Wednesday, May 11, 2011
How to Pick the Right Motherboard for Your Custom-Built PC
otherboards are the most complex component in your computer. Fitted with hundreds of components and dozens of options it can be difficult to choose. Let’s look at the most important factors to help you decide before building your next computer.
Motherboards are the central nervous system of your computer. They are responsible for connecting and communicating between all of the important components inside. Knowing what to look for is key when comparing boards.
Motherboard Sizes
Motherboards come in different shapes and sizes, but luckily there are some standards set in place so that a lot of motherboards and cases can work together.
For the most part these sizes apply to all desktop computers but some computers you buy from manufacturers don’t follow all the rules. This is usually fine when you buy the whole computer as a unit, but it becomes tricky if you want to swap a new motherboard into the case or build one from scratch.
The most common motherboard size is Intel’s Advanced Technology Extended (ATX) and its derivatives. The chart below has some of the most common ATX sizes, but there are plenty more options than just the few shown here.
Motherboard sizes not only indicate the size of the board and placement of mounting screws, but it also dictates the general layout of the major components on the board. Have you ever noticed that almost all motherboards have the CPU, RAM, and I/O ports in the same place? That is because they are determined by the board standard. The components have to be in the same place otherwise case and power supply manufacturers wouldn’t easily be able to sell you something that works with with your motherboard no matter who makes it.
For ATX motherboards the general layout of the board is shown in the picture below.
ntel’s second attempt at standardizing motherboards was with Balanced Technology Extended (BTX). The main focus of BTX was to solve airflow and component placement limitations of ATX. Although BTX was supposed to be the successor to the ATX form factor, it didn’t gain enough traction to take off in the consumer market. Some large computer manufacturers such as HP, Dell, and Apple still use BTX, or proprietary variations of it. The main layout differences can be seen in the picture below.
Because BTX has been abandoned by Intel since 2007, you will just need to focus on which ATX size best suits your needs. Typically the main difference between small ATX boards and larger boards are expansion slots and CPU support.
Processor Sockets
Image via kwixson
The processor socket you choose is the deciding factor in what CPU you can use in your computer. If the processor doesn’t fit, you can’t use it. Intel and AMD both have their own series of processors and sockets that are compatible with only their chips. The first thing you will need to decide is which processor you want and then you can decide further on which socket you need.
Intel’s sockets usually have a friendly name, like Socket H, and a technical name like LGA 1156. The friendly name is easier to remember while the technical name will tell you about the socket. LGA 1156, for example, stands for Land Grid Array and it has 1156 pins. Because CPUs and motherboards change so often it probably isn’t worth it to describe what processors work in which sockets. Instead you can get that information on which CPU series work with which motherboards from your manufacturer.
For Intel’s consumer sockets they typically have a low power, e.g. Socket 441 for Atom processors, a midrange, e.g. Socket H for Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 800 series processors, and a high end, e.g. Socket B for Core i7 900 series processors. If you are looking to use an Intel processor you will need to find which socket supports the processor you want.
AMD hasn’t been changing quite as frequently as Intel and in the past 5 years they have only had 3 major consumer sockets. The AM2, AM2+, and AM3 sockets support almost all of AMD’s consumer processors currently. The AM2 and AM2+ were mostly interchangeable and the AM3 was introduced to support DDR3 memory.
In either case, it is a good idea to pick your processor first, and your motherboard second. If you buy a socket with no processor support, it isn’t going to do you much good.
Chipsets
Image via adikos
The chipset is how your CPU, RAM, video card, and peripherals communicate. It is a combination of your northbridge and southbridge and can add some very nice features depending on your needs.
The northbridge is typically responsible for the very fast communication between your CPU, RAM, and video card. It is where you will get features like SLI/CrossFire and DDR3. With the current Intel and AMD processors the northbridge functions are all included in the processor. This means less complexity for your motherboard and typically less latency for the processor to access the high speed components like RAM.
