iPhone 4...Shame on Apple

Well the iPhone 4 was released back in June, and since then it has caused an uproar in the smart phone community.  Why?  Well if you haven't heard it has a bit of antenna issue with it's new design.  Antenna issue = signal loss.

At first, the culprit seemed to be AT&T's network that was causing the issue.  However, extensive testing finally revealed that it was in fact the phone antenna that was causing the problem.  The phone would lose signal when it was held in the wrong way (well what Apple deems the wrong way).  The problem with holding like the picture on the left, is that the user was actually gripping the antenna band.  By doing so, the user would inadvertently disrupt the signal to and from the phone, causing dropped calls and very slow speeds.

To remedy this issue Apple had a great idea to give out free cases to everyone who purchased an iPhone 4.  Since the case would fix the issue everyone was happy, similar to how Nintendo gave out free rubber sleeves for their controllers. The problem is that Apple has now decided to stop giving away free cases on September 30th.  So anyone that buys an iPhone after the 30th is boned.  Apple claims that the number of phones that are actually having an issue is far lower than they thought previously.  After hearing this from Apple, I couldn't help but think of the scene in Fight Club, where Edward Norton is talking about how he works for a large car company and explains their recall procedure.

"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

The whole process just reeks of shadiness.  If you make a foul product Apple, and any other company out there, do the right thing and correct it...for free!

So, if you were one of the ones that bought the iPhone4 and have been putting off getting that free case they were offering, you had best get on it because getting one easily is going out the window soon.  Too be fair to Apple, they are still offering the program to get a free case but you are going to have to jump through quite a few hoops to get it.

Best Budget Gaming PC 09/2010

A budget gaming rig is the most common PC that I find myself putting together for customers.  I want to point out that this PC is also a great everyday use computer, as the major difference between the two is a quality graphics card.  So without further adieu, let's begin.

Case:  Antec Three Hundred 

Antec combines size, quality, features and low price to deliver the ultimate gaming case. The smallest of Antec’s “Hundred” series designed for the Do-It-Yourself gamer, it is equipped to deal with the increased heat output of high-performance systems as well as providing a flexible design to best suit your needs. Its overall matt-black finish shows that you – and your system – mean business.

The front panel includes a pair of USB 2.0 inputs as well as jacks for a headphone and microphone. The front bezel is perforated for maximum air intake and it has a washable filter to reduce dust within the system. Inside, are a total of nine drive bays – six 3.5” internal HDD’s and a trio of 5.25” external drives. Seven expansion card slots let you load up on graphic and other options up to – and including – a full height ATX motherboard. A rear-mounted 120mm TriCool fan as well as a top-mounted 140mm TriCool fan – both with 3-speed switch control – draw air through the case.

In addition, there's space for an additional pair of 120mm fans behind the front bezel to cool the HDD’s as well as the option to mount a third 120mm fan on the side of the case to cool the GPU.

Motherboard:  MSI 880GM-E43 AM3 AMD 880G 

Get affordable computing performance with MSI's 880GM-E43 motherboard. Based on AMD 880G chipset, this micro-ATX form-factor board is designed to support the latest AM3 Phenom II including X6, Athlon II and Sempron 100 Series processors. With MSI’s OC Genie and Unlock CPU Core technology, you can easily dig the most potential out of your CPU for extra performance.

Dominate your applications and games with up to 16GB of DDR3 memory fitting into four 240-pin slots with dual channel support and overclock up to 1600MHz for increased performance. The integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 GPU provides adequate 3D and video playback capabilities and if that is not enough for you, simply update your display subsystem with one PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics card. Onboard lossless 24 bit/192kHz HD audio chipset offers top-level audio quality of extra high fidelity.

Five SATA 3Gb/s connectors give you the ability to store massive amounts of data locally with several RAID configurations possible for extra security and high-speed performance. Count on the reliability and stability offered by MSI's 880GM-E43.

Processor:  AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 

 

Save time and accomplish more with multi-core processing that makes multitasking quick and simple. The Athlon II X4 features the next-generation AMD Direct Connect Architecture for a fast, responsive PC. This processor is also optimized to take advantage of the power management features in Windows 7 using AMD PowerNow! 3.0 Technology.

 

Energy efficiency is important to AMD, allowing you to enjoy a cool, quiet PC while saving energy and reducing heat, noise and the effect of your computer on the environment. Energy efficiency innovations include Cool’n’Quiet, AMD CoolCore and AMD Smart fetch. These technologies reduce power consumption and processor activity. You’ll experience up to 50% energy efficiency over previous AMD Athlon II processors.

