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Accessories Ssd
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MRK-510ST Accessory NexStar SE 2.5 in. to 3.5 in. SATA Hard Drive-SSD |  |
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US $35.34 | 28d 11h 2m |
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Syba SY-ACC25016-SYBA Accessory SY-ACC25016 Dual 2.5 HDD SSD Mounting Bracket Re | |
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US $24.48 | 25d 23h 3m |
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SYBA Accessory SY-ACC25016 Dual 2.5inch HDD/SSD Mounting Bracket Retail | |
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US $10.48 | 23d 5h 30m |
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Vantec Accessory MRK-510ST 2.5inch to 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive/SSD Converter Reta | |
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US $17.04 | 23d 5h 29m |
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MacBook Pro 13.3" SOLID STATE DRIVE February 2011 MINT CONDITION w/ Accessories | |
0 Bid | US $899.99 | 5d 15h 17m |
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Aras List Price: $23.99 Sale Price: $19.05  |
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Works with any USB 3.0 Port Backward compatible with UB 2.0 With case for 2.5" HDD & SSD Compatible with Seagate GoFlex Plug & Play Support Hot Swapping |
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Delta 19922-SSSD-DST Ashton Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Soap Dispenser, Stainless List Price: $355.05 Sale Price: $190.17 |
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Delta 16971-SSSD-DST Velino Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Integrated Soap Dispenser, Stainless List Price: $285.35 Sale Price: $169.32 |
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Finish:Stainless A simple, classic design reflects the style and taste of the traditional at heart. Timeless design blends flawlessly into your decor. Exclusive MagnaTite spray head docking ensures a snug fit of the wand Includes matching soap or lotion dispenser Pull-down wand operates in an aerated or spray mode via an ergonomic toggle diverter. Single handle for ease of control Lifetime Faucet and Finish Warranty DIAMOND Seal Technology MagnaTite Docking Touch Clean Brilliance Finish With Soap/Lotion Dispenser CA/VT Compliant |
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Delta 19949-SSSD-DST Savile Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Soap Dispenser, Stainless List Price: $346.75 Sale Price: $189.95 |
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Finish:Stainless High-arc spout swivels 360 for complete sink access Pull-down spout expands reach and work area High arc spout provides extra clearance for deep pots and pans Matching soap dispenser and optional deck escutcheon included Lifetime Faucet and Finish Warranty ADA Compliant DIAMOND Seal Technology MagnaTite Docking Touch Clean With Soap / Lotion Dispenser CA/VT Compliant |
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Sonicscrubbers "Pro Detailer" Sonic Scrubber System with Medium Head Attached |
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PRO DETAILER SONIC SCRUBBER SYSTEM Our most powerful motor provides continuous scrubbing without stalling on the toughest jobs. SonicScrubbers ergonomic handle with non-slip grip provides a comfortable secure hold. A variety of brushes are available to tackle your detailing challenges. Detail your vehicle, motorcycle, boat, RV, or anything that needs detailed scrubbing up to 75% faster and easier. Oscillating brushes for high speed back and forth scrubbing Effective for hard-to-reach and difficult-to-clean areas Works great with your favorite cleaning solutions. Angled head prevents knuckle scrapes and broken nails. Portable and water tight for easy cleaning around water. |
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Hairart 12" Yak Hair Mannequin Head #4151YW Sale Price: $44.95 |
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Hairart 12" Yak Hair Mannequin Head #4151YW |
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ASUS Transformer TF300 T-B1-BL 10.1-Inch 32 GB Tablet (Blue) List Price: $399.99 Sale Price: $390.99 |
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The ASUS TF300T-B1-BL Eee Pad Transformer Tablet features an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS to access different Android apps, and possesses a sleek 10.1” WXGA IPS capacitive pressure-sensing multi touch display to explore and navigate its customizable interface. This tablet is also ready to unleash impressive performance with its NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-core processor. This tablet also comes with 32GB of Flash storage for your downloads and photos that you can take using an 8MP camera. Moreover, enjoy connecting to your PC or other devices with its MicroSD Slot and Micro HDMI port. |
