Windows: It Hungers for RAM
Posted by admin on Dec 16, 2007
Everyone knows that PCs sold today have more RAM than they did in the olden days. The question is, why? Applications grow hungrier and RAM prices keep falling, of course, but operating system bloat is the biggest reason. A review of systems that PC World Test Centrehas evaluated since 1999 reveals that the average RAM provision has grown from 96MB to about 2GB, spiking whenever Microsoft releases a new version of Windows. For example, when Windows XP machines started appearing, system RAM increased, on average, from about 128MB to more than 256MB. When Windows Vista started shipping, our test PC’s RAM jumped from slightly more than 1GB to about 2GB. Windows’ minimum system requirements ballooned from 16MB to 1GB over the same period. So when you are ready to upgrade your PC and your OS, you can assume that you’ll need substantially more RAM.
written by Alan Stafford of PC World Magazine
Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Posted by admin on Dec 16, 2007
The first service pack for Windows Vista will not be released until early in 2008, but from what we can see, the update is more about stability and security than performance.
Many alterations will not be obvious to the regular user. In fact, you probably will not notice any interface changes at all. The main improvements focus on performance and reliability when reactiviating a machine from the Hibernate and Suspend modes. There will also be enhanced driver support (thank you!), and increased security. Read the rest of this entry »
Who cares about quad-core?
Posted by admin on Dec 13, 2007
Taken from an article by Robert Dutt in CRN Magazine (www.crncanada.ca)
It can be easy with technology to get lost in feeds and speeds, or to ask oneself just what the latest addition of megahertz to a processor mean in the real world. Put simply – quad-core is great, but really – who cares if their processor has one core, or two, or four?
“It’s like eight processors of pur love”, said Jason Pohl, head designer or Orange County Chopper. “This is the first time I’ve had a workstation that can keep up with me. There’s no more waiting for my computer, it’s more an extension of my left and right arms.’ Read the rest of this entry »
