RMS Power output

RMS power refers to the average power output of the speaker over a long period of time. Generally, the higher the RMS power, the louder the speaker system. It is not worthwhile to look at the total peak power as that is not a good indication of the power output. If you are thinking of blasting your speaker away while playing your favorite game, get a computer gaming speaker with high RMS power.

Frequency Response

The effect of the speaker will depend on the range of frequency it can operate at. Our human hearing range is between 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which covered from low frequency to the high frequency. Thus, when buying a speaker, the bigger the frequency range it can operates, the better sound effect it can produce. A good 6.1 Ch surround sound speaker system usually can operate between 35 Hz to 20 kHz.

Signal to noise ratio (SNR)

Signal to noise ratio (SNR) refers to the noise interference of the input signal. The higher the SNR, the better is the sound quality. Higher SNR will be very noticeable as it cleaner with less noise during playback. For games that have a broad dynamic range (the difference between the loudest and quietest portions of the program), you have to ensure that the SNR is larger than this dynamic range, else you will experience sound clipping, distortion or even signal loss.

Number of speaker

The number of speakers in a speaker system will give a good gauge on the quality of sound it can produce. When there are more speakers, they can be tailored to fit particular sound spectrums as each component handles just part of the frequency range.

A 5.1 channel speaker system will actually consist of six components: right and left front satellites, right and left surround satellites, a center speaker and a subwoofer (for low frequency sound effects). A 6.1 channel system adds a rear center speaker and a 7.1 channel system adds left and right rear speakers. Usually, a 5.1 channel speaker system should suffice to fulfill your listening needs. However, depending on your budget and listening expectation, you might want to upgrade to a 7.1 channel system or get only a 2.1 system (stereo + subwoofer).

Surround Sound

Surround sound technology is mainly a hardware decoder that can distinguish the sound sources and frequency and output to various speaker satellites to create a surrounded environment. Many companies have created their own surround sound technology. The following are the various surround sound technology available in the market.

• Dolby Digital
• DTS
• A3D (Aureal 3-Dimensional)
• Creative Labs EAX

In general, any speakers can support any of these technologies would produce a good piece of music.

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

This is a measurement of the purity of the audio signal. A 0.1% THD is deemed reasonable, though a lower value would mean a better speaker. Any speaker that generate more than 1-2% THD will produce distorted sound and might be unpleasant to the ear. In generally, a computer gaming speaker with low value THD is what you should be looking for.

Magnetic shield

Your speakers will likely be in close proximity to your video monitor, so it’s essential that the cabinets be magnetically shielded; otherwise they’ll eventually damage your monitor. This is less of a concern for your subwoofer, since it will be most likely be placed on the floor.

Finally,

In generally, a good computer gaming speaker should have a high RMS power, Signal to noise ratio, low THD, support surround sound technology and a 5.1 channel system. However, there is no hard rule when it comes to choosing the speaker. Let your ears be your guide. Listen to the sound quality first before you make your purchase. Make sure that the highs are warm and crisp, the lows are present, and everything seems balanced. With a little time and effort, you should be able to choose the best computer gaming speaker of your choice.

Factors to consider when choosing the processor

1) Speed/Core frequency

The speed of the CPU is referring to the operating frequency (also known as clock speed) of the CPU. It determines how fast the processor can perform data calculation.

Clock speed is measured in terms of Hertz (Hz), and it is usually in the Megahertz or Gigahertz range. One hertz is one cycle per second. A megahertz means that the CPU can process one million instructions in one second (or one million cycles per second). That is considered quite fast in a few years back. In today technology, CPU processes by thousands of millions of clock cycles per second, which is in the gigahertz range. You don’t see MHz CPU around anymore.

Theoretically, a 500 MHz CPU is six times slower than a 3 GHz CPU. Equally, a 3.6 GHz CPU is faster than a 3 GHz or a 3.4 GHz CPU. Generally, the higher the frequency of the CPU, the faster the speed of the computer as it can now processes more data per second.

