Hardware Comparison Guide

A lot of my friends asked my opinion on computer hardwares, mostly sounds like "which one is more powerful? AMD or Intel?" or "which is the best? nVidia or ATI graphics cards?". We surely cannot just compare products by brand alone because today's hardware is far more advanced compared to a few years back (of course la, hehe).

For example, when comparing processors (in this case AMD vs. Intel), you have to compare within its range and type since processors nowadays have more than one core (simply said as its processing unit); mostly dual core, and quad-core is soon will be mainstream. As i said before, you cannot compare, well let say single-core vs. dual-core or dual-core vs. quad-core. If u want to compare, have it within its own kind (let it meets its match) such dual-core vs. dual-core. Then you compare its clock speed etc.

For graphics cards, most of people that i know compared graphics card by the amount of RAM it has. This is not right since the most important part in a graphics card is its GPU or Graphics Processing Unit, and the card's RAM is just a helper for the GPU. The numbers that you usually see on a box of a graphics card such as 8800GTX or X1950XTX is the model number of its GPU. Usually the higher the number, the more powerful it is.

To get the best result when comparing hardwares, you should check out websites such as Tom's Hardware or HardwareZone. These sites have lots of hardware reviews, forums, and comparison charts to help you make your decisions. They are always updated, so that you will know how's the latest hardwares perform compared to the older ones and which is the best bang for your buck. (^^,)

What is NTFS and FAT?

What is NTFS and FAT exactly? For the most Windows XP user NTFS is the obvious choice. It is more powerful and offers security advantage not found in other file systems. So, lets take a look the difference among the file systems so that we have a clear knowledge regarding the available file systems. Basically there are three different file systems available in Windows XP - FAT16, FAT32 stands for File Allocation Table and NTFS stands for New Technology File System.

FAT16

• was introduced with MS-DOS in 1981.
• originally designed to handle files in floppy drive - undergone minor modifications to handle hard disks.
• biggest advantage of FAT16 compatible with wide variety of OS such as Windows 95/98/ME, OS/2, Linux and certain versions of UNIX.
• disadvantages of FAT16 is it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition - which means when the hard disk capacity get bigger and bigger so does the each clusters.
• doesn't support compression, encryption or advanced security.

FAT32

• introduced in Windows 95 Service 2 - just an extension of the original FAT16 file systems.
  
• greatly improved in disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file systems.

NTFS

• introduced with first version of Windows NT - completely different from FAT file systems.
  
• provides file by file compression, quotas, increased security and even encryption.
• you can convert to FAT16 and FAT32 to NTFS but, you can do it vice versa.

Look more in Wikipedia/FAT and Wikipedia/NTFS.

How Long Your Hard Disks, CDs and DVDs Live?

First all I'm sorry for not updating my blog for almost a week. Damn, sure I missed loads of latest news. Actually I was kinda busy and was down with flu. Hope it won't happen again. So lets get it on.

How long you planned to save your data in digital storage when that the storage media live for only few years, after which is data loss is inevitable?

Average Lifespan 5 to 10 Years

1. Floppies
2. CD/DVD
3. Hard disk
4. USB Stick
5. Flash Memory

Normal Lifespan: 10 to 15 Years

1. VHS Tape
2. MiniDV Tape

Normal Lifespan: 20 to 30 Years

1. Magnetic Tape
2. DVD-RAM

According to an independent study carried out by NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg/USA), a DVD-R can lead a life up to 30 years only if stored under ideal conditions and that is – 25 degree Celsius temperature, no fluctuations, no exposure to light and consistent 50 percent of humidity. However, even the burnt CDs or DVDs will be no longer readable after a few years if handled in normal condition.

Damage to the CDs or DVDs can be caused in the most varying ways. The most common cause of damage is when CD’s or DVD’s get so badly scratched when placed rashly on a table that the saved data can simply no longer be identified by the read head in the disk drive.

Damage on upper layer even worse, fine scratches have ability to destroy the reflection layer on which the laser is reflected. Such damage can cause by:

• Labeling a black CD or DVD inappropriate writing tool such as ball pen or pencil – use special CD markers.
• Stickers are even more dangerous as the cheap products, the solvents in the adhesive reacts with the polycarbonate surface of the blank CD or DVD – leads to corrosion of reflection layer.

Image by iStockphoto

USB 3.0 in 2008

Intel and others plan to release a new version of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology in the first half of 2008 – the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber optic links alongside the traditional copper wires.

Intel is working fellow USB 3.0 Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors to release the USB 3.0 specification in the first half of 2008,

There’s typically a one- to two-year lag between the release of the specification and the availability of the technology, so USB 3.0 products should likely arrive in 2009 or2010.

