How to Choose the Best Graphics Card for Your Gaming Computer

Writen by Damien Oh

Are you having problem deciding which graphics card to buy? Do not worry, you are not alone! With a wide range of graphics cards out there, each with different specification and function; it is definitely a difficult choice to make.

To choose the right graphics card, you need to consider the following points:

AGP or PCIe?
AGP is the slot where the graphics card is inserted in the motherboard. It has been the standard for graphics card connection for a long time.

With the introduction of PCIe slot, the days of using AGP slot will soon come to an end. PCIe slot boosts a speed 4 times faster than AGP slot and supports multiple video cards integration (SLi or Crossfire technology). This is something that is impossible to achieve using the AGP slot

If you are looking to build a gaming computer from scratch, it is advisable to get a PCIe graphics card as it will soon take over AGP as the standard for graphics card connection. However, if what you want is only to upgrade a new video card, there are still a lot of great AGP graphics card around for your selection.

GDDR2 or GDDR3?
GDDR refers to the bandwidth of the graphics card memory module bandwidth. It is not the same as the DDR2 computer memory RAM you install on the motherboard.

GDDR2 has been employed by graphics card manufacturers for a period of time. The main drawback for GDDR2 is its severe overheating issue. This has prompted ATI to develop the GDDR3. GDDR3 has a lower power consumption rate and a higher bandwidth, which enables the graphic card to last longer and run faster. GDDR3 is now commonly used in most NVIDIA- or ATI-based video cards. Though price is more expensive, it is definitely a better buy than a DDR2 graphics card.

Memory size
There is a saying “memory is never enough, always upgrade to the maximum”. That might be true for computer memory, but when it comes to graphics card memory, I beg to differ. In my opinion, a 512MB graphics card is more than sufficient to handle most of the graphics intensive application. In fact, if you get a 256MB GDDR3 graphics card with a good GPU, the performance might even be better than a 512MB DDR2 graphics card. I own a five years old 128MB graphics card and until now, it’s still serving me well and has no problem handling most of the graphics intensive game that I played. Unless you have spare cash to spend, my advice is to get a 512MB graphics card. It should be able to last you for a few years.

Do you need dual graphics card?
SLI or Crossfire technology enables you to connect multiple video cards together. By making use of two or more GPUs connected together, the performance of the system increased by two to three folds. This is a very powerful innovation that greatly improves a system’s graphics handling capabilities.

In the current market, there are not many games and applications that can fully utilize this fast processing ability. However, with the speed the graphics technology is advancing, it is only a matter of time that SLI or Crossfire technology becomes the standard for graphics card.

For gamers who want to achieve a faster and better graphics performance, you might want to consider acquiring a SLI or Crossfire ready graphics card.

Hopefully this article has helped you in choosing the best graphic card for your gaming computer. If you want to know more about gaming computer and how to choose the right hardware, check out gaming computer guide.

Color Label Prints

Writen by Jimmy Sturo

Color label printers are one of the latest and most popular advancements in label printing. Today, businesses are using labels to advertise their brand name. Labels can contain photos, graphics, colorful text, illustrations and attractively placed barcodes.

Color label printers make logistics management easier as the labels can be color-coded or designed to suit a particular product. Each label can be coded with a different color by product, location, destination, size, sell-by-date, WIP, private label, mailing, data codes, order references, lot numbers and other categories. This makes product differentiation easier.

Color label printers not only make labels more attractive but also come with several options like: multiple print resolutions, compatibility with Windows or Mac software, ability to read different kinds of fonts, texts and even graphics, word-wrap and shrink-to-fit capabilities for printing any size and kind of font, color coding for different kinds of labels and more. They also have long-term memory storage, intelligent sensors, barcode printing ability, rich vibrant colors of around 600×600 dpi or more (as much as 4800 x 1200 dpi), flexible media sizes and types, ability to print on various kinds of materials like fabric, gloss, semi-gloss, clear and synthetic tags, flexible label widths ranging and web-enabled email support. They are durable, suitable for all kinds of environments, from an office desktop to an industrial location. They can print any number of labels from tens to several thousands per day. Other features include indicator lights, easy controls like pause, stop/cancel and feed, label design software and variable print speeds.

There are hundreds of color label printers available. The minimum requirements are Pentium

How To Format A Hard Drive

Writen by Brian Maroevich

Here’s how to format a hard drive (Legal Stuff: We are not responsible for any damages, lost data, or anything of the sort)…

If you have a computer, you surely know what a hard drive is. If you don’t have one, or simply don’t know what a hard drive is, then this article will begin with a short description of the hard drive. Then we will cover formating a hard drive…

Step 1: What Is A Hard Disk Drive?

A hard disk drive in computing is a type of storage device made up of hard disk platters, a spindle, read and write heads read and write arms, electrical motors, and integrated electronics contained inside an airtight enclosure.