Integration is great news for performance but sometimes bad news for options. For instance, because AMD owns ATI they could have the ability to lock their latest gaming graphics cards to only having specific features if you are using an AMD processor. This also put companies like Nvidia out of the northbridge market who use to make one of the best northbridge chips back in the Pentium 4 processor days.
The southbridge will give you features like support for the latest PCI-E, SATA, USB 3, and many more future technologies. It is also essential to know what options you need because some southbridges may not support every feature you might expect like RAID and surround sound. With most manufacturers they will clearly state the features available without needing to dive deep into the southbridge chipset features.
Because this combination of features + processors + options is so big and changes multiple times per year it would be impossible for us to list every option here. Instead, just be aware when you are picking your motherboard of what features you need and then look for those options in your boards chipset.
Other options
A lot of manufacturers will try to sell you on a motherboard based on extra features like the amount of on board I/O ports, amount of expansion slots, or the reliability of their motherboards. These can all be requirements depending on the purpose of the computer you are building. Once you figure out the processor and size of motherboard you want, these added features will probably become the next most important thing, especially with smaller form factor motherboards when space is limited.
It is typically easier to use onboard features if they are available than try and expand the computer to have all of the options you need. If you know you are going to need two network cards or HDMI with audio pass-through, make sure your motherboard supports it before buying.
The manufacture’s description may not be 100% clear on if the feature is supported or not. Other places to look for clarification on specific features are device reviews, forums, and wikipedia. You may also want to download the PDF user guide for the motherboard just to see if it is documented on how to enable the features you need.
If you have clear decision for what you need in each category you can quickly narrow down the endless sea of options available. This can greatly ease the stress when trying to decide on a motherboard just by price or maximum memory supported.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Why not to get Facebook for BlackBerry 2.0
Research In Motion (RIM) has just announced the first beta release for the next major version of Facebook for BlackBerry, which features a redesigned user interface and incorporates a host of new features, including Facebook Chat.
The new Facebook Chat feature integrates with both the app and the unified mailbox. As long as your status is set to “online,” friends can send you notifications even if you aren’t using the app. Even better, within Facebook for BlackBerry 2.0, users can still get alerted about new BlackBerry Messenger messages or see when a new e-mail hits the inbox.
The team at RIM has also put a lot of work into improving the News Feed and how users can interact with it. Posts can be shared or liked from the feed and users can also publish their own photos and status updates or check into a Facebook Place directly from the News Feed.
Perhaps the biggest overhaul is the overall look and feel of the app. The navigation control panel now mimics what you see on iOS and Android. A drop-down navigation bar has now also replaced the static bar in the old app. BlackBerry says this will make it easier to add new features in the future.
The Facebook notifications panel has also been redesigned to mimic the Today View in BlackBerry OS 6. This provides a great overview of everything that is happening within the Facebook application. It’s actually the kind of implementation we wouldn’t mind seeing in other mobile versions of Facebook.
Overall, the new Facebook for BlackBerry looks great. It’s clearly a major upgrade that helps close the gap between the BlackBerry client and those on other mobile platforms. If you want to check out the new beta, head to the BlackBerry Beta Zone. There are a limited number of spots available, so be sure to check it out. Right now, only BlackBerry 6.0 users can use the beta — however, subsequent betas will support BlackBerry OS 4.6 and higher.
What do you think of the new Facebook for BlackBerry? Let us know in the comments.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
What’s the Difference Between the Windows 7 HomeGroups and XP-style Networking?
Windows 7 rocks a new method of file and print sharing that’s a departure from the frustrating file and print sharing found in earlier versions of Windows. What is it and how can you benefit from it? Read on as we explain.
HomeGroups are a new edition to the Windows ecosystem as of Windows 7. They’re intended to (and succeed at) greatly reducing the frustration experienced by users who want to easily share files between computers as well as share printers with the entire network. Let’s take a look at the state of home networking and how it has evolved.