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SILVERSTONE SDP08 3.5 to 2 X 2.5-Inch Bay Converter Sale Price: $8.99 |
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The SilverStone SDP08 Hard Drive Bay Converter seamlessly converts a regular 3.5" bay to accommodate up to two 2.5" drives! |
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MOTOROLA XOOM Android Tablet (10.1-Inch, 32GB, Wi-Fi) List Price: $499.00 Sale Price: Too low to display |
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MOTOROLA MOBILITY INC MOTOROLA XOOM WIFI 10.1 DISPLAY ANDROID 3.0 NVIDIA TEGRA 1GHZ DUAL-CORE 5 MEGAPMOTOROLA XOOM WIFI 10.1 DISPLAY ANDROID 3.0 NVIDIA TEGRA 1GHZ DUAL-CORE 5 MEGAPIXELS 1280 X 720 REAR-FACING CAMERA 2 MEGAPIXEL FRONT-FACING CAMERA Manufacturer : MOTOROLA MOBILITY INC UPC : 723755000018 Redefining the tablet by providing more ways to have fun, connect with friends and stay productive on the go, the Motorola XOOM boasts a dual core processor with each core running at 1 GHz, 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, and ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking. Winner of the Best of Show award at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the XOOM also offers support for Adobe Flash Player--enabling you to view the web without compromise. Dual-core processing, Android 3.0 Honeycomb platform, and 10.1-inch HD multi-touch display (see larger image). Front-facing camera for video chats, and rear 5-megapixel camera for HD 720p video capture (see larger image). It runs Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, which offers a multi-touch, holographic user interface that improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization. It also offers the latest Google Mobile innovations, including Google Maps 5.0 with 3D interaction, access to over 3 million Google eBooks and Google Talk with video and voice chat. The Motorola XOOM features a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chats over Wi-Fi via Google Talk, as well as a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera (with LED flash for stills) that captures video in 720p HD. The 10.1-inch display delivers console-like gaming performance on its 1280 x 800-pixel display, and it features a built-in gyroscope, barometer, e-compass, accelerometer, and adaptive lighting for new types of applications. Other features include a 32 GB internal memory, memory expansion via optional microSD cards (with future software upgrade), 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, access to personal and corporate e-mail, HD 1080p video playback, HDMI output for connecting to a compatible HDTV or monitor, and a 3250 mAh battery for up to 10 hours of Wi-Fi internet browsing. Android 3.0 Honeycomb Specifically optimized for devices with larger screen sizes such as tablets, the Android 3.0 platform (dubbed Honeycomb) introduces a brand new, truly virtual and "holographic" UI design. With five customizable home screens, you can easily access your favorite live widgets or application shortcuts. Each screen features a familiar launcher to access to all installed applications, as well as a Search box for universal search of apps, contacts, media files, web content, and more. Multitasking in Android 3.0 is easier than ever, and you can use the Recent Apps list in the System Bar to see the tasks underway and quickly jump from one application context to another. You'll even see a snapshot of the last screen viewed in that app as a visual reminder. The Android onscreen keyboard has also been redesigned to make entering text fast and accurate on larger screen sizes. Other features in Android 3.0 Honeycomb include: Scrollable and stackable widgets. Scrollable and stacked widgets let you scroll or flick through content within the widget itself, on the home page, without opening the application. Unobtrusive notification system displays icons for different notifications (messages, downloads, system updates, etc.) in the lower right corner. Just touch the digital time display to open the entire notification panel. Redesigned YouTube application with a cool 3D gallery. Android Market for Android 3.0 is your one-stop-shop for eBooks, games, and applications. Power Accessories beyond the Charger The Motorola XOOM has a wide range of optional accessories to expand its power and capabilities. The "smart docks" are no longer just a place to charge your device; they make Motorola XOOM a portable play and work station that fits your lifestyle. The Standard Dock can be used for watching video content or listening to music through external speakers as the device charges. The Speaker HD Dock allows you to send HD content directly to your TV or blast your tunes without attaching external speakers. Connectivity Ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n) for accessing home and corporate networks as well as hotspots while on the go. Bluetooth connectivity (version 2.1) includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP audio streaming Bluetooth profiles. Onboard GPS for navigation and