AMD Athlon II processors also offer support for Virtualization Technology. You can run virtual environments on one system with ease, allowing you to use legacy programs on a separate operating system. Also providing 64-bit support, this processor can handle the most demanding programs with ease.

RAM:  G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 1600 
 

Eliminate data bottlenecks by taking advantage of multi-channel technology and multiplying your memory bandwidth. Ripjaws Series memory is designed specifically to complement Core i7 processors, the P55 Express Chipset and AMD AM3 platform. Optimized for speed, low latency and high stability, Ripjaws Series memory is the perfect solution to faster programs and quicker load times.

 

Heat management is always important for any PC builder and enthusiast. G.SKILL understands this concern, which is why each Ripjaws Series DIMM comes with a stylish comb-like design heat-spreader, which dissipates heat by exposing it to cool air over a greater surface area and will look great in any case. These DIMMs also operate at a cool 1.5V for better internal temperatures and overclocking versatility.

Graphics Card:  SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 

 

ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series graphics processors. Loaded with advanced technology, these GPUs have the power and premium features you need for fully immersive gameplay. Expand your visual real estate across up to three displays and get lost in the action with revolutionary ATI Eyefinity Technology.

 

Hard Drive:  SAMSUNG Spinpoint 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 

Optical Drive: LG SATA Black 24X DVD Burner

   

Power Supply:  CORSAIR 650W ATX12V / EPS12V 

 Okay, it's a power supply. Not much excitement there unless it starts smoking, right? But this one is so cool, it's smokin'! Like the 52 Ampere +12V rail (and there's just the one +12V rail, so you don't have to balance your power needs by hand.). How about the ability to auto-sense your input voltage from 90Vac to 264Vac, 50/60Hz? No more voltage selector switches!

Runs cooler, too, because it can be up to 80% efficient (tested at 20%, 50% and full load), meaning less waste heat from the supply. Compatible with both ATX 2.0 and ATX 2.2 systems, it includes long cables for even full-sized tower installations. Nvidia SLI support. It includes power connections for eight SATA drives. A 120mm variable speed fan with double bearings gives good airflow with minimal noise. Active power factor correction helps deal with inductive loads (drive and fan motors, mostly).


Recap:  Total: $622.00

So this is the build that as of 09/10/10, I like to suggest for people looking for a decent gaming PC.  While a cheaper gaming computer could be built, I don't like to build computers that will be obsolete in a year.   All of the compenents in this build also have great overclocking ability which will also help extend the life of the computer.

LCD vs Plasma

Well since this is a tech blog, I feel like I need to include other things here besides computers.  That being said, expect the majority of the posts on this blog to be focused on computers simply because that's where my passion lies.  But I've had a couple of friends requesting a post describing the difference between LCD and Plasma TVs and which one I suggested.  In addition, TVs make excellent PC displays if you have one available to use.

To answer the question of which I prefer, simply put, it would be neither.  I like them both.  Both Plasma and LCD TVs are great products being offered right now and now that production of both has increased so much, the prices on both have dropped drastically since they were first released.  To start with, let's take a look at how each TV actually works.

Plasmas displays are made up of a bunch of small "plasma" cells that are filled with different gases.  These cells are squished between two glass plates, given an electric charge, some magic (science way above my head involving photons and differing energy levels) happens and you have your picture.

LCDs are a very different technology.  In an LCD, liquid crystals are squished between two polarized panels, light is shone through the panels and crystals and BAM, you have your picture.  The light is usually generated by a cold cathode fluorescent lamp.  LED TVs that you see out now are actually LCD TV just with a different light source.  Changing from a fluorescent lamp to LEDs.

Instead of typing out my own thoughts on here, I'm going to refer you to an excellent article written by an excellent TV reviewer.  I pretty much agree with all of his thoughts, however, I think the quality between the two is even much closer than he thinks.  Follow the rabbit here.  Or here is the link to copy and paste:

http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtv-plasmavslcd.shtml

To sum up what Phil says, both technologies have gotten much closer in the quality picture they offer.  However, Phil still gives the edge to plasma tvs.  Phil states the picture quality, contrast ratios, color accuracy, viewing angles, fast moving action, and value is all better with a plasma TV, especially with larger screen sizes.

