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The Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money: March 2008

2008-03-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

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Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great - that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

If you don't have the time to research the benchmarks, or don't feel confident enough in your ability to make the right decision, fear not. We at Tom's Hardware Guide have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming graphics cards offered for the money.

February Review and March Updates

February has been a great month for graphics card buyers: prices have been dropping hard across the board. A possible reason for this is the introduction of Nvidia's new 9600 GT.

The new Geforce 9600 GT 512MB offers performance just below that of the 8800 GT - and on par with the Radeon 3870 - for the exceptionally low price of ~$180. ATI has responded to this threat by lowering Radeon 3870 prices to the same range; indeed, the entire Geforce and Radeon lines seem to have been lowered in what looks to be a bit of a price war. The end result can only be good news for consumers, as it is now possible to buy a graphics card capable of real-world 1920x1200 gaming for less than $200!

This price shift makes it difficult to recommend the $450 dual-GPU Radeon 3870 X2 anymore. Two full-fledged Radeon 3870 cards can be bought and placed in a Crossfire configuration for almost $100 less!

Other than price changes, a notable change has been the availability of the AGP Radeon 3850 card in the $215 range. In the near future, Tom's Hardware will be reviewing graphics cards for one last AGP hurrah, to see if this card can deliver the performance we expect from it on the AGP bus.

The Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money

A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list:

This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don't play games, the graphics cards in this list are more expensive than you need.
Prices and availability changes on a daily basis. We can't offer up-to-the-minute accurate pricing info, but we can list some good graphics cards that you probably won't regret buying at the price ranges we suggest.
The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or if buying retail, your mileage will most certainly vary.
These are new graphics card prices. No used or open box cards are in the list; they might be a good deal, but that's outside the scope of what we're trying to do.

PCI-Express Interface

Best PCI-E Card For Under $100: Special Mention

	Radeon X1950 PRO
	Codename	RV570
	Process	90 nm
	Pixel Shaders	36
	Vertex Shaders	8
	Texture Units	12
	ROPs	12
	Memory Bus	256 bit
	Core Speed MHz	575
	Memory Speed MHz	690 (1380 effective)
	DirectX / Shader Model	DX 9.0c / SM 3.0

I've seen the Jetway X1950 PRO on Newegg for $90: this is an incredible price for a solid card. The rest of the X1950 PROs are in the $170 range right now, so $90 it's the best deal I've seen in a very long time. It's probably not going to last for long, but it's important enough to mention - once they're gone, the best you can do is the Radeon 2600 XT or Geforce 8600 GT GDDR3 listed below.

Best PCI-E Card For Under $100: Tie

Radeon HD 2600 XT
Codename	RV630
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	128
Texture Units	8
ROPs	4
Memory Bus	128 bit
Core Speed MHz	800
Memory Speed MHz	700 (1400 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The performance of the 2600 XT is very close to that of the GeForce 8600 GT, but the 2600 XT has a performance edge when antialiasing is disabled. Although the GeForce seems to lead when antialiasing is turned on, it's not much of a real-world advantage, since neither card can effectively use 4x AA beyond 1024x768.

GeForce 8600 GT
Codename	G84
Process	80 nm
Universal Shaders	32
Texture Units	16
ROPs	8
Memory Bus	128 bit
Core Speed MHz	540
Memory Speed MHz	700 (1400 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The 8600 GT was a terrible buy at $150, but now that it's under the $100 price point, it is much more attractive. The 8600 GT will slightly beat the old 7600 GT and X1650 XT in raw performance in the sub-$100 price category. In addition to speed, the 8600 GT has the added bonus of being DirectX 10 compatible, as well as being a good overclocker.

NOTE: Avoid the DDR2 versions of the 8600 GT! The GDDR3 versions are the recommended cards, DDR2 equipped 8600 GTs will be notably slower.

Best PCI-E Card For Under $110

GeForce 8600 GTS
Codename	G84
Process	80 nm
Universal Shaders	32
Texture Units	16
ROPs	8
Memory Bus	128 bit
Core Speed MHz	675
Memory Speed MHz	1000 (2000 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

On release the 8600 GTS was grossly overpriced compared to the X1950 PRO, but now with both found as low $110, the 8600 GTS looks much more attractive. While the X1950 PRO has better raw specifications than the X1950 PRO (especially its 256 bit memory interface), the 8600 GTS has strong shaders that can perform very well in certain titles.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$170

Radeon 3850 256 MB
Codename	RV670
Process	55 nm
Universal Shaders	320
Texture Units	16
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	670
Memory Speed MHz	833 (1666 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10.1 / SM 4.0

The Radeon 3850 brings us something we've been begging for ever since the DirectX 10 cards were introduced: a sub-$200 card with performance comparable to the high-end products. The Radeon 3850 delivers Geforce 8800 GTS 320mb performance for over $100 less.

If you're looking to get the best possible performance for the dollar, this card hits the sweet spot.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$160

Radeon 3850 512 MB
Codename	RV670
Process	55 nm
Universal Shaders	320
Texture Units	16
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	670
Memory Speed MHz	833 (1666 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10.1 / SM 4.0

The 512 MB version of the Radeon 3850 offers some high-resolution performance gains, as well as the ability to use ultra-high texture quality settings. This card battles the more expensive 256 MB version of the 8800 GT, which is somewhat limited by its lower amount of memory.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$180: Tie

GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB
Codename	G92
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	64
Texture Units	32
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	650
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The new 9600 GT is Nvidia's answer to the Radeon 3800 series: cheap, powerful, and efficient. The 9600 GT usually performs a bit below the 3870 with no antialiasing, and a bit faster than the 3870 when AA is enabled. Both cards are in the $180 range, and both are excellent buys that make sub-$200 high-resolution gaming a reality.

