History of Internet

Evolution of Email (1965 – 2011*)

Source : microsoftfeed.com

How to Pick the Right Motherboard for Your Custom-Built PC

Motherboards are the most complex component in your computer. Fitted with hundreds of components and dozens of options it can be difficult to choose. Let’s look at the most important factors to help you decide before building your next computer.

Motherboards are the central nervous system of your computer. They are responsible for connecting and communicating between all of the important components inside. Knowing what to look for is key when comparing boards.

Motherboard Sizes

Motherboards come in different shapes and sizes, but luckily there are some standards set in place so that a lot of motherboards and cases can work together.

For the most part these sizes apply to all desktop computers but some computers you buy from manufacturers don’t follow all the rules. This is usually fine when you buy the whole computer as a unit, but it becomes tricky if you want to swap a new motherboard into the case or build one from scratch.

The most common motherboard size is Intel’s Advanced Technology Extended (ATX) and its derivatives. The chart below has some of the most common ATX sizes, but there are plenty more options than just the few shown here.

Motherboard sizes not only indicate the size of the board and placement of mounting screws, but it also dictates the general layout of the major components on the board. Have you ever noticed that almost all motherboards have the CPU, RAM, and I/O ports in the same place? That is because they are determined by the board standard. The components have to be in the same place otherwise case and power supply manufacturers wouldn’t easily be able to sell you something that works with with your motherboard no matter who makes it.

For ATX motherboards the general layout of the board is shown in the picture below.

Intel’s second attempt at standardizing motherboards was with Balanced Technology Extended (BTX). The main focus of BTX was to solve airflow and component placement limitations of ATX. Although BTX was supposed to be the successor to the ATX form factor, it didn’t gain enough traction to take off in the consumer market. Some large computer manufacturers such as HP, Dell, and Apple still use BTX, or proprietary variations of it. The main layout differences can be seen in the picture below.

Because BTX has been abandoned by Intel since 2007, you will just need to focus on which ATX size best suits your needs. Typically the main difference between small ATX boards and larger boards are expansion slots and CPU support.

Processor Sockets

Image via kwixson

The processor socket you choose is the deciding factor in what CPU you can use in your computer. If the processor doesn’t fit, you can’t use it. Intel and AMD both have their own series of processors and sockets that are compatible with only their chips. The first thing you will need to decide is which processor you want and then you can decide further on which socket you need.

Intel’s sockets usually have a friendly name, like Socket H, and a technical name like LGA 1156. The friendly name is easier to remember while the technical name will tell you about the socket. LGA 1156, for example, stands for Land Grid Array and it has 1156 pins. Because CPUs and motherboards change so often it probably isn’t worth it to describe what processors work in which sockets. Instead you can get that information on which CPU series work with which motherboards from your manufacturer.

For Intel’s consumer sockets they typically have a low power, e.g. Socket 441 for Atom processors, a midrange, e.g. Socket H for Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 800 series processors, and a high end, e.g. Socket B for Core i7 900 series processors. If you are looking to use an Intel processor you will need to find which socket supports the processor you want.

AMD hasn’t been changing quite as frequently as Intel and in the past 5 years they have only had 3 major consumer sockets. The AM2, AM2+, and AM3 sockets support almost all of AMD’s consumer processors currently. The AM2 and AM2+ were mostly interchangeable and the AM3 was introduced to support DDR3 memory.

In either case, it is a good idea to pick your processor first, and your motherboard second. If you buy a socket with no processor support, it isn’t going to do you much good.

Chipsets

Image via adikos

The chipset is how your CPU, RAM, video card, and peripherals communicate. It is a combination of your northbridge and southbridge and can add some very nice features depending on your needs.

The northbridge is typically responsible for the very fast communication between your CPU, RAM, and video card. It is where you will get features like SLI/CrossFire and DDR3. With the current Intel and AMD processors the northbridge functions are all included in the processor. This means less complexity for your motherboard and typically less latency for the processor to access the high speed components like RAM.

