The AMD K8 platform is the most popular desktop solution right now. According to recent statistics from Ziff Davis, AMD desktop systems out sold Intel, 49.8% to 48.5% for the first time ever. Looking at year thus far, AMD has seen its retail market share leap from 20% to 40%, as of late summer. The nVidia GeForce 6150 improves the situation markedly by offering a usefulness that rivals it mainstream GF6-series graphics counterparts. The Gigabyte GV-K8N51PVMT-9 supports all Socket 939 model AMD Athlon64/FX/X2 processors, and its four DDR DIMM slots can accommodate up to 4GB of PC3200 memory in a dual channel configuration.Continue Here>>

AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ Processor Review

The AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor we tested in this review is based on the 'ACBWE' stepping, and beneath the integrated heatspreader are two physical processor cores runing at a default speed of 2.4 GHz. Both cores individually have 128KB of L1 cache and 1MB of L2 cache, so essentially what we have here are the equivalents of two Athlon64 4000+ CPUs. Both cores share a single 128 bit DDR memory controller. This potentially means that the individual cores will be starved for bandwidth during high load times. TheAthlon64 X2 4800+ processor connects to the motherboard Northbridge chipset via a single 2 GHz (1 GHz up/down 16-bits wide both ways) Hypertransport link. Continue Here>>

PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: The Simple Things Matter Most This week we go back to basics with two very simple tips that form the cornerstone of a well tweaked system. Tip #1: Do you Defrag? Have you ever heard your HDD chug along when you launch a large program? Because of HDD's fast rotational speed, they often plunks down data all over the place on the platter of the drives when you're storing information.. This is very inefficient and takes a lot of time when bits and pieces are all over the place. Defragging your HDD puts all related information next to each other for quicker access and since all the data is in the same proximity the drive doesn't have to search when you request data. Microsoft has included a defragging program in their OS's for the longest time even dating back to the DOS days. You can access your hard drive defrag program in the "System Tools" folder that is usually in your "Accessories". It's recommended that you defrag your HDD at least once a month so your HDD doesn't get bogged down. Tip #2: Setting Comfortable Refresh Rates After prolonged periods of time in front of the computer, do you get headaches or eye strain? Many times this problem can be traced to the monitor running at a low refresh rate. Luckily this is a rather easy fix. Click on the "Start" button, go to "Settings" and then "Control Panel". Once you're inside there, go to "Display". From there click the "Settings" tab and then the "Advanced" button. Here in Win9x based OS's go to the "Adapter" tab and you should see the "Monitor Settings". Under that should be a number followed by the "Hertz". The sweet spot is 75 Hz or above and in general you want to get that number as high as possible. In Win2k/XP OS's you want to click the "Monitor" tab. There you'll see "Monitor Settings" and you should do the same as what's written above. When you press the "Apply" or "OK" button your monitor will blink and you should be set. Now you be able stay in front of your computer for long periods of time and not have any problems! Tip #3: Running WindowsXP in Memory While allowing Windows XP to manage is the standard way to go about things, you can make the actual WinXP operating system run more efficiently by keeping all of its code in system memory rather than on a hard drive swap file. Go to Start -> Run and type regedit. From there follow this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> Session Manager -> Memory Management. Right click on the 'DisablePagingExecutive' DWORD value, change its value to '1', save and reboot. With this quick change WinXP will stay in your system memory, instead of loading into a hard drive swap file. Please note, you must have at least 1.0GB of system memory, otherwise you'll notice a serious slowdown in performance! All of the PCstats Weekly Tech Tips have been archived in the Forums for your reference.