location services. Integrated Google Maps with turn-by-turn navigation, street, satellite, and three-dimensional landscape views. Optional speaker dock. Now Upgradable to Android 3.2 Support for the new Android Market Movie rentals service with thousands of titles available for immediate viewing on the Motorola XOOM's high-resolution display or on a larger screen via HDMI. Full support for the new release of Adobe Flash Player 10.2 delivering significant performance enhancements when viewing rich Flash content on the web. Resizable widgets to enable further customization of home screens. Support for USB-connected peripherals and accessories such as keyboards, mice, game controllers and digital cameras. Expanded Bluetooth features to support Bluetooth headsets in Google TalkTM video chats and Bluetooth mouse support in addition to additional shortcut keys with the Bluetooth keyboard Picture Transfer Protocol Feature support to enable easier transfer of photo files to your PC without the need for drivers. All the Power of XOOM First access to Honeycomb upgrades. Productivity-pumping 1GHz dual-core processor Movie rentals and downloads from Android MarketTM Communications & Internet Video chat on Google Talk with any other Google Talk-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, or PC). Access to personal and corporate e-mail (including support for Exchange and push Gmail). Desktop-like web browser (HTML5-based Android Webkit) with tabbed browsing and Chrome bookmark sync. Design and Hardware 1 GHz dual-core processor enables web browsing at unprecedented speed and accelerated multi-tasking. Integrated NVIDIA graphics delivers smooth, full frame-rate 1080p HD video playback 1 GB of DDR2 RAM 10.1-inch multi-touch HD display (1280 x 800 pixels; 150p per inch) with 720p video capture and pinch-to-zoom navigation. Onscreen keyboard Memory 32 GB internal memory Memory expansion via microSD card slot with support for optional cards up to 32 GB (functionality requires future software upgrade). More Features HDMI audio/video port enables you to output pictures, slides and videos in HD quality (1080p) via HDMI cable (sold separately). Micro USB port (not for charging) 3.5mm headphone jack Data encryption ensures the privacy and security of data on your tablet. Camera 5-megapixel rear-facing camera for optimized resolution when capturing photos on the go. Includes dual-LED flash, auto-focus, and digital zoom. 2-megapixel front-facing web cam for video chats. Includes indicator light when used. HD 720p video capture capabilities Instantly upload video to sharing sites or view and edit on the fly. Multimedia Music player compatible with MP3 and AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ Video player compatible with MPEG4 and H.264/H.263 See larger image. Vital Statistics The Motorola XOOM weighs 25 ounces and measures 9.8 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches. Its 3250 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 10 hours of video playback, up to 10 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing, and up to 3.3 days of MP3 playback. What's in the Box Motorola XOOM handset, charger, data cable, quick start guide, user manual Also Available for This Android Device Kindle App for Android Read more than 700,000 Kindle books with our free application. MP3 for Android Find, buy and play the music you love wherever you are. Amazon App for Android Shop for millions of products wherever you go. IMDB App for Android Connect to the world's largest collection of movie, TV and celebrity information. |
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Zebra Pattern Trifold Checkbook Wallet - Choice of Colors |
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The trendy zebra print is a soft velvet on a leatherette exterior, trimmed in moc croc. Zebra Pattern Faux Leather * Magnetic Snap on Closure * Rear Pocket * Coin Zipper Pocket on the Back * Zebra Pattern Matching Check Book Holder * Length/Height/Width : 7.5" / 4.0" / 1.0" |
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Bright Red Compact Durable Plush Protective Carrying Camera Case for Samsung 16GB SSD 32GB SSD H200 Full HD Camcorder Flash Memory 52x Zoom Compact camcorder HMX H204 Full HD Camcorder with 16GB Internal Memory & 20x Optical Zoom + HDMI Mini Cable + Flexible Sturdy Tripod Sale Price: $24.99 |
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The SumacLife Camcorder Bag with Shoulder Strap is a convenient way to protect and store your digital camcorder and organize your accessories. Its padded interior and soft lining is designed to help keep your camera safe and free of scratches, while its mesh zipper pocket provides ease of storage for cords and extra batteries. And thanks to the bag''''s removable, adjustable 3 ft shoulder strap and top-grip handle, and Velcro back exterior strap you can carry your camcorder comfortably and easily wherever you go. Compact Zipper Bag with Durability The Camcorder Bag features a padded lining with durable protective soft interior designed to help keep your camcorder and accessories safe and scratch free!! For comfort and convenience, the bag features an adjustable shoulder strap and top-grip handle. Storage Options Organize Accessories Zippered interior mesh pocket and Velcro outside strap provide storage for extra media, memory cards, batteries, chargers, video cables, or other small accessories. The main case compartment provides secure portability for your camcorder and allows for quick access when you need it. |