Integration is great news for performance but sometimes bad news for options. For instance, because AMD owns ATI they could have the ability to lock their latest gaming graphics cards to only having specific features if you are using an AMD processor. This also put companies like Nvidia out of the northbridge market who use to make one of the best northbridge chips back in the Pentium 4 processor days.

The southbridge will give you features like support for the latest PCI-E, SATA, USB 3, and many more future technologies. It is also essential to know what options you need because some southbridges may not support every feature you might expect like RAID and surround sound. With most manufacturers they will clearly state the features available without needing to dive deep into the southbridge chipset features.

Because this combination of features + processors + options is so big and changes multiple times per year it would be impossible for us to list every option here. Instead, just be aware when you are picking your motherboard of what features you need and then look for those options in your boards chipset.

Other options

A lot of manufacturers will try to sell you on a motherboard based on extra features like the amount of on board I/O ports, amount of expansion slots, or the reliability of their motherboards. These can all be requirements depending on the purpose of the computer you are building. Once you figure out the processor and size of motherboard you want, these added features will probably become the next most important thing, especially with smaller form factor motherboards when space is limited.

It is typically easier to use onboard features if they are available than try and expand the computer to have all of the options you need. If you know you are going to need two network cards or HDMI with audio pass-through, make sure your motherboard supports it before buying.

The manufacture’s description may not be 100% clear on if the feature is supported or not. Other places to look for clarification on specific features are device reviews, forums, and wikipedia. You may also want to download the PDF user guide for the motherboard just to see if it is documented on how to enable the features you need.

If you have clear decision for what you need in each category you can quickly narrow down the endless sea of options available. This can greatly ease the stress when trying to decide on a motherboard just by price or maximum memory supported.

Source : www.howtogeek.com

XDR™2 Memory Architecture

The XDR™2 memory architecture is the world's fastest memory system solution capable of providing more than twice the peak bandwidth per device when compared to a GDDR5-based system. Further, the XDR 2 memory architecture delivers this performance at 30% lower power than GDDR5 at equivalent bandwidth.

Designed for scalability, power efficiency and manufacturability, the XDR 2 architecture is a complete memory solution ideally suited for high-performance gaming, graphics and multi-core compute applications. Each XDR 2 DRAM can deliver up to 80GB/s of peak bandwidth from a single, 4-byte-wide, 20Gbps XDR 2 DRAM device. With this capability, systems can achieve memory bandwidth of over 500GB/s on a single SoC.

Capable of data rates up to 20Gbps, the XDR 2 architecture is part of the award-winning family of XDR products. With backwards compatibility to XDR DRAM and single-ended industry-standard memories, the XDR 2 architecture is part of a continuously compatible roadmap, offering a path for both performance upgrades and system cost reductions.

The XDR 2 memory architecture is the first to incorporate innovations from Rambus' Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative along with other key Rambus innovations including:

• 32X Data Rate enables high data rates (up to 20Gbps) at lower system clock and on-chip bus interface speeds.
  
• Fully Differential Memory Architecture (FDMA) improves signal integrity, reduces power and enables the highest memory performance available.
  
• Enhanced FlexPhase™ enables high data rates, simplifies layout and eliminates trace length matching.
  
• FlexLink™ C/A reduces system costs and controller pin-count while providing scalable capacity and flexible access granularity.
  
• FlexMode™ interface technology enables support of both differential and single-ended memories in a single SoC package design with no extra pins.
  
• Micro-threading increases transfer efficiency on micro-threaded workloads while reducing power consumption.

Source : www.rambus.com

Create Keyboard Shortcut To Eject And Close CD/DVD Drive

This is a handy method devised by me to close and eject cd/dvd drive with help of keyboard shortcuts in windows Xp.

To create shortcuts follow these simple steps:

1. Download small freeware utility called tooler.

2. Start up the tooler and create shortcuts for ejecting and closing the cd/dvd drive on the desktop.

3. Now right click on the shortcuts created on the desktop and define keyboard combinations for these shortcuts as shown in image below.