2) No of Cores

In the past, if you want to get a faster computer, you have to get a faster CPU. Today, this is only partially true. The reason being, CPU speed can’t increase forever. There is limitation as to how fast the transistors can run and when it reaches a plateau, you won’t be able to increase the speed anymore.

To tackle this problem, CPU manufacturers (in this case, Intel and AMD) adopted a multi-core technology, which literally means putting multiple cores in a CPU chip. While increasing the CPU speed resulted in faster data calculation, putting more cores in a chip resulted in more work done at the same time.

At the moment, dual core CPU is the most prevalent multi-core processor in the market while quad-core just joined the family not too long ago. (my guess is that octo-cores or 16-cores CPU will soon be available in the next few years).

3) Price

Unless you are loaded with money, the price of the processor does play an important part when it comes to choosing a CPU. Depending on your budget, you can always find a model at the price range that you can afford. The price of the CPU is almost proportional to its speed, which means the faster, the more expensive it gets. The good thing is, the price of a CPU drops very fast. When a new model of CPU is launched, the previous top model will always experience a price drop to the more affordable range. Unless you have absolute need for the top speed, you can always grab a bargain by getting the second or third fastest processor in the market.

4) Brand

There are basically only two main players in the CPU market: Intel and AMD. You may have heard on one occasion that Intel is better and on another occasion that AMD is better. Regardless of what you have heard, the truth is: both are as good.

Both companies produce top notch CPU and choosing one brand over another is purely based on individual preferences. In terms of power consumption and performance, Intel Core2Duo has a slight advantage, but when it comes to prices, AMD offers the best performance per dollar value.

Conclusion

Choosing a CPU is not a difficult task. As long as you are willing to put in the little effort to learn how to choose a CPU, you should be able to find the one that is most suitable for you. Hope this guide has given you an insight to the world of CPU.

For gamer, do you know that the design, accuracy and the sensitivity of the mouse make a huge difference between winning and losing. There are a variety of mouse in the market. This guide serves to help you to make the correct decision in choosing the best mouse.

What to look for in a computer mouse?

Tracking Technology

Trackball

The trackball technology is a technology of the past. It uses a solid (and heavy) tracking ball at the bottom of the mouse to track its movement.

The trackball mouse tends to become insensitive over time. This is because it collects dust and debris easily, which add to the friction. As such, regular maintenance is required. In addition, a mouse pad is required to use together with the trackball mouse so as to allow the trackball to roll smoothly.

The trackball mouse has been phased out with the evolution of new tracking technology.

Optical
Optical mouse has become the norm because of its improved sensitivity and durability. Optical mouse uses optical sensor and a beam of light to detect its movement. As it moves, the beam of light shines on the surface and the sensor uses the light to track the movement.

The resolution of the optical mouse ranges from 800dpi to 2000dpi, making it much more precise than the trackball mouse. Without the trackball, the optical mouse is also much lighter and smaller.

Laser
The latest technology available in the market now is the laser technology. It works exactly the same way as the optical mouse. The only difference is that it uses a very small beam of laser light rather than a wide beam of light. Laser mouse has a much improved sensitivity than the optical mouse and is great for gaming use.

Connection Type

Wired

	Serial – this type of connection is quite old and slow and has already become obsolete and phased out in most computer.
	PS2 – PS2 mouse has been the standard for mouse connection for a long time, until recently when USB mouse takes over as the standard. PS2 connection is still in use nowadays, though its production has reduced by a great deal.
	USB – As an alternative to PS2, USB connection has gained much popularity over the past years. The convenience and flexibility of the USB port has made the USB mouse a better choice than the PS2 mouse.

Wireless

	Radio Frequency – Most of the wireless mouse uses radio wave technology. When the mouse moves, it sends a radio frequency of 27MHz to report its position to the receiver that is connected to the PC.
	Bluetooth – The Bluetooth mouse uses the 2.4GHz radio frequency to communicate with an included receiver/charger or other Bluetooth adaptor.
	RFID – The latest wireless technology is the RFID technology developed by a company called A4Tech. The A4Tech ND-30 RFID wireless mouse does not require any batteries to operate. It must be used with the included mouse pad in order to function. It works by using electromagnetic induction between the pad (which is plugged into a USB port) and the wireless, non-powered mouse. This is indeed a breakthrough in design by transferring the wire connection to the mouse pad, making the mouse light and easy to operate.

