What kind of laptop is right for me?

To choose the right notebook--one with the right set of features at the right price--you'll need to figure out how you'll want to use your machine. Match your needs to one of these user profiles to get started.

Home user | Student | Frequent flier | Business power user | Multimedia author or gamer

Home user

Home users are increasingly turning to notebooks as their primary PCs; they like that laptops can offer similar performance and features to those of a desktop PC and can be easily moved from room to room. Though of course almost any notebook will do for typical home use, there are two types of notebooks most suitable for home users: midsize notebooks, which tend to be budget-friendly, and desktop replacements, which are usually packed with features.

Key features

AMD Turion 64, AMD Turion 64 X2, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Core 2 Duo

At least 1GB of memory

Large hard drive for storing digital photos and video

14.1-inch display or larger

Fixed or swappable DVD burner

Wired and wireless networking

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Apple Mac OS X

Student

Students and others on a tight budget should look for a laptop that delivers the most bang for the buck. In particular, students need a notebook that is small and light enough to lug back and forth across campus but rugged enough to withstand bouncing around in a backpack.

Key features

AMD Turion 64, AMD Turion 64 X2, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Core 2 Duo

At least 1GB of memory

Big hard drive to hold all those MP3s

DVD burner for backups and class projects

Wired and wireless networking for network-equipped classrooms and dorm rooms

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Apple Mac OS X

Frequent flier

If you spend a lot of time on the road, size and weight are the two most critical factors in choosing a new notebook--even if it means sacrificing a little on performance and features. The smallest and lightest notebooks, ultraportables, weigh less than four pounds and are no thicker than a spiral-bound notebook.

Key features

AMD Turion 64, AMD Turion 64 X2, Intel Core Solo, or Intel Core Duo

At least 1GB of memory

A 13.3-inch display or smaller

Wired and wireless networking

Extended battery for those cross-country flights

Media slice or external CD-RW/DVD drive

Port replicator for the desk

Microsoft Windows Vista Business

Business power user

If you rely on the same notebook at work, at home, and on the road, you need a well-balanced system. And it has to deliver the performance to keep up with a wide range of applications. A thin-and-light is just the ticket.

Key features

AMD Turion 64 X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo

At least 1GB of memory, preferably 2GB for Windows Vista

Midsize hard drive

A 14-inch or 15.4-inch display

Dual-layer DVD burner

Wired and wireless networking

Extra battery

Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate

Multimedia author or gamer

If you demand more from a notebook, you'll need a true desktop replacement. Whether you're designing a Web site, editing home movies, or mowing down aliens, your notebook will demand a powerful processor, plenty of memory, great graphics, and a healthy hard drive.

Key features

AMD Turion 64 X2, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Core 2 Extreme

2GB or more of memory

A 15.4-inch display or larger

Advanced graphics card with 256MB or 512MB of its own memory or dual SLI graphics

The largest and fastest hard drive available

Dual-layer DVD burner, possibly HD-DVD or Blu-Ray compatible

Multimedia connectors, such as S-Video, HDMI, FireWire, S/PDIF

External keyboard and mouse

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, or Apple Mac OS X

Which Desktop PC is best for me?

Like most consumers, you probably have an idea of how much you want to spend on a desktop. But how do you ensure that you get exactly what you need? The different shapes and sizes, the wide range of configurations, and the seemingly constant arrival of new and faster technology all make for a difficult decision. To help you find the right mix, we've outlined the four basic types of PC user.

General purpose user | Power user | Home theater enthusiast | Home office worker

General purpose user

These days, $500 to $1,500 will net you a desktop with a dual-core CPU and enough power to run productivity apps, view and edit vacation photos, manage MP3s and videos, and even play many of today's games--the core activities most common to families, students, and the general purpose PC user. At $1,000 and up, you should easily be able to perform those tasks. Spend around $500, and in most cases you'll still be able to run common tasks without delay, although 3D gaming becomes a stretch. You will definitely find a dual-core chip in a $500 PC (you should insist on a dual-core chip these days, unless your budget keeps you under the $500 mark), but Vista could still give you trouble. Be sure the PC is equipped with at least 1GB of memory, and it's a good bet that you'll be able to smoothly run Vista. Add in a 128MB graphics card, and you'll get the Aero effects with little to no performance loss.

If you're leaning towards Apple, you should keep in mind that Apple's OS X operating system is due for an update in October. We recommend waiting until then to purchase a new Mac, so you don't have to worry about updating the operating system yourself later on. We also wouldn't be surprised if Apple came out with a new desktop between now and then. We can't say what it might look like, but any Mac Mini or iMac will get the job done for most of today's day-to-day users. We have no reason to doubt that Apple will continue to offer relatively affordable, capable home systems.

Key features:

AMD Athlon 64 X2, or Intel Core 2 Duo processor

1GB of DDR2 memory

250GB to 500GB hard drive

128MB, DirectX 9-capable graphics card from ATI or Nvidia

DVD burner

17- to 19-inch LCD

2-piece or 2.1 speaker set

Windows Vista Home Premium or Apple OS X Leopard (when it becomes available)

Apple iLife or Microsoft Works Suite 2006 (students might want full-blown Office 2007 or iWork '06)

Power user

It's easy for the price to get out of hand with a power PC. Take, for instance, any of these quad-core PCs. If you shop around, you should be able to find a more than adequate gaming or digital design box for between $2,500 and $3,500. Look for an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM.You'll also need a large, fast hard drive--perhaps two or more if you plan to transfer and edit movie files--and of course, a DVD burner or, if you have an HD display, a Blu-ray or HD DVD drive. If your goal is digital design, Apple's Mac Pro continues to shine in this arena. We still won't recommend an Apple for gaming, though, so if that's your aim, it's Windows for you.

The graphics card issue is a bit stickier. Right now, we recommend either of Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX or 8800 GTS cards, or one of ATI's newer Radeon HD 2900 XT cards. Each shows promise in current generation games. Which one will be better for next-gen DirectX 10 games we can't say, because the games with which to properly test them aren't here yet. If gaming is your chief concern and you can put off your purchase for a little while, you might wait until the shooter Crysis comes out (allegedly this September). That game represents the next leap forward in PC 3D graphics, and while it won't be the only game that matters, most performance junkies will rely on it to determine which graphics card is the most advanced.

Key features:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, E6750, or E6850; Core 2 Quad Q6600 or Q6700, Core 2 Extreme QX6700, QX6800 or QX6850

2GB to 4GB of 800MHz or 1,066MHz DDR2 memory

500GB to 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive(s)

512MB ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX, 640MB or 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS

Blu-ray, HD DVD, or DVD+/-RW drive

19- to 21-inch LCD

Digital 5.1 speakers

Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium

Microsoft Office 2007, DVD-authoring program

Home theater enthusiast

Media Center functionality is built into Windows Ultimate and Home Premium, so you could make the argument that a home-theater PC doesn't need its own category anymore. Of course, you'd be wrong. We never really bought into the idea of putting a standard tower desktop in the living room, which is why we're glad we're to see so many ultra-small-form-factor designs such as Apple's Mac Mini and Shuttle's XPC X200M . You don't need all the power of a traditional desktop to simply watch downloaded movies and listen to music, as long as you can output video and audio from your PC to your TV and your audio receiver, you're all set.

If you demand high video quality, you might sacrifice some of that caability if you opt for a lower-end system. As an alternative, you can get a larger A/V component-style case with a full-fledged video card in it to help with the video processing. We've had mixed experiences with Windows Vista's new CableCard support. If you're set on compressing all of your home theater hardware into one box, it might be the solution you're looking for (just don't do it in New York City yet), but otherwise it's probably easier to just stick with your cable box.

Another question to ask yourself with a media PC: do you want to use your TV as your primary display? Flipping through your recorded TV shows via Media Center is easy to do on your TV, but simple PC tasks, such as writing e-mail and browsing the Web, aren't ideal with the 10-foot interface of sitting on your couch and squinting at small text and icons. This is why we think that wireless networking and smaller, cheaper PCs have helped the media PC come a long way. By minimizing the cables and their own footprint, these less offensive computers make it easy to justify owning two PCs: one that's hooked up to the TV and a more traditional system that sits on your desk. The desk-bound PC can even store the bulk of your media files if your smaller system doesn't have a large enough hard drive. You can also look for a Windows Home Server for centralized file storage for every PC in your home when they come out later this year.

