How to choose monitor

Are you looking for a computer monitor? Monitors are your window into the computer - everything that happens in your software and applications happens via the monitor. It is hence very important to choose a good monitor to go along with your new PC.Traditionally, CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors have been used for desktop computers. However, these days, LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors are selling like hotcakes.It's easy to see why: LCD monitors are easier on the eyes, have very crisp image quality and yes, they're sexy and cool. Laptops also use LCD screens - so we're slowly beginning to see CRT monitors being phased out.Which type you choose depends on your requirements. If you're a graphics professional, you may prefer a CRT monitor because they are said to show more realistic colors.
However, the latest high-end LCDs can also give equal color quality. If you with text most of the time, a LCD is a good choice because the various pixels that you find on a LCD will have nicely defined edges. This gives sharp and focus letters on the screen.To help you choose a monitor that'll meet your needs, this article will step through the factors to consider when buying a LCD or CRT monitor.
 

LCD Monitors
Let's first look at the various factors you need to think about when purchasing a LCD display Panel SizeIn an LCD monitor, the panel size reflects the viewable area you can use. Again, the measurement is made diagonally from one corner of the screen to the opposite corner. LCD panel sizes now range from 15 inches up to 23 inches.
Native Resolution
An LCD panel display always has a certain native resolution. Usually you can go lower than this resolution but the image will appear blurry. If you need to change your monitor resolution quite often, then a CRT monitor may be a better bet. LCD native resolutions currently range from 1024 by 768 to 1600 by 1200.
Viewing Angle
One problem specific to LCD monitors is the fact that you cannot see what is displayed if you move off to the side of the monitor too much. A greater viewing angle is therefore typically better - especially if you need to show presentations to others on the LCD screen very often.
 
CRT Monitors
Now let's take a look at some things you need to look out for when purchasing a CRT display.
Tube Size and Viewable Area
The tube size and viewable area of a CRT monitor is of utmost importance. The tube size helps you judge how much room you'll need for the monitor on your desk. It is expressed in inches measured from one corner of the monitor to the opposite corner. The viewable area (also measured diagonally) indicates how much you'll be able to see on a screen. The viewable area of CRTs can range from 15 inches all the way up to 22 inches.
Tube Type
You'll need to think about tube type as well. Traditional CRTs have curved screens, while newer models usually have flat screens. Flat screens improve clarity and reduce glare, so you should think of getting one if you want to reduce eye strain and fatigue.

Maximum Resolution and Refresh Rate
A CRT monitor's maximum resolution can range from 1024 by 768 at 75 Hz all the way up to 2048 by 1536 at 70 Hz. For normal home use, 1024 by 768 at 75 Hz is sufficient. Try to ensure your CRT monitor supports refresh rates above 70 Hz - anything below 70 Hz can result in screen flicker and cause eye strain.
Dot Pitch
The dot pitch of a CRT monitor helps you determine how sharp a picture will be - these can range from 0.24 mm to 0.28 mm. A smaller dot pitch number often indicates a sharper image. Of course, to the untrained eye, the differences in image quality due to dot pitch may not be discernable. Hence, the dot pitch may not be an important consideration if you're not too concerned about the finest details in your screen images.
 
Conclusion
I hope the above has helped you understand what factors to look out for when buying a LCD or CRT monitor. One thing to always remember when buying a new monitor - don't throw away your old one! Re-use it for an old PC or give it to a friend who needs one. By not dumping that old monitor, you'll certainly help to save the environment. Until next time, happy shopping for that monitor of yours!

DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R

Manufacturer: DFI
UK Price (as reviewed): £158.88 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $279.99 (ex. Tax)

It’s been a while since we last looked at a DFI board, but we’ve always been plagued by relatively poor availability of the products in the UK. However, we’ve recently seen the channel distribution grow in the UK – something that’s partly due to a few new people joining DFI in Taiwan.

And despite remaining on a relatively small scale in the consumer channel, the company goes from strength to strength – releasing great board after great board. Unfortunately, we missed the company’s P35 range in Q3 last year but we'll be sure to jump on the P45 boards as soon as they are available.

