Category Archives: Hardware

Microsoft Surface Pro – First Look

I recently had a chance to get to the Microsoft store and test out the original Surface tablet. You can find my review of the original Surface here. Just this past week, Microsoft announced that the Surface Pro would be released in January. Microsoft also provided more details on price and specs. I wanted to take a look at the new Surface Pro and compare it to the original surface.

Essentially a Small Laptop

The original surface had limitations in which you couldn’t just install any program you wanted. You had to find the program as an App. Most popular programs have an App in the App store already. However, if you needed a specific business software, you were out of luck. The Surface Pro has the full version of Windows 8. So, now, you can find any program you want and install it. To support the full Windows 8, the Surface Pro has a beefed up processing core. This more powerful CPU will also allow the Surface Pro to run more intense programs. read more

Price Sweet Spot When Buying a Video Card

I enjoy a number of PC games. To play the latest and greatest games well, a solid video card is needed. After quite a bit of research and past experiences, I have found that the best price for performance is around the $200 mark when purchasing a new Graphics Card. I have found this to be true in the past, and when I revisited this today, I find that this same price point holds true.

Best Price for Performance

The main reason I look around the $200 price point is that I find that this is the price in which you will see the best price for performance. If you bought a $200 video card on a site like Amazon.com or Newegg today, you would be able to play the latest games at above average settings with no problems. This assumes that your CPU, RAM, etc can handle the latest games. Also, the video cards that are around the $200 mark should have no trouble playing games for a few years into the future. If you were to skimp and go for a card under $100, it would probably work fine right now. However, in a year, you may be looking to upgrade again. read more

Cache Memory: What is it and What does it do?

This might be on the more technical side for this blog, however, I often get asked by friends or family about cache memory. This discussion often comes up when the person is trying to purchase a new computer or possibly even a CPU. So, I figured it would would make for a good discussion topic on this blog.

Cache Memory: What is it?

Cache Memory is much like RAM. It is memory that the CPU uses to store information. However, the difference is that cache memory is closer to the processor core(s) and smaller in size. This makes cache memory much faster than RAM. read more

Microsoft Surface Tablet Review

I had a chance to do some research and play around with a Microsoft Surface tablet. The Surface tablet is the newest tablet from Microsoft. It is a little bit bigger than an iPad, uses the Windows RT OS, and offers a snap on keyboard.

Surface Specs

As I noted above, the surface is about the same size as an iPad. It is 10.81 x 6.77 x 0.37in and weighs in at 1.5 pounds. The screen itself is 10.6″ and the resolution goes up to 1366x768px. It employs a quad-core NVIDIA CPU and comes with 2GB of Ram. When it comes to storage, there are 2 options: 32GB and 64GB. It has 2 cameras, one on the front and one on the back. It also has a number of input ports. It has a Full-size USB 2.0, microSDXC card slot, a Headset jack, a HD video out port, and a Cover port. read more

The New Laptop / Tablet Convertible Computers

One new trend in the Computer world is the new laptop / tablet convertible computers. If you aren’t familiar with this new trend, the laptop / tablet convertible is essentially a full functioning laptop that has a touchscreen and an ability to fold so you can hide the keyboard. I wanted to take a look at this overall new technology and see how these new laptop tablets stack up to a traditional laptop.

At this point in time, most major laptop manufacturers have jumped on this laptop/tablet convertible bandwagon. Dell has the XPS 12 Convertible, Asus has the Taichi, Sony has the Vaio Hybrid Convertible, and so on. The different convertibles have their differences, but the overall concept is the same. read more