MB's, GB's, TB's.. But, how many??

Storage drives are getting significantly cheaper. So cheaper, in fact that people have started buying 1 TB hard drive instead of a 750 GB one. Cheap storage space is not everything. You have to consider the speed of the system as well.
While buying an internal hard drive, people often forget that a larger hard drive means a slower system. And also, more number of hard drives mean a slower system as well.
And if disaster strikes and your hard drive crashes, you lose more amount of data than you would have, had you would have had a smaller one.

Research says that as the years have progressed, hard drives have become cheaper while their reliability has plummeted considerably, especially for larger capacity hard drives.
In daily life too, you'll see 500 GB and 1 TB ones crashing more frequently than their corresponding 320 or 750 GB ones.
So the question arises, how do we choose a good HDD with ample space. Well that's extremely simple, keeping a few points in mind.
When calculating storage space requirement, do not keep more than 35 GB reserved for your system partition containing your operating system and your basic everyday applications. Add in an appropriate size for your productivity apps like adobe suites, autodesk products, etc etc.
After that do not start counting your pictures, documents, music and videos. Remember that you can save your pictures and videos to an external hard drive or the cloud for more reliable and efficient storage. Just keep the important ones on the system itself. Plus add a couple of 100 GB if you are a gamer.
But that's it, no one needs more storage than that, and there is no need to install a hard drive that's gigantic.

Compatibility of RAM with the system

The second most important thing everyone needs to keep in mind is whether the RAM he/she is going to buy will actually work with the system or will it get burned as soon as it is installed. You can be sure of the compatibility of RAM with the system by a very simple test. Just locate your motherboard manual (printed or online) and see what type and speed of RAM's are safe to use with the motherboard.
The motherboard documentation will usually include the following types of specifications:

• Memory Type: DDR3 1600/1333 MHz
• This means you can ONLY use a RAM of the type DDR3.
• This also implies that you will be safe to use RAM's with the speed of either 1600 or 1333 MHz. The rest of them might not work or might get burned in due course.

• Max Memory Size: 32 GB
• This specification specifies the maximum amount of memory you can install in your system without causing any harm to it.
• You are safe to use lesser amount of RAM than specified if you want or if you are on a tight budget, but make sure you do not exceed this limit.

You should also calculate the maximum RAM supported per slot by the motherboard by dividing the Max Memory Size by the number of sockets present on the motherboard.
For example, in a system with four RAM slots, you can install an 8 GB chip in each slot for a 32 GB motherboard.
However, in a system with eight slots, you can install 4 GB chips in each slot for a 32 GB motherboard. Using a chip with a higher memory size like 8 GB ones in this case will not be beneficial for your system.

Graphic Cards: model numbers

Writing this post in response to the guy who called me up yesterday night inquiring about two graphic cards (GPU's) and among the two is better. The GPU has specifications that need to be compared to decide which among the available ones is the best. However, there is a short-cut that can roughly point you to the right card. This post explains about that short-cut. As you might already know, there are 2 big players in the GPU market, nVidia and ATI. Let me start with the help of an example from both.
Firstly let us pick a GPU, let's say nVidia GeForce GTX 580. The model number 580 has three digits:

• 5 - It represents the family of the GPU. The higher the number, the latest technology it uses and that it can support.
• 8 - It represents the performance of the card. The higher the number, the better and faster it can compute.
• 0 - It represents trade-off between graphics quality and performance speed. The higher the number, the higher the clock speed but lesser quality.

Now let us pick an ATI Radeon HD 6870 GPU. The model number 6870 has four digits out of which the last digit is insignificant:

• 6 - Same as in nVidia, it represents the family of the GPU. The higher the number, the latest technology it uses and that it can support.
• 8 - It represents the performance of the card. The higher the number, the better and faster it can compute.
• 7 - It represents the stability and reliability of the card. The higher the number, more stable it is.

Obviously, the lowest model number would cost the least. But, since we do not want outdated technology, it is necessary to buy the right Graphic Card out of our available budget. Choose a higher performance graphic card if you want to play the latest games flawlessly, but choose a newer graphic card if you want to extend the life of your PC. Sometimes, u might face a dilemma when you go GPU-shopping. For example, you might find the price of nVidia Geforce GTX 480 and GTX 550 almost similar. The choice is yours, but remember the points mentioned above and you will add a gem to your system.