4. Now assign Ctrl+Alt+E for ejecting the drive and assign Ctrl+Alt+C for closing the drive.

That's it, we are done, now on pressing Ctrl+Alt+E will eject the drive and pressing Ctrl+Alt+C will close the drive.

Source : techcruser.blogspot.com

How to Speed up a Windows XP Computer

Steps

1. 1
   Clean computer registry, but first backup the registry using the cleaner program. Regularly use a freeware^[1] or purchase commercial, registry cleaner to increase XP performance. Maybe you have uninstalled an application without using the Add or Remove Programs function in the Control Panel, or perhaps an object or file in the registry got moved. Eventually, this orphaned or misplaced information accumulates and begins to clog your registry, potentially slowing down your PC and causing error messages and system crashes.
2. 2
   Remove Spyware and Viruses
   • Spyware and viruses are leading causes of computer slowdown because you may have several spyware cookies or trojans that are taking up your processor time for reading and storing and reporting your activity to several spy databases. Read Rid-Your-Computer-of-Adware,-Spyware-and-Viruses to learn how to remove them and speed up your system.
   • Update and run your spyware and virus software every week.
   • If you do not have tools installed to protect against malware and spyware then you can download Spyware Blaster, and for viruses, download a free copy of AVG - "Anti-Vir Guard" or this one Avira - "Anti-Vira guard" (all three of those are free "For Personal Use"), all three are also available in Business or Pro versions. Also, Microsoft's Windows Defender is a widely-used anti-spyware tool that is currently distributed freely for users with a "Genuine" verified copy of Windows. "Windows Defender" is also included with other Microsoft services and products such as "Live OneCare" and "Vista."
   • Download and install Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome. It will allow you to import all of your Internet Explorer settings, and is much less prone to malware than Microsoft Internet Explorer. It will prompt you with a "Set as Default Browser" message. Check "Don't show this again" and click "Yes". Firefox also has a cool feature to delete cookies, cache, and temporary internet files each time you close it. You are strongly recommended to use this option. It can speed up your internet experience. You should also check Google Chrome which is noticeably faster and less prone to virus attacks from internet Chrome.
   • If you have a really complicated virus infection, try using the Quick Virus Remover. It is a free utility, though not a replacement for commercial products but can be helpful for removing some of the most common viruses infecting your system.
3. 3
   Perform a disk clean up.
   • Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.
   • Type, "cleanmgr.exe" in the text field.
   • Press "okay". This can take a while if you have never done it before.
     
     
     
4. 4
   Remove unwanted/unneeded software which may be the reason for slowdown.
   • Click start, then click control panel.
   • Click add/remove programs.
   • Highlight any old software you do not use and then click "remove".
5. 5
   Defragment Your Computer - This will place similar files physically closer on the hard disk and will help improve load speeds.
   • Click start, again, then click run.
   • Type, "dfrg.msc" in the text field.
   • Click Defrag to start it.
     
     
     
6. 6
   Stop unwanted Start-Up programs.
   • Run msconfig
   • Choose startup box
   • Select uncheck programs you don't want to run on startup
   • OR
   • Click here and download StartUpCPL.
   • Install the software you have just downloaded.
   • Open control panel, select Start up.
   • Disable any programs you do not want load automatically.
   • 
     
     
     
   • Programs can also schedule tasks to launch automatically when windows starts to stop such programs use windows task scheduler.To open Scheduled Tasks, click Start, click All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks.
   • Disable All Services you do not use or need. Open control panel, open Administrative Tools, and select Services. Disabling the wrong Services may lead to serious problems that you may not notice right away. Please consult a reference such asoverclockersclub.comfor information on specific Windows XP Services. If you do not know what it is, do not disable the service
     
     
     
