SLI and CrossFire Support Definition

When a video card has SLI or CrossFire support, more than one video card can be used in the same computer. Using multiple Nvidia video cards is referred to as SLI or "Scalable Link Interface". Using multiple AMD video cards is referred to as "CrossFire". This can greatly increase performance if the program being used supports SLI or CrossFire. Otherwise performance may even become worse.

This is convenient because a computer can be built with one video card at first and still have room to upgrade without getting rid of your old card. Using two of Nvidia's card usually requires the cards to be the same model with a few exceptions. AMD, on the other hand, allows a little more flexibility as long as the first two numbers in the card's name are the same. This means that a Radeon HD 7870 can be paired up with a 7850 but not a 7750. This chart at Tom's hardware explains more about what cards can be paired together.

Check beforehand whether your motherboard supports SLI or CrossFire. Your power supply may also need to support SLI or CrossFire when pairing some of the higher end cards.

Video Card - Memory Type Definiton

Video cards use different versions of dedicated memory. GDDR5 (Graphics Double Data RAM version 5) is commonly used on most modern video cards. Newer versions have greater bandwidth and faster speeds allowing for better performance.

Note: The video card's memory type is completely independent from the motherboard's memory type and doesn't have to be the same.

Hyperthreading Definition

Hyperthreading is a technique used by Intel to help with multitasking. It makes every physical core act as two logical cores or "threads". This means that a dual core will have four threads and a quad core will have eight total. Every thread is good at doing its own task. How does the CPU accomplish this? It does this by making certain parts of the CPU work more often that would normally be underutilized. This can nearly double performance in highly optimized situations. More realistically though, it only improves performance marginally.

Integrated Memory Controller Definition

An integrated memory controller helps manage data coming from the RAM. This often comes as dual or triple channel. Using triple channel adds an extra bus that allows for faster data transfers. The integrated memory controller is rated to run at specific speeds in MHz. It is possible to benefit from RAM that runs faster than the memory controller's speed if the motherboard supports higher speeds. However, the performance increases may diminish rapidly or perform worse.

Multi-Core Definition

Multi-Core CPU's have multiple processors in them. Most CPU's come with either 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 cores. All the cores will run at the same speed. This means that if you have a quad core that runs at 3.3GHz, you will have four processors all running at 3.3GHz. Having more cores helps a lot with handling multiple tasks at one time. Some programs or games are built to fully utilize multi-core processors. Otherwise the other cores will remain idle with little or nothing to do.

Manufacturing Tech Definition

Manufacturing tech is the die size of the CPU. This is usually measured in nanometers or nm. A CPU with a smaller die size will perform better per gigahert and use less energy.

Cache Definition

Cache is very fast memory that is located in the processor chip. Cache is located in three levels: L1 being the fastest, L2 and L3 being the slowest.

• L1 is usually located on the processor die itself but is limited in the amount of space that can be used.
• L2 is more cost effective but a little slower because it is farther out from the processor die. 
• L3 can be located either on the CPU chip or the motherboard and is larger than L2 cache.

Operating Frequency Definition

Operating frequency is the clock rate or speed of a CPU. This largely affects the performance of a computer. Operating frequencies are usually measured in gigahertz or GHz.

Chassis Definition

A chassis is the case of a computer. They can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. A chassis also helps a lot with cooling the components inside it. Click here for more information about chassis.

Optical Drive Definition

Optical drives use laser lights to read or write to disks. CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives are very common examples of optical drives. Click here for more information about optical drives.

Power Supply Definition

A power supply is the component in a computer that converts the electrical AC current to a DC current that the computer can use. The wattage of a power supply and the cords coming from it will help determine what components a computer can use. Click here for more information about power supplies.

Hard Drive or Solid State Drive Definition

Hard drives and solid state drives are responsible for storing all the information for a computer even when the power is turned off. Hard drives are cheaper and generally have much more space. Solid state drives run much faster but are significantly more expensive. Click here for more information about hard drives. Click here for more information about solid state drives.

Motherboard Definition

A motherboard or mainboard allows all other components to communicate. The ports it has will determine what you can upgrade your computer with. It is large circuit board that is mounted to the side of the case. Click here for more information about mother boards.