Radeon 3870
Codename	RV670
Process	55 nm
Universal Shaders	320
Texture Units	16
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	775
Memory Speed MHz	1125 (2250 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10.1 / SM 4.0

The Radeon 3870 is a lot of card for $180. The 9600 GT has forced 3870 prices down, and if you have $200 to spend on a graphics card, either card offers an incredible gaming experience for the dollars spent.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$230

GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB
Codename	G92
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	112
Texture Units	56
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	600
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The 8800 GT offers incredible Geforce 8800 GTX-class performance at almost half the price. It beats the Radeon 3870 by a notable margin, but it does tend to be a bit more expensive. That said, if you have $230 to spend on a graphics card, you couldn't do better than a nice 8800 GT.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$290

GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB
Codename	G92
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	128
Texture Units	56
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	600
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The 8800 GTS is essentially an 8800 GT with a little more firepower; it sports 128 universal shaders compared to the GT's 112. It bests its 8800 GT brother, but not by much, and it's more expensive - in most cases the GT will suffice, but if you have ~$300 to spend, this is your card. At higher price points than this performance increases taper off quite a bit, and you'll only really see benefits at 1920x1200 or higher resolutions.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$360: Tie

2x Radeon 3870 in Crossfire Configuration
Codename	RV670
Process	55 nm
Universal Shaders	640
Texture Units	32
ROPs	32
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	825
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10.1 / SM 4.0

While multi-card solutions are far from perfect, they can offer significant performance increases for those with a high budget who demand high-resolution gaming performance.

At ~$360, two Radeon 3870 cards are about $100 cheaper than a single dual-GPU Radeon 3870 X2 card. Since the performance is pretty much identical, two cards are the way to go.

2x GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB in SLI configuration
Codename	G92
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	64
Texture Units	32
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	650
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

Two 9600 GT cards in an SLI configuration will offer a similar price/performance ratio to two Radeon 3870 cards in a crossfire configuration. Either way, performance is unprecedented at the ~$360 price point.

Best PCI-E Card For ~$460

2x GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB in SLI configuration
Codename	G92
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	112
Texture Units	56
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	600
Memory Speed MHz	900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

Frankly, the performance increase of two 8800 GTs over two 9600 GTs is usually not worth mentioning, but there are a handful of games where the 8800 GT will win by a notable percentage at high resolutions. If high resolution gaming with high image quality options enabled is your forte, and budget isn't a concern, two 8800 GTs might be justifiable for you.

AGP Interface

Best AGP Card for Under $100

Radeon HD 2600 PRO
Codename	RV630
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	128
Texture Units	8
ROPs	4
Memory Bus	128 bit
Core Speed MHz	600
Memory Speed MHz	500 (1000 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

In this category we're recommending the low-priced Radeon 2600 PRO. This card is almost as fast as the older Geforce 7600, but can now be found for less than $100 on the aging AGP bus. At that price, it's a good buy.

Best AGP Card for ~$120

Radeon HD 2600 XT
Codename	RV630
Process	65 nm
Universal Shaders	128
Texture Units	8
ROPs	4
Memory Bus	128 bit
Core Speed MHz	800
Memory Speed MHz	700 (1400 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10 / SM 4.0

The 2600 XT is relatively new to the AGP scene, but almost as cheap as its PCI-E cousin. This is a decently fast DirectX 10 card available for AGP, and surprisingly offers a great deal of performance at the $120 price point.

Be forewarned that it's been reported the official ATI drivers don't work with the AGP version of this card, but that the modified Omega drivers work fine.

Best AGP Card For >$170

Radeon X1950 PRO
Codename	RV570
Process	90 nm
Pixel Shaders	36
Vertex Shaders	8
Texture Units	12
ROPs	12
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	575
Memory Speed MHz	690 (1380 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 9.0c / SM 3.0

The aging X1950 PRO is still a powerful AGP card. The only card over the X1950 PRO you might want to hold out for is the Radeon 3850, which may be too powerful for your older AGP system to utilize fully.

Best AGP Card For $215

Radeon 3850 512 MB
Codename	RV670
Process	55 nm
Universal Shaders	320
Texture Units	16
ROPs	16
Memory Bus	256 bit
Core Speed MHz	670
Memory Speed MHz	833 (1666 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model	DX 10.1 / SM 4.0

Forever rumored and now finally available to purchase, the Radeon 3850 is, frankly, a curiously powerful card for the aging AGP bus. It is possibly too powerful to be properly utilized on the single-core CPUs that are typically paired with this platform.

Regardless, this is the most powerful AGP card you can get. Perhaps you have an AGP gaming system you just can't bear to part with, or perhaps you have an anomalous motherboard that has both a dual-core CPU and AGP slot. Whatever the reason, you can't get better than an AGP 3850, and if anyone ever releases a more powerful card in the future for the dying bus, we'll be incredibly surprised.

What About This Other Card That's Not On The List? How Do I Know If It's A Good Deal?

This will happen! In fact, it's guaranteed to happen, because both stock levels and prices change quickly. So how do you know if that graphics card you've got your eye on is a good buy in its price range?

Here are two resources to help you judge if a graphics card is a good buy. The first is the graphics card hierarchy chart, which groups graphics cards with similar overall performance into "tiers." The top tier contains the highest performing cards available, and performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there.

You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal, and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I don't recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not notice a worthwhile difference in performance.

At the request of readers, I have added mobile and integrated chipsets to the hierarchy chart. I want to make it clear that there is very little performance data available for these graphic solutions. While the discrete video chipsets on the chart are placed based on a lot of information, many of the laptop chipset positions in the chart are guesstimates based on their specifications. At worst I don't think they're more than a tier away from their actual performance, but this is something to keep in mind when considering mobile graphic chipsets.

