Apple has now earned the title of the worlds most valuable company and by looking at the demand for their products you can see why. The iPhone is one of the most popular phones available, they created an entirely new category of products which people didn't really need and it became wildly successful and then they have the Macs. Macs are some of the best looking computers you can buy and for many people in the market for a new computer, purchasing one has definitely crossed their mind.

Some of the reasons why Macs were not a serious option in the past was because their OS was foreign (i.e. not Windows), they were comparatively underpowered and very expensive when compared to competitors. Fast forward a few years and OS X, although not the most popular OS, is very well known and owns about 10% of the market. The appeal is growing with each subsequent release sharing features with iOS (e.g. OS X Mountian Lion comes with a new Notification Centre) which is good for those who know how to use an iPhone (the vast majority of people in developed countries).

In terms of hardware, Macs have definitely caught up with their Windows counterparts. They are no longer a generation behind other PC makers and their computers have the latest components inside.  Graphics cards are top notch on the higher end models making them quite decent gaming machine (always an argument against buying a Mac previously). As well as this the build quality of Apple products is undeniably good. Parts used are of good quality, especially the display and keyboard. Although some features which Windows users have come to expect can still not be found on a Mac such as a BD drive, USB 3.0 or eSATA ports although the addition of a Thunderbolt port is supposed to make up for the last two (despite the lack of devices).

One area which Apple hasn't really improved is their pricing. Comparing builds with similar specs really makes it obvious that Apple seem to charge extra money because they can. For example when upgrading to 8GB of DDR3-1333 RAM from 4GB on an Alienware M14X the cost is $120. To do exactly the same thing on MacBook Pro 15.4-Inchthe cost is $200. There seems to be little justification for the extra $80. One way to justify the price is the amount of software which is already loaded on the Mac when you buy it. The iLife suite is complimentary which has some very useful programs, some of which would cost quite a bit of money on a Windows computer.

So what makes the Mac so tempting over Windows computers despite the price? I think that it is the little details which do it. One thing I found absolutely amazing was how Apple thought to make the display hinge loose enough so that you can open the lid with one hand (without the bottom of the computer lifting up as well) but tight enough that the screen doesn't flop around. The MagSafe power adapter
is also very well thought out to prevent people form tripping over the cable and throwing your computer to the floor. The other thing is the option of an anti glare screen. Most laptop manufacturers do not have this option on the vast majority of their products as anti glare screens aren't what the majority want. Clearly Apple don't care about this as they still have the anti glare option despite the relatively low demand for it. These little options really make people feel that Apple cares about the needs of the end user and is probably what makes Apple products so tempting. This is why Apple's market share in the PC world is growing at a fairly fast rate despite not being able to compete directly with other companies on price.

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Winner: ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 1066 Intel - LGA 1155 Motherboard

Buying a motherboard is a subtle balance between going overboard and buying something which simply doesn't have everything you need it to. You can buy boards ranging from $50 to $500 but whether or not you will need everything that an expensive board has to offer is another question. In this article I aim to find the board which is the cheapest and fulfils all the needs of the majority of people.

First thing to look at is the processor - AMD or Intel? So far Intel has the better range although AMD processors are often cheaper. In terms of a price-performance ratio, Intel is still the way to go due to the raw power you get out of the CPU when compared to similar AMD processors. With new Intel Ivy Bridge processors on the horizon, you will probably want a motherboard which gives you the option of later upgrading to the new generation of processors in order to future proof your purchase.

As well as this, since most of the new Intel processors support integrated graphics (which are quite decent for normal use) a motherboard which uses the Z68 chipset to support these graphics will be advantageous as it can save you money in case you do not want to buy a dedicated graphics card immediately. This chipset also has integrated support for SATA3 so an extra chip is not needed (as it was on older motherboards).

Support for PCI-e x16 is necessary as this will give you the option of later upgrading to a dedicated graphics card. If the motherboard has support for two graphics cards, this is also useful but not essential as the majority of people will not buy a second video card ( a single one is good enough for most). Other extra PCI slots are good as they give the option of later expansion

RAM support isn't too much of a concern. Many more expensive motherboards claim to support faster RAM however as I have mentioned in the previous part the stock 1333MHz DDR3 is fine for anyone. Faster RAM is useful for overclocking but the average user doesn't do this and so faster RAM is essentially useless. Any motherboard which supports DDR3 is fine.

USB3 and SATA3 support as well as PCI-e 3.0 (needs Ivy Bridge to work) support is quite a handy feature to have even if it isn't useful now. This should help to prolong the life of your computer, allowing it to keep up with the latest technology and allow the possibility of upgrading in the future. UEFI is a new technology which replaces the BIOS and on top of offering support for booting Windows from 3TB and greater hard drives, it also allows you to interact with it using the mouse instead of just a keyboard. This is an essential feature for future proofing as storage needs are ever increasing so upgrading the hard drive will be a lot easier with this feature

One motherboard which has all the features listed here plus a few more and has the added benefit of being a lot cheaper than comparable boards is the ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 1066 Intel - LGA 1155 Motherboard. This board is perfect even for more advanced users and for the features it has, it is extremely cheap. At the moment it is the best value motherboard available.

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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.

For choosing the amount of RAM, there is a few things you need to consider. Firstly, the amount you need. Many computers you buy ship with 4GB of RAM standard and very few cheap computers will come with 2GB. Regardless of your budget, I recommend going with a minimum of 4GB of RAM but to ensure that your computer runs smoothly for many years to come, 8GB is probably going to be a better choice. I would also buy the minimum number of sticks of RAM you need to as this allows you to upgrade your computer in the future (so, instead of getting 4 2GB sticks, get 2 4GB sticks instead - this will often be cheaper). 2 4GB sticks is a good amount and can be bought for under $50 if you try to get the cheapest price.

Next, you need to look at the speed. Often this will not severely affect your computers performance but the goal here is to avoid bottlenecks. The latest processors all work fine with 1066 or 1333MHz DDR3. Faster memory than this will be useless for most people. Where it will come in handy is for overclockers since as you overclock your CPU, the FSB speed increases meaning you need faster memory to stop bottlenecks from occurring and negating the performance benefit of overclocking.

Taking all this into consideration, at the moment it looks like the best value RAM for everyday use is the Kingston Valueram 8GB (2x4 GB)Kit 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM Desktop Memory KVR1333D3N9K2/8G. At the time of writing it costs $48 which is essentially the cheapest you can get this type of RAM. Kingston is also a well known brand with good quality products so despite its low price, the RAM should be top notch.

If you have an old computer which only supports DDR2 or DDR then you may have a harder time locating RAM. On top of this it will be quite expensive due to a lower supply. 1GB of Kingston DDR RAM will cost the same amount as 8GB of DDR3 RAM. If your computer is this old, you may want to consider upgrading it as it will be cheaper in the long run rather than replacing parts with legacy hardware which is difficult to find and technologically inferior for a premium price.

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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!

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The device is an iron nanoparticle, 1/50,000 the width of a human hair, enclosed in a hollow carbon nanotube. The iron can be shuttled back and forth within the tube as an effective way to store data.[ad#Adsense]

The team says it’s achievable to build storage devices capable of carrying a terabyte of information per square inch, making it more effective than current techniques. However, the data will also be almost incorruptible and should remain available for a billion years or more.

Current memory technologies are nowhere near as long lasting. Conventional flash memory usually fails after around three to five years.

As an example Alex Zettl, one of the team behind the invention, notes that the Doomsday Book written on vellum has so far lasted over 900 years, whereas the digital version of the book, encoded in 1986, failed in less than 20 years.

 Source: PC Authority

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