What Is The Best Value Computer You Can Buy?: Part 4
Continuing with the series of posts of the best value components you can buy for your computer, this section is all about RAM. RAM is a component of the PC which is essential to performance and depending on a number of factors, the ideal amount of RAM can differ from person to person. RAM also has one wonderful quality, it is dirt cheap! This gives you little excuse for skimping on it but there is a point where you will be spending a significant amount of money for very little gain in performance.
Upcoming technology in computers : CPU
In the fast moving world of technology, it can become impossible to keep up with the ever changing landscape. This is why I have introduced this new series of posts to give you guys an idea of what is upcoming in the world of computers and whether it is worth the wait or better to just buy what is currently on offer. New technology also leads to price drops in the older (but not outdated) technology. For example, when Sandy Bridge processors from Intel came out, they offered a large jump in processing power as well as efficiency but laptops with the older generation of i5 and i7 could be found for $500-700, a far cry from the $1700 they were available for 6 months before. If you're willing to buy slightly older technology, the newer components can lead to massive savings for you especially as manufacturers and shops try to clear out their stocks. So what's new in the world of CPUs?
Windows 8 Developer Preview: What I Don’t Like
UPDATE: I found this link to some tweaking software for the Developer Preview which fixes a few of these problems. You can add shutdown, restart and sleep buttons to the start menu now and also completely remove the Metro Start screen. Here is a link to the download
By now we've all had a chance to play around with the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Now, I know this isn't the final version but there are several things which Microsoft has done which annoy me to no end.
Firstly, there is the placement of the shutdown button. One of the most known commands on every single computer is usually kept in the most conspicuous place possible. What puzzles me to no end is why Microsoft chose to put it in the Settings menu. It makes no sense and to most people who think logically, it is the last place they would look. Clicking on the username gives the user the option to log off but not to shutdown. Obviously tablet users will not be bothered by this since most will just put their tablet to sleep but since this is meant to be a full blown desktop OS, many users will want to shutdown at the end of the day. It seems like a bit of an oversight to me.
The new Metro interface seems pretty cool when you first try it out but it's only when the fun is over and you need to do actual work that you realize how useless it is for productivity. First, it is not very clear what applications are currently running in the background. If you have 2 apps open you can easily switch between them by dragging from the left side of the screen but when there is more than this, it just becomes annoying. You have no idea what you are doing and having to keep returning to the Start screen to open new apps and search just adds an extra click to every process. A feature similar to Expose (but not a copy) on Mac OS X would be awesome for this purpose so I could have a birds-eye view of everything which is happening.
Windows Developer Preview Apps
Here is a quick overview of some of the apps included in the developer build of Windows. Most have pretty good concepts but need a bit more work to make them useful. Overall, it gives you an idea of how the OS works and the power of the system.
More pictures will come soon as I discover new features
Windows 8 Developer Preview Pictures
So the new developer build of Windows looks pretty cool. It is pretty similar to what you've been reading in the news lately. There are a few bugs for example, after leaving it on for a while, the screen goes black and the computer freezes. It also sometimes randomly crashes while in any app so it isn't something you want to use permanently. Overall, its a pretty good idea but needs a few improvements. There are a few preinstalled apps which I still have to look at and I'll make another post with more information on that stuff. For now, enjoy the slideshow!
UPDATE: Another small flaw is how difficult it is to access the shutdown button. It is hidden away in the most difficult to find spot. It probably should be located somewhere on the home screen
UPDATE: Here is the download link if you want to install it yourself. I used virtualbox to install it but beware that it will probably run a lot slower than what it should
SSDs: Should you or Shouldn’t you?
With more and more manufacturers updating their products to include SSDs you might be wondering if it is time to make the move.
SSD stands for solid state disk. It is essentially the same as a hard drive except instead of using magnetic storage and moving parts, it uses flash memory which has no moving parts. Less moving parts means less mechanical components to fail as well as significantly faster read and write speeds. This makes SSDs highly shock proof since there is nothing mechanical to break inside. Although SSDs have been out for quite a while, for the most part they have been eye-wateringly expensive and, depending on how you look at it, they still can be. The reason for the high price is that flash memory is quite expensive but is slowly becoming cheaper. This is why RAM is coming in large quantities on computers now. 5 years ago it would have cost a lot of money to have 12GB of RAM, today it is considerably less and fast becoming the norm. As time goes on, capacities such as 128GB and 256GB will come down in price which should allow SSDs to replace the hard drive.