Geforce	Radeon
8800 GTX, 8800 Ultra	3870 X2
8800 GT 512MB, 8800 GTS 512MB
8800 GTS 640 MB, 9600 GT	HD 2900 XT, 3870
8800 GS	3850 512MB
8800 GT 256MB, 8800 GTS 320MB	HD 2900 PRO, 3850 256MB
7950 GX2	X1950 XTX
7800 GTX 512, 7900 GTO, 7900 GTX	X1900 XT, X1950 XT, X1900 XTX
7800 GTX, 7900 GT, 7950 GT	X1800 XT, X1900 AIW, X1900 GT, X1950 PRO, HD 2900 GT
7800 GT, 7900 GS, Go 7950 GTX, 8600 GTS	X1800 XL, X1950 GT, Mobility X1800 XT
6800 Ultra, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, Go 7800 GTX, Go 7900 GTX, 8600 GT	X800 XT (& PE), X850 XT (& PE), X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, Mobility X1900, HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR3), 3670
6800 GT, 6800 GS (PCI-E), Go 7800, Go 7900 GS, 8700M GT	X800 XL, X800 GTO2/GTO16, Mobility X800 XT, HD 2600 PRO, Mobility HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR2)
6800 GS (AGP), Go 6800 Ultra, Go 7600 GT, 8600M GT	X800 GTO 256mb, X800 PRO, X850 PRO, X1650 GT, Mobility HD 2600
6800, Go 6800, 7300 GT GDDR3, 7600 GS, Go 7700, 8600M GS	X800, X800 GTO 128mb, X1600 XT, X1650 PRO, Mobility X1800
6600 GT, 6800LE, 6800 XT, 7300 GT DDR2, Go 7600 (128 bit), 8500 GT	9800 XT, X700 PRO, X800 GT, X800 SE, Mobility X800, X1300 XT, X1600 PRO, HD 2400 XT
FX 5900, FX 5900 Ultra, FX 5950 Ultra, 6600 (128 bit), Go 6800 (128 bit)	9700, 9700 PRO, 9800, 9800 PRO, X700, X1300 PRO, Mobility X1450, X1550, Mobility X1600, Mobility X1700, HD 2400 PRO, Mobility HD 2400 XT, Mobility X2500
FX 5800 Ultra, FX 5900 XT, Go 6600, Go 7600 (64 bit), Go 8600M GS	9500 PRO, 9600 XT, Mobility 9800, 9800 PRO (128 bit), X600 XT, Mobility X700, X1050 (128 bit), Mobility X1350, Mobility X1400, Mobility X2300, Mobility HD 2400
4 Ti 4600, 4 Ti 4800, FX 5700 Ultra, 6200, 8400 GS	9600 PRO, Mobility 9700 (128 bit), 9800 LE, X600 PRO, Mobility X600, Mobility X1300, Xpress 1250, Mobility HD 2300
4 Ti4200, 4 Ti4400, 4 Ti4800 SE, FX 5600 Ultra, FX 5700, 6600 (64 bit), 7300 GS, 8400M GS	9500, 9550, 9600, Mobility 9600, X300, X1050 (64 bit)
3 Ti500, FX 5200 Ultra, FX 5600, FX 5700 LE, Go 5700, 6200 TC, 6600 LE, 7200 GS, 7300 LE	8500, 9100, 9000 PRO, 9600 LE, Mobility 9700 (64 bit), X300 SE, X1150
3, 3 Ti200, FX 5200 (128 bit), FX 5500, Go 5600, Go 6200, Go 6400, Go 7200, Go 7300, Go 7400 (64 bit)	9000, 9200, 9250, Mobility 9600 (64 bit), Mobility X300
FX 5200 (64 bit), 6100, 6150, Go 7200, Go 7400 (32 bit)	9200 SE, Xpress 200M, Xpress 1000, Xpress 1150
2 GTS, 4 MX 440, 2 Ultra, 2 Ti, 2 Ti 200	7500
256, 2 MX 200, 4 MX 420, 2 MX 400	SDR, LE, DDR, 7000, 7200
Nvidia TNT	ATI Rage 128

Summary

There you have it folks: the best graphics cards for the money this month. Now all that's left is to find and purchase them, and we leave that part up to you. The best prices will almost certainly be found online, but sometimes large retail outlets might surprise you with a good sale.

Don't worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there stick pretty close to the reference designs by Nvidia and ATI. Just pay attention to price, warranty and the manufacturer's reputation for honoring that warranty if something goes wrong.

Also remember that the stores don't follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month, and you'll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!

Hard disk failure

2008-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

There are lots of things that could cause hard disk failure. Since we need our computers and of course our hard drive working just fine every day, hard disk failure can really ruin our day. But you need to be prepared for this - sooner or later, it will happen, even to you.

Hard disks are devices that work under extreme stress. Although they are resistant, they have a limited life. Hard disks are exposed to large temperature variations, vibration, etc. In time, this stress weakens the device and there comes a point when it may fail. It is probably wise to consider that if you had a hard disk working just fine for about 3 years, it's about reaching its life span. Of course, there are hard disks that may actually work much longer, but the chances of failure are significantly increased after such a period of time.

There are many things that go wrong with a hard disk, but in general this can be divided into two parts - either a mechanical error, or a circuit board malfunction.

The hard drive consists of a pile of magnetic disks - several platters made of aluminum or glass coated with a material that can store magnetic information (ferromagnetic coating) placed on a spindle that spins with high velocity, like 10,000 times per minute. There is also a set of magnetic heads, one for each side of the platters, placed on an armature that can move the heads all at once over the surface of the hard disk platters. This armature is driven by a set of magnetic coils placed in between very powerful permanent magnets. All this stuff moves all the time inside the hard drive as it works - and therefore in time this heavy duty usage can cause the device to fail due to mechanical reasons. Also the magnets may loose their strength in time. There are other possible issues as well; for example tiny defects in disk surface can sometimes 'explode' after some usage and create bad sectors on disk. Also any small fragments of dust and similar little particles that may have entered inside the unit may one day reach between the hard disk heads and disk surface and cause trouble, resulting in bad sectors and significant damage.

