December 27, 2009 · Posted in Laptops  

By Joseph L Wilson

When you are getting ready to buy a MacBook, there is a good chance that you are quite excited. You are going to be getting a great machine, whether you are looking to it for work or for play, and of course you are going to want to get the best machine for you. The question of MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro is one that will come up, and you will find that there are definitely things to be said for both pieces of tech. When you are considering the MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro, check out a few important points of information.

If you are considering MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro, it will help to have an overview of both. The MacBook Air is a light, aluminum model and it has been called the world’s thinnest laptop. It is a great travel machine and for a travel machine, it has a fair amount of processing power. On the other hand, you have the MacBook Pro, which can essentially handle just about everything that you throw at it in terms of processing, graphics, and resolution.

When you are considering MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro, consider what you are looking for in a laptop. Will this machine be your only computer, or have you decided to purchase it based on its value as a satellite machine? What are you going to use it for? Are you a gamer? Do you place a high premium getting good graphics and a high resolution?

To get the full scoop on the MacBook Air, remember that you are dealing with what has been called the best travel laptop to come along in a while. Compared to the MacBook Pro especially, it has a slow processor. It also lacks an optical drive and has significantly fewer ports to work with. The internals cannot be upgraded and there is no switchable battery. On the other hand, with the MacBook Pro, you will find that it can be considered a real powerhouse in the processing department and it offers an additional dedicated graphics card.

Remember that when you are dealing with the question of the MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro that you should consider size. The MacBook Air is smaller and lighter, but because o that, you will find that it operates on single-platter, 1.8 inch hard drives, which are the same as the ones that are found in a 80GB iPod classic fit. They are slower, and the smaller, more compact size does denote a higher price.

At the end of the day, it is all about function, and what you need your MacBook to do. The MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro question is a very personal one, and you should consider what it means to you!

See more about this debate on MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro to help you make your buying decision. Plus find great deals and a huge selection of Used Apple Laptops.

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December 27, 2009 · Posted in Laptops  

Find Out Why This Laptop is Great For Office and Business Use
By Nadav Snir

Most Dell Vostro 1520 reviews are pretty positive. It seems that most small and medium sized businesses are overall satisfied with what this model has to offer. This new 15.4″ inch business laptop features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB of DDR2 memory, 128MB AAD, up to 250 GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M GS 250 MB dedicated video card, DVD-ROM/Burner, and more. Bluetooth, WI-FI software, video chat software, digital microphone and camera are also available as optional add-ons. You can also choose a fingerprint reader and Firewire port if security an issue in your office.

This laptop weighs 5.38 pounds and runs with a 4-cell battery. It’s fairly portable but still offers a decent screen size. The price isn’t cheap, but Dell Vostro 1520 discounts are always available. Plenty of internet stores offer coupon codes for the Vostro line. Of course, the price will depend on the number of optional features you choose, although there are some coupons available that will help you save on upgrades.

This is especially a great choice if you’re in search of an office laptop with a few multimedia features. If you’re not too demanding or picky about what a business laptop should offer, then you really need to check out the Dell Vostro. The only thing with which you might have a problem is that the CPU can only allow multi-tasking so much. The processor quickly reaches its limit when a lot of multi-tasking is going on.

Fortunately, Dell offers Intel Core 2 Duo processors for a bit more. They offer a great deal more processing power, but expect to pay for it. Spend some time looking for Dell Vostro 1520 discounts and coupon offers to make upgrades more affordable. The most basic package starts at around $549, and you can upgrade all the way up to the Vostro 1520 Fast Track package, which is a couple hundred dollars more. Even the most expensive package is still relatively affordable for a good laptop!

The Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M HD is great for general office use and even some multimedia programs. All of the word processing and spreadsheets applications run smoothly with this card. However, if you expect to use a great deal of multimedia applications, you may want to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card, such as the nVidia GeForce 9300MGS.

Overall, as you can probably tell from this Dell Vostro 1520 review, it is a good laptop, and it serves its purpose as an office computer well. Even if your business keeps you on the run a lot, this laptop is fairly portable. You can do everything from photo manipulation to creating spreadsheets on this computer. You can also surf the web, check email, and run multimedia applications. When you’re away from your office, the battery life will keep the laptop running for a good amount of time.