7. 7
   Make Windows Load Faster
   • Click Start, then Run.
   • Type in 'msconfig' and press enter.
   • Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top.
   • Over to the right there will be a box labeled Timeout with 30 in it. Change the 30 to a 3.
8. 8
   Speed Up Processing Time
   • Turning off the fancy Windows XP graphics will noticeably increase the speed of your computer.
   • Go to Start, (Settings), Control Panel, System. NOTE: You may need to 'Switch to Classic Mode' to see the System applet.
   • Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.
   • Select the 'Adjust for best performance' radio button, then Apply, and OK.
   • The graphics aren't as flashy, but your computer will run a lot faster.
9. 9
   Set Pagefile size
   • Go to Start, (Settings), Control Panel, System. (This is just like the step above this.)
   • Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.
   • Now switch to this Advanced tab, and click on 'Change' under Virtual Memory.
   • You will see the 'Initial Size (MB)' and the Maximum Size (MB)'.
   • Change 'Initial Size' to the same value as 'Maximum Size' then click set.
     • NOTE This setting will help your gaming process by speeding up your computer.
     • ADDED NOTE: When your computer consumes your computer's hard drive and uses it as RAM, it is referred to as thrashing. Thrashing is bad for your computer and buying a RAM (it's not that expensive) is much more worthwhile.
10. 10
    Set Priorities:Press Control (ctrl) Alt Delete (del) at the same time. Once task manager opens, click the process's tab. Now find explorer.exe, right click it, and set the priority to realtime. This makes your computer focus on explorer.exe, which is your task bar and visual objects. Use this method if you want to keep your visual styles (or your using a transformation pack). This method greatly increases speed and if you are noticing that other programs that you use a lot are slow, you can set their priority to either high or above normal, if you have 2 process's on high at the same time, your computer will be unstable, and might crash. **For users without Admin password**-You will not be able to modify the value to realtime, if you aren't on an admin account, or you have insufficient privileges, then the best you can do, is set to high.
11. 11
    Delete photos. Pictures can take up an enormous amount of space. If you want to keep the pictures - and you most likely do - copy them to a CD-rom.
    
    

    Tips

• If this is your first defrag, do it after the disk clean up twice, then a disk defrag, and then another disk clean up. It is suggested to defrag your hard drive weekly.
• For best results, run defragmenter last after performing all other steps and do not use your computer while defragmenter is running.
• Do all the above steps quite often to maintain the speed of your PC.
• Run an alternate Windows shell to save on RAM usage and boost performance (Shell Shocked: Alternative shells for Windows). Although more expensive, installing additional RAM is a better option. Running an alternate shell is a compatibility risk as many proprietary Microsoft programs, such as their latest game or Visual Studio, may not function properly on a third-party shell.
• Although time-intensive, a re-partition and re-format of the hard disk drive, along with a clean installation of Windows XP will improve performance. Performing this task will remove all of your existing data, so a back-up or file copy is recommended first. Only save the files you created, as you will need to reinstall each application on the new installation of Windows. If you did not change the default location when saving documents, it may be safe to copy only the user folder and all files and folders within it (ie: "C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)"). Typically, most users will need to be sure to copy these files:
  
  
  • Documents created using applications such as Microsoft Word or similar office suite programs
  • Bookmarks/Favorites from your Internet browser
  • Fonts installed that are not included by default with Windows (note that some fonts are installed by applications).
  • E-mail in-box and folders if you use an e-mail client that does not use an Internet browser
  • Any schedule data for programs such as Outlook
  • Financial records for programs such as Quicken
• Optimize the registry with a third-party application. Many of these registry tweaking programs are available on the Internet, including freeware, shareware and commercial applications that are released as free trials. If you are not familiar with the registry, do not try to edit it manually -- the registry is vital to Windows' operation.
• Download Ccleaner from majorgeeks.com. It's a good freeware program, and if you don't use other unnecessary programs, you will be able to gain a lot of space. It also gives you other features such as:
  • Startup Manager and
  • Registry Cleaner.
• Also go to Start/Run type in %temp% and delete them all.
• Clean your Computer's Inside. Dust off the fans, gently wash the monitor screen, and clean the keyboard/mouse. Dust blocking the fans and heat sink inside the computer can cause performance problems, including memory problems.

Source : www.wikihow.com