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Slate Gray Durable Plush Protective Carrying Camera Case forSamsung 16GB SSD 32GB SSD H200 Full HD Camcorder Flash Memory 52x Zoom Compact camcorder HMX H204 Full HD Camcorder with 16GB Internal Memory & 20x Optical Zoom + HDMI Mini Cable + Flexible Sturdy Tripod Sale Price: $17.99 |
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The SumacLife Camcorder Bag with Shoulder Strap is a convenient way to protect and store your digital camcorder and organize your accessories. Its padded interior and soft lining is designed to help keep your camera safe and free of scratches, while its mesh zipper pocket provides ease of storage for cords and extra batteries. And thanks to the bag''''s removable, adjustable 3 ft shoulder strap and top-grip handle, and Velcro back exterior strap you can carry your camcorder comfortably and easily wherever you go. Compact Zipper Bag with Durability The Camcorder Bag features a padded lining with durable protective soft interior designed to help keep your camcorder and accessories safe and scratch free!! For comfort and convenience, the bag features an adjustable shoulder strap and top-grip handle. Storage Options Organize Accessories Zippered interior mesh pocket and Velcro outside strap provide storage for extra media, memory cards, batteries, chargers, video cables, or other small accessories. The main case compartment provides secure portability for your camcorder and allows for quick access when you need it. |
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Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Learning Kitchen List Price: $39.99 Sale Price: $19.97 |
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The Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Learning Kitchen is an interactive and educational toy that will capture your child's attention and have him learning in the process. This durable toy kitchen and fridge design features four modes of interaction: Learning, Learning in Spanish, Music, and Imagination. The sounds and songs that play as your child interacts with the moveable features and the fun, food-shaped blocks will have children aged 6 months to 3 years rapt with curiosity. Learning Kitchen Ages: 6 to 36 months Requires: Three AA batteries (included) What We Think Fun factor: Durability: Ease of assembly: Educational factor: Novelty factor: The Good: An interactive and educational toy for curious toddlers and older infants The Challenging: Case-like design may shut easily during play In a Nutshell: Instructive, fun, and versatile The Laugh & Learn Kitchen will keep your child captivated with sounds, switches, and music. View larger. The kitchen comes with plastic pots, pans, toy food, and other accessories. View larger. A Fun, Interactive Kitchen This interactive toy kitchen needs minimal set up once you unpack it from the box. The only piece you'll need to assemble for your child is the green garbage can, which snaps into place and stays put with the two accompanying Phillips-head screws. Three AA batteries are included with purchase. The toy has a case-like design that incorporates features on the outside and inside. One side of the exterior features a refrigerator door with a handle and slots for inserting food shapes like a carton of milk, a bunch of carrots, and a jar of apple sauce. These plastic toys slide into a storage compartment that your child can access inside the refrigerator. Around the corner, an interactive kitchen boasts plenty of buttons that emit familiar cartoon sound effects. Your child will be fascinated by the sounds of sizzling on the stove or running water from the faucet. An oversized switch clicks on a kitchen light, and a track ball on the toy clock makes a tick-tock noise when moved. Opening the fridge reveals the storage compartment, which holds the plastic food and utensils, and an interactive book that makes fruits and vegetables fun and appealing. Cook Up Learning and Play The Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Learning Kitchen provides a way for your child to learn through interactive play. He can begin to build a vocabulary of words and greetings in English and Spanish, and learn to recognize shapes, sizes, colors, numbers, and letters. The toy also emphasizes manners, healthy eating, hygiene, and opposites such as on or off. This toy promotes problem-solving skills and allows you to be part of the process. As your child presses buttons, opens the fridge, and flips switches, you can