10. De-bulk your MacBook’s power cord

For all their design emphasis on elegance and minimalism, MacBooks come with rather bulky power cords that aren’t easy to coil up and tuck away. Gizmodo editor Brian Lam travels quite a bit with his MacBook Pro and doesn’t dig the bulk of the cord leading up to the two-prong “brick,” so he details the not-so-tough technique of swapping it out for a lighter, more flexible PlayStation cord, which shares the same adapter at the end. (Original post)

9. Install your own RAM

It almost always costs less to buy your own RAM from a reliable source and install it yourself than to let the Lenovos, Dells, HPs, and Apples do it for you, either when you first purchase your system or as an upgrade. On most systems, laptops included, it’s a beginner-level hardware project to swap out or add on a memory chip. Adam details how to install a new stick of RAM in your desktop PC and took us on a video tour of MacBook RAM upgrading. From what this editor has seen, that process is nearly identical on non-Apple laptops: find where the RAM is kept, unscrew a plate, pop the memory sticks in and out at an angle, then re-seat it to be back on one’s way. Not sure which chips you need to buy? Try the How-To Geek’s guide to determining what kind of memory your computer has installed.

8. Quiet a noisy hard drive

You don’t notice the sound of your hard drives when you first boot up a new system, but over time, the hum, whir, and clicking of all those disks and moving parts can become maddening low-level irritants. A lot of the noise is usually caused by the hard drive vibrating against a metal desktop case, which can be eliminated with small rubber inserts, or, for a nearly complete vibration elimination, suspending the drive from elastic straps. If you’re rocking a laptop, or looking for other ways of quieting any kind of system, try searching and digging around at Silent PC Review, End PC Noise, or check out PC Magazine’s multi-step guide to a quiet PC.

7. Get good at soldering

Most DIY gadget projects, and a lot of computer or electronics repairs, require the use of a hot soldering iron, some solder, and occasionally flux. If all that sounds pretty foreign and new to you, Instructables’ guide to basic parts fusing and circuit mending will be worth every minute you spend absorbing it. It’s packed with good tips and answered beginner questions. Planning to jump into a more advanced, detail-oriented project like the MintyBoost? Aaron’s Homepage has a guide on how to solder on circuit boards. (Original post)

6. Turn a PC into a Hackintosh

Getting Apple’s OS X running on hardware you didn’t buy from Apple doesn’t require magic powers, a 128-character secret code, or much more than just the patience to follow a few work-around steps, really. Adam showed us how to take some gear nabbed from NewEgg and assemble it into a “Hackintosh,” with greater ease of use than his first go-round. If you’ve got a desktop system looking for a few new parts, or you’d like to try out the Mac world without paying Mac premiums, it makes for a rewarding weekend project.

5. Replace a power supply

Power supplies are not something you want to cheap out on, or hang onto if they’re on their way out. They’re often the noisiest component of a desktop system, they’re fickle, and they can bring down other components if they fritz out. Lifehacker alumnus Rick Broida ran down the basics of unplugging and removing your power supply and re-seating a new one in its place. That answers one half of the equation, but how do you know what PSU to replace it with? Online parts megastore NewEgg offers a convenient Power Supply Calculator that figures out power supply needs from the components already installed. Just as with a house, you can sometimes get by with less than you should, but you don’t want to find out what happens when you’re wrong.

4. Install a new hard drive

Every hard drive seems like it will be way, way too big for your uses when you first get it. A few months of willy-nilly downloading later, and you’re looking for bigger digs for your data. Adam broke down the desktop installation process, but for the increasing number of folks jamming all their stuff onto laptops, we offer up guides on MacBook upgrades from the Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog and Popular Mechanics’ general laptop hard drive guide. All the techniques, of course, also apply if your drive goes dead and you need to yank it out for a replacement.

3. Replace a busted laptop LCD

LCD screens are often the second-most expensive component of a laptop, so when they go bad, most folks just swing for a full replacement. If you can find an LCD replacement for your model, though, there’s a good chance you can save yourself some pretty serious cash, especially if your laptop’s screen went dark early in its life. The This Is My Defective Kit site runs down a step-by-step process for replacing a faulty display, which is mainly a matter of being careful and not losing very tiny screws. If that sounds a little beyond your powers or patience, you can turn that working-but-not-visible laptop into a headless system that hides away easily. (Original post)

2. Upgrade to a new motherboard and CPU

Replacing the other parts of your computer is akin to attaching arms and legs to a Frankenstein’s system. When you add an entirely new CPU and motherboard to your case, that’s when you’ve truly become a mad scientist. Actually, it’s not all that hard, as Adam demonstrates, and on a system where everything runs well but the brain just needs to move a bit quicker, it’s a relatively cheap and efficient upgrade—and one that instills a lot of confidence in your computer hardware skills.