Key features:

Intel Core or Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 X2 CPU (quiet and cool operation is more important than raw power)

1GB to 2GB of RAM

500GB or more hard drive space (or Windows Home Server, in a few months)

256MB or better graphics card from ATI or Nvidia

Analog or CableCard tuner (optional)

Blu-ray, HD DVD or combo optical drive

21-inch or larger LCD or a direct connection to your home-theater display

Wireless keyboard and mouse and Media Center remote

Front Row, Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium, or other media management/DVR software

Home office worker

Graphics are less of a concern for most businesses, unless you run a design shop. At minimum, you'll want a system with enough power (read: dual-core CPU) for multitasking your daily office chores. The money you save on the graphics you can put toward a larger flat-panel display and a better warranty. Vista complicates matters a little. Microsoft recommends at least 512MB of system memory and a DirectX 9-capable graphics card, and it ups the specs to 1GB of RAM and at least 128MB of independent video memory for Vista Home Premium with Aero. Of course, an iMac will get the job done, too, though at a higher price than your typical business PC--and again, you'll want to wait for October and Apple's new Leopard OS before purchasing a new Mac.

Key features:

Midrange AMD Athlon 64 X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo processor

1GB of DDR memory

250GB or 300GB hard drive

DVD burner

128MB ATI or Nvidia graphics card

19- or 21-inch LCD

Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, or Mac OS X

Microsoft Office XP or Works Suite 2006, or Apple iWork '06

Top products

Best 5 desktops

• HP Pavilion Slimline S3330f
• Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)
• Dell XPS 630
• Maingear Ephex (Intel and ATI)
• eMachines T5254

Top budget desktops

• eMachines T5254
• Dell Inspiron 530
• Acer Aspire M5100

Top mainstream desktops

• HP Pavilion Slimline S3330f
• Dell XPS 630
• Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)

Top performance desktops

• Maingear Ephex (Intel and ATI)
• Falcon Northwest FragBox 2 (Intel Core 2 Duo E8400)

Dell XPS 730 H2C

Intel Pentium 5 processor

Some more details of the Pentium V have felt out of the air in Taipei at the Compute 2003x exhibition. According to the Inq his source the first internal samples of the Pentium V will be made in January 2004, and about 4-6 months later it will hit the market. They are talking about the Intel Tejas CPU I think.
The Pentium V is likely to fly along at between 5GHz to 7GHz, have 2MB plus of level two cache, be built on a 90 nanometer process, and have a stackable design.According to this source, and the details have not been confirmed, a module sitting on top could provide 64-bit extensions. And the source claimed, Microsoft is ready to launch a version of Windows called Elements with 64-bit extensions. The idea seems to be that people can buy a 32-bit module, and then add in the 64-bit processor.
At the end of the article their is something very doubtful, that the Pentium V could have an FSB of as much as 4000MHz, or it could also be reserved for another and later coming cpu from Intel, the Nehalem which is rumoured to come in 2006.I think they accidentily wrote a zero too much, currently Intel his CPU's have an FSB of 200MHz (800MHz Quad Pumped).

The chip will sample internally at Intel in January 2004 and will take between four to six months to get to market. The Pentium 6 will follow a very similar schedule.
The Pentium V is likely to fly along at between 5GHz to 7GHz, have 2MB plus of level two cache, be built on a 90 nanometer process, and have a stackable design.
The processor we believe, sits in the LGA 775 pin socket, and above it is a very thin heatsink. But, according to sources close to the firm's plans, another permeable heatsink can sit between this and another microprocessor module, giving a stackable design.
The final design of this arrangement is not set in stone.
According to this source, and the details have not been confirmed, a module sitting on top could provide 64-bit extensions.
And the source claimed, Microsoft is ready to launch a version of Windows called Elements with 64-bit extensions.
The idea seems to be that people can buy a 32-bit module, and then add in the 64-bit processor.
There are three samples of an arrangement of the Pentium V here in Taiwan this week, with a very thin processor and lots of wires and patches stuck on it, just to show proof of concept.
The Pentium V could have a front side bus speed of as much as 4000MHz, the source claimed, although this may be reserved for the next chip along,

Core 2 Duo E6700 and Core 2 Extreme X6800

Introduction
Core 2 is the new desktop CPU family from Intel, based on the new Core microarchitecture. For desktops Core 2 comes in two flavors: Core 2 Duo, which replaces Pentium D, and Core 2 Extreme, which replaces Pentium Extreme Edition. Core 2 desktop version was formerly known as Conroe and in this review we will check the performance of two models, Core 2 Duo E6700, which runs at 2.66 GHz, and Core 2 Extreme X6800, which runs at 2.93 GHz. We will compare them to the most high-end CPUs from AMD to date, including Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and Athlon 64 FX-62. Who has the fastest desktop CPU, Intel or AMD? Read on.
Attention: This review has some innacurate results, please read our most recent review for more accurate results.
Pay attention to not confuse Core 2 Duo with Core Duo. Core Duo is the commercial name for a Pentium M manufactured using 65 nm process, codenamed Yonah, while Core 2 Duo is the commercial name for the CPU codenamed Merom (for laptops) or Conroe (for desktops), which uses the new Intel Core microarchitecture.
You can check the CPUs Intel sent us on Figures 1 and 2. Since they were engineering samples, they didn’t have their final markings on them. Instead they had an “Intel Confidential” marking. On Figure 2 you can see their bottom side. They use the standard socket 775 used by current Pentium 4 and Pentium D CPUs, the only difference you can see is the number and location of the capacitors found in the middle. We added our Pentium 4 550 (3.4 GHz) on the photo so you can see this.
click to enlargeFigure 1: Core 2 Extreme X6800 and Core 2 Duo E6700 engineering samples.
click to enlargeFigure 2: Core 2 Extreme X6800, Core 2 Duo E6700 and Pentium 4 550 (3.4 GHz).
Keep using socket 775 was a great move from Intel. Socket 775 motherboards launched before Core 2 CPUs were available may be compatible with them. There are two requirements: first, the motherboard must be capable of supplying the voltage required by the new CPU; and second, the motherboard must be capable of supplying the external clock rate (FSB) required by the new CPU. Unfortunately only newer motherboards are capable of supplying the voltage required by Core 2 CPUs.
Internally, however, Core 2 CPUs have nothing to do with Pentium 4 or Pentium D. While Pentium 4 and Pentium D are based on Intel’s 7th generation microarchitecture – also known as NetBurst – Core 2 is based on a new architecture, called Core, which is based on Pentium M’s (which is based on Pentium III’s - as you will see on next page, Core 2 CPUs report their Family ID as being "6", the same one as Pentium Pro, Pentium II and Pentium III). Please read our Inside Intel Core Microarchitecture tutorial to learn everything you need to know about this new architecture.
Since they use a totally different internal architecture, you cannot compare clock rates used by Core 2 CPUs with the ones used by other CPUs like Pentium 4 or Pentium D. Core 2 CPUs may be faster using a lower clock rate as they internally process things differently. In fact, we will check this aspect on our review. Here is a problem for the Average Joe. Even though Intel started identifying their CPUs by model numbers a while ago, people still tend to compare CPUs by their clock rates. It will be hard for us to say to which previous Intel CPU or to which AMD CPU each Core 2 model is comparable by just looking to their specs.
Let’s now take a closer look on Core 2 technical specs.