Other features

Resolution

The higher the resolution (measured in dpi), the more precise the mouse is. The most common resolution used is 800dpi. However, Logitech has designed a gaming mouse Logitech G7 Laser Gaming Mouse that enables user to adjust the resolution up to a maximum of 2000dpi.

No of buttons
Most of the computer mouse comes with at least 2 buttons, but other buttons may be featured on a mouse to further simplify common tasks.

Conclusion

Selecting a computer mouse is easy, but to select a best computer mouse for your needs require some knowledge. Hopefully, this guide has given you a good insight and help you in your selection of mouse.

If you are using the computer for normal daily word processing or email reading, any keyboard is fine and it is advisable to get the cheapest one around. However if you are using it for gaming purpose where you will be spend hours pounding on it, then it is worthwhile to spend a little effort and time to search for the best keyboard around.

Most of the keyboards use PS/2 connection. Some of the later model uses USB2.0 connection. Though it doesn’t make much difference, using a PS/2 keyboard can free up your USB2.0 slot for other devices. If you always move your keyboard around, then there the wireless keyboard might be suitable for you.

Computer keyboards come in various shape and size. Choose the one that is best suited to your needs. Ergonomic keyboard was designed to bring comfort to the user. They come with natural wrist alignment to rest your wrist in a more comfortable position. If you are a frequent computer user, you can consider getting a ergonomic keyboard.

For gaming purpose, it is advisable to get a gaming keyboard. The thing to look out for is the in-game control and hotkeys programmability. A good gaming keyboard such as Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard allows you to have a lot of control over the gaming execution. It has 18 keys for hotkeys programming and also comes with a LCD display to give you a clearer view of the game information.

Ideazon Zboard ZBD-101 is also another good gaming keyboard that comes with an extra gaming keyset for FPS and action games. The multi function keys can also be used to program various commands in one button. Its user-friendliness enables gamers to accustom to it in a very short time.

Frequent multimedia user can also benefit from the various types of multimedia keyboard available in the market. These keyboards have extra shortcut keys to give you full control of your favorite media player or video playback. Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard has a full range of multimedia shortcut keys that gives you convenient access to all your favorite player. I am quite surprised that a keyboard with so many functions is only as cheap as a simple keyboard.

Conclusion

Choosing a computer keyboard is actually a very fun thing. Take your time to go through the various keyboards and you will be able to find the one most suitable for you in no time.

There is a variety of CD Drives in the market, namely CD drive, CDRW drive, DVD drive, DVD-RW drive, DVD+RW drive etc. It is a headache to sort out all the different brands and types in order to find the one suitable for you. This guide shows you how to choose a good CD ROM drive easily.

Media Type

Different type of ROM drive support different type of storage media. A CD-ROM can only read CD while a CDRW-ROM can read, record and rewrite data on CD. Here is a list of what type of media each ROM supports.

• CD ROM – CD reading only
• CDRW ROM – CD reading, recording and rewriting
• DVD ROM – DVD and CD reading only
• DVD+RW ROM – DVD and CD reading, DVD recording and rewriting in +RW format
• DVD-RW ROM – DVD and CD reading, DVD recording and rewriting in ?RW format
• DVD+RDL ROM – DVD and CD reading, DVD dual layer recording of +R format

DVD+RW and DVD-RW are two different standards for DVD recording. DVD+RW allow you to add and remove data without erasing the whole disk and starting over. This means that DVD+RWs can almost be treated like removable hard disks. Conversely, DVD-RW is less flexible; the whole disk needs to be erased before new data can be added.

