some magnetic recording medium. The platters inside a hard disk drive are usually made of glass or aluminum. Monitors - Monitors serve as a medium between the user and the computer. Now days they are mainly available in two types; 1) CRT - CRT stands for cathode ray tube describing the technology inside, it readily recognizable by its bulky form. The CRT monitor creates a picture out of many rows or lines of tiny colored dots. These are technically not the same thing as pixels, but the terms are often used interchangeably. The more lines of dots per inch, the higher and clearer the resolution. 2) LCD - LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display, referring to the technology behind these popular flat panel monitors. LCDs are commonly 1 - 3 inches (2.5 - 7.5 cm) thick and weigh less than 10 pounds (4.5 k). The LCD monitor consists of five layers: a backlight, a sheet of polarized glass, a mask of colored pixels, a layer of liquid crystal solution responsive to a wired grid of x, y coordinates, and a second polarized sheet of glass. By manipulating the orientations of crystals through precise electrical charges of varying degrees and voltages, the crystals act like tiny shutters, opening or closing in response to the stimulus, thereby allowing degrees of light that have passed through specific colored pixels to illuminate the screen. The LCD monitor is brighter than a CRT, giving the consumer little reason to hunt for an especially bright model. Brightness is measured in nits, or one candela per square meter. Anywhere from 250 - 300 nits is standard. If the units are much higher you all likely end up adjusting.

http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me : dougs1951@yahoo.com

Choosing the Right Components

2009-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

Choosing The Right Components To Build A Custom Computer
Many people now opt to build their own computer so that they are more in control of the specifications they want and save more than just a few dollars. There are a multitude of DIYs found all over the Internet, and yes, it is possible to build one yourself! But before doing so, you must choose the right components for your computer.
Here are some of the very basic components you need to get: Computer Case : Computer cases now come in a variety of designs and colors. Some now even come with a panel window where you can see the inside parts through. What is important when buying a case is that the size of the case should support the size of the motherboard. A mid-tower case is highly recommended as it has enough room for all the hardware. Power Supply: The power supply must provide you at least 400 watts and fit right into the computer case you choose. If you are one of those who extreme users or gamers, you may want to buy a bigger power supply to feed additional cooling, USB devices and case lighting. Processor: The processor is the most important choice you need to make in setting up your own computer. You have to know exactly what kind and how fast you need. There are a variety of options from AMD and Intel, for example: AMD Athlon, AMD Sempron, AMD Duron, Intel Celeron, Intel Core Duo, among others. If you only use the computer to surf the web, do word processing, gaming and some graphics editing, the 1.8 GHz - 2.0 GHz might be enough. Extreme gaming, 3D rendering and video editing would need at least a 2.4GHz processor. CPU Cooler Processors usually come with a fan and a heat sink. But it is best to get a cooler that is more efficient and quieter than the one included in the package. Remember to get a thermal compound to put onto the CPU core. Motherboard Choose a motherboard that matches your processor's socket type and supports the same bus speed as the CPU. RAM Similarly; choose a RAM that is compatible with the motherboard's bus speed. Get at least 2gb of RAM. Hard Disk Drive (HDD) The HDD is your permanent storage for system files, applications, documents, games and so on. Get the largest hard drive capacity that you can afford. If you are on a tight budget, you can get at least a 160GB. Most motherboards have IDE slots for hard drives. Newer ones also have SATA connectors for SATA HDDs, which are quite faster than IDE HDDs. Graphics Card If you use the computer for regular office work, you can get a motherboard with a built-in video card. If you use it for gaming, you might want to buy a separate video card. Video cards usually use an AGP slot or a PCI Express slot on the motherboard. Sound Card Most motherboards have built-in sound cards which generally have good quality. If you use sound mixing or audio/video editing, you can get at least a 32-bit sound card for better quality. CD/DVD Of optical drives, it is best to seek for a DVD/CD-RW combo or a DVD+-RW; the latter is a better choice. DVDs have larger capacity to allow you to store more music and movie files and back-up data. If you do not expect to burn disks, you can opt for a CD-R or a DVD-R drive.
http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me: dougs1951@yahoo.com

9 free fixes for faster computer performance

2009-01-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

9 Free Fixes for Faster Computer Performance
Poor computer performance by your Windows-based machine can sneak up on you gradually. You may find its performance deteriorating increasingly until one day you realize you must fix it or buy a new one. Signs of poor performance can include applications running very slowly, programs closing or freezing up suddenly, and a generally slower response time to OS (operating system)-related commands.
I have compiled 9 fixes for you here that you can leverage right now to greatly improve your computer's performance.
Fix #1: Support and run MS Service Pack 2: Every operating system requires patches and upgrades by its maker from time-to-time, with Microsoft XP being no exception. While Service Pack 2 was released in 2002, some people with older systems are still not running it: make sure your computer is. You can download it FREE from Microsoft's Web site.
Fix #2: Run the Disk Cleanup utility: Your computer likely has a number of unused and unneeded files that take up valuable space on your hard drive and slow performance. Run your FREE, built-in Disk Cleanup utility to automatically remove these files. Find it by going to: Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup and following the prompts.
Fix #3: Defragment your hard drive: Over time, your computer will store files in an increasingly inefficient manner on your hard drive, affecting file retrieval times and other performance factors. To fix this, you need to defragment your hard disk drive. To do this for FREE, just go to: Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter. First, highlight the drive you want to clean up (e.g., C drive) and choose Analyze. Once complete, choose Defragment. Note that the defragmentation process could take up to an hour or more, so do this during a time when you can step away from your computer.
Fix #4: Run an anti-virus tool: Computer viruses are malicious programs that drastically affect your computer's performance, either all at once or insidiously over time. You can stop a virus attack by installing and running anti-virus software which performs regular scans, locates the offending viruses and quarantines them.
Fix #5: Clean your registry: Your computer's registry is a tool that most non-computer specialists never see but which is vitally important to computer operations. Your registry stores settings and options for your hardware, operating system, and other software. Unfortunately, given its fundamental role in the performance of your system, your registry is often the target of attack or infection. To thoroughly and automatically clean your registry, run a regular registry scan using a registry cleaning tool. I recommend RegCure, which recently found 1,626 problems with my father-in-law’s registry (ugh!), is cheap and easy to use.
Fix #6: Run anti-spyware software: Spyware is computer software that installs itself in your computer and performs a number of unwanted functions, including monitoring your computer usage and interfere with your control. It represents a real threat and has become a significant problem in recent years. Fortunately, fixes are easy to find and include a number of free and inexpensive anti-spyware programs. Try SpyBot Search & Destroy. Get it FREE online.
Fix #7: Increase your computer's memory: Today's applications require more and more memory (RAM) to run. If your computer is more than two years old or if you selected the minimal memory option upon purchase, you might benefit from adding another 1 GB or more to your computer. Check online or at your local computer dealer for pricing.
Fix #8: Clean your hard drive: More comprehensive than the Disk Utility tool introduced above, cleaning your hard drive with professional cleaning software is a great way to improve performance. Try CCleaner for FREE by doing an online search.
Fix #9: As a last resort, re-format your hard drive: If after trying all of the above items and your computer still performs poorly, a last resort is to completely reformat your hard drive. Warning: proceed with caution since this action will erase your entire hard drive, including your operating system (OS)! If you decide to take this route, consult an online tutorial for how-to steps. At minimum, remember two things: be sure to back up all of your files and applications and retain a copy of your OS on CD so that you can re-install it later.

http://www.absolutelybelleville.com/ or email me : dougs1951@yahoo.com