The main specs of the reviewed Core 2 CPUs include:
Core microarchitecture
Dual-core technology
1,066 MHz external clock rate (266 MHz x 4)
4 MB unified L2 memory cache
Intel Virtualization Technology
Execute Disable Bit
Intel EM64T Technology
Intelligent Power Capability
Some things pop right on our face. The first one is the total lack of HyperThreading technology, which seems to be an exclusive feature of Pentium 4 and Pentium Extreme Edition CPUs. This technology emulates two CPUs per core, so a compatible operating system like Windows XP or Linux would recognize a standard Pentium 4 as two CPUs and a Pentium Extreme Edition as four CPUs (two per core) – Pentium D also lacks this feature. If Intel will add this feature back on Core 2 family is still a mystery.
The second thing is the amazing amount of L2 memory cache present on the reviewed models (keep in mind that Intel will probably release models using less memory cache). Intel decided to use a unified L2 cache, contrasted to a per-core approach like Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Athlon 64 X2 and dual-core Athlon 64 FX. According to Intel their approach provides a higher performance, as each core can use data that is already on the unified cache but was loaded from the main memory by the other core. Also, the cores can negotiate how much memory cache each one will use at a given moment. The division between them doesn’t need to be 50%-50%. At a given moment one core may be using 75% of the memory cache and the other one, 25%. On the separated approach the division is always 50%-50%, meaning that one core can have unused cache at the same time that the other core has ran out of cache, and this core cannot simply “borrow” memory cache from the other core like on the unified approach. As for the external bus, Core 2 family keeps using the same idea that was introduced with the very first Pentium 4 CPU: quad data rate (QDR), i.e. the CPU transfers externally four data per clock cycle. Because of this the CPU external clock rate is said to be four times its actual clock rate. These Core 2 CPUs, for example, have an external bus of 266 MHz but transferring four data per clock cycle, thus Intel label their external bus as being of 1,066 MHz.
So Core 2 Duo E6700 achieves its 2.66 GHz internal clock rate by multiplying its 266 MHz external clock rate by 10 and Core 2 Extreme X6800 achieves its 2.93 GHz internal clock rate by multiplying its 266 MHz clock rate by 11.
These CPUs also incorporates dual-core technology, meaning that internally they have two complete CPUs. SMP-compatible operating systems like Windows XP and Linux will recognize two CPUs. SMP stands for Symmetric Multi Processing and is the ability of a system to use more than one CPU.
On Figures 3 and 4 you see CPU ID results taken with CPU-Z for the reviewed CPUs. As you can see, they report as being “Family 6”, i.e. Intel 6th generation, the same family as Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III and Pentium M. It is really funny to see a new CPU family with a CPU ID Family ID lower than the previous family (Pentium 4 and Pentium D reports Family ID as 7). The clock rates are being erroneously reported as 1,6 GHz due to Enhanced SpeedStep Technology.
Figure 3: Core 2 Duo E6700.
Figure 4: Core 2 Extreme X6800.
Intelligent Power Capability is an enhancement over Enhanced SpeedStep Technology that we have explained in details in our Inside Intel Core Microarchitecture tutorial.

We summarized below all CPUs included in this review with their main specs.
CPU
Cores
Internal Clock
External Clock
L2 Memory Cache
Platform
TDP
Athlon 64 3800+
1
2.4 GHz
*
512 KB
Socket 939 (DDR)
89 W
Athlon 64 X2 4600+
2
2.4 GHz
*
512 KB x 2
Socket 939 (DDR)
110 W
Athlon 64 X2 5000+
2
2.6 GHz
*
512 KB x 2
Socket AM2 (DDR2)
89 W
Athlon 64 FX-60
2
2.6 GHz
*
1 MB x 2
Socket 939 (DDR)
110 W
Athlon 64 FX-62
2
2.8 GHz
*
1 MB x 2
Socket AM2 (DDR2)
125 W
Pentium 4 550
1
3.4 GHz
800 MHz (200 MHz x 4)
1 MB
Socket 775 (DDR2)
115 W
Core 2 Duo E6700
2
2.66 GHz
1,066 MHz (266 MHz x 4)
4 MB
Socket 775 (DDR2)
65 W
Core 2 Extreme X6800
2
2.93 GHz
1,066 MHz (266 MHz x 4)
4 MB
Socket 775 (DDR2)
75 W
* Since AMD64 CPUs have their memory controller embedded in the CPU, the datapath between the CPU and the memory controller uses the CPU internal clock rate instead of an external clock rate as it happens on Intel CPUs. To communicate with components outside the CPU, AMD64 CPUs have two busses, the memory bus and the HyperTransport bus. The memory bus run up to DDR400 or DDR2-800 depending on the platform (socket 939 or socket AM2, respectively) and the HyperTransport bus of the listed CPUs works at 1,000 MHz transferring two 16-bit data per clock cycle (also labeled as “2,000 MHz”), achieving a 4,000 MB/s transfer rate on each direction. A 800 MHz external bus on Intel CPUs can provide a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 6,400 MB/s while a 1,066 MHz external bus can provide up to 8,528 MB/s. Direct comparison of this particular spec between Intel and AMD CPUs is really tricky as Intel external bus is used for both accessing the main RAM memory and other components – the video card in particular –, while on AMD64 CPUs two separated paths are used. Also, on Intel CPUs the same datapath is used for transferring data in and out, while HyperTransport bus provides two separated paths for input and output.
Thanks to Core microarchitecture –an enhancement over Pentium M’s – Core 2 family dissipates a lot less power, meaning less heat (TDP stands for Thermal Design Power). As you can see on the table above, Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme dissipate less power than all other CPUs included in our review. It is amazing to see how a dual-core CPU, which has two complete CPUs inside, can dissipate less power than a single-core Pentium 4. You can claim that they run at lower clock rates, however keep in mind that they have four times the amount of memory cache found on Pentium 4, which by itself would increase the CPU power dissipation a lot.
Unfortunately Intel didn’t provide us Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition samples for reviewing.

PC Buying Guide

As you know by now, we provide you with 2 primary types of PC guides on this Web site - Need-based and Budget-based. While the latter is more specific and featured at least once a month, the former gives you broad guidelines about the right PC for your needs. We choose to publish it once or twice a year. Now, with the start of the festive season, people will be looking to buy new PCs. The needs will vary and so will the budgets. So here we are with the updated version of the more generalized PC Buying Guide. (Version 10.05 = October 2005 edition). For those who haven't read the previous articles, here's what this article is about. There are two basic ways of buying a PC. The first is budget driven, i.e. simply fixing a budget and then buying the best components that you can afford for that price. The second is need driven, i.e. deciding on the components that you need and buying them and thus giving the budget a back seat. Each method has its own share of pros and cons. The first method is commonly followed as it is relatively simpler and more importantly one can keep a check on the spending. The second one is often overlooked, as many believe that following that method could lead to over-spending. The argument is valid to a certain point, but if you give it a serious thought, the second procedure can produce better and more accurate results. I'm not suggesting that the budget be totally ignored, but that your need should take precedence over it. In other words, the purpose for which you wish to use the PC should dictate the budget.
Before we proceed to the components, once again we will classify PC users into three categories based on the type of usage. The first category (Class 'A'): the basic user who uses his PC for word processing and accounting purposes and for surfing the Internet or listening to music or watching a movie, or for that matter doing a bit of coding in C, C++, Java etc. Gaming is far from being a necessity. The second category (Class 'B') is the casual gamer. Other than the above tasks, he is interested in playing recent 3D games. He doesn't mind gaming at a lower resolution with some of the visual options toned down as long as he gets playable (FPS) frames per second. The final category (Class 'C') is the power user or the hardcore gamer. He is someone who uses 3D animation software like 3D Studio Max or Maya and demands good FPS in the latest games at a high resolution and with all eye candy enabled. Now that we have defined our users, let's move on to the real thing.

The cheapest buyable option available today would be an AMD Athlon Sempron 2200+ processor (Rs 2,500) and a KM-400 chipset-based motherboard (Rs 2,400). Though this combo is sufficient for your needs, I would advice you spend another 600-800 bucks and go for the next generation platform - Socket-754 AMD Sempron 2500+ (Rs 2,900) and VIA K8M800 motherboard (Rs 2,750). The board also offers you the usual features like USB 2.0, SATA and AGP 8X slot along with an onboard video (VIA Unichrome graphics - good enough for most things but terrible for gaming), a good 5.1 channel onboard audio and LAN. Note that the Socket A series of CPUs and motherboards is all set to be replaced by the Socket-754 variants. So Class A users may do good to avoid going for the former.
The more adventurous Class A users, who would like to game a bit, can opt for an ATI RS480 motherboard (Rs. 4,500-4,700) from TUL or MSI which has respectable onboard graphics (ATI X300SE) and a PCI Express (PCI-E) slot for future upgrades. I would recommend at least an AMD Athlon 64 2800+ (Rs. 5,300) for the Class-B users. Couple that with a good nVidia nForce 3/4 chipset motherboard (Rs. 4,500-5,000) or the ATI RS480 and you have the foundation of a solid mid-range PC. For those who seek a little extra power and have a little more dough to spare can opt for a Socket-939 Athlon 64 3000+ (Rs 7,300) with a basic nForce 4 Ultra (Rs 5,500 - Rs 6,500) or a RS480 (Rs 5,200) motherboard. The 939 platform supports Dual Channel Memory interface that translated to more memory bandwidth. Now, other than the nForce 3 motherboards, all other boards have a PCI Express slot for graphics. So only those who already own a good AGP card and wish to retain it for a while should opt for the nForce 3; else PCI-E is the way to go. Why haven't I included an Intel CPU in the above categories? Simply because Intel does not have a CPU to match those mentioned above at that price point. To be precise, the Intel CPUs do not offer better value for money. Class-C users should opt for at least a Socket-939 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Rs 9,200) or the 3500+ (Rs 12,500) with an nForce 4 Ultra motherboard (Rs 6,500 and above). Those with a really hefty budget can think about a Dual Core Athlon 64 X2 (Rs 25,000+) with an nForce 4 Ultra or an Intel Pentium D with a 945 chipset board. However these CPUs sell with a fat premium and wouldn't be a bad idea to wait for a quarter or two for the prices to assume saner proportions. Especially those thinking of buying the Athlon 64 X2 have an option of opting for a standard Socket-939 CPU and upgrading to the X2 after a few months as they do not have to bother about a motherboard upgrade because the nForce 4 Ultra can play host to both those product lines. Memory 256 MB of DDR RAM should be a minimum for Class A users, while 512 MB is the starting point for Class B users. Class C users shouldn't think of anything lower than a GB. That's for the quantity. As for speeds, 400 MHz is recommended for all the categories as all the boards support it and the price difference between that and the lower clocked RAM is hardly anything. Those buying a Pentium D with a 945 chipset motherboard should go for the DDR-2 modules. The price of DDR-2 533 MHz is marginally higher than the standard DDR-400 modules with similar capacity. Those with the 939 or 945 platform, should opt for two memory sticks instead of one to take advantage of the dual channel memory interface that those boards support. The prices of RAM are extremely volatile in the PC market and are subject to change every now and then. Currently, the prices for DDR-400 RAM are as follows: 256 MB (Rs 1,200 - 1,600), 512 MB (Rs 2,200 - 2,600). 512 MB 533 MHz DDR-2 modules start at Rs- 2,750. Transcend, KingMax and Hynix are the more readily available reputed brands.