The Perfect Laptop – Impossible
Recently, I had to come up with the task of choosing a new laptop to buy. It seems like an easy task until you actually try it. Everywhere you go, every brand, every model - nothing is perfect! You start off with a good idea of what type of laptop you want, the amount of power, the battery life and you find that this laptop you've been picturing in your head simply doesn't exist.
Personally, I wanted a laptop which had a decent graphics card, at least an i5 processor and an anti glare screen for around $1700. The problem being that no one who wanted an anti glare screen had any need for a powerful laptop so you either had to go for an under powered laptop with the screen you want or a laptop with all the power you could need but a screen you can never see unless you close all the curtains and turn off the lights. Anything which looked to be perfect ended up costing around $3000 because it had all these other features which i had no need for.
I'm sure other people have had similar dilemmas when trying to buy a computer, there is nothing which quite fits everything you require for. This means that your purchase ends up being a series of trade offs. For me, I valued power so I got something which was not very expensive, had heaps of grunt and had a full HD screen (still glary). It seemed like an almost perfect laptop, until when I brought it home. I realised it only had a 1.5 hour battery life!
Review: ESET Smart Secrity 5 beta
Pros
- Excellent interface
- Easy to use
- Good detection rate
Cons
- Ambiguous on how to configure automatic firewall
- Password setup is annoying with interactive firewall
- Not as many extra features as competitors
Review
After sticking with Avira Security Suite for almost a year a decided it was time for a change. ESET has released a free public beta version of their Smart Security suite and I thought I would give it a whirl. Once downloaded, installation was a breeze. The one thing I didn't get was that it made me set a password for going into setup. It makes sense since it stops random people messing around with your settings but after a while it got REALLY annoying (more on that later).
Review: Telstra Post-paid Mobile Broadband
Most people when they hear the name Telstra, they run. Not only have Telstra got a bad reputation from past customers but their plans are notorious for being over-expensive and not even remotely competitive with other mobile carriers. Up until now I believed the same thing, that was until I tried Telstra's mobile broadband offering.
First, the plan i chose was the 7GB Liberty which I got for $39.95 a month (a $20 discount because of having other services with Telstra). Seeing as the normal price is $59.95, this plan is incredibly expensive compared to what you're getting. The $39.95 price makes it slightly more reasonable. Other carriers like 3/Vodafone and Optus give you between 8 and 12GB for $39.95 a month. The biggest problem with all these carriers is their data services are unreliable and not upto scratch. Using a mobile phone as a modem with 3, I got a maximum speed of around 1mbps but it was usually around 400kpbs. This barely qualifies as broadband and it is painfully slow. So despite the extra data you get, it really isn't worth the trouble. Another issue is the coverage. Both Vodafone and Optus are notorious for having poor signal in amny areas and lots of blackspots, most likely due to their overloaded networks. 3 has decent coverage in metropolitan areas but you get hit with roaming charges if you wander out of their coverage area which is anywhere outside major cities and towns.
With Telstra, they give you a free "Ultimate" wireless modem depending on the plan you get. This modem gives you a theoretical maximum speed of 21mbps. In the real world, this is practically impossible but in practice, my internet speed is at 13mbps and has gone as high as 15mbps. Although you have to be living fairly close to the CBD to get these speeds, outside these areas you will still get upto 8mpbs theoretically. The main difference is that these speeds are much faster than any other networks and you can have internet access almost anywhere in Australia with fairly decent signal and speed. So, is it worth the extra cost? Personally, I think it is since with the other carriers you will end up being frustrated trying to get decent signal and the high data allowance will be useless. The other advantage is that with Telstra there are no excess usage charges as with other carriers, once you reach your monthly allowance it is shaped to 64kpbs.
Review: Blackberry OS 6 on Bold 9700
Pros
- Feels faster than OS 5
- Better UI
- Social Feeds is awesome
- Improved Camera application
- Less Loading Times
- New Browser
Cons
- The new home screen works better on a touch screen
- Uses too much application memory
Review
After hearing that the new OS for Blackberry was out, I really wanted to try it out but unfortunately it hadn't come out on the Bold 9700. After a few months wait, a carrier in the US released it for their customers and I found a way to download and install the new OS regardless of what carrier you have. This is especially useful for those in Australia where OS 6 will probably never be released to the Bold 9700. Continue reading after the break.
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