A DVD storage capacity is 4.7GB. Dual Layer (DL) allows user to record data on two sides of the disc, thus doubling the total capacity to 8.55GB

Choose a drive according to your need. If you wants to watch DVD movie on your pc, do not get a CD drive. I would recommend getting a combo drive that supports all the different media types. It is cheaper than getting all the different drives separately and also more convenient. The drawback for a combo drive is a slower speed.

Internal or External

Internal drives are usually cheaper than external drives. External drives connect to the computer through firewire or USB2.0 and more suitable if you need to move your data around.

Speed

The speed of the drive determines how fast it transfers data to the computer. The higher the speed, the faster the transfer. You will see various speeds on the combo drive, something like "52x32x52" The first number represents the reading speed, the second number represents the rewrite speed and the last number shows the recording speed. Choose a drive with fast speed.

Conclusion

To choose a good CD drive, you must know what you need it for. If you are using it to listen to audio CD only, it is best to get the CD ROM drive whereas if you need to copy large amount of data, get a DVD burner.

Due to its large capacity, DVD will soon replace CD as data storage device. it is recommended to get a DVD burner rather than a CD Writer so you don’t have to spend money to upgrade again in the near future.

A good sound card is necessary for a computer to play quality music. With a wide range of sound cards in the market, it is really difficult to select one that is suitable for you. The guide here will teach you what to look out for when choosing a sound card.

If you already know how to choose a good sound card, you can also check out TigerDirect! for the best deal online.

Things to look for when choosing a sound card

Before you buy a sound card, first ask yourself what do you do on your computer most of time. If you only use it for word processing, checking email, surfing internet etc? then it might not be worth it for you to get a sound card.

However, if you are an avid gamer or heavy multimedia user, then getting a good sound card is a must.

The following factors will help you differentiate between a normal sound card and a good sound card.

16 bits or 24 bits?

Sound card using 24 bits encoding and decoding will gives a better and clearer sound quality than using 16 bits. For basic user, a 16 bits sound card will be sufficient

Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

The Signal to Noise Ratio measures the ratio between the noise and the sound signal produced by the sound card.

In general, the higher the SNR, the better is the sound quality.

Sampling Rate

Sampling rate determines the distortion of the digital sound signal from the original analog signal. The higher the sampling rate, the less distorted the sound signal and hence the better sound quality. The highest available sampling rate now is 96kHz and this is equivalent to dvd-audio quality. The following table below shows a guideline of the sound quality you can expect from the different sampling rate.

• 44.1 kHz – Audio CD quality. Also used in VCD, SVCD and MP3
• 48 kHz – Digital sound used for digital TV, DVD, DAT, films and professional audio
• 96 kHz – DVD-Audio, and HD-DVD (High-Definition DVD) audio tracks

Surround Sound

For gamer and heavy multimedia user, a sound card with surround sound will certainly adds to your enjoyment. Currently the sound card can support up to 7.1 channels surround sound. Before you make your purchase, make sure that it is certified by Dolby Digital, DTS, THX or EAX.

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A computer hard drive is a storage media where you install and store all your programs and data. Generally, the bigger the memory capacity, the more data you can store. The memory capacity is usually measured in gigabytes. Currently in the market, you can find hard drive that range from 10GB to as high as 750GB.

Over the years, hard drive technology has improved greatly. While its storage capacity has increased, other aspect such as its transfer speed, interface type, buffer etc. has also improved to a great extent. When choosing a computer hard drive, the things that you should look out for are the buffer, storage capacity, drive interface and the RPM.

Buffer

Every hard drive has a small amount of onboard memory that is known as buffer or cache. When data is received from the platters, it is stored into the buffer so that the next time you need to retrieve it, the data can be directly loaded from the buffer.

The bigger the buffer size, the faster the data can be accessed. Currently, the minimum is 8MB and several high end drives now come with 16MB buffers.

Disk Storage space

The storage space determines how much data you can store. The more the merrier. As a guideline, for normal usage, get a hard drive that is at least 10-20GB bigger than your current data size.

Drive Interface

The traditional drive interface is using the IDE cable. Its transfer speed range from 33MB/s to 133MB/s, depending on the motherboard and the hard drive bus specification.