Hard disk Don't go for anything less that a 7200 RPM 80 GB IDE Hard drive (Rs. 2,700). The 160 GB PATA sells for around Rs 3,700. Yes, you do get 200 GB, 250 GB and 400 GB drives but the 160 GB drives still offer the best MB per Rupee ratio. Going for the SATA variants wouldn't be too bad an idea as the price difference isn't as high as it used to be before but that wouldn't really give you a major performance boost. Ideally, if you are buying a SATA drive, make sure that it supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ). That does speed up things. Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital are our preferred brands. They all offer a 5-year warranty now.
Monitor There haven't been any significant changes in the CRT monitors market except for the evolutionary drop in prices. A 17" monitor is recommended for Class A and B users. There are a few 19" monitors around and they sell for over twice the price of regular 17" models. They are not recommended unless you absolutely need them. A standard 17" monitor can be bought for Rs 5,500 while the pure flat variants sell for around Rs 6,800. Preferred models are Samsung 793S, ViewSonic E72f+, LG E700S-H. Not too many changes in the CRT market, but the scene in the LCD arena is significantly different. The prices of LCDs have been falling steadily this year and especially the 17" models. And along with prices, the response time is also getting lower (lower the better). Though they aren't exactly pushing the 17" CRTs, a price drop of over 5K in the past 8 months or so is welcome news. 15" LCDs can be bought for around 10K to 11K while the prices of 17" from major brands like Samsung and ViewSonic have dropped below 15K. Going by the current trend, I won't be surprised to see a price tag of around Rs 10,000 for 17" LCDs in another 6 months or so. Make sure you buy an LCD with a response time of 8 ms or lower, especially gamers. Recommended models ViewSonic VA712 and Samsung 713N. Both sell for around Rs 14,500 to Rs 15,000. Display Cards For the Class A users, the onboard graphics chip is good enough for their needs. If that's not all, you also have an AGP/PCI-E slot to plug in a better Video card if you happen to develop an interest in gaming at a later stage. The Class B users should opt for at least an nVidia GeForce 6600 or ATI X700 based card with 128 MB of DDR RAM. With the above cards you can enjoy all of today's games in medium to high settings at 1024x768 resolution. You should be able to find the above cards in a price range of Rs 6000 to Rs 7,500. If you have a bit more to spend, then the 6600GT based cards are the best option. Their PCI-E versions sell for as low as Rs 8,500 and the AGP versions are available for around 9K. The Class C users should look at nothing less than ATI X800 XL. You can get one for around Rs 16,000 to 18,000. If you really want to go for a kill, nVidia's 7800 series awaits you. But be ready to be lighter by at least Rs 25,000 for the GT version. The GTX can take away another 10K of your hard earned money. There are several vendors selling nVidia cards of which Gainward, BIG and XFX offer good performance and value. Options are limited when it comes to ATI but they are catching up. For now, PowerColor offers a good range of ATI cards.

Optical drives Last time I did an article like this, I had asked the Class A users to opt for either a CD Writer or a DVD-ROM drive. This time it's going to be a choice between a Combo drive and a DVD Writer. The combo drives are now available for Rs 1,900. Even better 16X DVD Writers are now available for just around Rs 3,000 and give you the flexibility to read and write all types of CDs and DVDs.
Cabinet and Power Supply Choose a spacious cabinet with proper ventilation. Add a couple of fans for proper airflow. As for the SMPS, a good 300 Watts SMPS is good enough for standard usage, i.e. up to 3-4 IDE devices. If you plan to connect anything more than that or a Graphics card that draws more power, then a 400 Watts SMPS or better would be necessary. PowerSafe still remains our preferred brand. It is a quality product that is reasonably priced and comes with a 3-year warranty as compared to one year from other competing brands. Buy an Antec SMPS if you can afford it. Sound card and Speakers The classification of users does not apply to this section as sound enthusiasts can fall into either of the categories. For a casual listener, the onboard sound card and a pair of stereo speakers should be more than enough. For the rest (especially gamers and movie buffs), I would suggest that they first try out their onboard sound card before opting for the Creative Live or Audigy series of sound cards. The onboard sound has really matured and is certainly worth a look in, especially if you have a Realtek sound chip (ALC650 or better) integrated on your motherboard. Not only is the quality good but they also support 5.1-channel output and some of the recent ones provide you 8-channel output. For those who prefer a fair bit of thump, opt for a 2.1 channel system. The Artis S500 is one of the best in the entry level segment along with the Altec Lansing AVS 300. For music enthusiasts on a budget, I would recommend a good-quality 2.1 speaker system like the Altec Lansing ATP3 (Rs 3,300). For the serious music freaks with money to spare, the ideal choice would be the Altec Lansing MX-5021 (Rs 9,000) with an excellent high and mid-range reproduction and thumping bass. A good 5.1 channel system will serve gamers and DVD movie fanatics better. Those on an extremely tight budget, can opt for an entry level 5.1 channel system like the Artis S5500 (Rs. 3,500). For those with bigger budgets, check out the 5300 from Logitech or the Artis X10. The Logitech Z-680/5500, Creative Gigaworks S750 would suit those who seek the cream of multi-channel segment. These are undoubtedly the best speaker systems officially available in our country. Keyboard and Mouse Shopping for keyboards and mice shouldn't be an issue. Choose a sturdy keyboard with tactile keys and an optical mouse. Gamers should settle for nothing less than MS Wheel Mouse Optical (not the MS Basic Optical Mouse) as it has a much refined sensor that isn't plagued with tracking off issues. Hardcore gamers have a choice between the Logitech MX-310 and MX-518, the high sensitivity gaming mice. As for the rest of the components, I don't think you should have much trouble in choosing them. However, if you need any help, there are enough reviews on this site along with our experts on 'Ask Techtree' and 'Forums' to help you out. I hope the above tips will prove handy in choosing the optimal configuration for the PC that you seek.

For Class A Users: CPU: AMD Sempron 2500+ (Socket-754) Motherboard: VIA K8M800 or ATI RS480 chipset RAM: 256 MB to 512 MB DDR-400 Hard Drive: 80 GB 7200 RPM SMPS: 300 Watts Monitor: 17 Standard Graphics: Onboard Optical Drive: Combo Drive Keyboard: Standard Keyboard Mouse: Basic Optical Mouse For Class B Users: CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2800+ (754) or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (939) Motherboard: nForce 3/4 or ATI RS480 or nForce 4 Ultra RAM: 512 MB to 1 GB DDR-400 Hard Drive: 160 GB SMPS: 300 to 350 Watts Monitor: 17 Standard or Flat Graphics: nVidia GeForce 6600/6600 GT or ATI x700 Optical Drive: 16X DVD Writer Keyboard: Standard Keyboard Mouse: MS Wheel Mouse Optical For Class C Users: CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Socket 939) or Intel Pentium D Motherboard: nVidia nForce 4 Ultra (for AMD) or Intel 945 chipset board RAM: 2 x 512 MB DDR-400 or DDR2 (for Pentium D) Hard Drive: 250 GB SATA with NCQ SMPS: 400 Watts SMPS or better Monitor: 17 Flat or 17 LCD with 8 ms response time Graphics: ATI x800 XL or nVidia GeForce 7800 GT Optical Drive: 16X DVD Writer Keyboard: Standard/Multimedia/Wireless Keyboard Mouse: MS Wheel Mouse Optical or Logitech MX 310/518 Enjoy your shopping.