1. Build a whole computer from scratch

As Gina notes in her comprehensive run-down of building her own PC, from choosing the parts to (finally) getting to a log-in screen, you don’t build your own PC because you want to save a whole lot of money (though you can, depending on the build). You build it yourself because you want complete control over the quality and features of every single piece of it, and you learn a heck of a lot about how they operate together. Do yourself a favor, though, and learn from Gina’s “several WTF moments” before giving it a go yourself.

Where do you turn when you’re looking to fix or replace some hardware? Which hardware projects are worth the time and effort, and which have you left to the pros? Relate your repair tales in the comments, and feel free to offer up other worthwhile hardware links.

For example, did you know that the first “portable” computer weighed 25 kg (55 lb) and cost close to $20,000, that the first laser printer was big enough to fill up most of a room, or that you basically had to build the first Apple computer yourself? This article takes a look at the time when the computer equipment we now take for granted was invented and what it looked like back then.

THE FIRST COMPUTER MOUSE:

The first computer mouse was invented in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute. (He is also one of the inventors of hypertext.) The first mouse used two wheels positioned at a 90-degree angle to each other to keep track of the movement (see picture below). The ball mouse wasn’t invented until 1972, and the optical mouse was invented circa 1980 although it didn’t come to popular use until much later.Douglas Engelbart never received any royalties for his invention and his patent had run out by the time the mouse became commonplace in the era of home PCs.

Above: The first mouse. To the right you can see the wheels it used for movement and positioning.

THE FIRST TRACK BALL:

The trackball was actually invented 11 years BEFORE the mouse, in 1952. It was invented by Tom Cranston and Fred Longstaff as part of a computerized battlefield information system called DATAR, initiated by the Canadian Navy. It used a standard five-pin bowling ball as its trackball, which is smaller than the more common 10-pin bowling ball.

Above: The first trackball, bowling ball and all.

THE FIRST PORTABLE COMPUTER:

Well, perhaps that should be “movable” computer… The IBM 5100 Portable Computer was introduced in 1975, weighed 25 kg (55 lb), was the size of a small suitcase and needed external power to operate. It held everything in the same unit, packing in a processor, ROM (several hundreds of KB) and RAM (16-64 KB), a five-inch CRT display, keyboard and a tape drive, which was an amazing feat at the time. It also came with built-in BASIC and/or APL. The different models of the IBM 5100 sold for $8,975 – $19,975.

Above: The IBM 5100 Portable Computer.

THE FIRST LAPTOP COMPUTER:

The first laptop computer (or notebook) was the Grid Compass 1100 (called the GRiD) and was designed in 1979 by a British industrial designer, Bill Moggridge. The computer didn’t start selling until 1982, then featuring a 320×200 screen, an Intel 8086 processor, 340 KB of magnetic bubble memory (a now obsolete, non-volatile memory type) and a 1200 bps modem. It weighed 5 kg (11 lb) and cost $8-10,000. The GRiD was mainly used by NASA and the US military.

Above left: Closeup of the Grid Compass 1100. Above right: NASA astronaut posing with the GRiD in space (that’s Spock on the screen.)

THE FIRST IBM PC:

The IBM Personal Computer was introduced in 1981 as the IBM 5150. The platform became so pervasive in the 80s that although the term “personal computer” had been in use since the early 70s, a PC became synonymous with an IBM PC-compatible computer.

During its development, the IBM 5150 had been internally referred to as “Project Chess” and was created by a team of 12 people headed by Don Estridge and Larry Potter. To speed up development and cut costs, IBM had decided to use off-the-shelf parts, something that they normally wouldn’t do.

The first IBM PC had an Intel 8088 processor, 64 KB of RAM (extendible to 256 KB), a floppy disk drive (which could be used to boot the computer with a rebranded version of MS-DOS (PC-DOS)) and a CGA or monochrome video card. The machine also had a version of Microsoft BASIC in ROM. On the first IBM PC the optional 10 MB hard disk drive could only be installed if the original power supply was replaced (the original one was too weak).