help him make connections that will facilitate learning and reinforce knowledge. With more than 20 catchy songs and musical activities, this toy packs plenty of entertaining features that your child will love. The case-like design of this toy kitchen opens and shuts easily, but rest assured, the smooth plastic is safe and won't be much of a surprise if it closes during play. The plastic hinge won't catch on your child's skin or little fingers. You'll wish your kitchen was this easy to tidy and clean. Volume Control This toy has two sound settings for those moments when you need to take it down a notch. You can also opt to turn off the interactive modes for silent play. What's in the Box Plastic toy kitchen with three AA batteries, garbage can with two screws, three food shapes, two plastic utensils, and an instructional booklet. |
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Xavix Bowling Starter Kit Sale Price: $25.00 |
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Revoluntionary Way to Interact With Your TV!! Any Bowler Will Love This! |
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Moog Ssd131 Steering Damper Kit Sale Price: $45.95 |
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Chassis Part |
A Definitive Guide on How to Choose Your New Pc
As an information technology specialist myself I find it constantly frustrating how I’m mislead or not informed by vendors and retailers about buying decisions I might make. There are lots of PC buying guides available out there but they are either too specific about technology choices so they date very fast or do not help you meet your specific requirements. They are often too high level and only explain the very simplest of specification details and the minute a sales rep or consultant gives you other options or explanations you are lost. This guide is aimed at the novice to moderately experienced PC user. If you are a guru or expert you should know most of this already.
As an example of how easy it is to be mislead a very well-known big leading PC brand was recently advertising its 'xyz-wizbang' PC with an amazing 12GB of memory, Extreme Intel Quad core processor and Quad graphics cards. Sounds impressive huh!? When I saw the low price I became suspicious. When you click on the link for more details, then click on the options, then click on the technical specification, then read it very carefully and you find it only has 3GB of memory but is expandable to 12GB, has a standard Intel processor but has an option for the Extreme, and supports Quad graphics cards but comes with just one. You can imagine without digging into the detail the price would have been quite seductive.
A favourite proverb of mine goes something like 'Give a hungry man a fish and feed him for a day, give him the tools to fish and feed him for life'. Well that about perfectly summarises the intention of this guide. Given just a little more information you can adequately specify your own requirements, cross-examine vendors and retailers about their advertised machine specifications and reward yourself with a good quality PC that will last and do all that you want it to. The added bonus to learning how to buy this way is that it wont date, the same concepts as I explain here have applied broadly since the mid 1980’s. A lot of the understanding lies in demystifying the jargon and I will do a lot of that using simple terms. Clearly more understanding is needed as I still get asked from time to time 'What is the difference between 4GB RAM and 300GB of hard disk, and which do I need?'. Hmmmm, if you are in this category you need to read this now....
The components of the PC
Before we can make decisions we need to know what everything in the PC does and how it does it.
· The CPU or Processor - The processor is the engine of your PC it executes instructions millions of times a second to get the work you want done finished. Modern processors will have multiple cores and are known as Dual core (2 cores) or Quad core (4 cores, soon ‘Octa’ 8 core processors will be available) which makes them a bit like my wife i.e. capable of doing more than one thing at a time, or multi-task.
So lets say I ask my computer to give me a million lottery numbers and it takes eight seconds to complete (it would actually finish in the blink of an eye). With a Dual core this would only take four seconds as I could get one core to give me half a million numbers and the other to do the same, at the same time. So on a Quad core using the same logic it would only take two seconds. Breaking up tasks like this is called multi-threading. So that's the theory if you can break up a big task into multiple smaller tasks that can all be executed simultaneously then the more cores the better. However there's a catch. Not all tasks can be broken up this way and not all software vendors write their programs this way so you need to make sure what you do is able to take advantage of it then you will know whether you should go for a Duo, a Quad or even an Octa core processor.