India High On Intel's Manufacturing Plans

India continues to rate high on Intel's list of possible investments to build a manufacturing plant. The chip maker had earlier too expressed interest in setting up a chip-making plant in India but due to the delay in chip policy decision, Intel moved to China and Vietnam. Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel Corporation said, "The delay by Indian government in formulating a semiconductor policy to encourage chip manufacturing, prompted Intel to look elsewhere like China and Vietnam. However, now there is no need for additional capacity, but whenever it'll be required, India remains high on the list for setting up a manufacturing facility."Intel also announced alliance with 16 companies in India to expand its efforts to provide people in developing countries with the benefits of technology for its World Ahead Program. This alliance pledges to apply technology to advance health, education and rural empowerment. Intel India has also signed an agreement with the New Delhi affiliate of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO) to create a partnership focused on advancing Intel's Education initiatives."Intel's goal is to provide opportunities for people worldwide to participate in today's global economy through information and communication technologies (ICT). In collaboration with local and worldwide organisations and companies, we are working to bring people more PCs, tools and services that are customized for their local needs,"

How to choose a MotherBoard?

Whenever you plan to upgrade your system or purchase a new one, you often get confused with the technical jargon associated with a motherboard? Like the features it should support and the optimum price to pay for your requirements. In this story we provide information on the must-have features on a motherboard. We also tested 24 motherboards from Rs 2-8 k for price, performance and features to help you come up with the right choice
Within a family, a mother provides support to her children and facilitates their growth and performance in the world outside. She is the one responsible for her child's performance: good or bad. Ditto is the case with a PC motherboard, ie mother of all boards. If your system is able to offer all the features and performs well (it's stable and scalable), you would invariably end up praising the motherboard and if it has limited features, and is poor on performance, the poor board would be the first to receive flak. Though you can never replace your mother in real life, thankfully, this is not the case with PCs. So, in case you are planning to upgrade or buy a new motherboard, take out a few minutes from your hectic routine and read through the following. You'll find what's hot and what's not in the market. Here we go!
CPU supportA motherboard forms the base for any system. Each component is directly or indirectly connected to it. Invariably it's the type of motherboard that determines what CPU it can accommodate. The Intel-based motherboard will not accommodate CPU from competing vendors. In fact, there is even a possibility that it might not even accommodate a higher gigs CPU from the same vendor. Generally, all entry-level or budget-range motherboards don't have support for Quad cores; they only support single and dual core processors. Such is the need of various applications today, that you at least need a motherboard that has support for dual core processors. But the big question remains: what processor to go for? With Intel and AMD dishing out so many options, it's always difficult to pick the right one as per your need. Well, if your need is very basic and you simply need a system to run office applications and connect to the Net, then any budget range processor such as Intel Pentium IV, Intel Core Solo or AMD Sempron would suffice. But it's still advisable to opt for a motherboard that has support for dual core processors such as Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, and AMD Athlon, so that tomorrow when your needs increase you can upgrade the processor rather than entirely changing your motherboard.
With the entry of Quad Core in the desktop segment, we even have motherboards with support for Quad Core processors. In case, you are a professional gamer or a high-end power user, then going for motherboards having support for a Quad Core processor makes sense. Also, there is a move towards the 45 nm technology, so checking whether your motherboard has support for that or not is also an intelligent move. We already have a quad core processor based on this technology from Intel, AMD will be joining the bandwagon soon, and we also believe that processors based on 45nm technology will rule the market in near future. So, this surely is an important criterion when we think in terms of upgradability.
Which chipset?A chipset is basically a group of ICs or several chips designed to work together. Since, the chipset controls communication amongst the processor and external devices, it plays a crucial role in determining the system's performance. We have two types of chipsets on the motherboard: Northbridge and Southbridge. The Northbridge links the CPU to high-speed devices, especially main memory and graphics controller while the Southbridge connects it to low-speed peripheral buses such as PCI. The chipset limits the CPU types and speeds that the board can take, the type of RAM you can install, and also limits the extras such as integrated graphics, sound and USB 2.0 ports that can be included on the board.
While opting for an entry level motherboard it's always advisable to go for the one with in-built graphics chipset, otherwise you might have to bear the additional cost of a graphics card. Chipset also allows you to configure RAID on your motherboard, but that's common across only high-end motherboards.
It you are planning for a high-end board and will insert your own gaming cards, then choose a board having the latest NVIDIA, Intel or ATI chipsets. This will improve the overall performance. Intel P35 and ATI 790FX are new chipsets that support Quad Core processors and are quite popular these days.
It's always an advantage to have all three display output options
RAM supportNot so long ago DDR2 replaced the DDR, which in turn replaced the SDRAM from the market. Now DDR3 is a threat to DDR2, which is slowly but surely finding its stake in the market. The move towards DDR3 is mainly a step towards Green IT. DDR3 promises to reduce power consumption by nearly 30% as compared to DDR2. It also offers higher bandwidth compared to DDR2, hence power users and gamers will go for DDR3. You will not find support for DDR3 in entry-level motherboards, it is mainly available in the high-end versions. For entry-level DDR2 is good enough.
It is always important to check how many DIMM slots are there in your motherboard. This could be a restricting factor in terms of expandability. Go for boards having at least 2 DIMM slots; they will provide you an economical expandability option. Usually 4 DIMM slots are common across medium and high- end motherboards, which enables them to have more expandability options in terms of total RAM.
Graphics supportYou won't need a graphics card if you choose a motherboard with an onboard graphics chipset and when gaming is not your major requirement. But in case you don't have built-in graphics chipset, you will need a graphics card to get display on your monitor. Entry-level or budget range motherboards won't support high-end graphics cards, so you can opt for either NVIDIA GeForce 8400 series, ATI Radeon 2400 series or the 3000 series. They won't be heavy on your pocket and will give you good Vista performance along with Direct X capability.
For medium range or high-end cards, it is beneficial to go for a motherboard that supports SLI or CrossFire, 'coz invariably with more and more challenging games being developed, you'll feel the need to have more than one card. So, look for the board which has SLI and CrossFire support. Also remember, if you are opting for the card having high capability, then invariably you would need a higher power supply. Do check how much power supply your motherboard can bear before buying an expensive card.
Expansion slotsExpansion slots are generally referred to as PCI and PCIe slots via which you can add an additional RAID card (if your chipset has support for it), graphics card, audio Card, LAN card, etc. So, it's important to have more onboard slots, so that your motherboard has more expansion options. We have seen motherboards with just single PCI and PCIe slots, and they are decent enough when it comes to entry-level boards, but for high-end motherboards you'll surely need more than that. For SLI and CrossFire to work you need at least two PCIe slots. So, if expandability is there on your mind, opt for a motherboard that has maximum expandability options.
Apart from the regular SATA port, some boards have additional SATA ports operated through a different chipset
Storage and IDESATA has replaced PATA completely across the entire range of motherboards. What matters is how many SATA connectors does the motherboard support? That will determine how many HDDs you can actually use with the board. Four is generally the norm, but we have seen boards supporting six as well, which is pretty cool. RAID is common across the entire range of motherboards and ensures an extra layer of stability. So while buying a motherboard it's important to consider whether your motherboard has support for RAID or not, as it ensures data safety and enhances performance.
One important thing that we noticed recently was the inability to load OS via your CD ROM drive which is connected to an IDE. Some IDEs don't allow you to boot up your system; you would need to connect an external drive via USB for being able to load your OS on to the HDD. This is a big demerit and should be avoided at all costs. Read the specifications carefully and check whether the motherboard's IDE supports booting or not.
Connectivity optionsAll motherboards come with a LAN port and some USB ports. See how many USB ports does the board supports? Does it support USB 2.0 connectivity? We have seen boards with about two to six USB ports. The more they have, the better it is, as most of the external peripherals can easily be connected via a USB.
In the high-end boards we have also seen support for WiFi which is a welcome change brought about by Asus. Even HDMI, DVI has become a common feature in the current motherboards, allowing you the opportunity to watch digitally enhanced displays. Just connect your LCDs and enjoy watching a superior digital display. FireWire and e-SATA are some of the other key features that are increasingly being incorporated across motherboards. They provide additional benefits and are a big plus to have in terms of future expandability and scalability.
How We TestedThis month we checked out motherboards that were priced between 2k to 8k. We divided these boards into two categories-those below 4k, we called them entry-level; and those between 4-8k, we called them as the budget boards. We checked out these boards for their performance, features, and pricing. Next month, we'll be featuring high-end motherboards.
PerformanceTo judge the performance of each board, we ran the following five benchmarks:PCMark05: A synthetic benchmark that tests 11 different parameters right from OS boot up to 2D tests, HDD tests, etc.
3D Mark 2006: A highly intensive graphics and gaming benchmark, designed to stress the board for its overall graphics capabilities.
POV Ray: To check how good was the CPU's response to render a particular numbers of pixels. Here, the lesser the CPU time, the better.
Cine Bench10: Checks multi-core functionality of boards, since all boards we received supported dual or Quad core.