Now talking about the circuit board - this portion of the drive is also exposed to a lot of stress. The hard disk circuit board powers and controls the mechanical unit, and it is exposed to large temperature variations. The circuit board contains chips that are soldered on its surface. Due to the temperature variations, in time these chips can develop small internal breaks that can result in circuit interruption and electrical failure. Also, some of the electronic components can fail by themselves at some point and get fried, and therefore the whole circuit boar gets deffective and the hard disk does not work anymore.

What to do before hard disk fails:

The first thing to do is, prevent and be prepared. Indeed, there comes a day when your hard drive will eventually fail; you need to be prepared for it. Here are a few things you could do:

- The most common protection against hard disk failure is to backup your data often, as often as possible. you can backup your data on another hard disk or computer, on DVD disks using a DVD writer, etc. If you do not have large amounts of data, you may consider backing up to removable devices like flash cards, usb stick type for example - they are also useful in the way that you can carry the data with you. (Make sure you stop the device before removing it.)
- When a hard drive has already be used for a lot of years, it is time for it to be placed at rest. You may want to get a new hard drive and replace the old one, even if still working. The new hard drive will also be faster and larger in size due to technology improvements.
- Buying two hard drives and placing then under RAID mirror configuration can help. When one of the disks fails, the other one works and still holds your data until you replace the deffective one.
- Make sure your hard disk is properly cooled. If the hard disk is heating too much during functioning, this could result in serious damage. Most modern hard disks use high spinning speeds and they usually heat up a lot. In such a situation, a hard disk cooler would be necessary, so buy one and attach it to your hard disk.
- Make sure your computer is not exposed to extreme temperature variations. Do not place it near a window or door that is often opened.
- If your computer has a standard tower case, place it on the floor. Make sure you do not place your computer in such a way that it can fell down and hit the floor because this kind of shock is no good for the hard disk.
- Always handle hard disks with extreme care. Never hit a hard disk. If you hit the drive with a screwdriver, you can definitely damage your hard disk platters surface because the heads are going to hit the surface. Always carry the hard disk in specialised anti-static, anti-shock protective cases. Do not expose the hard disk to large variations of temperature, like winter conditions. If you have exposed a hard drive to such a low temperature, you should not use it immediately when reaching your home or office. Place it on a flat surface and let it stay there for 10-12 hours so all internal components get to have the room temperature before using it again. Hard disks have very sensitive internal temperature compensation technology and such extreme temperature variation is definitely not good for them.

Possible malfunctions and what to do:

The rule of the thumb is, if your hard disk shows any signs of physical malfunction, backup your data immediately and replace the hard disk. Many hard disks show early signs of malfunction, and a quick reaction can really save your data. Now let's see a few types of failures and how to deal with them.

First, let's look into a few problems that are not caused by the hard disk itself:

1. IDE cable malfunction. IDE flat ribbon cables are known to be troublesome. During usual manipulation, even if handled with care, such cables can still turn deffective and cause hard disk access troubles. If your hard disk is not working, one of the first things to check is the cable - replace it and see if the problem has been fixed.
2. Power connector problems. Some power connectors, especially the ones shipped with a cheap computer case, are of low quality and the hard disk may not be powered properly or with intterruptions. If you believe are having such a problem, try using a spare power connector to power your hard disk unit, and leave the older connector unused. In such a situation, it would be best to replace your power supply completely with another one of decent quality.
3. Improper BIOS configuration. Before blaming the hard disk, check if your computer BIOS is configured properly. You may want to enter the BIOS Setup utility and set the hard disk type to AUTO. This will cause auto-detection to be used and your hard disk will be detected by the system during computer boot.

Now, let's see about a few real hard disk problems:

1. The hard disk does not spin. There is a situation called "monday morning blues", when you come at your office monday morning and your hard disk does not want to start. You can try starting it by turning computer on and off a few times. Please note that this condition is worrysome and you should better replace that hard disk, because one day it may refuse to start completely.
There are cases when a hard disk gets stuck, and the heads get to be like 'glued' to the platters, especially on older hard disks. You can detect this as the hard drive makes some faint noise but it cannot start spinning. Powering your computer on and off a few times may work. If it fails, you can leave it alone for a while and try again later, this may work sometimes. If the hard disk still fails to spin at all, either you have a mechanical or electrical problem and you should replace your hard disk with a new one.
2. The hard disk stops from spinning out of the sudden. If it starts spinning again after a while, you may be having a power connector failure as described above. Try replacing the power connector with a spare one (while computer is stopped). It may also have a simple reason like power management, so disable power management for your computer to make sure. If the hard disk stops spinning and computer freezes and it does not start spinning back again, then you most likely are facing a serious malfunction (like for example a defective hard disk circuit board) and your hard disk needs to be replaced.
3. The hard disk works but transfer speed is extremely low. Such a condition can be generated by a bad data cable. Try replacing the data cable and see if speed returns to normal. Also, when removing the cable, visually examine the connector pins on the hard drive edge and see if any of them is actually bent by mistake, that could be causing trouble as well. If your hard disk still transfers data very slow, then it probably has a physical malfunction and needs to be replaced. Backup your data and get a new hard disk.
4. The hard disk has developped bad sectors. In such situation, you also need to replace your hard disk. Bad sectors are not allowed to appear on modern hard disks due to the advanced bad sector management such hard disks have. If they show up, then the hard disk shows signs of severe fatigue and it should be replaced. If you insist on using it further, you may want to purchase a piece of software that does bad sector repair. Do a web search on 'disk repair' or 'bad sector repair' and you should end up with a list of such programs that can help you recover and/or mark bad sectors.
5. The hard disk does not start and makes a loud periodical noise, similar to hitting a tin can with a pencil. This noise is created by the moving heads armature when the unit fails to initialize properly and tries it over and over. This is sign of a serious condition and the hard disk should be replaced. In general, if your hard disk makes very loud noise or unusual noises, this is also sign of a severe malfunction and it should be replaced with a new one.