In all honesty, we have a bit of a love-hate relationship with DFI’s motherboards here at bit-tech. While all of us in the office (and some outside) have owned and certainly used DFI boards at some point in our lives, they have bounced between sheer grief and stress and elation. Personally, I have a lot of fun since they're always a learning experience with every new BIOS, however our resident memory expert, Ryan Leng, despises them since they tend to cut the memory support so wafer thin, it gives the poor guy nothing but headaches.

We talked to DFI at CeBIT this year and as ever they seem as psyched up about their new products – the LANParty range is still kicking strong, especially its new(ish) addition: the LT range. This still has the UV sockets and black PCB like all the other LANParty products, but it’s a bit more board-focused so you get less box extras – nothing changes on the hardware front though.

The LT X48-T2R is no exception, this has to be the only board we’ve had where you literally have to build it yourself before you use it. The north bridge heatsink, designed by Thermalright, is so tall it simply couldn’t fit upright in the box so you have to pop it on personally.

We opted for the DDR2-based T2R version because, even though the X48 is predominantly designed for DDR3, given the epic depth of BIOS options that leave you feeling like a three year old sitting a University maths exam, it should be the perfect combination.

We're not getting caught up in a wave of DFI fanboyism though – is all this just a very niche appeal and do you have to have a degree in electrical engineering and a 4GHz Oscilloscope to actually know what you’re doing? Or is it simply a case of learning the ropes and having lots of fun? Let’s find out…

DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R Feature List

    * Supports socket 775 Core 2 Extreme, Quad, Duo, Pentium and Celeron processors between 800MHz and 1,600MHz FSB.
    * Intel X48 Northbridge
    * Intel ICH9R Southbridge
    * Four 1.8V DDR2 memory slots supporting up to 8GB memory at 667MHz to ???MHz in dual channel
    * Bernstein Audio daughterboard featuring the Realtek ALC885 7.1 channel, High-Definition premium audio codec that’s rated at 106dB DAC and 101dB ADC
    * Marvell 88E8052 and 88E8053 PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet controllers
    * Two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots supporting ATI CrossFireX technology
    * One PCI-Express x16 slot (x4 electrical)
    * One PCI-Express x1 slot
    * Two PCI slots
    * Eight SATA 3Gbps ports – six from ICH9R supporting RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD and two from JMicron JMB363 PCI-Express SATA 3Gbps chipset supporting RAID 0 and 1
    * One IDE socket from JMicron JMB363
    * VIA VT6307 IEEE1394a Firewire controller supporting two ports – one on the rear I/O and one via motherboard pin-outs
    * 12 USB 2.0 – six on the rear I/O and six from motherboard pin-outs

DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI's LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI's LANParty LT X48-T2R





Box Contents

    * Four UV green SATA cables
    * One UV green floppy cable
    * One UV green IDE cable
    * Two molex to four SATA power adapters
    * DFI – Thermalright northbridge heatsink
    * Metal rear I/O shield
    * DFI Heat-minator thermal paste tube
    * Bernstein audio module
    * Manual and Driver DVD

DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI's LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI LANParty LT X48-T2R DFI's LANParty LT X48-T2R
Click to enlarge

The SATA and IDE/floppy cables are not quite as luminous as they appear—that’s our flashes doing a number on them—but they are certainly reactive and fit within the theme of the board.

Only four SATA connectors are supplied for the eight sockets though, and none of the board sockets feature cable clips like those that Gigabyte, Abit and a number of others feature for their 90 degree connectors – this means that after several plug-ins and removals, the plastic wears and they fall out much easier.

The manual is pretty good for the board layout, but avoids and of the software or more importantly the BIOS, absolutely. I understand the BIOS can change quite often and there’s considerable third party influence – more so than any other manufacturer, but being left essentially blind out the box is pretty harsh.

The LT is designed to be an essentials package and that’s what you get. While part of us would want everything for £160, the value has been put into the substantially sized north bridge cooling which is really a genuine value add for everyone. It’s for people who already have a ton of kit spare and since DFI also offer more comprehensive packages from the LANParty (UT) ranges, we find it hard to fault it on the fact it does what it says on the tin, we just wish for a few tweaks like we mentioned above.

Random Access Memory

Introduction
As we have all been looking for faster memory modules, we thought we had reached the end of the DDR-3 cycle but low and behold the DDR3-2000 gives us hope for that much more speed within the same set of computer parts. Seeing that 6gb memory modules are here and super fast it is now time to think about upgrading that system.... AGAIN!

