When it comes to graphics cards, the upper crust of the mid-range is perhaps your best bet for snagging great performance at a reasonable price. In order to deliver the goods without breaking the bank, vendors usually equip their cards with enhanced cooling solutions or a bit of extra graphics RAM.

If you’re only comparing 3D performance, the difference between these mid-range cards and those you’d find at the very top of our latest graphics charts is less than what you might think. While the GeForce GTX 285 may be the fastest single-GPU card around, a GeForce GTX 260 or a Radeon HD 4870 doesn’t lag behind by much. If you can live with that relatively minor difference, you stand to save between $100 to $150 or more.

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If you’re a smart shopper (we’ve been trying to help out as much as possible lately by tracking down the lowest prices on a number of different models), you can get decent 3D performance for under $250–and at that performance level, you should be able to stave off an upgrade for at least a year or two.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-radeon,2326.html

Combining CPU and graphics functionality in a single so-called ‘fusion’ chip is the shape of things to come. So say both Intel and AMD, its main rival in the computer chip business.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good thing, however, as our first taste of a fusion processor in desktop trim recently proved.

But could the laptop version of Intel’s new fusion processor, reviewed here in Core i7-620M form, have the makings of a mobile masterpiece?

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/processors/intel-core-i7-620m-664628/review

A graphics tablet is undoubtedly the best means of taking advantage of illustration and photo-editing software, but if you’ve ever used one you’ll know it’s best to keep a mouse to hand for everyday jobs.

Wacom’s Bamboo Pen & Touch aims to change that, by combining a traditional digitiser pen with a finger-driven touchpad.

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Review/165756,wacoms-bamboo-pen–touch-part-tablet-part-touchpad.aspx

Outside of factory keyboards, there’s hardly anything more boring than a set of PC speakers. They’re typically unsightly, add to the rat’s nest of wires behind your rig and force you into a life of dependency.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/bowers-and-wilkins-somehow-makes-pc-speakers-interesting-with-mm-1/

Six months after showing off the demo, Seagate has announced that it is now shipping what it says is the world’s first 3.5-inch 6Gbps 2TB hard drive.

The drive is based on the third-generation of the Serial ATA (SATA) standard, roughly called SATA3. The majority of existing hard drives use the SATA2 standard that caps at 3Gbps. Theoretically, the new 6Gbps standard’s throughput could be fast enough to transfer the entire contents of a CD (about 800MB) in just one second.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/storage/soa/Seagate-Barracuda-XT/0,139023427,339298722,00.htm

The W555 from EVGA made a brief, blurry appearance at CES, but now we’ve got closer look thanks to bit-tech. And what an introduction: two LGA1366 processor sockets, 12 DDR3 DIMM slots and a questionably sane seven expansion card slots.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/01/a-mother-of-a-motherboard-evga-w555-can-hold-emseven-gpus/

A recent sales call from a customer has alerted me to a potential problem for owners of the HP Pavilion 534a desktop computer. Although this model is a few years old now, we still get alot of enquiries on upgrading the RAM since the 534a is quite capable of running Windows XP.

Apparently there are 2 versions of the 534a from what I understand. The difference being an early model which supports only 1GB max. using 2 x 512MB modules and a refresh model that takes up to 2GB using 2 x 1GB modules.

The early model (1GB max.) used a rebadged motherboard manufactured by Asus (P4G533). HP called it the “Echo”

The later model (2GB max.) used a GL VE 2002052 made by Trigem which HP called the “Glendale”.

So how do you know which system you have? The easy way is to look at the back of the computer.

The 1GB max. system has 2 USB ports located right next to the keyboard (purple) and mouse (green) sockets.

So if your system looks like this then it won’t support 2GB and you must order from this page.

References: HP and HP again!

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Apple has a very well written article on what to do when you cannot startup your Mac running OS X (10.x) involving using the tools provided on your System Installtion/Restore CD or DVD.

The article can be found in their support sectiong at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956

The tools allow you to check the hard drive  for errors that could be corrupting your system files. Damaged or corrupted files critical to the Mac OS could prevent the system from starting up normally. A hard drive can develop faults due to physical damage (hard knocks and bumps), normal wear and tear from everyday use, viruses or a combination of the above.

Should a physical test of the hard drive fail to find any faults, you may need to reinstall your Mac OS files. The install/restore disc will compare the installed files with the originals and replace them as necessary.

Please read the full Apple article before attempting a system restore and remember to always make backups of your work.

Starting up from the CD or DVD

Usually, you can start from the disc by putting it in your computer, restarting, and holding the C key. Or, put it in the computer and click the Install or Restore icon you see in the disc’s main window (after which the computer will start from the disc without you needing to hold C.)

All notebooks manufactured by ASUS in the last 5 years should have a white product sticker located at the base of the unit (see picture). On some models it may be a different colour (e.g. silver) but the information on the sticker should be similar to the image below (click for a larger version).

In this exmaple, an ASUS F8S notebook is shown. The specific model is a F8SP-4S005C or a F8SP as it’s more commonly known.

Tip: The sub-model is the first set of  letters and numbers before the hyphen (-).

So a F8SP-4S005C becomes a F8SP. This is critical where there are several models with a similar name (e.g. the Asus M6000 series).

We list both the M6A (also known as M6000A) and the M6B (a.k.a M6000B) on the Upgradeable.com.au website.

The sub-model for the M6B is M6B-00A24M but elsewhere on the notebook it is simply called the M6. Unfortunately, the M6A and the M6B use a physically different type of RAM module and are not interchangeable…a costly mistake as the M6B memory module is nearly double in price.

We suggest mentioning the entire model number when ordering online (a comment box in step 3 of our shopping cart is available for this purpose) so that we may double-check compatibility before shipping your order.