Above: The first IBM Personal Computer, the IBM 5150.

THE FIRST APPLE COMPUTER:

The first Apple personal computers (Apple I) were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. The Apple I went on sale in 1976 for the price of $666.66. Only about 200 units were produced. The Apple I was basically just a motherboard with a processor, a total of 8KB of RAM, a display interface and some additional functionality. To have a working computer, the buyer would have to add a power supply, a keyboard and a display (and a case to keep mount it all in).

Above left: An Apple I computer. Above right: This was the Apple I, essentially a motherboard.

THE FIRST RAM:

Arguably the first (writable) random access memory was Magnetic Core Memory (also called Ferrite-Core Memory) and was invented in 1951 as a result of work done by An Wang at Harvard University’s Computation Lab and Jay Forrester at MIT.

Core memory was a family of related technologies that used the magnetic properties of materials to give them a similar functionality to transistors. They stored their information using the polarity of tiny, magnetic ceramic rings with wires threaded through them. Unlike today’s RAM, core memory could keep its information even after the power was turned off.

Core memory was common until it was replaced by integrated silicon RAM chips in the 1970s. The “core” in core memory is why a memory dump is called a “core dump” even today.

Above left: Closeup of core memory. Above right: The core memory plane in the picture is 16×16 cm (6.3×6.3 inches), holding 128×128 bits (2048 byte).

THE FIRST HARD DISK DRIVE:

The IBM Model 350 Disk File was the first hard disk drive and was part of the IBM 305 RAMAC computer that IBM started delivering in 1956 (mainly intended for business accounting). It had 50 24-inch discs that together could store about 4.4 MB of data. The Model 350 spun at 1200 rpm, had a data transfer rate of 8,800 characters per second and an access time of approximately one second.

Above: The first hard disk drive, IBM Model 350.

THE FIRST LASER PRINTER:

The laser printer was invented by Gary Starkweather at XEROX in 1969. His initial prototype was a modified laser copier where he had disabled the imaging system and introduced a spinning drum with eight mirrored sides. The first commercial implementation of a laser printer didn’t happen until IBM released the IBM model 3800 in 1976. It could pretty much fill up a room on its own.

Above: The IBM 3800, the first commercial laser printer.

THE FIRST WEB SERVER:

And since the Web is such an integral part of today’s computer experience, we couldn’t help but include another first: The first web server was a NeXT workstation that Tim Berners-Lee used when he invented the World Wide Web at CERN. The first web page was put online on August 6, 1991.

The computer had a note on it that said, “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!” Understandable, considering that if you had shut it down in the early days you would have shut down the entire WWW.

Above: The web server that powered the first web pages on the WWW. Note the sticker with the warning to not turn it off.It’s amazing how much has happened in the PC industry in just a few decades. Just imagine what things will be like 30-40 years from now…

Source: http://techtoggle.com/

You can plug these cables into old USB devices, but of course, you won’t get that blazing speed unless that device’s innards have the new USB 3.0 hardware inside. Expect computers and other geegaws to be equipped with this speedy new system before too long. Besides that faster speed, the new protocol will feature better power management, and optical cabling inside, too. Neat.

How much faster will this new system, called “SuperSpeed,” go? If you were transferring a 25GB HD movie from one place to another with USB 1.0, it takes 9.3 hours. With USB 2.0, just under 14 minutes. With USB 3.0? 70 seconds. Quite an improvement.

Source: http://dvice.com/

Below is a listing of some of the most beneficial, and some of the most popular gadgets and gear to come out of 2008. They serve to improve your home, the economy, or life in general.