My take on this is the average viewer will not be dissatisfied with either LCD or Plasma.  My advice, shop around, find the best deal, and get the best TV you can find for your budget.  You won't be disappointed with either and as time goes on, the quality of each is becoming closer and closer.

Keep It Cool: Laptop Cooling

I was focusing on desktop PCs with the last cooling post (and most of the posts so far) but on this last post about cooling, I received a number of requests for information on laptop cooling.  As one to not disappoint my readers, lets take a brief look at laptop cooling.

Laptops, like desktops, generate a lot of heat.  The problem with laptops is that due to their nature of being smaller than a desktop, everything is packed in so much tighter.  The smaller the case the less room for air to move.  The less room for air to move, the hotter the computer runs.  But fear not!  There are ways to cool your laptop as well.

If you've ever sat with a laptop on your lap, you've noticed that it gets very...very warm.  That's because all of the components of the computer are located in that section that's sitting right on your lap.  So why not just have a fan blow directly on that?  Why not indeed!  The pad to the left is perfect for keeping your laptop a bit cooler.  The large fan in the pad helps pull all that hot air away from your laptop.  And because the fan is so large, it doesn't have to run at a very high RPM to move the air, which means it won't be too loud to use.  If you don't want to spring for a pad with a fan in it, having a laptop stand without a fan is another alternative.  Just having the laptop off a flat surface allows air to move more freely under the laptop which in turn helps keep it cooler.

One thing to note, if you do have a high powered gaming laptop, chances are it already has a built in bottom exhaust built into the chassis. Using the laptop cooler with the fan may hamper this from working properly so it would be best to just stick with a laptop stand in those instances.

There are also fans that fit into a PCMCIA slot on laptops if you have them.  These will also help draw out hot air from the laptop.  The only problem is if you are already using that slot, you'll obviously not have room for the fan.

Aside from these, there aren't too many other options available for keeping your laptop cooled that are within reason.  You could only use your laptop inside a walk-in freezer.  Me, I'll buy a fan. 

Keep it Cool!

Real photo of a PC exploding

It just got into the 90's in my house again this week.  Being a *cough* larger fellow myself, I find these temperatures less than ideal.  About this time each year, I find myself ready to say goodbye to the summer heat and hello to the cooler fall weather.  So sitting here, sweating bullets, I figured I'd write an article on cooling your computer.  How it's done and why it's important. We all know what happens when your car overheats.  Your computer acts the same way.  Too much heat and KABOOM!  Well no...it won't blow up on you (disclaimer:If your computer has or is going to blow up on you, I'm sorry, and let me know right away and I'll edit this) but your computer could shut down repeatedly, or worse yet, fry something.  So cooling in a computer is crucial to say the least.

As with most electronics, computers generate heat.  A lot of heat.  If you've ever been in a computer lab, filled with 50+ computers as well as a class equal in size, you would have certainly noticed the temperature in the classroom slowly rising.  So how do we combat this heat generated by computer components?  By using the many options available to us to keep it cool inside our computer cases.

We'll take a look at a couple of different cooling methods in this article but I want to stress one thing right off the bat; keep your case clean.  Now I'm not talking about breaking out the soap and water here, but a good blow out of all the dust, twice a year, would be a good thing.  Even more if you have your case sitting directly on the ground.  Dust in a case can act as insulation on your components and trap heat in close to them.  Enough of a build up of dust can also restrict air flow throughout the case.  I've seen so much dust in some computers that it has actually clogged the fans in the case and stopped them from moving.   Yuck!  You wouldn't let your house get that dirty, so for the sake of your computer, don't let your case get that dirty.

120mm Case fan

This brings us to our first and most popular method of cooling, fans!  Ah good old air cooling.  Air cooling is by far the most common method of cooling that is found in computers today.  You have fans for your CPU.  Fans for your GPU.  Fans for your RAM.  Even fans for your hard drives.  Fans can be found strewn throughout many cases and in most instances, do an outstanding job of keeping all the computer parts cool. 

Fans in a computer are measured in millimeters (mm) and can range in size from 25mm to 250mm; with the most common sizes being 80mm and 120mm case fans.   Case fans are designed to pull cool air from outside the case in, and blow all the hot air out.  

CPU fan with heatsink

There are also fans designed specifically for your CPU and GPU as well.  These fans usually work in conjunction with some sort of heatsink made out of copper of aluminum to dissipate heat from the component it's attached to.

Similarly, hard drive and RAM fans are positioned near each component and pull hot air from them.  These two are usually reserved for enthusiasts that are looking to overclock (make it run faster/hotter to increase performance) their computer.