Finally, there are cases when you definitely need to repair your hard disk no matter what. For example if you have important data and badly need it. Here is what you can do in such a situation:
1. Refer to a specialized company that does this (highly recommended). They have professional equipment and may be able to save your data. But this will cost you a lot, many hundreds of dollars so make sure your data worths the price requested.
2. If you have a second hard disk of same model, and you believe you have a circuit board malfunction, and you have the proper technical skills, you could attempt temporarily replacing the circuit board with the other one from the good second hard disk and therefore get a chance to recovering your data.
Final advice: The best thing to do is to BACKUP YOUR DATA as often as possible. There is no guarantee that once your hard disk has failed, you get a chance to recover anything, so backups are the only solution to make sure you still have your data afterwards.

FAT32 VS NTFS

2008-02-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

When about to partition your hard drive(s) and preparing to install your Windows XP operating system, you may wonder which file system would be best - FAT32 or NTFS? Some users would say, obviously NTFS right? Well - actually it depends. A decision may not be that simple to take. Let's take a quick glimpse at the advantages and disadvantages of both FAT32 and NTFS file systems. We won't get very deep into details, but stick to the most important ones and try to help readers into making a decision for themselves. Some of the information presented below is based on personal experience with these file systems, that we would like to share with our readers. FAT32 is a much simpler file system than NTFS. It is an enhanced version of the old FAT16 or FAT file system that was used in old MS-DOS operating systems. FAT32 was introduced at the time of Windows 95 as a significant enhancement of the FAT16 file system, one of the major improvements being the ability to use very large hard drives and partitions for example (partition size was limited to 2GB under FAT16). The FAT32 file system is still available in newer operating systems like Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and also in Windows Vista. We must note here that Windows Vista does no longer support the old FAT16 file system. Despite of what some users may think, we found the FAT32 file system to be robust and reliable, in about ten years of use. That's one of the reasons FAT32 file system is still widely used today. Now getting to talk a bit of NTFS. NTFS was introduced as the proper file system for the Windows NT product line. NTFS is pretty fast, but somewhat slower than FAT32 (our own tests have shown an average speed difference of 10%, meaning that NTFS did perform slower with 10% in our tests; but obviously other users and configurations may get different percentages). NTFS is a more sophisticated file system, and it should be more reliable according to Microsoft, although we could not either confirm or infirm this yet, in practice. But there are certain advantages of using NTFS. First of all, file security - with NTFS you can protect your files at the hard disk level, while FAT32 does not have that. This is very important in multiuser environments and especially on servers where security has to be enforced. NTFS also allows the user to specify allocation unit size, and this may be useful for advanced users in order to optimize their file system usage accordingly with the average size of files they are about to be stored and reducing slack (lost disk space). Finally, NTFS also provides file compression - if you are having a large number of files like documents, html files and text files, generally files that can be compressed, this feature can be really useful for you. On the other hand, FAT32 is a bit faster, although the difference is not big. There is one exception though. If you are using NTFS and compressed files, and if your files are of types that compress well, you may get impressive read speeds when using NTFS and file compression. The reason is, since the document is compressed, the hard drive still transfers the same amount of data information per second, but then that data is expanded into system memory and the resulting data is much bigger than the data being physically read by the hard disk drive. This has the effect of significant speed increase in disk read operations, from the user standpoint. However, disk write operations are significantly slower when using compressed files, due to the fact that the operating system has to perform a lot of calculations when compressing data before saving it to disk. Now let's do a bit of case scenario: If you are a regular user, not really that much in love with your computer, just looking to do your job, then NTFS is right for you. This file system is secure, reliable, and will peform very well in most common home or office usage situations. On the other hand - if you are a power user that wants to do a lot of things at once, like for example burning a DVD while listening to MP3 music while copying a lot of files from one partition to another while browsing the Internet at the same time, well in such extreme condition you may really like FAT32. The reason is that FAT32 has significantly less overhead and requires less CPU and disk operations for such massive simultaneous data transfers, due to its simplicity in comparison with NTFS. Such multiple simultaneous heavy duty tasks did perform indeed better on FAT32 than NTFS during our tests and usage. We also found an advantage of using FAT32 over NTFS that fits us in a particular situation. When about to replace a hard disk drive that has the operating system on it (this kind of operation was used particularly with Windows 2000 operating systems) , migration of data from one disk to another can be much easier. When using NTFS, the operating system has to be reinstalled on the new drive. But when using FAT32, you can get away with a much simpler procedure and retain your existing installation. The trick is to pre-partition the new hard drive in a similar fashion as the old one was. If the size of the new partitions is different, no problem - just make sure data in each partition on the old disk, fits the data in the new partition. Then, use a disk clone tool like Norton Ghost for example, to copy all partitions from the old drive to the new drive. This operation may take 10 to 30 minutes in most cases, then you can put the new drive in and power your system and it will work and you retain all your applications installed (unless they are copy protected in such manner that you have to reactivate them when changing hard disk). You may receive a couple errors and need to reboot for a couple times, but this is by far less downtime than having to reinstall the whole operating system and applications from scratch - so it is a nice procedure if you have to keep machine downtime to the lowest possible.