1. Slingbox SOLO
   
   The Slingbox SOLO is a media unit that allows you to watch your TV from anywhere, either on your laptop or on your cell phone. The SOLO syncs to equipment such as your set top box, DVR, or satellite system and transmits HD-quality signals to wherever you are. You can watch your own TV from work, from China, or from the North Pole. The system costs a mere $179.99.
2. Amazon Kindle
   
   The Amazon Kindle, like previous e-book readers makes use of a backlight-free E Ink display to display texts as an alternative to paper books. It only uses power when loading new pages and can last for hundreds of pages between charges. The Kindle’s key feature is a high-speed EVDO antenna that allows fast downloads from Sprint. The Kindle is available for $359.
3. Intel Atom Processor
   
   Not only is the Atom super small (47 million transistors on a single 26×26mm chip), but it is super efficient, with a power range from 1 watt to 2.5 watts. What the Atom brings to the market is the possibility to bring computer-level power into smaller formats, further evolving the potential for portable devices.
4. Roku Netflix Box
   
   If you have a Netflix account, then with the Roku box you will never have to wait for your movies to come in the mail ever again. The Roku connects to your TV and, through your home network, streams more than 12,000 movies and TV shows for free. The box costs $99, and requires a Netflix subscription.
5. Apple iPhone 3G
   
   The iPhone has been a top seller ever since its debut, so it comes as no surprise that it would be one of the hottest gadgets of 2008. It doesn’t handle email as well as the BlackBerry line, and as a phone, it is no better than most others, but it started a revolution. Available for $199.
6. Wii Balance Board (and Wii Fit)
   
   Wii Fit is one of those games that seeks to reinvent the video game genre by becoming a more practical family-oriented home utility, rather than a simple game. Combined with the Wii Balance Board, it becomes a full exercise training experience allowing you to do anything from aerobics to hula hooping.
7. Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
   
   Typical smart pens copy the movements of the pen and digitize the handwriting for later manipulation on a PC, but the Livescribe Pulse also uses an integrated microphone to record and retrieve audio. With a tap of the pen point to the appropriate handwritten segment, the pen will play the associated recording. The Livescribe goes for $149.
8. Nokia E71 (with Up to 20 Days of Standby Time)
   
   There were a lot of cell phones in 2008, and a lot of them were somewhat lacking. The iPhone 3G was notorious for its battery life, and the BlackBerry Storm had software that left a lot to be desired, for example. The E71, however, was one of the better reviewed units. The E71 looks very good, has a fully developed OS, and a battery life that lasted not hours, but up to 20 days.
9. Potenco PCG1 Power Generator
   
   The Potenco PCG1 is a pull-cord generator that can be used to generate electricity for portable gadgets with greater efficiency than other hand-cranked devices. Perfect for use in remote regions of the world, the generator weighs 14 ounces and has both an internal NiMh battery and a mini-USB output jack. Two minutes of pull-cord effort can be converted into 40 minutes of talk time on a cell phone. Available for $99.
10. Nissan Around View Monitor
    
    Nissan’s new parking system allows you to see 360 degrees around your car. Standard parking systems only show a rear view, but the Nissan Around View Monitor uses ultra-wide-angle cameras positioned strategically around your vehicle and synthesizes the images into a bird’s eye view on-screen. Packages start at $1950.
11. M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera
    
    Technology used in home improvement has been growing quite steadily, and with the increase of DIYers out there, that technology has become much more consumer-friendly. Before you cut into your drywall, you need to be able to peek inside the walls and explore a bit in order to diagnose your problem. The M-Spector has an LED-lit lens on a 3 foot flexible cable that transmits an image to a 2.4 inch LCD monitor. Retails for upwards of $259.
12. Flip MinoHD
    
    The Flip is a high-definition camcorder that is no larger than an iPod. The recorder stresses one-button simplicity, and is easy to use. It comes with custom editing software and connects to your computer via USB. It also has 4GB of internal memory and an internal rechargeable battery that allows two hours of shooting time. Retails for $230.
13. Sennheiser MX W1 Wireless Headphones
    
    Entirely wireless, these headphones transmit sound from a plug-in transmitter unit that jacks into your source device (computer, iPod, TV, etc) and delivers the sound to your ear buds using the Kleer Corporation’s patented uncompressed sound. The ear buds and transmitter come with a case that recharges the unit. The package retails for $499.
14. FoxL Bluetooth Speaker
    
    The FoxL Bluetooth speaker, which is no larger than a sunglass case, makes carrying your music easy. No more 80’s-style boomboxes propped up on your shoulder. The speaker can sync up to your cell phone, MP3 player, or even the audio receiver in your car, allowing you to listen to music or have hands-free conversations using the built-in microphone. Available for $249.
15. Nikon D90 D-SLR HD Camera
    
    The Nikon D90 is a single-lens reflex camera and a high-definition video camera all in one. If you are willing to spend the money to upgrade your digital recording experience, than this would be the right investment for you. It retails for $1200.
16. Mitsubishi LaserVue HDTV
    