While air cooling is perfect for, I'll say, 98% of the population out there, there are other options available for cooling.  These next two are aimed at the person that will probably be overclocking (we'll have a post on this later as well so don't worry), and as such are a bit more expensive but certainly do a great job of cooling a computer system.

Water cooling is a favorite method of cooling among PC enthusiasts and those wanting to supercharge their computers.  Water cooling in a computer is almost exactly the same as the water cooling in a vehicle, except on a smaller scale.  You have a water pump, a radiator, coolant, a reservoir, and piping to run the coolant to and from computer components and back to the radiator.

CPU waterblock

Liquid cooling can be used to cool many different components of a computer, with the most popular being the CPU and the GPU. The coolant runs through the pipes to a waterblock that is attached to the CPU or the GPU.  The constant flow of cool water over the waterblock, removes the heat from the component very quickly.  Liquid cooling, on average, can lower temperatures of a component around 20 degrees Celsius compared to a standard air cooled system. 

Modern CPUs have a max heat threshold of around 100C.  Under normal use, a CPU being air cooled will run around 50C-70C.  Toss a waterblock on there with a good liquid cooling system, and you're looking at knocking near 20C off that temperature.  Once you have that temperature lowered, you can overclock your components drastically without fear.

The last type of cooling I'm going to touch on briefly is phase cooling.  Phase cooling is pretty much what is going on inside of your refrigerator.  You have a compressor in the computer that compresses gases into a liquid form.  That liquid is this pumped to the CPU/GPU and while there it evaporates and absorbs the heat from the component as it passes by.  It then returns to the compressor again where it is cooled back to a liquid form.  Temperatures using phase cooling can reach anywhere from -10C to -100C, depending on the setup.

So let's recap by looking at the pros and cons of each type of cooling we talked about.

Air Cooling: 

  -Cheap, effective or normal machines, easy to setup and install
  -Can be loud, highest temperatures out of the 3

Liquid Cooling:

  -Can be quieter than air cooling, achieve very good cooling temps for overclocking
  -More expensive that air cooling, can leak, can be tricky setting up

Phase Cooling:

  -Lowest temperatures out of the 3 discussed by far!
  -Very loud, very expensive!


So that sums up some basics of cooling.  I hope the one thing you take away from this article is that it is very important to keep your computer cool.  If all that you do after reading this is think about blowing out your computer that has been tucked away in your desk for the past 2 years, then I've succeeded.  :)  Again if you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.  Stay uber my friends!

Computers 101: Recap

Well we finally finished our Computers 101 session.  Hopefully you guys were able to take something from those posts that you didn't know before.  As I said at the end of most of the posts, there was a lot more information that we could have talked about but we would have been on each topic for such a long time.  As each comes up though in future posts I'm sure we'll be able to dig into even more detail on each. 

What we covered:

1. CPU - The brain of the PC.  Takes instructions from programs and executes  them.

2. Motherboard - Houses many components of a PC and allows them to communicate with each other.

3. RAM - Random Access Memory.  Very fast storage that can be accessed quickly by the CPU.

4. Hard Drives - Primary storage for all your programs, pictures, songs, etc.

5. Graphics Card - Houses the hardware (GPU, RAM) that is needed to render and display your images.

While  there are other components that can be in a computer, these are the basics that are needed to make a PC.  You can have additional components like sound cards (to improve sound quality), video capture cards (to capture TV and record it on the hard drive), and optical drives (to read/write from/to cds and dvds).  Half the fun of building a personalized computer is making it custom for whatever you are going to be using it for.

Well this wraps up Computers 101.  As always if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me a message.  Thanks for reading and make sure to keep checking back for new updates and information.  Stay uber my friends!

Computers 101: Graphics Card

Graphics cards, also known as video cards, house the hardware needed to get all those nice images that your computer produces to display on your monitor.  Graphics cards connect to your computer through the motherboard, on one of the expansion slots.  On modern graphics cards and motherboards, this is a PCI Express 2.0 slot.

The main function of graphics cards are to render 2D and 3D graphics that are sent to it from the CPU and then display it.  Your program/game that you are running, sends information from the program to the CPU and requests an image be displayed on your monitor.  The CPU forwards that information, which is still in binary at this time, to the graphics card and requests an image be rendered out of that binary data it was given.  Let's make the image a 3D image that is being requested as this is where the graphics card shines. 