A Micro History of Windows File and Print Sharing
Windows 7 marked a pretty radical from a variety of outdated methods, including how network file and print sharing is handled. If you ever had the displeasure of setting up file and print sharing on an Windows XP network you were essentially building a sharing scheme built atop the same—albeit modified and updated—framework that had existed for the task since the 1980s.
NetBIOS, a local area network communication API, was introduced in 1983 by IBM and an implementation of it was created by Microsoft in 1985. Although time-tested the API wasn’t without some frustrating shortcomings, including a tendency for computers on the network to get out of sync (one machine might see all four computers and the printer on the network, another might see three computers and no printer) and the sort of obtuseness in practical application that made it much better suited for a commercial environment with an IT staff than for a fluid home environment maintained by users which may have no particular computer expertise. From 1985 until the introduction of Windows 7 the Windows file sharing methodology was built upon this decades old framework.
The new method of sharing doesn’t abandon everything about the old Windows networking methods, however. The NetBIOS underpinnings have been removed and replaced with a new peer-to-peer style networking tool called Peer-to-Peer Graphing. This new Peer-to-Peer method makes it easy for all the computers in the HomeGroup to stay in sync with each other. The mechanism for actually sharing files has stayed the same just with some revisions and polishing; Server Message Block (SMB) file sharing runs much smoother on the new Peer-to-Peer system.
In addition to restructuring the underpinnings of the sharing system the shift to Windows 7 HomeGroups also ditches the frustrating aspects of managing your network. Unlike in Windows XP, where the choices for file sharing were limited to simple sharing (easy to set up but insecure) or permissions-based sharing (a pain to configure and manage but secure), Windows 7 HomeGroups allows you to easily link computers together with nothing more than a share password. What do you need to make it work and what does it mean for you? Let’s take a look.
What This Means for You; Windows HomeGroups in Action
The Windows HomeGroup system is designed to make it easy for you to nearly instantly add a computer to your network and start sharing files and printers without having to muck around with extensive permissions or otherwise moonlight as a sys admin in your own house. You no longer need matching workgroups, extensive permission configuration, or any of the other things that made configuring a home network a hassle under earlier versions of Windows. Here the requirements of the HomeGroup system:
- At least one computer running Windows 7 Premium of above—lower versions of Windows 7 can join HomeGroups they just can’t create them.
- Your home network needs to be set as “Home” in the Network and Sharing Center.
That’s it! One computer starts the HomeGroup, the others join it, and boom, you’re networked. It’s so simple that if a friend visits your house and wants to join your HomeGroup to temporarily share files with you all he has to do is flag your local network as a home network and join with the password you give him. No swapping of workgroups, no tinkering with folder and file permissions, just nearly-instant sharing. The screenshot below was taken just moments after I added a netbook to my HomeGroup; it took little more than 20 seconds, most of which was spent double checking the password to save the hassle of retyping it.
So what are the limitations of the HomeGroup? If you’re running and all Windows 7 household they’re not too severe. If you’re not, you’ll end up with a patch work of sharing methods.
- The HomeGroup system is Windows 7 only. Earlier versions of Windows are completely locked out from participating in it because of it’s radical departure from the previous structure of Windows files sharing. This, unfortunately, includes Windows Home Server (WHS 2011 will resolve the incompatibility).
- It’s an all-or-nothing system. Folders are either accessible to the whole HomeGroup or not accessible. You can’t specify that a folder is accessible only to your wife’s computer but not your son’s.
- You can only have one HomeGroup per network. You can’t overcome the permission issue by making, for example, a Grownups and Kids HomeGroup or sub-group for house guests.
Although those are fairly significant limitations if you’re trying to privately share a folder within your home, the limits only apply to the HomeGroup. They didn’t rip the other networking tools right out of Windows. You can, if you need to, set up a regular SMB share with the old permissions system in parallel to the HomeGroup. Thus you could have a HomeGroup that shares nearly everything in the open except for content you only want to share with a specific computer or person in the house—that content could be kept in a folder shared with traditional Windows networking methods. In contrast with the huge hassle that maintaining a home network was prior to the arrival of HomeGroup it’s a very small concession to make.