Check out some Dell Vostro 1520 coupons and find out how you can save. This laptop is affordable, and you should be able to add some upgrades onto your order without going over your budget. Just look over Dell Vostro 1520 discounts and coupon offers to learn more!

bout the author: Nadav Snir operates a website which includes coupons and discounts to the best electronics stores on the web. To get those discounts, visit: http://Great-Info-Products.com/Electronics/index.html

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September 25, 2009 · Posted in Laptops  

Core i7 laptops are almost here and their performance will put any other laptop to shame. Even though the Core i7 CPUs “only” use 45nm technology the awesome power of these quad core processors is unparallelled and in early 2010 we are going to see Core i7 laptops with the upcoming 32nm dual-core versions.

Core i7 laptops will ship with 3 versions of the CPU:

  • 1.6 GHz i7-720QM
  • 1.73 GHz i7-820QM
  • 2.0 GHz i7-920XM

All the versions have built-in dynamic overclocking (Turbo Boost) which means that a Core i7 laptop can boost the the performance of one of the CPUs cores significantly. The 1.73 GHz version can thus boost one of it’s cores to 3.06 GHz. Furthermore, the Core i7 will automatically adapt to whatever it is currently being used for. It can boost one core or turn cores of depending on the number of applications being executed at any given moment and whether the applications are single or multi threaded. This is a terrific feature in the Core i7 laptops since it will help reduce power consumption from the battery.

The Core i7 for laptops also supports Hyper Threading like the Core 2 quad CPUs but the Core i7 multitasks over 8 threads instead of 4 allowing for better spreading of tasks accross the cores.

PCPro have tested the Core i7 and simply say: “It is very, very fast”. In their application benchmark the Core i7 laptop was based on the 1.73 GHz CPU and the specs of the hardware were very mediocre, but it still scored 1.59 which is very close to 1.64 scored by the extreme Dell Precision M6400 Covet in the exact same test.

PCPro also tested the Turbo Boost functionallity by first loading one core to it’s maximum and true enough the clock speed rised to 3.06 GHz and power consumption to 58W. When they loaded a second core the clock speed dropped to 2.8 GHz and power consumption increased to 70W. Adding loads to the remaining cores will simply result in further drop in the overall clock speed while power consumption peaks out at 74W.

Combining the efficient use of the battery in a Core i7 laptop with the Windows Vista Power Saver functionallity you can get great battery lifetime. PCPro managed to squeeze 3½ hour out of a standard 4,800 mAh battery by leaving the Core i7 laptop idle, but when they pushed it to it’s limits, the battery only lasted 46 minutes.

LAPTOP has also tested a Core i7 laptop and their rig was based on the 2.0 GHz version and loaded with state-of-the-art hardware. The monster burned through all the benchmark tests beating records.

Check out these great deals on Core i7 laptops

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September 18, 2009 · Posted in CPU  

Laptops today have more computing power than ever before. This is especially true now that Intel has released their new Core i5 and i7 800 series processors. In this article we’ll take a closer look at these fast chips and the dream machines from Dell that include them….

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September 16, 2009 · Posted in Computers general  

As of the past few years we ve noticed an emerging trend everything goes online. We pay our bills online do 36 -degree panoramic virtual tours connect to our work computer edit our pictures schedule tasks and manage our calendars socialize and so forth. Basically everything has either turned into an entirely web-based application or just sports some web-based functions. In this article we ll take a look at online virtual computers….

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September 10, 2009 · Posted in Laptops  

For the final installment of our fall campus edition laptop review we will take a look at the Asus UX5 V-RX 5 and the Sony Vaio VGN-NW125J T laptops. They are both larger and mainstream in size compared to the other four laptops we have previously discussed….

Register for the SAP BI Resource Center Feel empowered by making effective, informed decisions based on solid data.

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September 9, 2009 · Posted in Laptops  

Today we will review two more laptops you may want to check out before you decide on a final purchase for your back to school or work needs. Both of today s offerings come from Hewlett-Packard. We will begin with the less expensive HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx and end with the pricier HP TouchSmart tx2-1275dx….

Free Access to SAP BI Resource Center Empower your users to discover how to explore business at the speed of thought.