Specifications of an Optical Drive

Various types of optical drives are available in the market. These include CD readers, CD writers, DVD readers, DVD writers, DVD combos, BD readers, BD writers and BD combos.

The specifications of an Optical Drive drives to be considered are:

Supported Media Types: The optical drive must support a major part of available types of discs in the market. Examples are CD-ROM ,

DVD-R ,DVD-ROM ,CD-RW ,CD-R ,DVD-RAM ,DVD-RW ,DVD+R and DVD+RW. Note that CD drives do not support DVD's or BD's and DVD drives do not support BD's. Also, the supported media types are different for a drive's read and write capabilities.

Interface: The interface that an optical drive uses and the port that it will use to connect to the system. The interfaces have transfer speeds of their own. For example, a max. of 167 MBps for IDE, 600 MBps for SATA. But, the current technologies available for optical drives can only provide speeds that are lower than modern systems. So in case, both the ports are available in your system, the interface is not much of a specification.

Buffer Size: The optical drive buffer works in exactly the same manner as the cache of a hard drive It stores a fraction of frequently accessed data that can be accessed extremely fast. It helps the system to access data from the drive even if the processor is being utilized 100% by other processes for a fraction of a second. Usually 1 or 2 or 4 MB.

Read & Write Speeds: All optical drives have different read and write speeds and different read or write speeds for different types of media. For example, DVD drives have a speed of 16x, 20x, 24x (where x is 1.35 MBps) and CD drives have a speed of 32x, 48x, 52x (where x is 150 KBps). An optical drive will always write different types of media at different speeds (For example, a CD at 48x, a DVD at 16x and a re-writable DVD at 4x). 

Specifications of a CPU: part 2

Rest of the specifications of a CPU to be considered are:

• Instruction Set Size: Size of the instructions the processor can address simultaneously. It also defines the maximum amount of memory that the CPU can address. Currently, 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Memory Type: The standard and speed of RAM that the CPU is designed to address efficiently. If the RAM used in the system is other than the one specified by the CPU manufacturer, it may cause the system to lag.
• Max Memory Size: The maximum amount of physical memory that the CPU can support. If more RAM is installed than this, it may result in an unstable system.
• Number of Memory Channels: It specifies the number of RAM slots the CPU can work with efficiently. If the CPU is installed on a motherboard with more slots than this, it will cause the system to lag.
• PCI-E Support: Number of PCI Express slots supported and the PCI-E standard supported.
• Integrated Graphics: If the CPU has integrated graphics unit, then the graphics frequency is also to be considered.
• Socket Size: If you need to replace your processor, you need to be sure that the processor's socket size matches with the socket size of your existing motherboard.

Just keep in mind all of the above mentioned specifications while choosing a processor and you will have a super performance system.

Specifications of a CPU: part 1

The processors also have performance specifications that a buyer must know accurately before purchasing the product. As in the case of Hard Disks, better specs of the CPU will make the system perform faster. This topic has been divided into two posts to make them short and readable. The specification categories are:

• Number of Cores: Cores are the physical sub-units of a processor that can process individually. Each core has its own computing units, CPU caches and lookaside buffer. More the number of cores, more instructions can be executed independently at the same time.
• Number of Threads: Number of Threads are the hardware ability of a processor to execute that many logical processes within a single core or processor. More the number of threads, more instructions can be executes on the same processing unit.
• Clock Speed: It is the frequency at which the CPU executes the instructions. It is measured in billions of cycles per second (GHz). This determines the actual processing speed of the processor. But, having a processor clocked at 3.4 GHz isn't the sole factor to guarantee a fast computer.
• CPU cache: Integrated on the CPU die itself, the CPU cache is the fastest memory unit of the system. It is responsible to make the processing of data faster in processes where data has to be transferred between the processor and the RAM.
• DMI/FSB: Direct Media Interface or DMI is the technology that is used in Intel's i3, i5, i7 processors that has separate channel of buses for transfers to and fro. One channel each is provided for RAM, PCI-E and other devices. Front Side Bus or FSB was the technology that was used in processors prior to i3. FSB has a single channel of buses for transfers to all the components and devices of the system.

Rest of the specifications to be continued in the next post.