Now you know what the hard drive is. Let’s stick to the point and start with the information on the title of this article. How to format a hard disk drive….

Step 2…

First of all, you should have a reason if you really want to learn how to format a hard drive. But don’t forget that formating a hard drive does NOT permanently delete your data!

Of course, when you format your hard drive you think that the data is really deleted, but that is not the case.

The fact is that the data you have “deleted” can be restored. Nonetheless, you should not experiment with formatting a hard drive because you never know what may happen. Of course, it also depends on the software you use, for example, there are such products that will permanently delete the data you want and then you can continue the process of how to format a hard drive.

Step 3…

In fact there is nothing so difficult in it. You first need to decide what operating system you intend to load after formating a hard drive.

It is best and easiest to use a boot disk for that Operating System, such as MS Dos6.2 or Windows95b or Windows98SE. You will need the proper Windows95/98 boot disk in order to load these operating systems on the computer, else it will reject loading due to the wrong Operating System on the computer.

Step 4…

Then you will have to insert your boot disk in the floppy drive and start the computer.

Once the system has completed booting and an A: prompt appears. You will need to type format C: /s and then press Enter. The function of this command is to tell the system to format your “C” drive and when it is finished to copy the system files to the drive.

The “/s” switches for “System”. You can format a different drive this way by using a different drive letter.

Step 5…

After that you will see on the screen the following text: “WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)?” and if you really want to continue, type [Y] and then press Enter.

Your screen should display the size of your drive and a countdown in percentage of formatting completed. Depending on your computer’s speed and the size of the drive it can take from a few minutes to over 15 minutes.

When it reaches 100% complete, you will see a new message: FORMAT COMPLETE. SYSTEM TRANSFERRED. This message is to indicate that the files required to boot your computer from the hard drive have been copied from the floppy to the hard drive.

The computer can now boot from the hard drive without a boot disk in the floppy drive.

The last message that will appear on your screen is the following: “Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?” You can either press any key to continue, or simply to press Enter. And now, you can finally begin to load your Operating System.

Keep in mind that you can receive an error message, which says “insufficient memory to load system files”. If you do receive such message, do not worry. It is caused by the lack of a memory manager loaded at boot and your PC can only access the first 1mg of ram memory.

You can handle this situation with two options. The first one is to omit the /s switch when formatting. You should do it by typing this: FORMAT C: and then press Enter. Then when the format is complete, manually add the system files to your hard drive by using this command: SYS C: and press Enter again.

The second solution is to load a memory manager in order to overcome this issue. If you don’t have any you can easily download one from one of the million sites on the Internet.

Step 6…

You see, we have finally reached the end of How To Format A Hard Drive. and consequently – the end of this article. Now you surely know how to format a hard drive. But, once again, don’t play with the commands if you are not serious about formating a hard drive.

Even if the data is restorable you may do something wrong to your computer. That is why, you should be careful! And now, good luck!

©2004-2005 Brian Maroevich

About The Author

Brian Maroevich is founder of Cheap-Computers-Guild.com. Brian is also an author, marketing consultant, computer enthusiast, and athlete. Email: brian@cheap-computers-guild.com

Computer Motherboard Guide

Writen by Peter Stewart

The heart of any computer is the motherboard. It is that big board inside the computer that everything is connected to. It performs the role of traffic lights and policemen, directing flows of information to where they are needed, when they are needed.

Choosing the right motherboard does not have to be a huge issue, even though there is a lot to consider. I will start off with the most major parts and move onto the the things that are less important or non-essential.

Firstly is the socket type.

The socket is the place where the processor (CPU) connects to the motherboard. There is no compatiblility between sockets, so it has to be the right one. The socket connection needs to match the connection of the processor you have or the one you intend to buy for the computer.

Most older Intel Pentium 4s utilise socket 478. Newer ones use socket 775. AMD chips utilised socket A for a long time, but now the AMD Athlon 64 series and Semprons use socket 939. Just check with someone as to what yours or your intended one will have.

Your choice of chip will have a lot to do with your needs, but choosing one with an up to date socket type will ensure slightly longer motherboard life as you can upgrade the chip for a while.

Second is the memory type

DDR is the RAM of choice for most systems, but some newer systems, which includes all Pentiums with socket 775 use DDR2. These two kinds are not interchangable and have a different number of pins. Both DDR and DDR2 come in different speed ratings measured in MHz. DDR has a usual 400MHz denoted as DDR400 or PC3200, while DDR2 can go a little higher and comes in slightly faster speeds. Just make it match what the board needs.

Third is expansion slots

The expansion slots are the places where you put extra cards onto the motherboard, like graphics cards, extra sound card or a wireless internet card. The old standard is a PCI slot and these are appropriate for most expansion cards, excepts new graphics cards.

