Ask A Geek

Q: I am thinking about buying a new computer. I will be using this computer for Home Use, Microsoft Office Software Applications, Internet and Games with Windows XP Professional.

I know I want to stick with an Intel processor, Intel (or compatible) motherboard, 2 or 3 PCI Express expansion slots, at least 2GB of RAM, SATA hard drive, at least 4 USB (2.0) and a 512 MB ATI or Nvidia video card.

I was hoping to be able to order these parts off of newegg.com and assemble the computer myself. However, when I started looking at parts I discovered that I have been out of the loop of computers for a little too long and some questions popped up. As a result, I need to get some advise from someone that has been in the loop on the changes and current trends in the computer world.

The questions I have are:

1) Currently, what are/is a good chipset for Core 2 Duo Intel processor(s)?

2) Will I need Hardware Virtualization Support?

3) With current trends, is it best to go ahead and go for DDR3 memory module or go with a DDR2?

4) Is there anything else that you can think of on changes in the computer world that I need to be aware of? I have been out of the loop since like 2004.

Q: How can I change an HP laptop from 64 bit to 32 bit?

Q: I have a Toshiba Equium L100 and I was just wondering if it was possible to replace the processor inside with one from my Dell D600.

Q: What is the difference between an Intel core duo and an Intel core 2 duo?

Q: I am getting a new computer and will be using it primarily for gaming. Should I go with a 2.4GHz Quad Core processor or a 3.0GHz Dual Core?

A: When it comes to video gaming, processor speed is one of the most important factors. Most video games right now are not built to take advantage of multiple processors or multiple cores in a processor so the number of processors or cores really is not a major factor. You should be more worried about cores when you do multiple things at a time not when you are planning on putting all your computers energy into one task.

So I would say go with the 3.0GHz Dual Core processor. This will allow your computer to do all the background processing tasks on one core while your game can run quickly on the other core at a faster clock speed.

Q: My home computer says it has 1.40GHz and 248 MB of RAM. My soon to be new laptop has Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 (1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache) and 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz and Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM). My question is this, does my laptop have more space than my home computer (which I think is 5 years old, or so) I think I already can figure out the answer, but how MUCH better is it?

A: You actually did not give us the size of the hard drive on your desktop computer so lets break down what the numbers that you gave us are and then discuss how we can go about finding out how large your hard drive is. From there we will talk about how much better it is.

As of now when you see a GHz number you can assume that it is the speed of the processor. The processor is what does all the number crunching so the faster your processor the more work that can be done. In this case we do not know what kind of processor is in your desktop computer but we do know that it is 1.40 GHz and that it is about 5 years old. This tells us that it is probably a single core processor. I recently wrote an answer “Processor Speed Is Not The Only Thing To Look At” that will give you more in depth information about that. So the conclusion we come to is that your new processor can probably do significantly more work than your old processor.

When you see an MB number or a small GB number (meaning less than 4) we are probably talking about RAM. RAM stands for Random Access Memory and it is where your computer stores information it is using or will be using. RAM is multiple times faster than pulling information from the hard drive so your computer will figure out what it needs, pull it off the hard drive, and put it in RAM. The more RAM you have the more information your computer can get at faster and the faster your computer will run because it wont have to wait to pull things off the hard drive. In this case it looks like you have four times as much RAM on your laptop as you did on your desktop. This alone will make your laptop faster than your desktop. With that said, if you are going to continue to use your desktop you might want to consider upgrading it to at least 512MB of ram or even 1GB of ram as that upgrade would help your desktop come to life.

The larger GB number, usually anything over 8, is the hard drive. In this case your laptop has a 250GB hard drive. The size of the hard drive has nothing to do with how fast your computer will run, it just tells you how much data you can store on your computer. So the difference between your desktop and your laptop is not a big deal but you did want to know so here is how you figure out how much data your desktop computer can hold.

If you are running Windows you will want to get to My Computer, depending on the version of windows you are running it will either be on your desktop or you can find it by going to Start. Once you are there you will want to find the Hard Disk Drives header and then right click on the drive that most likely says Local Disk (C:). A menu will appear and you will want to select Properties. This will bring up a new window and in the window you will see a pie graph appear and above the pie graph is the key explaining how to read the pie graph but directly above the pie graph you should see Capacity and that will tell you how large your hard drive is.

If you are running Mac OS X you will want to right click on your Macintosh HD, if you did not rename it, and select Get Info. A new window will appear and in it you will see a few different headers. You want to look for the General header and under it you want to look at the Capacity number. This will tell you how much data your hard drive can store. The number below it, Available, will tell you how much room you have left and the number below that, Used, will tell you how much you have used.

The laptop seems like it is more up to date than your desktop and considerably more powerful. So congratulations on the new computer we hope you enjoy it.

Q: Is a 1.15 GHz processor a downgrade from a 2.08 GHz processor?

A: In terms of speed yes a 1.15 GHz processor would be a downgrade from a 2.08 GHz processor. You need to make sure you are comparing the same processors though because if you are not the GHz really does not mean much. I am going to assume you are comparing the same if not similar possessors though because if you were not comparing similar ones then the process of going from one processor to another would probably require that you change motherboards.

However, if you were not comparing similar processors then you need to compare more items than just speed. You would want to look at things like how many bits the processor can process at once. Most processors are still 32bits but 64 bits are becoming more and more common and it just means that the processor can deal with more data at the same time.

Another thing that is becoming more common is for processors to have multiple cores. This is like having 2 or 4 processors in one and really helps when you multi task a lot i.e. checking your email, browsing the web, looking at photos, and listening to music.

Hopefully this gives you some idea of the other things you would want to look at besides just the speed of the processor when trying to compare processors so you can get a better idea what processor is best for you.