Business Winston 2002: Runs several office productivity apps like Office suites, browsing, antivirus, etc.
FeaturesHere, we compared all boards for ten features. These included the number of PCI, and DIMM slots, number of USB ports, whether a board had onboard video or not, and whether it had additional video options like HDMI, and DVI, in addition to the standard VGA port. We also checked whether a board had a Gigabit LAN port, support for 45 nm CPUs, SATA, and audio support. In SATA, we checked the number of ports, whether they supported RAID, and whether there was a second SATA controller chip as well. In audio support, we looked for the number of channels supported as well as featured like high-definition audio, etc.
PricingHere, we simply considered the cost and warranty of each board. Lastly, we used the Brown Gibson model to arrive at the weightages for each aspect of performance, features, and price. The overall weightages assigned to these parameters have been given in the box above.
We feel that even at the entry-level today, price is not the most important criterion for selection. Performance and features are also equally important, which is why you will find that in our weightage we have taken into consideration the importance of performance and features almost equal to that of price.
Hardware SpecsWe used an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor to test Intel-based boards, while an AMD Athlon 64 X2 1.6 GHz CPU was used to test AMD-based boards. The remaining configuration remained the same and comprised of 1 GB DDRII RAM (533 MHZ), 120 Seagate HDD (7200 RPM), LG Combo Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT/ 8800GT, and WinXP SP2.
Sub-4k Boards
The Winners
JIN73 M2-VSWhen it came to deciding the winner, it was a closely fought battle between Jetway JIN73 M2 – VS and XFX 6230i-7100 boards. The Jetway claimed the top spot largely due to its price; it costs around Rs 1,400 lower than the runner up board-the XFX 6301. The Jetway JIN73 M2-VS supports Intel Core 2 Duo/ Quad and also supports previous generation Intel Pentium 4. It comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 7050/nForce 610i chipset and has 2 DIMM slots for DDRII RAM. The best part about it is that it has all 3 video options available and comes with 6 USB slots, which is the maximum you can get in this range.
In performance, its score in PC Mark05 and 3D Mark06 was just decent. In fact its score of 4682 in PCMark05 was lower than what we have achieved from all three MSI motherboards or XFX 630i-7100. Even in 3D Mark06 its score was lower than the likes of MSI P35 Neo Combo and XFX 630i-7100. Nevertheless, these scores were decent for a board of this class, fetching it a score of 79/100 in performance.
In features, though it had almost everything one can ask for, where it actually lost to XFX was the lack of onboard RAID support. But even then, at this price, you can't expect to get anything better than this.
It's also priced cheaper than most of the other motherboards.
Overall, it's a clear cut winner because it doesn't compromise on features despite such a low price.
XFX 630i-7100With an overall performance score of 95/100, this board was the top performer in its range. It scored a mammoth 8304 in 3D Mark06, which is pretty high for an entry-level board. Even in PCMark05, a score of 5624 was the highest, with only the MSI Neo Combo coming anywhere close to it. Though its performance in POV Ray wasn't that great, its Business Winston score of 42 was the highest in the category, ensuring that it's good for bothgraphics and business productivity apps.
The board has support for Core 2 Duo and even Quad core processors. It's based on NVIDIA's MCP73U/PVV/D chipset. Though it has only 2 DIMM slots, it offers all three on board video options of VGA, HDMI, and DVI, which is a major plus. It has support for 6 channel audio output and RAID. Probably an additional x16 PCIe slot would have enabled it to offer SLI but then for an entry-level board that's something which is of least importance.
Overall, if you need a board that's a top performer and has all the features you could ask for in an entry-level board, then this board is definitely worth the deal.
Other ContendersThis segment is primarily targeted at users who are on a shoestring budget and aspire for satisfactory performance from a motherboard. While Jetway JIN73 M2 – VS won hands down scoring handsomely on all parameters, we put forward to you the 'also rans' who could not quite make it, but scored pretty well in a specified category. The top runner-up honour goes to our highly recommended test piece, the XFX 630i – 7100 which grabbed the top position in the performance category, scoring highly in PCMark and 3DMark benchmark tests.
PC enthusiasts looking for a motherboard, which is actually worth its price, then they may well have a look at Jetway JM2A 690 – VP. It scored a perfect 100 in the price parameter in our tests. Featuring 4 DIMM slots and USB ports each, with onboard support for audio channels (3), LAN and VGA; this may be a good deal. However, if features are your primary concern, then, at least in the entry level nobody can compete with the MSI P35 Neo Combo. It features 4 slots each for USB, SATA and DIMM. Additionally, it supports 6 audio channels, 2 LAN ports, 1 PCI express and 2 PCI slots. As far as performance is concerned, it returned impressive figures of 5228 and 7897 on PCMark and 3DMark respectively.
Priced at only Rs 2,250, the Jetway J945 GCD MS-A2 is another option you may consider if you are in a budget constraint and still demands good performance with basic features. It scored 3387 on PCMark and 3389 on 3DMark, which is decent enough for an entry- level board. Features are pretty basic with 4 ports for USB and 2 each for DIMM, LAN, SATA and PCI. One PCI express slot also finds a mention here and audio is supported onboard with 3 channels. The lone player from Asus, the M2N-VM DVI was going strong, but still could not perform well enough on all the parameters to claim the top spot. And two of the test boards from ECS lost out mainly due to lack of features and high pricing. If you compare the asked price v/s the features offered, you would inadvertently think it didn't interest you enough as its competitors did. However, performance wise it was at par with Jetway JIN73 M2-PHG-VT which is our overall winner in this category. In fact, it fared pretty well when compared to MSI 945GC M5-FV2 in terms of performance. MSI P35 Neo was the only board in this range which came with the support for 45nm processor, making it one of the most future ready board. So as soon as 45nm comes in this board will have support for it, whereas other might need an upgrade.
As stated earlier, the entry level is for the price conscious consumers who ask for maximum value for money with the least cost involved. We saw some boards like XFX 630i – 7100 which went ahead and offered all the three video ports, and some like the Jetway JM 26 GT3 – SVP which offered just a single SATA port, and the JHA-02 GTE which had absolutely no onboard support for video. In some cases, it may mean that you will have to shell out some extra cash to get an onboard video card. It was good to see RAID support in majority of the board with only some of the Jetway boards been the exception in this regard.
Overall, lots have changed in this segment and all these are welcome change.
Rs 4-8k Boards
The Winners
XFX 630i–7150While testing this board, somehow intuitively we knew it was going to win. Promising robust performance and features to kill for and yet being easy on your pocket is what the 630i–7150 is all about. It supports Intel's Core 2 Extreme (both quad and dual core) and Core 2 Duo processors. It is compatible with nVIDIA MCP73U/PV/V/D chipset. In features, it supports 4 USB ports, 6 Audio channels, 1 PCI-Express slot and 2 PCI slots, 2 slots each for DIMM and LAN and 3 slots for SATA. Video outlets are provided on board with HDMI, VGA and DVI. An added advantage of having an HDMI port is that you can transfer both audio and video signals to a desired device, and the XFX 630i – 7150 empowers you to do just that.
In PCMark05, it scores 5624, which was second best in this range, with MSI P6N SLI giving the best score of 6248. It scored 8304 3DMarks in 3DMark06 benchmark, which was the highest in this category. This goes to prove that XFX boards have been excellent with graphics capabilities. In fact the only close competitor to this board was MSI P965 Neo which scored 8288 3DMarks. In the other tests, XFX 630i-7150 fared well and overall its performance score was in close proximity to the MSI P6N SLI board.
MSI P965 NeoThe MSI P965 Neo supports Intel Dual Core and Pentium 4 processors, whereas Intel ICH8 and Intel P965 chipsets are compatible on it. It features 4 DIMM slots, 1 PCI-Express and 3 PCI slots, 4 USB ports, 6 audio support channels and 4 SATA and 2 LAN ports.
It scored 5088 in PCMark, which is slightly lower then XFX, but a good score nevertheless. In 3DMark06, it was second highest with a score of 8288 3DMarks. It performed better than the XFX board in the POV Ray benchmark, wherein its CPU response time was around 4 as compared to XFX's 5. Apart from that both were almost equal. It lost majorly due to a lack of features. Had it come with any one of the video options, either DVI or HDMI or even VGA, it would have given a tough fight for the top spot. Its pricing however is better than the XFX board, but you'll have to shell out extra for a video card to use this board.
Other ContendersBudget ranges includes the users who are ready to pay a bit extra, but not very much and still want to enjoy almost all the features and blazing performance from their motherboard. While in the entry level the first warrior from the XFX family, the 630i – 7100 just missed the top slot by a whisker, its sibling, the XFX 630i – 7150 manages to grab the honour of the overall best performer in all categories in the budget range of motherboards.
If features are of prime importance to you, you may consider the MSI G33M which offers 4 slots each for DIMM and SATA, 6 slots each for USB and Audio, 2 each for PCI and LAN, 1 PCI express slot and 1 VGA port for video output. Well, you couldn't have asked for more, at least in the budget range and is the only board which comes with 45nm processor support, which means its one of the most future ready board. You won't need to upgrade your motherboard if you want to migrate to 45nm processor.
There may still be some, who are unable to stretch their budget and demand the best possible features and performance in the least possible amount. For them, Simmtronics SIMM NV – 7050 would be the ideal choice as it costs a little over Rs. 4000/- and offers 4 slots each for DIMM and USB, 2 each for PCI, LAN and SATA, 3 video ports (HDMI, VGA and DVI), 6 audio channels and 1 PCI express slot.
The budget range starts from Rs. 4000 onwards. Hence people investing such amount of money would obviously expect performance and features a notch higher than the entry level range. However, we were quite disappointed to see some features synonymous with the sub 4K range like one or no PCI/video ports, 3 audio channels even in a budget range. All the three entrants from Gigabyte did manage to perform well in our score but where lacking in features in that price bracket. We have seen other boards offering more features at that price range.
Asus M2A-VM DVI was a strong contender in the competition. As it was priced brilliantly but again due to lack of features it was hit badly, but it should not be counted out simple coz of it's pricing. You get almost all features and decent performance at an attractive price, making it a board worth a look. Even the other Asus board M2R32-MVP scored very high in performance but eventually lack of features and higher price led to its downfall.