THE HEATSINK GUIDE : Information about heatsinks

2008-02-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

What characteristics make a heatsink a good one? There's a number of factors to consider:

High heatsink surface. It's at the surface of the heatsink where the thermal transfer takes place. Therefore, heatsinks should be designed to have a large surface; this goal can be reached by using a large amount of fine fins, or by increasing the size of the heatsink itself.
Good aerodynamics. Heatsinks must be designed in a way that air can easily and quickly float through the cooler, and reach all cooling fins. Especially heatsinks having a very large amount of fine fins, with small distances between the fins may not allow good air flow. A compromise between high surface (many fins with small gaps between them) and good aerodynamics must be found. This also depends on the fan the heatsink is used with: A powerful fan can force air even through a heatsink with lots of fine fins with only small gaps for air flow - whereas on a passive heatsink, there should be fewer cooling fins with more space between them. Therefore, simply adding a fan to a large heatsink designed for fanless usage doesn't necessarily result in a good cooler.
Good thermal transfer within the heatsink. Large cooling fins are pointless if the heat can't reach them, so the heatsink must be designed to allow good thermal transfer from the heat source to the fins. Thicker fins have better thermal conductivity; so again, a compromise between high surface (many thin fins) and good thermal transfer (thicker fins) must be found. Of course, the material used has a major influence on thermal transfer within the heatsink. Sometimes, heat pipes are used to lead the heat from the heat source to the parts of the fins that are further away from the heat source.
Perfect flatness of the contact area. The part of the heatsink that is in contact with the heat source must be perfectly flat. A flat contact area allows you to use a thinner layer of thermal compound, which will reduce the thermal resistance between heatsink and heat source.
Good mounting method. For good thermal transfer, the pressure between heatsink and heat source must be high. Heatsink clips must be designed to provide a strong pressure, while still being reasonably easy to install. Heatsink mountings with screws/springs are often better than regular clips. Thermoconductive glue or sticky tape should only be used in situations where mounting with clips or screws isn't possible.
Heatsink materials
The thermal conductivity of the heatsink's material has a major impact on cooling performance. Thermal conductivity is measured in W/mK; higher values mean better conductivity.
As a rule of thumb, materials with a high electrical conductivity also have a high thermal conductivity.
Alloys have lower thermal conductivity than pure metals, but may have better mechanical or chemical (corrosion) properties.
The following materials are commonly used for heatsinks:
Aluminum. It has a thermal conductivity of 205W/mK, which is good (as a comparison: steel has about 50W/mK). The production of aluminum heatsinks is inexpensive; they can be made using extrusion Due to its softness, aluminum can also be milled quickly; die-casting and even cold forging are also possible (see part 2 of this guide for more information about production methods). Aluminum is also very light (thus, an aluminum heatsink will put less stress on its mounting when the unit is moved around).
Copper's thermal conductivity is about twice as high as aluminum - almost 400W/mK. This makes it an excellent material for heatsinks; but its disadvantages include high weight, high price, and less choice as far as production methods are concerned. Copper heatsinks can be milled, die-cast, or made of copper plates bonded together; extrusion is not possible.
To combine the advantages of aluminum and copper, heatsinks can be made of aluminum and copper bonded together. Here, the area in contact with the heat source is made of copper, which helps lead the heat away to the outer parts of the heatsink. The first heatsink for PC CPUs with an embedded copper piece was the Alpha P7125 (for first-generation Slot A Athlon CPUs). Keep in mind that a copper embedding is only useful if it is tightly bonded to the aluminum part for good thermal transfer. This is not always the case, especially not with inexpensive coolers. If the thermal transfer between the copper and the aluminum is poor, the copper embedding may do more harm than good.
Silver has an even higher thermal conductivity than copper, but only by about 10%. This does not justify the much higher price for heatsink production - however, pulverized silver is a common ingredient in high-end thermal compounds.

Build Your Own PC

2008-02-22T11:26:00.001-08:00

it is increasingly popular to build your own computer. In most cases, it saves money, and it guarantees you get what you want. It also assures you avoid proprietary designs many companies use to keep you coming to them for new parts. Best of all, having built the system yourself, you become very familiar with that system and with computers in general.

People from all walks of life today build their own PCs. Executives, engineers, students, housewives, they all do it today. But, at the same time, pre-built PCs have come down in price quite a bit. Today, one is left to wonder whether it is best to build a PC yourself or to simply buy one off the shelf. I’ll address that here.

If you are a real PC enthusiast, this question may be a non-issue. The answer may be as obvious as the color of the sky. This is predictable, of course. When one builds their own PC, they are able to not only understand their PC better because they built it, but they are able to choose each component that goes into their PC. There is really something to be said for choosing your own components, and I’ll go into that further below. There is also a certain sense of satisfaction with having built a PC. One spends a few hours (or less for those more familiar with the process) to put the thing together. Then comes the moment of truth when one hits the power switch for the first time. If it works on the first try, its beer time!

But, besides the joy of it, is it worth it? Is it a practical use of your time? Will it really save you money? The answer to that question today has become a bit gray. A few years ago, the answer was obvious. Pre-built PCs were typically built from OEM, cheap components. The performance was average to simply awful. The choice was obvious: If you wanted a decent PC, you better build it. Today, the line has blurred. Where many off-the-shelf PCs today still use cheaper components in an effort to save money, there are more pre-built PCs today which do use quality hardware and whose performance ranks up there with the best of them.

Let us look at some of the key areas of interest in this:

Component Selection

Most commercial PC buyers (except for the ones who build higher end models) do not make a big deal of which components they use. They will, of course, tell you the specs of the system, but often do not elaborate on the brands of the equipment they use. Most lower to average priced pre-built PCs use more or less generic hardware. It gets the job done, but what you get is what you get. Upgrading can be a problem for this reason. In contrast, building your own PC means you can handpick all components in your system. You can ensure you get good, name brand hardware which will have proper manufacturer support and driver support. Most importantly, you can ensure you get hardware that will perform. One aspect of pre-built is that compatibility issues are taken care of by the manufacturer, but there is a tradeoff made in that guarantee.