The most simple of graphics cards are sometimes available for PCI slots, but not too many. More common are AGP cards and the newer PCI express (PCIe) cards. AGP slots come in speed variants up to 8x, make sure the slot matches your card. PCI and PCIe are incompatible, so don’t be confused by that. The PCIe slots are much longer and have a securing latch. If you want an SLI graphics card setup with two PCIe cards with SLI attached together, make sure the motherboard specifically states that it supports SLI.

Fourth is hard drive and optical drive connections

Two kinds are available, IDE and SATA, IDE is older with a thick cable and SATA is newer with a thinner cable. SATA capability is usually an add-on, you can see a dedicated chip on the motherboard. IDE is being phased out, but is still used for many drives and all optical devices like DVD and CD drives. IDE has speeds of ATA66, ATA100 and ATA133, SATA has speeds of 150Mbps and 300Mbps the latter sometimes referred to as SATA2. Make sure your board supports as much or more than you intend to install.

Fifth is the extras

The number of extras available on motherboard has increased greatly and so has the quality of the extras. Things to be expected are USB 2.0, a sound card and network slot. Other things which it may or may not have are firewire and extra USB slots.

So with all that in mind you should be in good stead to make a good decision on your purchase. Happy shopping.

Roundup
Socket type – A, 478, 775, 939
Memory (RAM) – DDR, DDR2
Expansion slots – PCI and one of AGP or PCIe
ATA – ATA66, 100 or 133. SATA or SATA2
Extras – USB, network and sound card (expected), firewire, extra USB, extra SATA slots (optional but becoming more common)

Peter Stewart is a computer enthusiast, his interest in computers and focus on practical down to earth advice inspired his two websites.
http://computer-buying-guide.com – Practical buying tips
http://computer-reviews.net – Fair and honest reviews and opinions

Should You Build Your Own Computer? Answer These Four Questions

Writen by Michael Quarles

If you’re considering building your own computer, it’s only natural to wonder if you can handle such a project. While I tell people that anyone can build a PC, some folks doubt themselves and their abilities.

That being the case, I’ve come up with a list of four questions the prospective builder can ask themselves. If they think over each of them, and answer them the best they can, they’ll be able to decide if they’re right for the job.

First question: Are you good at following instructions?

I’m not talking about difficult, intricate sorts of things that would take Einstein to figure out. I mean “plug this cable into your hard drive” kind of instructions, where you have pictures of the cable, the hard drive, and an arrow pointing to where you plug it in at. Most of the guidebooks are written on this level.

Second question: Do you like a technical challenge?

Computers are a world of circuits, chips, and wires. Components are plugged in, snapped together, and held in place by screws. What you will be asked to do isn’t hard, (certainly not as hard as assembling a bicycle on Christmas Eve, as I am fond of saying) but you will be required to think a bit.

Third question: Would you like to learn more about how a computer works?

Though you may have had many classes dealing with computers, and read book after book, nothing is quite as instructive as building a computer from the ground up. Actually, seeing how it all fits together, and doing it with your own hands, leads to insights you might otherwise never gain.

Fourth question: Do you have one afternoon of spare time?

I believe the average person can assemble a PC on a Saturday afternoon. Three or four hours will be sufficent if they have read a good guidebook, and done a careful job of selecting parts.

If you’ve answered “yes” to the four questions, then you can build a computer. Start planning and dreaming right now. Search the internet for parts, and study the building process. You can do it!

Single Board Computers

Writen by Kristy Annely

When we talk of computers, topics usually range from desktops, laptops and notebooks. Sometimes, our ideas and discussions about computers seem to go on forever. However, we seldom hear talk about single board computers. We may not be familiar with the term, though many of us have used single board computer at one time or another.

A single board computer is a complete computer that stands on a single circuit board. It is a circuit board that contains all the components to make a complete computer, such as the processor, memory (RAM), I/O, processor clock and audio and video interfaces. Single board computers may be used as stand-alone units, embedded units or backplane units.

Today, single board computers have found wide use in industrial processes. These small-form factor computers are often used in industrial machines in a rack-mount format that performs complex processes.

Single board computers can also be found in other applications. Cell phones, fax machines, scanners and other electronic products that make use of computer technology are equipped with embedded single board computers. Notebook computers, especially the older ones, are basically single board computers.

Many new home electronic products, especially those that are designed to communicate with a computer or other electronic products, make use of embedded single board computers. Despite this emerging trend in home electronics, single board computers fail to fully dominate the computer world because of some disadvantages.

However, single board computers do have advantages over other types of computers. With all the components built on a single board, the manufacturing cost of single board computers is less compared to multiboard computers. The single board design makes it more reliable because the need for problematic connectors is eliminated. With new technologies, the capabilities of single board computers can further be improved, while its size is further reduced.

On the downside, single board computers are less flexible than other types of computers. With all the components soldered in a single board, there is no way the computer can be upgraded whenever new developments appear on the market. Simply said, the technological capabilities of single board computers are fixed, and they have no ability to take advantage of new technological developments.