Albatron PX875P Pro Motherboard

Albatron have accomplished a lot in the relatively short time that they've been making motherboards and videocards; the company has good foresight, and that has helped Albatron win over consumers in an already crowded market. It also helps that Albatron have taken to producing well equipped mainboards which often feature IDE/Serial ATA RAID controllers, IEEE 1394 and even high end audio chipsets as standard.
What happens then to those consumers who don't want fully loaded motherboard? Why should they spend the extra money for features that aren't really needed? For example, my main PC has an IDE RAID controller, onboard 5.1 channel audio, IEEE 1394 and onboard CSA Gigabit LAN... but they all sit idle. They're nifty features to have, but if I could have gone with a motherboard without them for a lower price, I would have.
That brings us to the new Albatron PX875P Pro motherboard, a i875P based system that is built for someone who wants all the performance of the Canterwood chipset, but has no need for any of the other features. With a competitive price point, this makes it a good option for paired down office PC's or school computers.
The PX875P Pro motherboard supports all current 533 MHz and 800 MHz FSB 'Northwood' Pentium 4 processors, including the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. The manufacturer also states that the PX875P Pro also supports the 'Prescott' Pentium 4 core - which is known to be more power hungry. That the PX875P Pro supports Prescott is quite significant, as not every i865PE/i875P based motherboard on the market right now does. This is due to the higher power requirements, which are estimated to be close to 130W.

he only real extra features of the PX875P Pro include a 3Com Gigabit LAN and 5.1 channel audio. The board layout is good, for instance there's decent space between the Northbridge and AGP slot so using vidoecards with third party heatsinks, like the Zalman ZM80C-HP is a possibility.
As usual, Albatron have labelled the various headers and ports on the PCB clearly. If you're confused about where to connect something, say the IrDA header, the DIY installation guide or manual will show you. The manufacturer has located the power supply components on the top edge of the PCB, so even the ATX12V power connector is well out of the way. I'm sure there are quite a few readers who will be happy to know that don't need to remove the videocard to install system memory either. :-)
The clear CMOS jumper is easily accessible, which makes everyone's life easier if you push the board too far when overclocking. There are three fan headers, including one just above the AGP slot next to the Northbridge, perfect for those thinking about active third party cooling.
The Albatron PX875P Pro comes equipped with the Intel ICH5 Southbridge, which offers a pretty good feature set. This motherboard could easily suit enthusiasts or IT managers looking to build quick office PC's on a budget.
With that in mind, active cooling on the Northbridge would have been ideal too. This is especially evident with Albatron suggesting that the board can do 1200 MHz FSB on the box! It's hard to hit 300 MHz with any board, let alone with one that has a passively cooled Northbridge chipset.
The reason for this is that when the Northbridge reaches high temperatures it seems to have an affect on the memory controller. Speaking from personal experience, I notice that at high FSBs (over 320 MHz), I cannot run my memory at tight timings if the i875P chipset is too hot. If the Northbridge is cooled down, things improve right away.

High-end Graphics Card Overview

You have deep pockets, yearn for the best experience in the game and still confused as to which graphics card to buy? Had it been a Monopoly in the graphics card business, then there wouldn't be so many problems. But, two graphic cards companies namely ATI and NVIDIA are continuously churning out new cards just to outdo each other in terms of performance. Before, we discuss about the current situation of high-end cards, let's just travel back in time and see the fight between these two companies, as it will help you get a better idea of which is a better company. Initially 3DFX was the king in the graphics accelerator business. But, the NVIDIA Riva TNT graphics card simply bashed the best offering from 3DFX then. And NVIDIA kept on churning out newer generations of graphics cards every six months and 3DFX was unable to keep pace with NVIDIA and finally just shut down and sold its business to NVIDIA. This was the time when NVIDIA's monopoly began. The NVIDIA dominance continued with the GeForce 256 and GeForce 2 GTS. That was the time most graphics card companies started shutting down. All but one, ATI. The only reason why ATI was still operational was because their workstation graphics cards were selling well and NVIDIA didn't have a workstation graphics card yet. When NVIDIA released GeForce 2 GTS, ATI unleashed the first Radeon card codenamed R100 and was eventually called the Radeon 7500. But, in terms of performance, it was a step behind NVIDIA's offering. Though ATI never had major success with the Radeon 7500, their R200 a.k.a. Radeon 8500 did started making a dent in NVIDIA's sales figures. During that time, NVIDIA released the GeForce 3 series, which boasted of DirectX 8.0 support and had never before seen features. ATI Radeon 8500 was one step ahead of the GeForce 3 in terms of features like the support for DirectX 8.1 and Trueform, but lacked in performance. But the performance difference was marginal and people started accepting the Radeon 8500 for getting the extra features and more importantly the superior image quality, which was ATI's forte. But, during that time Quake 3 was considered the benchmark for the graphics card. The company, which scored the most in Quake 3 was considered the ultimate winner. ATI were not known for good performance in OpenGL-based games. And since Quake 3 was an OpenGL-based game, ATI had to do something or else they would have lost the battle. Obviously making a new graphics card at that time was not possible. Here's when a new era dawned, which is known as Driver Optimization. The graphics card drivers were specially optimized for a particular game, which made the game run faster, but at the same sacrificed on some features such as image quality. ATI suddenly took the performance crown from NVIDIA and upon investigation; it was found that ATI was cheating with its drivers. There was huge outcry and ATI had to pull back the drivers. So, the performance king was still NVIDIA. Then NVIDIA released the next generation graphic card GeForce 4 Ti, which was basically a small upgrade to GeForce 3 series. This widened the performance gap a little more in favor of NVIDIA, but their success was short lived. ATI released a graphics card codenamed R300 four months after the GeForce 4 Ti. This graphics card is none other than the Radeon 9700, and in terms of performance, it was giving double the scores of the GeForce 4 Ti in certain benchmarks. NVIDIA for the first time lost the performance crown officially.