Getting Started with Windows 7 HomeGroup
Windows 7 HomeGroup is an excellent choice for users who want speedy and flexible simple file and printer sharing without having to dabble about with the arcane aspects of configuring folder and user permissions (but without taking away more advanced tricks for those times you need them). HomeGroups are an excellent networking solution for people who are uninterested in learning the nuances of configuring traditional user-oriented permission-based systems or who simply need a nearly instant network for simple and secure file sharing.
Friday, March 11, 2011
How To Make Disposable Sleeves for Your In-Ear Monitors
In-ear monitors are great, until the rubber sleeves stop being comfortable. Here’s a quick and cheap way to make disposable ones using foam ear plugs so you can stay comfortable while listening.
What You’ll Need
Disclaimer: This project uses sharp tools and involves sticking things into your ears so be careful, and be smart! We’re not responsible for any mishaps!
- Foam ear plugs. I used some cheap ones from Amazon (AO Safety Disposable Ear plugs 80-pk).
- Scissors.
- Pen tip, rotary tool, or other sharp bore-like object.
This requires that you have earbuds that have a stem on them, like my Shure E3Gs below.
The foam plugs will block outside noise, but we need to make a hole for the sound to come through and so they fit onto the earphones. You can use a pen tip that’s slightly sharpened, a rotary tool with a small bore tip, or anything of that nature.
Here’s a size comparison of the tools. Basically, you want to make a hole that is smaller than the stems on your earphones. That way, they’ll be snug and won’t come off in your ear. Let’s start by taking an ear plug and flattening it.
You can cut it to an appropriate length for your ears with the scissors. My ears aren’t very big, so I just cut them in half.
Wait for them to puff up back to their normal size and then flatten them the other way, so they’re a round dot.
Next, take your hole-making instrument and put it to work. I used a sharpened pen tip and punched it.
You could also use a hobby knife and make a small square instead of punching a hole as well. Here’s what the finished product looks like.
I went back and punched holes in the other halves of the ear plugs so they wouldn’t go to waste.
You should be able to just slip them onto your earphones, albeit with a little effort.
The more snugly they fit onto your earphones, the more outside noise will be sealed out. It also helps keep them from slipping off into your ear that way.
Squish them, put them in your ears, and wait for them to expand and create a seal before you let go. Ear plugs are pretty cheap, and you can make a dozen of these in a few minutes. It’s a great alternative to the rubber and silicone tips that come bundled. I have relatively small ears and one side is slightly larger than the other, so I can only keep these in a for about two hours before I need to take them out. I’ve been using the foam tips several hours a day for a few days and I can definitely vouch for the difference.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Facebook Teams Up With Warner Bros. to Stream Movies
In its march to become a portal to the entire internet, Facebook has signed a deal with Warner Brothers to test out whether its 600-plus million users will be willing to pay to stream new movies from within the social networking site’s virtual walls.
Warner Brothers will start the trial with The Dark Knight, the 2008 Batman movie from Christoper Nolan, and Facebook users will have to pay 30 Facebook credits (about $3) to watch the movie. To rent the movie, Facebook users in the United States have to visit the movie’s Facebook page, and start watching the movie from there. The rental period lasts for 48 hours — twice the standard from other streaming services — and users can post comments and do the typical Facebook things at the same time, including updating their status.
The studio says that additional titles will be coming soon and that it was a no-brainer to start offering video streaming rentals through Facebook.
“Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people,” said Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. “Making our films available through Facebook is a natural extension of our digital distribution efforts. It gives consumers a simple, convenient way to access and enjoy our films through the world’s largest social network.”
The deal is not exclusive. The movie is available to rent from Netflix as a DVD, but it can’t be streamed. (It can be streamed via Amazon and iTunes, however.)