Ideally, the higher the transfer speed, the better the computer performance. The transfer speed can be identified by the label Ultra DMA33, Ultra DMA66, Ultra DMA100, Ultra DMA133. The number on the label represents the transfer speed in MB/s.

Serial ATA (also known as SATA) is the next generation drive interface. The first version has a maximum transfer speed of 150MB/s and SATA II (second version) delivers 300 MB/s. A version set for year 2008 will deliver 600 MB/s.

SATA has several key advantages over the IDE (or Parallel ATA, PATA).

1. SATA has a faster transfer speed then IDE;
2. SATA uses very thin and small 7 pins connector that can go up to 1m in length, whereas IDE only allow the flat 40 wire connector that only limit to 46cm. This smaller cable length improves the air flow and heat dispersion inside the casing.
3. SATA has a lower power requirement (250mV) than IDE (5V);
4. SATA technology allows hot-swapping, which means drives can be removed or added while the computer is running. This is not achievable in IDE.

Most of the motherboards come with integrated SATA and IDE interface. For older system, third party SATA controllers can also be installed in any PCI slot to allow the system to connect to the SATA drive.

RPM consideration

RPM refers to the Revolution per Minute. The faster the disk rotates, the more data it can process. 5400rpm used to be the most common speed in the market today. Lately, hard drive manufacturers have started introducing 7200rpm hard drives to the market and the price is comparable to a 5400rpm hard drive.

Recommendation For a Good Gaming Computer Hard Drive

To get the best performance out of a hard drive, a good gaming computer hard drive must have

• A large storage space, of at least 80GB to store the game files.
• A large buffer, typically of 16MB to facilitate data caching during game play
• SATA 2 interface for maximum data transfer rate.
• A disk rotation speed of 7200rpm for maximum data processing rate

A good gaming computer hard drive that I love and strongly recommend is Seagate 320GB SATA-II Hard Drive hard drive. It is super quiet and works great under Window XP, Vista and Linux. The data processing speed is fast and I have no problem getting it to work in under 10 minutes.

Computer RAM (Random Access Memory) is one of the most crucial components of a computer. Its main function is to provide a temporary space for data to be stored.

When a computer first starts up, the system loads information from the storage drive into the RAM. At any point of time when the system need any information, it will access the RAM to retrieve the data it needs. Since the computer RAM processes data faster than any other storage media, the retrieval process is shorter, work gets done faster and hence the computer performs better.

All RAM are volatile, which means it cannot be used to stored permanent data. Once the power is off, all the data stored in it are lost.

Tip: If you are faced with a choice between a faster processor and a 2GB memory RAM…take the RAM.

Things to look out for when choosing a computer RAM

Memory Size

Bigger memory size means there is more space to hold the data, which of course means the system can access to more data faster. A computer with 128MB RAM upgraded to 256MB RAM will show a significant improvement in the system performance. A typical gaming computer requires at least 512MB of RAM to ensure smooth gameplay.

Types of computer RAM

SDRAM

SDRAM is the RAM of the past and has already been phased out. SDRAM is normally used in Pentium II or Pentium III system where the processing speed is much lower. It can only process data once per clock cycle. It is usually classified as PC133*, PC100* or PC66*. *The number represents the clock speed (in MHz).

*The higher the number, the faster the RAM can process the data.

DDR RAM

DDR RAM can process data twice per clock cycle (which gives its name double data). Thus, for the same memory capacity, it is actually processing two times faster than SDRAM.

The speed of the RAM can be classified as DDR200/PC1600, DDR266/PC2100, DDR333/PC2700 or DDR400/PC3200.
The first number denotes the maximum clock speed that the memory supports while the second number indicates the maximum transfer rate of the memory. The higher the number, the faster is the RAM. The fastest DDR RAM is DDR400

DDR2 RAM

The latest addition to the DDR RAM family is the DDR2 RAM. This version of RAM has 240 pins (compared to DDR RAM 184 pins) and it has a processing speed as high as 800MHz (DDR2 800/PC6400).