The graphics card takes the data it receives and first, creates a bunch of straight lines with the data.  The straight lines are then formed into a wire frame that resembles the image. 

From there, the graphics card then fills in the missing pixels through a process called rasterization.  After the wire frame has it's "skin" put on it, other effects are added to the image.

These effects include color, lighting, and textures.  We won't delve into great detail about all the different effects but they are all very cool and add a lot to the image.  All of this rendering and effects must be done very quickly, especially when playing a game, and requires a lot of computing power.  If not for the addition of the graphics card, this strain would be put on the CPU alone and would be impossible for it to handle. 

So what makes up these awesome rendering components that bring us such joy?  Let's take a look.

A graphics card is very similar to an entire computer in and of itself.  It has it's own graphics processing unit (GPU) and it's own memory (RAM) which is mounted on a circuit board.  It also has it's own BIOS which controls many aspects of the card and governs how the other components interact with the graphics card.

The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is similar to a CPU in that it is also a microprocessor.  The difference being that GPU is specifically used to handle floating point calculations (mathematical and geometric calculations) that are associated with graphics processing.  ATI (owned by AMD) and nVidia are the two main producers of GPUs today.  The main attributes of the GPU are the core clock frequency, which is measured in MHz and GHz and the number of pipelines, which translate a 3D image characterized by vertexes and lines in the graphics card into a 2D image on your screen formed by pixels.  As with most things computer related the higher the MHz/GHz and the higher the number of pipelines, the faster the graphics card.  On most motherboards there is also an integrated GPU.  While these are usually fine for normal computer use, ithere is to be any type of 3D rendering done at all, a dedicated graphics card is advised.

The GPU creates the images that are sent to it by the CPU and needs some place to store the data until it displays it to the screen.  This is where the RAM on the graphics card comes in.  The GPU stores the information about each pixel of the image and where it will be displayed on the screen in this RAM on the graphics card.  This RAM is very similar to the RAM in your computer in the fact that it is very fast and data can be written to and read from the RAM at the same time.   After the image is stored, it is ready to be displayed.

Most graphics cards today have 2 outputs on them.  A VGA output for analog signal and a DVI output for a digital signal.  If you are using a VGA monitor (the big, heavy, old CRT monitors) the data from the RAM will be sent to a RAMDAC which converts the digital data in the graphics card to an analog signal so it can be displayed on the monitor.  Modern monitors/TVs use a digital display, so the conversion is not needed and a higher quality image is maintained.

The future of the graphics card and the GPU is a bright one...and that's an understatement.  For decades, gaming has been the main power for the entire computer industry and as such, the GPU has been very important in fueling the gaming industry.  Advances in the GPUs power has allowed newer and more beautiful games to be developed.  As games became more and more detailed, more powerful computers were needed to keep up.  The GPU became a very powerful player the the entire scheme of a computer but the CPU was always there as the most important part of a computer as it handled the majority of all processing done by the computer.  This is starting to change.

Both ATI and nVidia since 2008 have been pushing their technologies that utilize the GPU for much more than just graphic processing.  ATI with their Fusion technology and nVidia with their CUDA technology are making a movement for the GPU to handle more and more of the CPUs workload when the demand for graphic processing is low. 

This has actually started a bit of a rift between nVidia as a GPU developer and Intel as a CPU developer as they appear to be starting to move in on each other's turf.  Who knew computers could be so violent?!

This wraps up the Computers 101 session.  I'll have a short recap post in the next few days.  Hopefully you've learned a little bit about computers while reading over this.  Now the blog takes a turn towards some more recent and updated topics.  Stay tuned for all your tech needs and again if you have any questions at all, make sure you ask away!  Until next time, stay uber my friends.

Computers 101: HDDs

Hard disk drives, or hard drives from here on out, are another component that people are very familiar with when looking at and comparing computers.  Hard drives have grown in size and speed through the years, as with all computer components. 

The first hard drive was created by IBM and stored approximately 4.4MB and ran at 1200RPM.  Today, common hard drive sizes range from 320GB up to 2 TB.

Let's talk a bit about hard drive sizes before we get too confused with all these MBs, GBs, and TBs floating around.  MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), and TB (terabyte) are the most common capacity quotes that you'll see.   A byte is a collection of bits and a unit of digital information.  The prefixes mega, giga,  and tera are based in the decimal system and on units of 10.  So a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes, gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes, so on and so forth. 