But the possibility that Facebook could become a competitor to Netflix made the latter’s stock take a hit Tuesday, dropping $12 (nearly 5.75 percent) on an up day for the broader market. Facebook’s advantages include their massive user base and built-in sociality, which could encourage users to share their thoughts on a movie with friends and provide a place to discover and then pay for new movies via reviews from friends.
Facebook currently lacks the device integration that Netflix has achieved. For instance, watching Netflix streaming movies on a big TV is simple for those who own game consoles, TiVos, certified Blu-ray disc players, media playing devices like Apple TV, Google TV and the Roku Box, iPhones, iPads and Android devices (sort of).
It’s not clear from the announcement if a specific browser is required or whether the playback requires Flash.
But it is clear that Facebook is willing to experiment to find new ways to expand its empire by letting outsiders come inside Facebook’s borders.
Sadly, The Social Network, the hit dramatization of the founding of Facebook, was produced by Columbia Pictures so is not likely to be streaming anytime soon from Facebook. But when or if it does, you’ll know that Facebook has become strong enough to eat it critics.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Tablets are the 'post-PC era'? I beg to differ..
I've been hearing "post-PC era" so much now that I wince when I hear the term. Clearly it must be time for me to get something off my chest.
There is no post-PC era.
Not as I see the landscape, at least. To me, tablets are a big break with the past when it comes to user interface, but deep down, more stays the same than changes. And the better tablets get, the more they'll simply absorb what we do with PCs.
In short, tablets will become PCs. Different PCs from today's PCs, but PCs.
Granted, I might be using the term "PC" differently from the main proponent of the "post-PC" idea, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who eagerly trotted the phrase out over and over during the iPad 2 launch last week. Apple often means "Windows personal computer" when it uses the term "PC," as evidenced in the Mac vs. PC ads. And there was a day when PC Magazine, PC World, PC/Computing and their ilk 
were indeed devoted to the Wintel world and not Macs.But I prefer the term PC in a more generic "personal computer" sense. I use a MacBook Pro, a Lenovo Windows XP laptop, and a Dell Windows 7 laptop, and to me they all feel like, well, personal computers. There are differences between the Windows and Mac machines, sure, but I use the tools for exactly the same work and personal tasks. In short, for personal computing.
Today's differences
Right now there are plenty of legitimate distinctions between tablets and PCs. First and foremost, tablets have a touch-screen interface rather than the traditional combination of a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. They're smaller and lighter. What they lack in processor power they make up for in battery life. They come with a different operating system that means the vast array of PC applications won't run. And at least in the case of the iPad, they lack the profusion of ports to connect external monitors, digital cameras, wireless network dongles, backup systems, thumb drives, and, yes, heated slippers.
Right now there are plenty of legitimate distinctions between tablets and PCs. First and foremost, tablets have a touch-screen interface rather than the traditional combination of a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. They're smaller and lighter. What they lack in processor power they make up for in battery life. They come with a different operating system that means the vast array of PC applications won't run. And at least in the case of the iPad, they lack the profusion of ports to connect external monitors, digital cameras, wireless network dongles, backup systems, thumb drives, and, yes, heated slippers.
Post-PC devices
Then there's the matter of how people use tablets. There's plenty of overlap--Web browsing, e-mail, social networking, casual games--but there are differences as well. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has ditched his PC for an iPad at work, but most people probably aren't ready to follow him just yet even if conservative corporate IT administrators could be persuaded to make a pretty radical change.
Many routine work chores become harder or impossible on a tablet. Microsoft Office is absent, typing on a virtual keyboard isn't the same, and file storage and transfer is a more complicated matter.
On the flip side, there are things tablets can do that PCs today can't. Games, drawing apps, and other interactive software take on a new direct, physical connection with a large touch screen and an accelerometer that tells a program how a person is moving the tablet around. Watch Apple's demo of iMovie for the iPad to get a feel for how far user interfaces are moving away from WordPerfect 5.1.