The other factor that affects performance is the clock speed of the CPU expressed in GHz (cycles per second). Most processors these days are somewhere between 1.8GHz and 3.3GHz. All cores in a multi core CPU will be running at the same clock speed. So if you see a manufacturer describe a PC as 12GHz, then what they are probably doing is multiplying the clock speed by the number of cores (4 cores by 3GHz). Perhaps to make their PC's look phenomenally faster than anyone else’s, who knows. Clock speed is simpler than number of cores, a faster clock speed simply means faster execution times, period. Therefore if you can’t get the benefit of more cores you should be able to get the benefit of higher GHz.
· The Memory (or RAM) - While the computer is on the memory is where the CPU stores its work in progress. Computer memory is the fastest place the PC can store information so when its doing your work that is where it prefers to do it. However if it runs out of available memory it will start storing things on your hard disk instead (known as Paging to Virtual memory) and this is when things slow down dramatically. So make sure you don't skimp on memory get more than enough of it, as much as you can afford. Secondary to that is how fast it is in itself. As a guide Windows Vista really eats the first 1GB so your minimum memory ought to be 2GB (DDR2) or 3GB (DDR3) for general light use, and 4GB (for DDR2) to 6GB (for DDR3) or more for demanding games or applications.
Memory speed is measured in a combination of MHz, Type and Latency. Its also important to remember that bandwidth is different to speed. Imagine the memory bus is like a road. A single lane road with cars travelling fast at say 70mph, each car will get to its destination quickly but there will only be so many cars you can fit on the road. On the other hand a four-lane highway even if it’s slower at 55mph will get more cars to their destination in the same time period although all the cars individually will take longer to get there, this is akin to bandwidth. None-the-less the two are interlinked as clearly a narrow road can match the bandwidth of a multi-lane highway if the cars are able to move fast enough.
Different demanding tasks you might do on a computer demand bandwidth or speed, or a balance of both to work optimally. The memory bus technology type used also influences bandwidth i.e. DDR, DDR2, DDR3 etc. The DDR means Dual Data Rate and the number after it indicates how many parallel channels it uses to communicate. Clearly the more channels it uses the more bandwidth it will have. Therefore DDR2 has twice the bandwidth of DDR and DDR3 in turn 150% more bandwidth. As a rough rule of thumb memory speed in MHz should double for each level of DDR as each has a latency penalty roughly double that of its predecessor. So to get DDR2 memory as fast as DDR 400MHz, the DDR2 needs to be 800MHz, and because its dual channel you will get greatly increased bandwidth. Think about this carefully because DDR3 1333MHz is not automatically better than DDR2 1100MHz for the reasons explained, its is often assumed the latest technology is better and it isn’t always the case.
At the time of writing you ought to expect to be getting a new PC with DDR3 1333MHz to 1600MHz memory. Or if it has DDR2 then 800MHz or more. As far as latency is concerned it gets complicated to explain but if you are doing demanding work make sure its low latency memory. For gaming and general work speed is more important than bandwidth for video encoding or other tasks that move a lot of data volume around bandwidth is the priority.
· The Hard disk (HDD or Storage) – The hard disk unlike memory is a slower but permanent store. When your computer is switched off all your files remain there ready for when you switch it back on again. For the vast majority of people the only thing of relevance is whether the store is big enough. Mechanical hard disks are so cheap now you can get an awful lot more capacity than your ever likely to need for not a lot of money. Typically a new PC should have at least 300GB of storage capacity.
If you do a lot of photography, database or video work then the speed of the disk is important to you. Four things affect hard disk speed 1) Its rotational speed (usually 7200 rpm, but up to 15000rpm), 2) How much data it stores per square of its surface (the platter), i.e. areal density, 3) the interface speed to the PC, it should now be SATA-II which can transfer data at up to 300MB/s, and 4) the speed at which the drive head can move across the surface (average seek time usually around 8ms). The latter is usually the least important.