Price

In general, you can get more bang for your buck building your own PC. In many cases, you will find equally priced and comparable PCs, where one is pre-built and one would be homebuilt. You can buy PCs cheaper than you can build them, but when you consider the hardware choices within, the price is offset in favor of homebuilt. One thing to consider here is the value of your time. If you are a very busy person where time is money, then you most likely want to buy a pre-built PC. If you don’t mind taking the time, though, you can do better doing it yourself.

Support

Available support is a key concern for do-it-yourselfers. When you build it yourself, there is nowhere to take the PC for service. You can’t say “Here, make this work.” On the other hand, pre-built machines typically do come with manufacturer support. But, support is anything but consistent. Some manufacturers have questionable records on support whereas some are quite good at it. Having support for your PC is no guarantee of having a problem-free user experience, and it is certainly no guarantee that they will take responsibility for your PC if it doesn’t work. The good news for do-it-yourselfers is that the community of people who do this kind of thing themselves is increasing. There is a lot of data on the internet, and community sources for assistance. I’m compelled to mention our own forums where a community of thousands is available to help you out on your PC.

Warranty

On pre-built PCs, there is typically a warranty on the whole system, and in many instances, you are offered an extended service plan at the time of purchase. Home built PCs do not have full system warranties, of course, but if you buy good name brand hardware, most of the components will themselves have warranties. So, really, either way, you can be covered here.

Software

Pre-built PCs often come with much software on it, most importantly the operating system itself. The actual price of the software is pretty good, because manufacturers get great deals on this software because they buy in bulk. On the flip side, though, these PCs sometimes come with too much software, meaning garbage that you do not want and just clutters the hard drive and bugs you to buy stuff. It can be quite annoying. On homebuilt PCs, you might pay a little more for the software per unit, but you will get what you want and only what you want, plus you can set it up how you want.

In general, I’m a big fan of the homebuilt PC. I’ve never used a PC I didn’t build myself. I think its a huge money saver. In my case, I built it myself, and then as technology progressed, I incrementally upgraded the machine. This saves a lot of money in the long run, because with a pre-built commercial machine, once it goes out of date, you pretty much need to start anew with a new PC.

Case fans

2008-02-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

Fans are generally speaking the most noisy part of any computer. Unfortunately we can't just get rid of them, because the computer would burn to a crisp on the inside, but at there are some things we can do. First, let's talk about some fundamentals: Fans move air for the purpose of getting hot air out of your computer and cooler air in. In doing so, fans cause two types of noise, one is caused by the fan actually spinning, and can be screeching, humming or buzzing. The other is the hissing noise caused by air moving. Both can be fixed by using better designed fans with lower rpms, but this can cause your computer to run hotter, so you should keep an eye on the temperature in your computer for a while after doing anything to the fans in your computer.

Apart from replacing fans, there is also a trick that allows you to run your fans at a lower speed. By simply rewiring the fan connector, you can make the fan run at 7 volts instead of 12 volts, which will roughly make the fan run at half the speed.

To replace your fans you need to find some good low-noise fans to replace them with. Most computers use 80mm case fans, but some have 92mm and 120mm fans as well. If your computer has a 120mm fan, take care to check the width of your fan as well, as it can be 25, 32 or 38 mm wide.

Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GT Tested

2008-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

the card we're testing is the very first GeForce 9! this is the new generation of cards is not being introduced at the high end, as has always been the case, but rather the midrange, mainstream price point. In reality, there's a very simple explanation for this phenomenon: the architecture behind this card is the same as that introduced on the GeForce 8, and hardly improved with the arrival of the midrange versions (the 8600 GT, then the 8800 GT, as has been Nvidia's custom since the GeForce 6 series).

Let's look at the reasoning behind this choice. It's often more interesting for a card maker to attain a given level of processing power by using fewer SPs but a higher frequency, rather than the other way around, because this allows the company to reduce the number of transistors on the chip. This in turn leads to a smaller chip size, thus reducing production costs. Of course, for that principle to work, the required frequency has to be able to be achieved without a severe drop in yields, in which case production costs can end up being higher despite the increase in the number of dies produced per wafer.

Accordingly, the G94 has only 505 million transistors, or 33% fewer than the G92, and it has a surface area we measured at 225 mm2, or 31% smaller, despite the same engraving depth (65 nm). That value is still 15% higher than on the RV670 used in the AMD 3D graphics cards it directly targets, but remember that the latter chip uses 55 nm given its higher number of transistors, and that that necessarily has a financial impact - either at the time of development of the process for the chips, or in terms of yields or production costs.

The card models we tested are from Leadtek and Gainward. The Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme uses the same design as the Nvidia reference card. On the outside, nothing sets it apart from the GeForce 8800 GT V2 - that is, the version that was equipped with the new, larger cooling fan. That fan is quieter under load; its size allows a significant reduction in rotation speed, providing a better air flow/noise ratio. It's a single-slot card with a PCB that is entirely covered by the cooling system housing, keeping hot air inside the case. Aside from the usual two connectors (PCI Express 6-pin power and SLI), there's a 2-pin connector, and the reference card comes with a small cable for connecting the 9600 GT to the internal S/PDIF connector on the motherboard or sound card (via 2 pins).

This version also comes with an active DVI->HDMI adapter, including audio. Nvidia is implicitly recognizing the soundness of the initiative AMD ushered in with its Radeon 2000, but without the same elegance. Lacking an audio controller, the GeForce 9600 GT needs to be connected to an external controller via this cable, meaning that it loses the motherboard/sound card's S/PDIF connector and system sounds (if you want to distinguish your Home Cinema/TV installation from your PC speakers).

The really good news about this 9600 GT, finally, is the presence of 512 MB of onboard memory, though 256 MB and 1 GB versions are probably in the works. The 256 MB on the GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB was that card's real limiting factor (despite its lower frequency than the 8800 GT's). The GeForces were penalized by too little memory, starting at 1280x1024 with antialiasing enabled and 1680x1050, even with PCI Express 2.0 (which our motherboard uses).