RAM Definition

RAM stands for random access memory. RAM is much faster than hard drives. Whenever anything gets loaded, it goes from the hard drive to the RAM. This is what happens when you start up your computer. Once something is loaded to the RAM, it runs much more smoothly. RAM is volatile memory or cannot save information permanently when the power is shut down. Once you shut down your computer, the RAM's information will be wiped and will need to be reloaded when you start your computer again. Click here for more information.

CPU Definition

A CPU is the central processing unit. It does the most critical thinking for the computer. This workload can be divided between a number of "cores". A CPU's speed is measured in gigahertz or GHz. Click here for a more in depth explanation of a CPU.

What is a Solid State Drive?

A solid state drive or SSD is the latest technology for storing information on your computer. But what's so great about it verses a hard drive? The best thing about SSD's are their insanely fast read and write speeds. SSD's can read at speeds as fast as 500MB/s! The average hard drive will only read around 70~130MB/s. That is a huge difference.

Not only that, but SSD's take almost no time accessing information. Conventional platter drives have to move physical parts to where the information is. This creates a lot of wasted time.

Because SSD's don't have physical parts to move, there's no reason to defragment your drive anymore! The purpose of defragmenting was keep all the information on your computer nice and organized so the hard drive wouldn't have to move around needlessly. SSD's can seamlessly find whatever information they need no matter how defragmented they may be!

Now for the downside...
Because SSD's are relatively new, they cost a lot of money per gigabyte. $200 will only get you around 128GB's with a SSD. With that kind of money, you can buy a hard drive with several TB's! The best way to deal with this is to buy a hard drive along with a SSD. You would install the things you use a lot, like the operating system, on the SSD. Everything else would be stored on the hard drive. This way, you get the best of both worlds.

How to Find a Good Video Card

It's insane how fast computers have become at doing 3D graphics! With things constantly changing, how to you know what the best graphics card is? In this post, we'll explain what a graphics card is and how to choose one that best suits your needs.

First of all, a video card doesn't just for video games. It's there to help with just about anything you see on your screen. It's also referred to as a graphics card because it's responsible for all the graphical interface. This makes it very important for a computer to function smoothly. Video cards can be either embedded into your motherboard or CPU or you may need to buy one separately. Buying a video card separately usually gives the best performance. It can easily be inserted into a PCI Express x16 slot. This slot is standard in modern motherboards.

The two main competitors for making video cards are Nvidia and AMD (Previously know as ATI until AMD bought it out). Both of these companies make quality cards that I would recommend. Nvidia is known for it's Gforce series while AMD is know for its Radeon series.

There's no set way to measure how well a card performs except by doing benchmarks. Benchmarks can be biased toward one brand over another so it's important to do a lot of them. Thankfully, web sites like Tom's Hardware have done most of the work for us. They'll test a large amounts of cards doing popular games at various settings. This will help you get a well rounded idea as to where a card's strengths or weaknesses are. Tom's Hardware does a great job at keeping up with the latest technology.

So what's the right price point when buying a video card? With any series the cards will cost about $20 to $30 on the low end and about $500+ on the high end. I like spending around $200 for my cards. This range can normally do any game on max or almost max settings. There's no point to buying a card from last year's series. The newer cards will be built with smaller process that cost less money. This means that you will get something that performs better and has the most current technology for the same amount of money.

With each new series, the cards usually improve their Direct X technology. This greatly effects how nice games look. A lot of games for PC that were released around the XBox 360/Wii/PS3 generation will use DX9. This introduced major improvements with visuals and lighting. DX10 only offered minor performance increases for the most part. DX11 is the most current version. It's biggest feature is tessellation. Tessellation uses advanced algorithms to duplicate polygons. This opens up possibilities for super detailed environments. For example, it can make every shingle become fully three dimensional instead of just a texture. Keep in mind that your video card will stay at whatever Direct X level it is currently at. The only way to upgrade it is to buy a new video card.

On top of improving their Direct X levels, video cards have also been improving their data transfer rates. Over the years, new versions of pci express x16 have become available. The most recent version is PCI express 3.0 which allows up to 8 gigatransfers per second whereas its predecessor, PCI express 2.0, was only capable of 5 gigatransfers. Each version of PCI express is compatible with previous video cards. Try to keep the versions of PCI express at the same level between your video card and motherboard to get the best performance.

You also want to be sure that your power supply is capable of handling your video card. If you have smaller card, your motherboard will be able to supply enough power to it. Higher end cards need a little more juice. These cards will have one or two power cords running directly from the power supply to the video card. The video card will say how big of a power supply it will need.