A new technology that is quickly maturing is the Solid State Disk or SSD. It has no moving parts and uses a special type of permanent memory (flash memory like USB sticks have) to store the computers data just like a hard drive. It’s a complex topic in itself and a specialised area. For the vast majority of people they are too expensive at present to offer much value and cheap SSD’s will only outperform a good hard drive in limited scenarios.
· The Graphics Card (or GPU, Graphics Processing Unit) – If you don’t play games, edit video, do 3D graphical modelling, CAD or design work you can skip this section as any modern graphics card should do. That includes photographers as photographic work is still chiefly constrained by the CPU and not the graphics card. The motivation for investing a lot of technology in graphics cards has been the demands of 3D graphics processing, in real-time. This is so demanding there is now arguable more processing power in the GPU of high end cards than in the main processor of the PC.
There are essentially two contenders in the field ATI and nVidia. Both are excellent and offer very similar performance in terms of price-value. They keep swapping the crown between each other as to who is the ultimate fastest at any one time. Generally unless you need the best of the best the second or third card down from the top of the range should do all you need and will be considerably cheaper. Graphics cards have their own dedicated processor at their heart known as the GPU. The speed of this GPU is measured just like you main processor i.e. in terms of cores (streams) and MHz. More cores and higher MHz generally make it faster. There are architectural differences between the design of the ATI and nVidia GPU’s so you cannot reliably compare them core for core, MHz to MHz. You need to look within the same vendor to do that kind of comparison.
Almost all cards now support dual DVI (digital) monitor outputs so you can have two monitors attached simultaneously. The other important thing that varies is the screen resolution they support you should expect a minimum of 1600x1200, the higher you go the more memory you will need on the card (as its acts as a frame buffer) and the more powerful the card will need to be to quickly render the larger screen size.
Multiple graphics cards can now be installed using ATI Crossfire or nVidia SLI inter-GPU communications standards and interfaces. It’s also possible to have two GPU’s on a single card in which case SLI or Crossfire will be running to link the two GPU’s on the one card. Beware of this method of increasing your graphics performance as some applications and games are not designed to use it effectively and it doesn’t scale up linearly each card (or GPU) is likely to give you an additional 40-60% performance gain over the single card (or GPU).
· Windows 32 or 64-bit (or the Operating System) – this is all about memory. Computers use the binary system of 1’s and 0’s to express numbers and the number of ones and zeros they use determines how big a number the computer can use. Each memory location in the computer is referenced by a sequential number just like a street address for the postal service. Having 32-bits enabled the computer to address up to 4GB of memory, you can add more but the computer just wont see it and that’s no longer enough. So now the standard address is 64-bit and that means we can reference 2^64 memory locations, or, 17.2 billion gigabytes (or 16 exabytes)! So it should be a while before we need to change that again. Though most of the latest motherboards are accepting up to six sticks of RAM which has densities of up to 4GB per stick, so 24GB is the practical limit.
· Optical Drives (DVD, CD and Blu-ray) - Optical drives come in three flavours DVD Rewriter (DVD-RW), DVD/Blu-ray Reader (BD-R / DVD-R) and Blu-ray Rewriter (BD-RW). They really speak for themselves Blu-ray is superior to DVD in two ways 1) it uses Blue laser light which records at a much higher density than a red DVD laser so they have a greater capacity at 50GB over a DVD at typically 8.5GB, 2) you can play Blu-ray movies on a Blu-ray Reader or Rewriter. If you don’t care about either of those features you don’t need Blu-ray and can save yourself some money. Generally only film aficionados or video editors make use of Blu-ray.
· Interfaces (connections to your PC for peripherals and accessories) - All modern PC's should have interfaces supporting the following standards; Firewire (IEEE1394), USB2, eSATA and HD Multichannel Audio. So expect this as a minimum.
· The Case - for your average PC it really doesn’t matter what you choose. However, if you think you are likely to want to upgrade regularly then choose a standard size and construction and not a branded case. Main brand cases are often deliberately designed to be throw away as they have no upgrade room, non-standard sizes or are very difficult to work on and remove outdated components. Also make sure it has good cooling, front, rear and top fans ideally, and is quiet. If you can afford it choose a aluminium tool-less case rather than pressed steel. They generally look better and are far more easily upgradable. Also make sure that some of the PC interfaces have sockets on the chassis i.e. USB2, Audio, Firewire (IEEE1394) and eSATA.