    The LaserVue is an innovative new take on the HDTV. Instead of the standard LCD and Plasma technology, the LaserVue uses its namesake, lasers, to project an image on its display. It has a wider color gamut than any other TV and even uses two-thirds less power than similar-sized HDTVs. It’s available for a whopping $7000.
17. Optoma Pico PK-101
    
    The Optoma Pico is a pocket-sized projector that you can carry with you and connect to your portable devices, such as your iPod or iPhone, and project an image on the wall. Anything that you can display on your device, you can display on the wall from as close as 8 inches up to 8 feet away. It works great with the FoxL wireless speaker to make it a fun group experience. It is available for $399.
18. Microsoft Sync
    
    Microsoft Sync is a hands-free voice recognition application that can be integrated into your car. It works with your phone and music player and even syncs with your iPod, cell phone, BlackBerry, and Zune. The vocal recognition system is top notch and responds to your voice commands for a smooth, entertaining in-car experience. The system is available for $395.
19. ZINK Digital Camera/Printer
    
    The ZINK combination camera/printer is like a modern day Polaroid, allowing you to take shots on your digital camera and then print them out on 2″x3″ paper within seconds. ZINK, short for “Zero Ink”, means that the camera uses no ink or toner to create the image. The paper used is embedded with color-spectrum crystals that are heated to produce an image. This one retails for $199.99.
20. Intel Penryn Processor
    
    The Intel Penryn was the successor to the Core 2 Duo, and the debutant of processors clocked at 45nm. The Penryn also included the SSE4 instructions which sped up functions like video encoding. It also featured the Bearlake chipset and used fabrication materials like hafnium-dielectric, which combined to produce a clock speed of 3.0GHz and an FSB of 1333MHz.
21. MSI Wind
    
    In 2008, there was a wave of popularity with the smaller sized underpowered laptops. The MSI Wind is one of these. The line is not as fast or powerful as other, more expensive laptops, but the Wind is balanced and versatile, and most importantly, customizable. The Wind has a large user community that promotes methods of hacking and further customizing the laptop.
22. Chumby Internet Device
    
    The best way to describe the Chumby would be to call it an easy to use hub for home entertainment. It takes the idea of the widget and turns it into a home appliance. It acts as a music player, video player, news feed, digital photo frame, and mobile internet device. The Chumby has a touch screen and a WiFi connection, making it a versatile internet device for the home. Available for $180.
23. Honda Insight
    
    The Toyota Prius has been the leader in the hybrid vehicle market thus far, but in 2008 Honda introduced their plans for the second generation of the Honda Insight. I know this isn’t really a gadget but this may prove to be a turning point in the electric vehicle market, as the Insight will sell for less than a Prius and will supposedly be more energy efficient.

By Nicholas
http://thehottestgadgets.com/

In general, people make the same several mistakes when they buy their video cards. Have they been with me, I’d have helped them avoid these 6 mistakes when buying a video card:

1- Buying a video card based solely on the amount of memory.

More is better, right? That’s their excuse when you have to justify your purchase to yourself or to your geek friend.

Well yes, but not if you base your purchase solely on the amount of RAM. A video card performance is based on many other factors, such as the GPU chip model, the frequency of the GPU/memory, the memory bus width, etc.

A good example of this would be someone buying a 8600GT 512MB over a 8800GT 256MB. Sure, it may have more memory, but every other factor will limit the card performance in comparison.

Also keep in mind that you won’t need the extra memory unless you play at very high resolutions, such as 1920×1080 and/or with AA/AF quality filtering. Why? Because your video card won’t need/use it.

2- Buying a lower-end new generation model over a higher-end old generation model.

It’s newer, so it must be faster!

Not so quickly. When in the majority of cases, this is true, it is not always true. So? Well, you might miss out on a really good deal, as stores tend to lower prices on older generations, to get rid of their old stock, to make space for the new stock.

Now, the mistake some of you make is to choose your card by using the generation number first. You’d think that a 4xxx card from ATI is automatically faster than a 3xxx model. If you take a Radeon 3870, it’d trash a Radeon 4350 or be faster than a Radeon 4650.

Let me quickly explain how model numbers work, using ATI’s 4850 model as an example.