Using these decimal based prefixes has caused some confusion among some consumers, and rightly so.  I can't tell you how many times I've been asked by people I build computers for why their 500GB hard drive only shows up as a 460GB hard drive in Windows.  The reason is aggravating at times but fairly simple to explain.   Basically, the hard drive manufacturers used the decimal based prefixes which is based on a unit of 10.  Many software developers decided to use the binary prefixes which are based on a scale of 2.  For example, a kilobyte (decimal) is 1000 bytes while a kibibyte (binary) is actually 1024 bytes.  While looking only at kilobytes there isn't but a 24 byte difference, however, once you get up to the gigabyte range, the difference becomes much more noticeable; hence the discrepancies in hard drive size advertised and seen when installed in your computer.  The image below shows how quickly the discrepancy between decimal and binary units grows as the capacity of the hard drive increases.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's take a look at what a hard drive actually is.  A hard drive functions as the primary mass storage of a computer.  Unlike the RAM we covered last week, a hard drive is non-volatile, meaning that when it is not powered, it does not lose its data. 

Hard drives record data by magnetizing a platter inside the hard drive that spins at a predetermined RPM.  The data is either made a 1 or a 0 on the platter.  The data is then read by read-and-write heads that are on an arm which spans the platter, similar to an old record player.  All of those stored 1s and 0s make of up data on your hard drive.  Those 1s and 0s are the makeup for your favorite games, term papers, and all those pictures you have saved.  Everything on your hard drive is stored in this manner and each 1 and 0 represents something, or better yet, a small part of something.  This is called binary and is something we might touch on down the line.  Boring stuff to be honest so we'll move right along.

There are a few different types of forms that hard drives come in.  Different shapes and sizes depending on where you are using them.  The common desktop hard drive is 3.5" while laptop hard drives are 2.5".  Obviously the laptop hard drives have to be a bit smaller to fit into the smaller cases of the laptop themselves.  Desktop hard drives also normally spin at 7200RPM while laptop drives stay around 5400RPM.  While there are faster drives available for both, these are the standards for most that are used today.  The higher the RPM, the faster the hard drive can read and transfer data to the disk buffer.

The disk buffer is a small amount of memory that is built into a hard drive.  This buffer is usually around 4 to 32MB in size (remember that SRAM we talked about).  How it works is the platter will spin at the set RPM and transfer the data requested by you to the buffer through the read/write heads.  The buffer in turn will release the data to the computer through an interface connected to the host adapter.  The buffer is important because it lets the read/write heads and the interface work at full speed to move the data as quickly as possible.

As stated, hard drives connect to the computer through the host adapter on the motherboard.  There are several types of interfaces for this with PATA (IDE), SATA, and USB interfaces being the most popular today in PCs.  To be honest, IDE is out the door and not used at all when building a new computer today.  The only time I run into an IDE interface is when I'm transferring data from someones older computer to their new one or using an older hard drive as storage on a new computer.

PATA's max buffer to computer transfer rate topped out at 133MB/s (megabytes per second).  When compared to SATA's max buffer to computer transfer rate of 6GBit's (600MB/s), it's easy to see why PATA has gone by the wayside.  USB is commonly used for external hard drive connections and with the advent of USB 3.0, it has a respectable speed of 400MB/s.   Another cool thing about SATA and USB is that both interfaces allow hot-swapping.  This means that you can actually plug in and unplug a drive without having to shut down the system.  Very handy, as it would be terrible if every time you wanted to plug in your USB drive you had to restart your computer.

One of the disadvantages of a hard drive is all of the moving parts inside.  You have a rather large platter spinning pretty darn quickly at 7200RPM and arms moving all over and around to get the read/write heads to the proper location to read the information.  All of this movement is very loud, very hot, and very susceptible to breaking down and crashing.  Enter solid state hard drives.

Notice all the parts on of the HDD on the left and the clean order of the SSD with no moving parts on the right.

Solid state drives (SSD) unlike traditional hard drives, have no moving parts and use microchips to transfer data to and from your computer.  SSD have actually been around for quite a while already.  You may have one and not even know it.  Do you own an ipod, iphone or other flash based memory?  Then you have a type of SSD right at your finger tips.

While SSD are the future do to their efficiency and faster speeds, their price still prohibits them from claiming the market.  But as with all things computer related, it's just a matter of time.  Give it 3-5 years, and we'll be talking about HDD going by the wayside.

Well this concludes our hard drive discussion.  Hopefully you've learned something from reading this and aren't too confused.  If you have any questions or comments, as always feel free to leave me a message.  Until next time, take care!