Overview
First of all,  This computer ram is similar to the Corsair Dominator GT computer memory, but has a different kind of cool design to it. They only have a 2 fan cooler, which is the normal these days. If you are looking for something new and exciting besides 6gb of memory then this computer ram has what you need.
G.Skill Perfert Storm review shows Cas-7 has been a nice marketing feature because it makes it easier to reach DDR3-2000 without too much harm to your computer system. This works a lot better with Intel's technology, but can still be done by a decent overclocker.
The overall look of this ram memory shows that the G.Skill Perfect Storm review is correct in its terminology. G.Skill likes to show off and have cool graphics and the like. However, the cooling plates on each ram are of high grade, but the fins used for the Corsair Dominator GT would be a better choice. If you are one to keep quiet then you should see about adjusting the fans that cover this computer ram set? You could adjust the speed by adding a controller, but that will take some electrician work if you are knowledgeable.
I particularly like the fact that G.Skill boasts a lifetime warranty. When you have a computer ram like this. You will want a lifetime warranty because who knows how long it will take your crazy overclocking skills. It will definitely be one of the strongest to last over time, but it's still a computer part. All computer parts will fail eventually.

Conclusion
G.Skill is one of the fastest of the DDR3-2000 computer ram because of the Cas-7, but OCZ also has this as well, but does not have the correct level of cooling. The winning percentage compared to the rest of the computer ram in this area was not as huge as you would like it, but it is still a win. When you throttle down you will find that other cheap version will start to beat this computer ram, but who wants to go slower?

Arctic CPU coller

Arctic Cooling is one of the more well known manufacturers in the PC hardware industry, especially when it comes to smart cooling solutions. The company also manufactures power supplies and computer cases. The Swiss mark may be most known for the VGA coolers; "Accelero Xtreme" and "Accelero Twin Turbo" which are available for more or less all the medium to high end graphics cards on the market.
Today I will take a closer look at a CPU cooler from Arctic Cooling which has been given an overhaul and has been released under a secondary revision, the "Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2". This cooler excels in two ways; first: it's really cheap and second: it's compatible with a real long list of platforms including Intel's and AMD's newest sockets.
  

Here are the specifications of the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
Compatibility - INTEL Socket 1366, 1156, 775
AMD Socket AM3, AM2+, AM2 and 939
Construction - 3 Heatpipes double and 42 aluminum laminate
Dimensions - 104 xs 58 xs 126,5 mm
Fan size - 92 mm
Fan speed - 900-2500 RPM (it has PWM)
Air flow - 45 CFM/77 ms ³ /h
Max. Capacity - 130 W
Type of bearings - Dynamic Fluid
Weight - 520 g
Guarantee - 6 years

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The "Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2" comes in a 100% see through plastic box which lets you see all the details of the cooler. The included accessories are: a printed manual and two different setups of brackets and screws for installation either AMD or Intel systems No separate tube with thermal grease is included, instead it has been pre applied to the copper base of the cooler. The thermal grease used is the Arctic Cooling MX-2.

IN DETAIL: 7 ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER PRO REV.2
The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 is a tower type cooler of relatively small dimensions. It's one of the few CPU coolers compatible with the new 1366 and 1156 sockets from Intel. The cooler is made of 42 aluminum plates and the base is made of pure copper as are the three heatpipes.
In the following images you can see how the three heatpipes goes from the base to the top of the cooler.
The 92mm fan is pre fastened by Arctic Cooling but it is easy to remove for those of us interested in doing so.
The rotating speed of the fan is from 900 to 2500 rpm. It has a 4 pin PWM connector which is great because it allows us to control the rotation speed by software or alternatively the speed can be automatically controlled by the system, adapting the speed to the overall needs of the system.
The base is made of copper and it comes with a pre applied layer of the Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal grease. As you can see from the images below I have removed it to check out the finish of the base plate. Although the base hasn't got the mirror effect the polish is still quite good, far better than that of its closest competitors.