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September 3, 2009 · Posted in Monitor  

Are you looking to upgrade to a flat panel LCD monitor Today we ll be reviewing two that are definitely easy on the eyes though possibly not the budget the HP w2558hc and the Planar PX2611w. Both have a lot to offer the discriminating user….

Save $700 on Intel Developer Forum 2009 Get an IDF promo code through free Intel(R) Software Dispatch e-Alerts

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September 2, 2009 · Posted in Peripherals  

Style and quality are two of the most important traits of any electronic equipment you can buy nowadays. It is just so important that it does not look like some rubbish you took out of a container. Otherwise your image may be compromised and nobody wants that. So anything you may construct first make sure that it looks good. If by doing this you also increase the performance of the equipment so much the better. Let us see if in-ear headphones and in particular the Sennheiser CX 3 in-ear headphones manage to pull this off….

DOWNLOAD vWire Today – FREE TRIAL Take Control of Your Virtual Infrastructure. Manage VI Data & Prevent Problems.

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August 28, 2009 · Posted in Memory  

DDR RAM stands for Double Data Rate Random Access Memory. In this article I would like to describe en laymans’s terms the different types of DDR RAM, how they are used and how to choose the right modules, when you upgrade or put together a new PC.

To get a basic understanding of DDR RAM it is necessary to begin with a more general description. The DDR RAM modules are the memory in a computer where all programs and data are stored, when being in use. When you run a program or load a file from the harddrive or a CD ROM, it is kept in the DDR RAM for as long as it is in use or until the PC is turned off, where everything in the RAM is erased. There are DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM modules, where most PCs today use DDR3.

DDR RAM modules are attached to the motherboard in a PC through an interface known as the Front Side Bus (FSB). The size and speed of the FSB determines which type of DDR RAM you can use and the maximum speed of the RAM. The maximum attainable speed of the FSB is hence a determining factor in how fast your PC works overall. This is important to know, because if you put slow DDR RAM modules into a PC which is capable of using faster modules, you will effectively be slowing the PC down. If you are building a new PC you can simply look at the specifications for the motherboard, to determine a suitable speed for your new DDR RAM. If on the other hand you are upgrading an older PC and you dont know the name and make of the motherboard, you can download a free tool called SIW (System Information for Windows). When you run SIW you will find a long list in the left hand side of the screen. Under “Hardware” locate an click on “CPU Info”. A list of information is displayd and you should now look for “FSB”, which will tell you the maximum possible speed for the DDR RAM. On my PC it says 1333.4, which means I need to use “DDR RAM” designated “PC1333″.

DDR RAM come in different types such as dual-channel DDR and now also tri-channel DDR RAM. Most PCs today use dual-channel DDR RAM. What this means is that any RAM must be inserted in pairs. The PC will only function with a matched pair of DDR RAM modules, which is also how they are sold. In the case with my 1333MHz FSB the two individual DDR RAM modules actually only operate at 667MHz. There are many different speeds such as PC1600 or PC2100.

There is one last thing to get into when talking about DDR RAM. It’s not really important to the average user but I will mention it anyway. The RAM modules operate with something called latencies, which is a secondary speed rating of DDR RAM. This is defined by 4 numbers such as 3-4-4-8 for example and are designated CAS, tRCD, tRP and tRAS respectively. Sometimes only CAS is mentioned and somtimes it is called CL or just C.

  • The CAS number refers to how much time it takes from the moment an instruction is received by the DDR RAM module until the module reacts on this and accesses the memory matrix inside it (the memory inside the DDR RAM is a matrix of rows and coloumns). The time is measured in cycles but you can convert it into “real” time. Remembering my FSB ran at 1333MHz you convert a CAS of for example 3 into seconds like this: 3/1,333,000,000.
  • tRCD is the time that passes in cycles between a row is found and a coloumn is found in the memory’s matrix.
  • tRP is the time that passes between accessing two different rows in the memory matrix. When the PC needs to access an area that spans many rows, this number can have a significance.
  • tRAS is the time between an electric signal reaches one of the pins on the DDR RAM module itself and until it actually begins accessing the memory matrix.

As I said you dont really need to bother with the latencies unless you are very technical and trying to optimize a system as much as humanly possible. Any average user will never experience any difference between DDR RAM modules with different latencies.

Ok, that about sums it up. I hope you enjoyed reading about DDR RAM and learned a bit along the way.


CompUSA

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