Despite the reference design, the Leadtek model justifies the "Extreme" in its name because of its factory overclocking, with the GPU clocked at 720 MHz (1750 MHz for the stream processors) compared to the reference 650 MHz (and 1625 MHz); the memory remains at 900 MHz. It's tempting to draw the conclusion that all models will be able to be clocked to those frequencies...

To provide a wider range of outputs, Gainward's Bliss 9600 GT Golden Sample is two slots wide. The outputs are very nice: two DVI-Is as on the Leadtek, but also an HDMI, a DisplayPort, digital coaxial, and finally a grille for venting some of the hot air out of the case! Gainward took advantage of the extra real estate to build in a dual-slot heat sink using two heatpipes and an axial fan (for a better speed/noise ratio) with a PWM connector. This card's frequencies have also been boosted, to 700 MHz for the GPU and 1000 MHz for the memory. The extra cost compared to the basic version (also offered by Gainward) is 20 €, which seems fairly reasonable.

Specifications of the cards tested
GPU	HD 3850 512 MB	HD 3870	8800 GT	8800 GT 256 MB	9600 GT
GPU frequency	670 MHz	775 MHz	600 MHz	600 MHz	650 MHz
Shader frequency	670 MHz	775 MHz	1500 MHz	1500 MHz	1625 MHz
Memory frequency	833 MHz	1125 MHz	900 MHz	700 MHz	900 MHz
Memory bus width	256 bits	256 bits	256 bits	256 bits	256 bits
Type of memory	GDDR3	GDDR4	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3
Memory	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	256 MB	512 MB
Number of Pixels/Vertex Pipelines	(80)	(80)	(28)	(28)	(16)
Number of texturing units	16	16	56	56	32
Number of ROPs	16	16	16	16	16
Processing power	429 GFlops	496 GFlops	336 GFlops	336 GFlops	208 GFlops
Memory bandwidth	53.3 GB/s	72 GB/s	57.6 GB/s	44.8 GB/s	57.6 GB/s
Number of transistors	666 million	666 million	754 million	754 million	505 million
Process	0.055µ	0.055µ	0.065µ	0.065µ	0.065µ
Die surface area	196 mm²	196 mm²	324 mm²	324 mm²	225 mm²
Generation	2007	2007	2007	2007	2008
Shader model supported	4.1	4.1	4.0	4.0	4.0

How to Choose a Motherboard

2008-02-21T03:03:00.000-08:00

Make sure your motherboard is physically and electrically compatible with your processor.

The reliability of a motherboard as measured by return rates is roughly correlated with the price you pay. As a rule of thumb: the higher the price the better the reliability. We suspect that manufacturers who have higher profit margins do more extensive testing and quality control before shipping. Therefore, we suggest that you buy a motherboard of the highest price your budget can afford. It is not easy to replace a motherboard, even for professional technicians. Besides, if the motherboard is bad, your whole system is likely to be in jeopardy.

On the other hand, motherboards do not have any moving, consumable parts. If they go bad, most often they do so within a month. If you can take your chances and are willing to learn how to replace a motherboard, the less expensive motherboards are just fine for budget minded buyers.

Buy current but proven technology. Purchasing yesterday's technology can mean greater difficulty or limitation in future upgrades. For example, it doesn't make sense to buy a Socket 775 motherboard for celeron anymore since Intel will stopped making Socket 775 processors for celeron. you need to update the motherboard bios is you want used it with the lates processor.

Make sure your motherboard form factor (AT, ATX, micro ATX, flexATX, or Mini-ITX) matches that of your case. It is possible for an AT motherboard to fit inside an ATX case so long as the case power supply has an AT connector. It is very difficult if not impossible to fit an ATX motherboard in an AT case. A microATX or flexATX motherboard will fit in a regular ATX case. But a regular ATX motherboard will NOT fit in a microATX/flexATX case. By all means, buy a new case with your new motherboard if any doubt exists. They come with a brand-new power supply and warranty.

ATX is currently the industry standard form factor for motherboards and cases. MicroATX and FlexATX are the small and smaller "brothers" of ATX, allowing ever-smaller systems. MiniITX is a new smaller format primarily used and marketed by VIA. It is very small compared to other formats, but finding appropriate cases and power supplies may be difficult at this time.

Regarding chipsets: The chipset is what makes your motherboard work. Different chipsets support different things, and have different integrated features. Chipset companies are usually very competitive, especially third party ones such as nVIDIA, VIA and SiS. In general the newer a chipset is for a given series of processors, the better the performance will be. However, the first few motherboards with a brand new chipset are more likely to have problems then motherboards produced later on. Often these sorts of problems are cleared up through patches, bios updates, and other fixes but it can be disappointing to get the latest, hottest new motherboard on the market and then find out it doesn't like part x due to a bios problem after you install the board. The saying goes: "If you stay on the bleeding edge, then you are likely to bleed." The best thing to do is to research the motherboard you are interested in at the manufacturer's website and at popular review websites. It usually isn't a good sign if the motherboard manufacturer does not have at least one bios update available. Also, motherboard manufacturers learn from the mistakes of their rivals and from their own previous mistakes. The third or fourth motherboard that hits the market using a new chipset is less likely to have problems than the first one to hit the market.

To integrate or not to integrate? Integration is a current industry trend. It saves cost and space to integrate as many components onto the motherboard as possible such as video, audio, modem, and network card. Integrated motherboards tend to have limitations on future upgradeability and expandability. It is not recommended for power users. It may however serve first-time and budget-minded buyers and as a second machine as well. The reliability of integrated motherboards has improved significantly in recent years, although the chances for something to go wrong on an integrated motherboard is still higher than a non-integrated one.