There are a lot of more advanced factors that affect performance that I will cover very briefly as a detailed explanation is beyond this article. Please refer to my other articles for more information where I go into all of these in some depth (some justify having a whole article dedicated to them).
· Front Side Bus, HyperTransport (AMD) or Quick Path Interconnect (FSB or with Intel Core i7 QPI) - this is a communication channel (a 'bus') between memory and the processor. Over the last decade it has steadily increased from 10's of MHz to the last processor supporting it (the Core 2) hitting the technologies ceiling at officially 1600MHz (though with overclocking faster speeds where possible). QPI speeds are currently 4800 to 6400GT/s.
· Overclocked - With the right competent and experienced vendor they are quite simply the fastest PC's you can buy and usually represent very good value.
· SpeedStep (or EIST) - sounds sexy, but really isn’t. It's a technology that cuts down power consumption by the processor when utilisation is low.
· HyperThreading - allows the processor to create the illusion to Windows that it has more processors than it really does. So a Quad core HyperThreaded processor would look like it had eight cores. Its not quite as good as it sounds though as all the processor is doing is allowing the extra virtual cores to use bits of the processor that aren’t busy. So if you are doing heavy work its highly like there aren’t any bits of the processor that aren’t busy and it wont be that useful at all. In general use it gives about a 10-15% performance boost. With heavy processor loads it actually gets in the way and can drop performance by 5% or so.
· Turbo - its creeping back into use again with Intel’s new Core i7 processors and it sort of works the opposite way around to SpeedStep. It simply means if the processor is in high demand then the PC will boost its performance by raising the processors clock speed 200-300MHz. Its usefulness is well overstated.
· RAID – is a disk controller technology that can both speed up disk transfer times and offer resilience should a drive fail. Comes in different flavours RAID0 for performance, RAID1 for resilience and RAID5 or RAID10 for both resilience and speed.
Conclusion
Now you are armed with all the tools to take any vendors and retailers to task over their inadequate or incorrect specifications and dubious sales tactics. Get value for money and be firm about what your requirements are and what you expect for your money. Make sure its up to date and neither over specified or under specified for your personal needs. Above all, have fun and enjoy it…
About the Author
Chief Technologist at Cryo Performance Computers. Leading the development of innovative PC design. Cryo PC supply high performance specialist PC's including professional custom built pc's and extreme gaming pc's.
I am a disabled artist and want to open a gallery and do merchandising. Any help out there 4 me? BassArtsCom?
I worked as the head designer in a Manhattan accessory company and see the possibilities of merchandising my designs on products. I'm on a fixed income SSD and want to open a art gallery with my merchandised products. I also would have my products in chain stores like all the ones I made as a designer in NYC. I have heard there is help for disabled persons trying to start a business but have had little luck finding it. I am disabled with a vascular disease that is progressive and affects my mobility greatly. Once I get the help I need I wanted to incorporate my company and have a percentage donated to research my disease because it is so rare there is currently no research being done to help me. This is progressive and very painful and I hope to help anyone else who may have a similar condition of mine. It is called generalized essential telangiectasia. It is burst capillaries in my legs and arms and has progressed to himatomas in my legs, arms, and abdomen.
I know you can apply for grants to help you out. They are tricky to find info on the internet- mostly you just fine mathew-lesko type companies who want money up front to sell you information that really doesn't tell you anything. I haven't checked into any yet- but I have been thinking of it and have been asking around and I've heard the Library is a great place to learn about grants. They have a bunch of books and books with lists and lists of grants etc etc. Sounds like a great way to spend a few days =) Sitting in the library researching!
Tangent introduces Medix T22 point-of-care terminal for patients and practitioners
Tangent Inc., today announced the Medix T22, a medical grade, point-of-care terminal with a sharp and clear 22-inch wide-screen TFD display.
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