INSTALLATION AND TESTS OF 7 ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER PRO REV.2
I did this test on an Intel system. The anchorage system could not be simpler but I am more a fan of using a back plate together with classic screws because I feel it gives me a better feel for how tight the cooler is fastened.
In order to put some pressure on the cooler I overclocked the E6400 CPU to 3.0GHz (375Mhz x8) and to 2.66Ghz (333Mhz x8), increasing its voltage up to 1.4 V. Here are the components in the test setup:
Test equipment
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, 2.13 Ghz
Cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
Motherboard - DFI Lanparty JR P45 T2RS
Graphics card - nVIDIA GeForce 8800 320 GTS Mb
Hard disk - Seagate Barracuda 7200,12 500 GB
Memory - Kingston 800 HyperX DDR2 2×1GB (4-4-4-12)
Power supply - Tacens Exchange of shots II 600
I used the software OCCT 3.0.1 to cram out the max of the system during 20 minutes. I did measurements of the temperature both before and at the end of this stress test. The room temperature was around 15 ËsC and the fan was PWN regulated during the test, i.e. the rotation speed of the fan was controlled by the system and adapted by the system load.
Here are the results of the test:
As you can see the from the graphs, the performance of the cooler is quite good. I don't expect you will find a cooler with a better performance/price ratio on the market.
I wouldn't recommend using this cooler for extreme overclocking but it does handle moderate overclocking excellent.
I was impressed by the low noise generated by the fan even at higher rotations speeds.

CONCLUSIONS
Normally you expect that if a product has a higher price, than either the performance or the quality is higher. Arctic Cooling is trying to tell us otherwise with the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Rev.2 turns out to be a great cooler, with spectacular finishing and a performance superior to many of its competitors.
Anyone looking to replace the Intel stock cooler with something else will do well to check out this cooler. It not only offers a great performance but what is really remarkable about it is the price level at around $30 (18EUR).

Intel core i5

When it comes to excellence in processor performance, Intel continues to pull all the stops with its newest entries into the market. Launched in early September, 2009, the Intel Core i5 processor is one of Intel's recent innovations, which offers smart performance with a speed boost. This processor delivers solid performance for day-to-day applications, not to mention its ability to increase speed as required for the more demanding tasks. And already, it's being touted as the mainstream version of Intel Core i7.

Mobility

Intel Core i5 processor will power an ultra thin laptop to boost not only your performance, but your style as well. You can now indulge in a much faster, smarter and thinner laptop than before, in an ultra-sleek design and with enhanced battery life. A thinner laptop weighs less and is more portable, therefore allowing for greater mobility.

Performance

Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost Technology allows for automatic speeding up of the processor when the PC requires extra performance, thus giving you smart performance with a speed boost. This feature is however only available in select models of the Intel Core i5 processor-based systems.

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology features 4-way multi-task processing which enables each core of the processor to handle 2 tasks simultaneously, thus delivering the performance required for smart multitasking. No matter how many applications you are working with at the same time, you and your PC will not be slowed down at all.

Intel HD Graphics technology is included to provide excellent visual performance for rich color, sharp imaging, as well as life-like video and audio. You can now enjoy your movies and internet videos in high-definition, get full Microsoft Windows 7 support, as well as play popular game titles. You can do all this without the need for an extra add-in video card as this is all built-in.

Laptops powered by Intel Core i5 processor and featuring 4g WiMAX wireless technology can deliver great smart performance from internet speed which is four times faster than 3G.

Compatibility

Intel Core i5 processors are used to power ultra thin laptops such as the Sony VAIO Series, HP dv4, Dell Inspiron 15R, Toshiba Satellite L500, HP Pavilion dv4i Series, CyberPower Xplorer X5, Sager NP7652, ASUS N61JV, CyberPower Xplorer X5 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T Series.

Security

Intel Core i5 is optimized for a number of security-related technologies including MacAfee security, WinZip file compression, the Bit Locker in 64-bit Windows 7, as well as PGP security. This will come as a relief for laptop owners, seeing as an estimated 12,000 laptops get stolen each week from airports alone.

Some more Features

• Intel Core i5-700 and i5-600 processor series with Intel Turbo Boost Technology;
• 4 processing threads;
• Up to 8 MB of Intel Smart Cache;
• Intel HD Graphics on Intel Core i5-600 processor series; and,
• 2 channels of DDR3 1333 MHz memory.

Intel has long been recognized as the leading name in cutting-edge performance processors, and the Intel Core i5 very well lives up to this reputation.