4850: The first number refers to the generation of the card. A higher number there means that the video card is based on a more recent generation, which always brings in improvements over the previous generation.

4850: The second number refers to the range of that card. Same here, higher is better. In Ati’s case, for the 4xxx series, it goes mostly like this:

• 3: Low end
• 6: Mid range
• 8: High performance

4850: The last two numbers refer to the place of that model, within the hierarchy of that range of video cards (See second point, for the “8″); within a generation (See first point, for the “4″). In the vast majority of cases, a higher number means higher performance, but both ATI and Nvidia tricked people in the past with crippled GS/SE models, so keep an eye open for the suffix if there’s one. No, SE does not mean special edition!!

Although ATI don’t really use suffix on their newer models, Nvidia still are. Here’s a quick reference, from slowest to fastest, when you compare two identical models otherwise:
GS<GT<GTS<GTX . Now, even this is not always true, if you take the 8800 model example. Some of the older GTS models are slower than the newer GT. Confusing, isn’t it?

Just keep in mind that many older generation, higher-end models are often faster than some of the newer models, so make sure to google benchmarks and to compare prices!

3- Not considering the space/power requirements.

So you’ve avoided the two first mistakes, ended up buying a Geforce GTX280, are eager to play the newest games…only to realize that it doesn’t fit in your case! Good job =P

This is especially true when you have a small format case, a HTPC or if you buy a high-end video card.

Lesson here: Measure the space available for the video card in your case (Usually from the back of the case to the hard drive cage) and double-check the length of the card, which is usually found under the specs, before buying it. Check reviews and/or contact the store if you’re unsure.

You’ve bought a great card, it fits in your case, but now you’ve one or several of the following problems? :

• Your video card needs extra power connectors and you don’t have them.
• Your computer won’t boot.
• Your computer boots but crashes under games.

I’m afraid that your power supply may not up to the task of powering your new video card.  Now, that’s most probably it, but it might not be it, make sure to troubleshoot before buying a new power supply.

4- Teaming a powerful video card with a slow Cpu

Yay, you’ve got that new Radeon 4870X2 and you’re ready to dominate the virtual world. Only to see that you’re framerates are no where what you expected to be, according to all those reviews.

Well, if you’re using such a powerful gpu with a slow cpu, lik an Intel E4300, it just won’t work as you want it to. Your cpu will bottleneck your video card performance, which mean that it won’t be able to keep up with it and your video card performance will be reduced as it always waits on the CPU.

Simply try to keep your cpu performance in balance with your video card. If you get a midrange video card (9800 GTX, 4850) , try to team it with a midrange CPU (E7400 and such).

If you use SLI/Crossfire or even better (or worse in this case), make sure to team up your video cards with a blazing fast quad-core CPU. Most games may not benefit from quad-core yet, but the video drivers and the cards themselves will. The new Core i7 cpus are a perfect fit here.

5- Buying an overkill video card for the games that you play.

If you play is Counter-Strike 1.6, WoW or the majority of games that are 2 years or older, you probably don’t need the lastest and fastest video card.

If you play on a 17″ or 19″ screen, you probably don’t need the lastest and fastest video card.

This is just like someone who buys a Mustang simply because they want more horsepower. Could they travel to work and do their everyday activities with a Honda Civic? Most probably.

You will waste a lot of money, both on purchase, power consumption and on upgrading the rest of your system (Cpu and power supply) if you buy a video card that is overkill for your needs.

Learn to listen to your wallet, think with your head and figure out how much power you really need for the games that you play!

Now, some of you may not agree with this, as you’ll say that it’s good to have headroom for future games. I don’t think so. Why? By the time that the new game is out, your video card will still be able to handle it, perhaps at lower settings but newer video cards that offer higher performance for the same price will most probably be out by then.

I think that it is better to upgrade at a low cost every so often than to buy some of the most expensive video cards all the time. Not to mention that higher-end cards tend to devalue faster than mid-range video cards. Just like higher-end cars.

Now, if you absolutely need the fastest and most powerful video card with every new release, just to strike your ego and brag about it, go ahead, just be prepared to pay the price!

6- Listening to the recommendations of only one person.

The last, but certainly not the least of the common mistakes done when buying a video card: Listening to the opinion of a single person. What’s wrong with that?

