Computer Buying Guide

Most of the talk going on in the computer processor industry is revolving around dual core processors. But what advantages do they actually give and is it worth it in terms of price?

All processors have a core. A processor contains some memory, often referred to as cache, either L1, L2 or L3, depending on how close it is to the core, and the core itself, as well as a few other essentials. The core is the “brain” part, it performs all the big calculations that are needed for the various things a computer does.

Computer cores have been increasing in speed, and increasingly quickly. Manufacturers were in a race to have the chip with the fastest speed, measured in GHz. One surprise is that despite these increases in clock speed, the actual speed of programs didn’t increase proportionately.

As modern programs make much heavier use of other computer parts like memory, and there are often many running at the same time, another approach was needed.

Dual core processors were the answer.

By putting two “brain” parts into the processor, you can run two programs on two cores, without having to share it between them. The effect of this is that when running two or more programs, the processor can now handle much more as a whole.

The part about them that might disappoint is gaming.

Unlike the multitasking environment that is usual for a computer either at home or at the office, games rely on the brute force of a powerful processor to help them along. So far there is no technology to take advantage of the two processors, like the ability to split its tasks over two cores. Most gaming has not improved with this new technology.

As with processors in the past the mainstream of dual core processors is dominated by the two big guys, Intel and AMD.

Intel offers two processors in its range, same processor, just different speeds. The lower priced of the Pentium D processors comes in at around $250. This price is reasonable considering how much you would pay for the top of the line single core processor.

The Pentium D is based on the same core as it’s single core counterparts, just two of them inside. Its boost in performance is quite notable, and makes it presence felt in the multitasking environment.

The AMD Athlon X2 is AMD’s offering in the dual core market. Unlike the Pentium D its lowest priced model comes in at a staggering $400. It’s not expensive compared to processors like its FX series, which are over $1000, but in comparison to Intel it’s expensive.

It too is based on the same core as its single core cousins and also offers the same performance increases.

The price of the AMD is surprising. From a company that became renowned for it’s low cost, high performance processors this is quite a blow. Even the upper model of the Pentium Ds comes in at less that AMD’s cheapest model.

The price might be justified if the AMD actually gave a significant performance boost, but it doesn’t.

For the first time in a long time, I think I would be willing to switch back to an Intel processor. Although my preference is not for dual core, if I had or needed to switch I would certainly go straight for the Pentium D.

And finally, how do they compare to their now out of date traditional processors?

Considering how powerful processors have become I would still not make the switch. Dual core has not been around long enough to produce low cost, slightly out of date models. The power of the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ more than does it for my computing needs, and that’s where I would stay for now.

So for those who are looking for the next cool thing for their desktop computer and price is not a huge issue, this would be your best choice, but go for the lower end Pentium D.

If you are running out of space on your computer or find that programs load a little slow, or that big files take a long time to open, it may be time for a new hard drive.

Making a more careful decision about the hard drive can mean a much longer working life for the hard drive. Better reliability, allowing the hard drive to run for many years without mechanical failures or the worst of all, losing your precious data to errors on the drive.

Obviously the main thing that people think about when getting a new drive is size. Although a 400GB drive sounds great, there are very few people who actually use this much space. Only if you save DVD movies to your hard drive, or if you do serious amounts of video editing will you need this much space. The smallest size drives available today are about 40GB and will suffice for all your needs. However if you want the latest technologies, bigger sizes are inevitable.

Over the years the speed at which hard drives work has increased. One of the main technologies to improve is the connection between the hard drive and the rest of the computer. It passes the information back and forth from the hard drive, the faster it is the faster information can be passed, and so speeding up the programs you use and the files you use.

There are 2 main varieties for this connection:

The old IDE kind, which comes in 4 flavors: ATA33, ATA66, ATA100 and ATA133, each number corresponding to the transfer rate in MB/s, the bigger the faster. This type is pretty standard. If your computer is older, you may only be able to use this kind, and depending how old will determine which speed.

SATA is a newer kind. It uses a different cable and allows much faster information transfer. The slower kind is 150MB/s and the faster is 300MB/s, so they are much faster than IDE.

A newer technology called Native Command Queuing (NCQ) speeds up how fast things are found and done on the hard drive. Just briefly, it orders the read and write commands given to it in such as way as to get the tasks done quicker and with less delay.

Drives are most often separated by their size and this is a big factor in the pricing of a drive. The smallest drives today are around 40GB, you can get a little smaller, but no point really. The largest of 400GB will be enough for a really long time.

The other thing that affects pricing is the rotation speed, which is the speed at which the big disk spins inside the disk drive. The faster it spins the faster information gets found. Look for rotation speeds of 7200RPM as standard and 10000 for the fast end.

With all of this it may be hard to decide, but here are my suggestions.

For a main drive, which has your Windows and programs on it, go for something faster, but bear in mind that even for me my ATA66 drive is fast enough for my uses. But a faster one will speed up how fast your programs go. It might be a good idea just to go for one big, fast drive.

Brand name drives are often worth getting, as manufacturers like Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital are well known for long lasting quality products, which will not make any difference in the short term usually, but will pay off with long life and reliability.

If you want or need two drives the second one can sacrifice speed for size, as that’s what’s most often needed for a second drive, which usually stores all your information.

You should now have enough to make a smart choice in your next hard drive purchase. A good one can be kept for a very long time and minimize any hassles in the future.