The current USB 2.0 version has a top data-transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, so a tenfold increase would be 4.8 gigabits per secong. Many device don't need that much capacity, but some can use more, including hard drives, flash card readers and optical drives such as DVD, Blu-Ray and HD DVD. The fastes flash card readers today use IEE 1394 "FireWire" conncetions that top out at 800 megabits per second.

In addition, USB 3.0 will offer greater energey efficiency It will be backward compatible, so current USB 2.0 devices will be able to plug into USB 3.0 ports.

via News

Revive Dead Thumb Drive

Can thumb drive dead, I mean can it dead and stop functioning? I never experienced it before but I found an article how to revive your dead thumb drive in a forum. Hence, I thought it would be helpful for those who might face such problems.

There’s a “Magic Potion” that can take the drive back from death and it’s from a wizard called HP and the magic utility is called HP Boot Utility.

Officially HP Boot Utility is for HP drives. But not “only” for HP drives. Yes it can be used with almost every flash media including some memory cards too.

Download Magic Potion

Usage Method
After installation the utility will place a shortcut in 'HP System Tools' in the 'Programs' start menu folder.

To make your drive key bootable and/or capable of flashing firmware:

• Place your hp USB drive key in an available USB port.
• Select the 'HP Drive Key Boot Utility' shortcut in the 'HP System Tools' folder.
• Complete each step presented by the application.

During the interview process, when asked to select the drive letter your key is using, if the drop down box is unpopulated please note that the drive key is either not properly connected to the system or is of drive type "fixed disk". To determine the type of a USB mass storage device, enter "My Computer" and right-click on the USB drive key and choose "Properties." The drive type will be displayed in the Properties pane. If the drive is labeled "fixed disk" or "local disk" the following steps must be followed to assign a drive letter to the USB drive key prior to running the HP Drive Key boot Utility.

• Insert the Drive Key.
• Login as Administrator.
• Select Start-> Programs-> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management.
• Select Computer Management (local) -> Storage -> Disk Management (local).
• Select "Change/Add Drive Letter" for the disk to map the Drive Key to.
• Choose a drive letter.

For a list of available firmware, please visit the ROM Updates page.

For SmartStart CD and Firmware Maintenance CD functionality, use the HP USB Key Utility to copy your SmartStart CD and Firmware Maintenance CD on to your portable USB key storage device.

via Bellgates (TMS Forum member)

nVidia GeForce 8 Series

Earlier this year, nVidia smashed their rivals with their cutting-edge GeForce 8 series graphics cards. These cards are the first ever to support Microsoft® DirectX 10 games and applications, which is developed mostly for Windows Vista. The 8 series also supports Microsoft® DirectX 9 and NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD² technology for unsurpassed Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality.

Like any other GeForce cards (starting from GeForce 6600), the 8 series support nVidia's SLi* multi-GPU* technology that enables two graphics cards to be linked together in a single PC and gives you performance boost up to 2x (100%!). However, it can only be seen on resolutions of about 1600x1200 (19-inch LCD) and above. Any lower than that, it'll be hard to tell the difference between single and dual GPU.

They started by introducing the top-of-the-line GeForce 8800 and mid-range GeForce 8600, which comes in different versions; Ultra, GTX, GTS and GT (sounds like engine lubricant to me :P). The GeForce 8400GS have just been released, making it an entry-level 8 series for those who want to feel the experience but in a very tight budget.

If you want to:
-find out the specs for all 8 series GeForce? click here.
-check the price range for the cards? click here.
-convert the price to any currency? click here.

Also, find out more about:
-SLi technology
-NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD

*acronyms:-
GPU: Graphics Processing Unit
SLi: Scalable Link Interface

source: nvidia.com and newegg.com

Understand High Definition (HD), HD-DVD and Blu-ray

You might be thinking why would you want to get a next gen High Definition (HD) player in the first place? The answer is simple High Definition (HD) media gives you clearer pictures and sounds than you can get from Standard Definition. The detailed answer is about the pixels – High Definition gives you more pixels compared to Standard Definition as you can see from TV and DVDs, and more pixels means more picture information.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray players can support all DVD resolutions, as well as HDTV formats 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Besides that, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray also promises better sound in addition to clearer pictures with support 7.1 channels and uncompressed audio tracks.

DVD players use a red laser to read data while HD-DVD and Blu-ray use blue laser to read – understand now how Blu-ray got its name? The red laser’s wavelength 650 nanometer while blue laser’s wavelength is 405 nanometer. Tighter laser can read smaller bumps of information packed more densely on the HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

Blu-ray departs from the DVD standard method of burning data spirals – means new manufacturing facilities with high cost but Blu-ray disc are selling at roughly the same price as HD-DVDs. Besides that, Blu-ray use different standard from DVD, the players need to include extra mechanism to plat DVD – increase the DVD player’s price. HD-DVD on the other hand has a similar format to DVD so it can make use of existing DVD manufacturing facilities. HD DVD often come with the standard DVD version of the movie.

Infos extracted from HMW Mag.