You have deep pockets, yearn for the best experience in the game and still confused as to which graphics card to buy? Had it been a Monopoly in the graphics card business, then there wouldn't be so many problems. But, two graphic cards companies namely ATI and NVIDIA are continuously churning out new cards just to outdo each other in terms of performance. Before, we discuss about the current situation of high-end cards, let's just travel back in time and see the fight between these two companies, as it will help you get a better idea of which is a better company. Initially 3DFX was the king in the graphics accelerator business. But, the NVIDIA Riva TNT graphics card simply bashed the best offering from 3DFX then. And NVIDIA kept on churning out newer generations of graphics cards every six months and 3DFX was unable to keep pace with NVIDIA and finally just shut down and sold its business to NVIDIA. This was the time when NVIDIA's monopoly began. The NVIDIA dominance continued with the GeForce 256 and GeForce 2 GTS. That was the time most graphics card companies started shutting down. All but one, ATI. The only reason why ATI was still operational was because their workstation graphics cards were selling well and NVIDIA didn't have a workstation graphics card yet. When NVIDIA released GeForce 2 GTS, ATI unleashed the first Radeon card codenamed R100 and was eventually called the Radeon 7500. But, in terms of performance, it was a step behind NVIDIA's offering. Though ATI never had major success with the Radeon 7500, their R200 a.k.a. Radeon 8500 did started making a dent in NVIDIA's sales figures. During that time, NVIDIA released the GeForce 3 series, which boasted of DirectX 8.0 support and had never before seen features. ATI Radeon 8500 was one step ahead of the GeForce 3 in terms of features like the support for DirectX 8.1 and Trueform, but lacked in performance. But the performance difference was marginal and people started accepting the Radeon 8500 for getting the extra features and more importantly the superior image quality, which was ATI's forte. But, during that time Quake 3 was considered the benchmark for the graphics card. The company, which scored the most in Quake 3 was considered the ultimate winner. ATI were not known for good performance in OpenGL-based games. And since Quake 3 was an OpenGL-based game, ATI had to do something or else they would have lost the battle. Obviously making a new graphics card at that time was not possible. Here's when a new era dawned, which is known as Driver Optimization. The graphics card drivers were specially optimized for a particular game, which made the game run faster, but at the same sacrificed on some features such as image quality. ATI suddenly took the performance crown from NVIDIA and upon investigation; it was found that ATI was cheating with its drivers. There was huge outcry and ATI had to pull back the drivers. So, the performance king was still NVIDIA. Then NVIDIA released the next generation graphic card GeForce 4 Ti, which was basically a small upgrade to GeForce 3 series. This widened the performance gap a little more in favor of NVIDIA, but their success was short lived. ATI released a graphics card codenamed R300 four months after the GeForce 4 Ti. This graphics card is none other than the Radeon 9700, and in terms of performance, it was giving double the scores of the GeForce 4 Ti in certain benchmarks. NVIDIA for the first time lost the performance crown officially.
In reply, NVIDIA had no other option but to get a newer graphics card out. Till that happened, NVIDIA also started playing the same old dirty trick, drivers optimization in order to boost the performance of the GeForce 4 Ti series up to acceptable levels. But still Radeon 9700 was the performance king. NVIDIA in a hurry released a graphics card codenamed NV30 also known as GeForce FX 5800. But the card had a lot of problems such as overheating and large amount of noise emitted by the fan. Also, the graphics card had a two slot design, which many people didn't appreciate it. In terms of performance it was on par with the Radeon 9700 series. So it made more sense to buy ATI's solution as it didn't face the problems NVIDIA had. NVIDIA quickly released the GeForce FX 5900 which removed most of the problems. But ATI also got a newer card in the market, the Radeon 9800 whose performance was on par with the GeForce FX 5900. The rivalry continued with newer cards coming from both the stables, ATI's 9800 XT and NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra. NVIDIA lost a huge market share at that time and ATI's position as a graphics card manufacturer got stronger. At the beginning of 2004, both the companies were ready for a new battle, but this time the table turned. Both the companies were going to release their graphics card simultaneously with no details emerging on their specifications. When the specifications were out, ATI's high-end card had 12 pipelines, where as NVIDIA's high-end card had 16 pipelines. ATI knew on paper itself that they had lost and quickly made a 16 pipeline card. The most powerful AGP card from ATI is the Radeon X800 XT, which has the 16 pipelines whereas the Radeon X800 Pro has 12 pipelines. In NVIDIA's case, the GeForce 6800 Ultra has 16 pipelines and the GeForce 6800 GT also has 16 pipeline but with lower clock speed.

The graphics card business extended from sub $400 to sub $500. The high-end card from both these companies now cost nearly $500. In terms of performance, the Radeon X800 XT and GeForce 6800 Ultra were quite evenly matched. But in the second best category i.e. Radeon X800 Pro and GeForce 6800 GT, the GeForce 6800 GT beats X800 Pro in most benchmarks hands down. Then when DOOM 3 was released, the performance of NVIDIA's cards was noticeably better than the ATI cards, mainly because the game was quite heavily optimized for their cards. But in the mean time, ATI also played by the same rules and got Half-Life 2 benchmark scores in their favor. NVIDIA made several presentations about how X800 technology is outdated when compared to theirs like the feature of Pixel Shader 3.0, which is absent on X800 cards. It's just tit for tat; ATI did the same during the Radeon 9800 and GeForce FX 5800 days. The rivalry still continues, but in the end, games getting optimized for specific cards is what is hurting the end user. The message given by the companies was clear, if you want to play DOOM 3, get NVIDIA's cards and if you want to play Half-Life 2, get ATI's cards. But at the end of the day, if you play DOOM 3 on ATI's high-end card, you still will be able to play on full graphics and very smoothly. Same goes for Half-Life 2 on NVIDIA's card. It is just that one card gives better frames than the other in that particular game. So, as of now, which is the best graphic card to buy? We have run benchmarks on such types of graphics cards over the past few months. It seemed like ATI's X800 series would excel in Direct 3D-based games and NVIDIA cards would shine in OpenGL games. In OpenGL-based games such as Call of Duty, the Asus 6800 256 MB V9999 GE beat the X800 Pro by a score of 154.8 FPS to 150.2 FPS in 4x AA/8xAF (Anti-Aliasing/ Anisotropic Filtering) at 1280 x 1024 resolution. The funny part is that the Asus 6800 256 MB V9999 GE is based on GeForce 6800 core with only 12 pipelines and 5 vertex shaders. The actual competitor to the X800 Pro is supposed to be the GeForce 6800 GT, which has 16 pipelines and 6 vertex shaders. NVIDIA's cards showed their power in OpenGL-based games. But when it came to Direct 3D, ATI still continued to lose against the NVIDIA solution. In the Far Cry Benchmark, the Asus 6800 V9999 GE scored an average of 54.09 FPS in 4xAA/8xAF in 1024 x 768 modes, where as ATI's X800 Pro managed a score of 46.32 FPS. In the same benchmark Gainward's 6800 GT scored 61.4 FPS. Don't forget that even Far Cry runs better on NVIDIA cards due to support of Pixel Shader 3.0, which is not at all present in the ATI cards. But the true strength of ATI's card is seen in the 3D Mark 2003 and 3D Mark 2005 benchmark. The Asus X800 Pro scores 4584 in 3D Mark 2005, whereas NVIDIA's chip based XFX 6800 GT scores 4433. When we move up to the most high-end cards such as Radeon X800 XT and GeForce 6800 Ultra both of these cards are evenly matched. But, since most of the games are based on Direct 3D than OpenGL, ATI edges ahead on points, however the 6800 Ultra isn't too far behind. But in games such as Far Cry and DOOM 3, it takes the honors. This is our own list of cards in terms of performance. Please keep in mind the Radeon X800 XT and the GeForce 6800 Ultra are very difficult to find in India. 1. ATI Radeon X800XT 2. NVIDIA Geforce 6800 Ultra 3. NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GT 4. ATI Radeon X800 Pro 5. NVIDIA Geforce 6800
Now the other major factor determining which graphics card to buy is the cost and the availability. As I already mentioned, the Radeon X800 XT and the GeForce 6800 Ultra are very difficult to find in India. So the next best graphics chipset that comes to mind is the NVIDIA 6800 GT. Now the prime companies dealing in that chipset and in India are Asus, XFX and Gainward. In terms of cost, the XFX 6800 GT is the cheapest at Rs. 25,000. However, the Gainward 6800 GT Golden sample is not only a great performer, but also the most overclockable having the capability of reaching 6800 Ultra speeds and beyond and that too for just Rs. 2,500 more. And considering the fact that the 6800 Ultra and ATI X800 XT cards, the performance of which it matches and even exceeds at times, sell for over Rs. 37,000, it makes the Gainward card an amazing deal. So we term the Gainward 6800 GT Golden Sample as the Best Buy amongst the high-end cards currently available here.