Tag: processor

Intel Chips Cut in Half

In light of the economic crisis we are in right now, Intel has slashed the price of their Intel Chips by 50%. Apparently, sales has not been that good for the giant chip manufacturer and to help get rid of these chips which may stock up and remain unsold, offering them at an almost sacrificial sale seems to be the feasible way to go.

Also, affordability has become an issue. People are shying away from spending too much in light of the economic gloom. People are wary about their current means of income, whether it be from employment or business. In short, people are just becoming apprehensive in spending.

Computers for one can wait. Most of us have our old desktops at home and for as long as the credit crunch is wandering around, making do with them is perhaps the sanest thing to do right now.

With those factors in mind, you have to wonder why Intel would go to as much as offering a 50% slash in prices. That is quite a sale and perhaps some sort of demand for them could possibly be rekindled.

The price of Celeron 570 processors, designed for laptops, dropped 48 percent to USD 70 whereas one of the company’s quad-core desktop-computer models, Q9650 that have four processors on one piece of silicon, dropped 40 percent to USD 316.

“The economy and the industry are in the process of resetting to a new baseline from which growth will resume,” said Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini on announcing the results.

Source

Studying the PC Upgrade Options

For sure, most of us will not be content with the current PC configuration that we have. Depending on the length of time that we have had our personal computers, we are bound to want more in terms of speed and features of personal computers offered in the market. But the real question is what in particular do we look for?

There are a lot of options we can think of today. Ranging from processor chips, memory modules and video cards, it may seem that the possibilities are endless. But considering that these upgrades carry costs, it would be wise to determine what you really need. There are some who go for overkill specs and traditionally these would not be put to full use. Some only need a computer for word processing or browsing the web. So how sophisticated of a specification would you need?

Others tend to be drawn into tempting sales talks from PC vendors. For example, you would seek a certain specs and the usual thing you would hear is for an extra couple of bucks, you can get this higher version. Some do it to help a buyer decide and get more value for their money while others just want a better sale. When these factors set in, you are bound to go for the higher priced and supposed higher specs.

But in the end, it all depends on you. You are the buyer and depending on your sound judgment, it will be you who will be paying for it. Think wisely and broadly and work on a budget.

Being a Step Ahead of the Software Requirements

For most software that you install, there will be the ideal PC requirements provided so you can be assured of optimum performance for programs and games you will install on your PC. At times, varied differences as far as video specifications, memory and processor capacity will be stated. But while many would see the usual minimal requirements, you have to consider the fact on whether these will be sufficient to satisfy the level of performance you are expecting once these software programs are installed.

Based on experience, it would never hurt to be a step ahead. This entails making sure that you are installing the software on hardware that is a bit advanced. For example, if video card requirements are at least 128 MB, why not install a 256 MB video card if the difference is just a couple of bucks? Or perhaps if memory requires at least 256 RAM, why not go double like 512?

Some may call it overkill but they are really some form of making sure that you get best performance from these programs. Remember that if you go for minimal requirements, you will eventually find yourself wanting better performance and hence upgrading these concerned hardware peripherals in the end.

In summary, do not take the minimal system requirements as a measure of competent utilization of programs. They are placed there so that you know that the program will indeed run. But as far as great performance is concerned, do consider the fact that it is not stated anywhere in that part of the software box for you to ponder on as well.