DDR2 RAM is not backward compatible with DDR RAM. If you are thinking of getting a DDR2 RAM, you need to have a motherboard that supports DDR2 RAM in order to use it.

Dual Channel

Many DDR and all DDR2 desktops and motherboards have a built-in feature called dual channel that allows you to utilize the bandwidth of two modules at the same time. For these systems, you need to install modules in pairs for maximum performance, so if you want to add 512MB of memory, it will be better to buy two 256MB modules, as opposed to one 512MB one.

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Choosing a good gaming motherboard is a must if you intend to build your own gaming computer. Motherboard is the most important component in your computer. It’s the part that connects all the other parts together and make sure they run smoothly. Getting an inappropriate motherboard for your computer will either cause your system to malfunction or break down.

How to choose a gaming motherboard?

CPU slot

The CPU connects to the motherboard through a CPU socket. Different CPU brand and model have different socket type.

• Socket 478 – for Intel Pentium 4 processors. (obsolete)
• Socket 775 – for later Intel Pentium 4 and Pentium D dual core processors
• Socket 754 – for AMD Sempron and some AMD Athlon processors (obsolete)
• Socket 939 – for newer and faster AMD Athlon processors
• Socket AM2 – for AMD Athlon processors, a replacement for socket 754 and 939

A gaming motherboard should contain either socket AM2 (for AMD CPU) or socket 775 (for Intel CPU). It must also be able to support dual core processor.

Memory slot

There are 3 different memory types:

SDRAM — meant for older processor such as Pentium III / Celeron processor. This type of RAM has become obsolete and not suitable for gaming purpose. All new motherboards do not support SDRAM.

DDR RAM — Currently the most common and widely used RAM in the market. Most motherboards support this type of RAM. The memory slot that connects the RAM to the motherboard is the 184 pins slot. It’s not compatible with SDRAM.

DDR2 RAM — latest RAM in the market. Most of the new motherboard support this type of RAM. The memory slot for this type of RAM is the 240 pins slot. It’s not compatible with SDRAM and DDR RAM.

Due to the difference in clock rate, a motherboard can only support one type of RAM at one time. It is not allowed to use a SDRAM and a DDR RAM together on the board. It will spoil the motherboard.

When choosing a gaming motherboard, it must have at least two memory slot supporting DDR2 RAM up to 4GB. This is to ensure that the gaming computer can receive the maximum performance from the RAM unit.

Hard Drive Interface

There are three types of interface to connect the hard drive to the motherboard: the IDE, SATA and SATA 2.

IDE — The traditional interface for connecting hard drive to the motherboard.

SATA — A new type of hard drive interface that is of a different technology from the IDE interface. It supports a transfer speed of 150MBps. All new motherboards support this type of interface.

SATA 2 — This is an upgrade version of the SATA interface. It supports transfer speed up to 300MBps.

If you are getting a gaming motherboard, it makes no sense if you buy the one that supports only IDE interface. The wise choice is to go for the one with SATA 2 interface. This will double your hard drive transfer speed, hence increase the system performance.

Graphics Card Slot

New gaming motherboards come with PCI-express slots, which is a replacement for the existing AGP slot. Some of these motherboards even support SLI or Crossfire technology, which allows two graphics cards to be connected to the motherboard. This dual graphics card technology is not a must-have feature, but if you are serious in getting the best out of your game play, then the SLI or Crossfire motherboard is something that you should consider getting.

Conclusion

Choosing a motherboard is never an easy task, especially if you’re looking for a gaming motherboard. It requires you to spend more time and effort to source for the right one.

Depending on the type of game you play, you may want to choose a gaming motherboard that best cater to your needs. If the game that you are playing require lot of graphics processing power, get motherboards that support 16x PCI-Express slot and SLI or Crossfire technology. For strategy games that require more computational power, get motherboards that allow you to upgrade your RAM to 8GB. Determine what you need your computer for, then choose the one that is most suitable for you.

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