In addition, tablets function as book readers much more gracefully than laptops and are significantly more portable. The battery life means they're not nearly as tethered to power sockets. And the instant-on availability means people put off by the hassle of booting a PC might grab a tablet for a mid-conversation search to identify six wives of Henry VIII.
All these new options for tablets lead Gartner to agree with the post-PC idea: "We expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets," said George Shiffler, a Gartner research director, last week.
In other words, to some extent, it's an either-or situation, where tablets replace PCs in some circumstances.
Tomorrow's similarities
To this point, I agree with the "post-PC" idea, too. Smartphones and tablets are qualitatively different from PCs, and they're supplanting PCs to some significant extent both when it comes to purchasing choices and daily usage.
To this point, I agree with the "post-PC" idea, too. Smartphones and tablets are qualitatively different from PCs, and they're supplanting PCs to some significant extent both when it comes to purchasing choices and daily usage.
But when I unleash my imagination and fast-forward a few years, I think the distinction between what we call PCs and tablets will fade.
Let's start with peripherals. Today, you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to your iPad. As I see things shaking out, wireless connections--Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, or something else--also will permit many other devices to be attached. And as tablets adapt to the business world, I predict they'll get ports. Maybe Intel's new Thunderbolt, though doubtless expensive today, will provide a one-port-to-rule-them-all simplicity that will get along better with the sleek tablet world.
Processor power, too, will improve. Certainly very thin and light designs can't accommodate the hot and power-hungry CPUs of high-end or even mid-range PCs today, but the better mobile processors become, the more average computer user's workload they'll be able to handle.
The way I see things shaking out, people will often end up carrying a tablet with them. When necessary, modular keyboards, mice, and large monitors will be linked up to assemble something that would be awfully hard to think of as anything but a PC. Maybe for the laptop crowd, people who don't always have the luxury of a desk to clutter up with assorted accessories, keyboards will snap on or be built into optional covers.
I don't think PCs, as we see them today, will die out. But they'll be relegated to a smaller niche. Laptops have steadily encroached into the mainstream PC world, edging tower and desktop PCs away from the center of the market toward those on a tight budget, gamers, workstation users, and cubicle farm dwellers. Tablets, I think, will do the same thing to today's conventional laptops--push them out to the fringes where people need optical drives or major processor power or aren't willing to pay a premium for lots of flash memory or something slimmer than a pancake.
A continuum of PCs
"It's a shame, almost, that we squandered the term 'personal computer' 30 years ago," lamented the John Gruber of Daring Fireball while swooning over Apple's iPad 2 announcement.
"It's a shame, almost, that we squandered the term 'personal computer' 30 years ago," lamented the John Gruber of Daring Fireball while swooning over Apple's iPad 2 announcement.
Nonsense, I say. "Personal computer" was a perfectly reasonable term then, and the term will be just fine until Ray Kurzweil's singularity arrives and Skynet converts all the humans into smart matter.
A MITS Altair, a TRS-80 Model 4, an Osborne 1, an Apple II, a BBC Micro, a Macintosh SE, a Gateway 486DX2-40, a Power Computing PowerCurve 601/120, an IBM ThinkPad, an Asus eee PC--they're all PCs to me.
There have been some revolutionary shifts over the years, of course. Graphical user interfaces, hard drives, networking, graphics processors, portability, CD-ROM drives, the Internet, Wi-Fi--each of these have profoundly changed what a PC is.
With tablets, we get touch screens, orientation sensitivity, and geolocation.
In the future, maybe we'll get voice control that works, a high-speed, all-purpose optical communications port, biometric identification that rids us of our 450 usernames and passwords, smartphones that beam information to our contact-lens displays, batteries that recharge from the sun or from a glass of whisky, truly reliable and pervasive wireless networking, and nanobots swimming among our neurons so we can download the ability to speak Mandarin Chinese.
Is it personal? Is it computing? Then it's a personal computer.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20039190-264.html#ixzz1G1iBA67I
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