• The person may be a fanboy, who would recommend an inferior product from Nvidia or from ATI simply because they prefer that company.
• The person may not have a clue of what they’re talking about. Not everyone have vast knowledge on video cards.
• That person’s information may be outdated. After all, new video cards are released on a regular base (every couple of months, or even less)

Always make sure to get the opinion of many trusted people, ask around on forums, read plenty of reviews and comparisons. You’re going to spend a lot of your hard earned cash on that card, so make sure it is the right one for you.

Same goes for me. Don’t just listen to me, I’m human too hehehe.

Conclusion:

Buying a video card requires thoughtful thinking. With such a variety of cards available on the market, it may be confusing, so remember to avoid these mistakes, ask as many opinions as you can and shop around for good prices!

By Mathieu

USB 3.0 improves upon its successors by adding fiber-optic cable alongside the copper wiring, greatly increasing the speeds. The upgrade should allow for high-def devices, such as HD DVD or Blu-ray players, to use the standard to send data. As of now, today’s USB cables aren’t fast enough for such heavy transfers, sending data at 480 megabits per second. USB 3.0, on the other hand, will increase that tenfold to a whopping 4.8 gigabits per second. The fancy new cables should start hitting shelves and being used in devices around 2009 or 2010.

Via CNET

Firstly, let’s get things clear. A stuck pixel is when the LCD displays the colour wrongly. Like this example

A dead pixel means that the pixel is not responding at all. It should be black. Not lighted at all. Like this.

Today’s post will be focusing on stuck pixels. No harm trying if there are dead pixels.Who knows, it may work. Anyways, you can repair your stuck pixels easily by using the applet by JScreen Fix.

Just leave it at the dead pixel spot and you will see the difference after 20 minutes. If the problem is a screen burn (persistent images after a long time), it could take up to 6 hours to fix. But rest assured, stuck pixels WILL be fixed.

You can further check out the website as they also have applications specially developed for PDAs, mobile phones and other portable devices. Happy screen fixing!

Source: http://rangit.com/

A router is a device that connects multiple networks together and forwards packets of data between them. In my house I have a D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router connected to the DSL modem. It has 4 wired LAN ports and a wireless antenna. Which means that I can connect to it using 2 ways, either wired or wireless. My PC uses the wired connection whereas the other 2 laptops around the house are using wireless. Before setting up any router, you’ll need to know these 2 information.

• 192.168.0.1
• 192.168.1.1
• 192.168.2.1

Router IP

The 3 most common router IP addresses are :

Know that you can also check it out from the PC’s Local Area Connection Status.




Default Router Passwords

Get your default passwords easily over at routerpasswords.

My router has 4 outgoing ports for the PCs and 1 incoming port for the internet connection. If I had an always-on internet connection, I’ll just need to plug the internet cable in. However, I had to setup the router’s web configuration because I’m on dial up broadband.

Common home routers will have a wizard to help you to :

• Set your new password
• Set internet connection
• Set wireless connection

If not, just look around for the ‘WAN’ page and set it up yourself. All you need to do is just enter your ISP login information like the username, password and connection settings. Then that’s it.

Source: http://rangit.com/

Example:
11100011

11001111

10101010

11110000

Nibble:
Nibble consists of 4 bits, which is half a byte. It is used for easy data representation. They are mainly used in segregating the bytes into the higher order bits and the lower order bits.

Example:
1111

1010

1100

0011

Byte:
A byte consist of 8 bits, the data types available in any typical programming languages measures its data types in bytes. The 8 bits can be either 0 or 1 nothing else is allowed. 2 bytes consists of 16 bits. In the C programming language character is 1 byte, integer data type is 2 bytes, float is 4 bytes, double is 8 bytes, long is 10 bytes. It follows the ASCII pattern. The modern breed of C languages follows the UNICODE and the range of bytes considerably increased to accommodate more values.

Example:
00000101

Kilo Byte:
Files and directories are measured in the Kilo Bytes precisely (KB). A KB consists of 1024 bits. As the data and storage area increased the bits does not accommodate everything so we go for Kilo Bytes.

Example:
5 Kilo Bytes

2 Kilo Bytes

Mega Byte:
Mega Byte is the next largest term after the Kilo Bytes. As 1024 bits consists a Kilo Byte, 1024 Kilo Bytes makes a Mega Byte shortly called as Mega Byte. Now days the Broadband Internet connection speeds are measured in MBPS (Mega Bytes per Second), Compact disks are measured in Mega Bytes (700 MB).

Giga Byte:
Giga Byte is the leading term used in this modern era. It is used for a large storage space. 1024 Mega Bytes makes a Giga Byte. It is used for DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) typically it is around 4.7 GB.

Tara Byte:
Tara Bytes are used in the servers to measure the hard disk spaces. Typically a Tara byte contains 1024 Giga Bytes.

Pita Byte:
Pita Byte, it has the higher range in the modern era. It needs 1024 Tara Bytes to make a Pita Byte. This term is not widely used as it is more costly and expensive.

All the above are the basic storage terms used in the Information Technology. Really everything has become the bits and bytes now a day.

Source: http://www.computersight.com/

A Server is basically a PC that is designed to run fast and efficiently, without flashy graphics etc. They are used for running networks, websites, games, etc. A Game Server is designed for users to connect to, and to store user data, etc.

The components needed are:

1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. Processor
4. Memory (RAM)
5. Hard Drive
6. Optical Drive
7. Operating System

Step One: Getting the Parts
I chose Dabs for this step, as I’d used them before, but there are plenty of good websites out there.

You want to find a cheap, but good, piece of equipment for each part. What I did was look for parts that matched the specs I needed, and had a 4 or 5 star rating.
Here is what I got:

• Dabsvalue Case: £20
  Fits all mainboards up to 244mm.
  400w power supply included.
• MSI Motherboard: £32
  Fits two DDRII simms, up to 2 GB in each RAM slot. (Up to 4 GB total)
  Socket AM2.
  Supports AMD Athlon 64 X2
  Supports 64-bit processors.
• AMD Processor: £48
  Socket AM2.
  64-bit.
  2.2 ghz (“3800+”)
  Dual core
• Corsair Memory: £52
  2 simms, DDRII
  Each simm 1 GB in size (2 GB in total)
• Hard Drive: £28
  160 GB
  7,200 RPM
• DVD-Rom / CD-RW combo drive: £15
  I actually salvaged this from an old PC, but the same drive was £15 on the net.

Step Two: Putting It Together
Firstly, make sure you anti-static yourself. (Touch a metal objects that is connected to the ground, and un-painted. Or, wear an anti-static bracelet, probably best.) This is important as any static shocks can harm the components.

Open up the case. You’ll find many screws with your case or motherboard. Screw the spacers into the case, lined up with the holes in the motherboard. Make sure the motherboard does not touch the case, and screw it in place on the spacers. Plug in any case wires, such as power buttons, into the places as described in the motherboard’s manual.

Now Take your processor. Smear on some heat-transfer paste (around £2.50), and line it up with the pins on the white square of the motherboard, making sure the arrow in one corner is lined up with the arrow on the motherboard. Making sure it is perfectly aligned, lower the lever (if it is AM2) to stick it in place. Your CPU may be different; I am writing this from using a socket AM2 processor. Read the instructions supplied with your CPU. Place the heat sink on top, and clip it in place. Connect the fan wires to the motherboard.

Connect the thick grey cable to the motherboard. Now screw the hard drive in to one of the small bays, and connect the thick grey cable, and one of the white power cables. Place the optical drive into the case, and screw it in place. Again, connect a white power cable and the thick grey cable.

Now the memory… Make sure the notch is lined up, and place it in to one of the slots. Don’t force it. Push it down gently and the white clips will close on it. Do the same for any additional sticks if you have them.

Now turn it on and pray it works.

Step Three: the Operating System
You want a cheap, but effective, operating system.

I chose Linux as it has many free distributions. I then chose Ubuntu, for some reason. I went with Xubuntu, because I needed a visual system, that was low on resources. Download it, install it on the server, and run it.

Setting up the network should be straight forward, or you can check the OS’s website for guides.

All done!
In the end, here’s the specs:

• AMD Athlon 64-bit dual core, 2.2ghz 3800+
• 2 GB memory
• 160 GB hard disk drive, 7,200 RPM
• DVD-R/CD-RW drive
• 400w PSU
• Xubuntu Linux

Total cost: £197.50 – Not bad for a server of these specs.

Upgrading
Oh, we’re not done yet! As your game makes money, here’s some things to upgrade:

• RAM: 2 GB -> 4 GB
• Hard Drive: 160GB 7,200 RPM -> 80GB 15,000 RPM

Source: http://www.computersight.com/