Nov 08 2008
This is probably one of our most popular laptops. Why? Well, it just has everything that is necessary for a computer without having all of the extra bits that make it phenomenally expensive. Continue reading “Compaq A931NR Laptop @ $1099″
Nov 07 2008
CPU also known as Processor
This acronym stands for Central Processing Unit (or Processor, for short) and refers to the ’brain’ or the ‘engine’ that drives your computer. For a general user this is the most confusing and most difficult thing to understand about computers because there is hundreds of variables that make up a processor, from Clock Speed to Cache to Processor numbers, Manufacturers, Branding and so on. But i am going to make this as straight forward as possible and we are going to start with:
Clock Speed:
This refers (today) to a term called Gigahertz (shortened to GHz) and if you are up on your Greek then you will know this means 1Billion Hertz (Giga… Hertz). Now when they make these processors they come in forms of 1.66GHz, 3.4GHz etc. Now obviously just like anything else in the world, the more of these Gigahertz the faster, right? No. So the lower the number the faster? No. It used to be the case, the higher the number, the faster. It was easy, if you had a 3GHz processor, it was going to be faster than a 2.66GHz processor. But one day the manufacturers of these processors realised that they got to a point where it is nearly impossible to make these chips any faster with restrictions on heat and the die size of the processor. So what they did was make core’s.
Core’s:
Well thankfully these are quite easy to understand, having multiple cores is like ‘virtually’ having multiple processors, the more cores you have the faster your computer will process information. For example if you have a dual core 2.0GHz this is ‘virtually’ equal to 4.0GHz (2×2.0GHz) . And YES this absolutely means your computer will be running faster. Currently, processors come in 1,2,3 and 4 core’s. Most laptops are in dual core, in fact our website ONLY sells dual core laptops. The computer i am using to write this article has 8 cores, but this is technically 2 processors with 4 cores. Then when you start having lots of core’s you need to have a heap of cache.
Cache:(pronounced “Kay Shhh”) While this is not fundamental when purchasing a laptop it is when purchasing a desktop. The more cache your processor has the more information it can munch away at once. Basically the easiest way to explain cache is it is like a hose. The bigger the hose the more water you can get out at once. For example a garden hose can only push out a a little amount of water, no matter the pressure, but a fire hydrant can push out close to 50x the amount of a garden hose. So even if you had a whole bunch of core’s, if your ‘hose’ isn’t big enough it will well… choke.
Then there are our series of processors from various manufacturers and are rated as such.
Intel make:
Intel Celeron (Extremely Basic, honestly i would not recommend this technology to anyone)
Intel Pentium Dual Core (Good, Has dual core processing, decent speed and is pretty good)
Intel Core 2 Duo (What to aim for, excellent speed, dual core, good cache, overall is excellent)
Intel Atom (This is a very slow scaled down processor, but is made for very small computers, great for net books, and highly scaled down PCs)
Intel Xeon (These are extremely high end, designed for professional workstations and servers, have up to 4 core’s per processor, can be tiered up to 16 core’s per server!)
Contrary to popular belief, Centrino and Centrino 2 are NOT processors
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) make:
AMD Athlon (Good. Contrary to popular belief, these are faster than a Turion processor, but are hopeless for power saving)
AMD Turion (In the faster speeds these are a great processor, especially for battery consumption, would be my pick, are also great value for money)
AMD Phenom (These are only in desktop PCs, are extremely fast, have multiple cores, up to 4)
AMD Opteron (Only in high end workstations and servers, have up to 4 core’s per processor, can be tiered up to 32 core’s per server!)
So basically if you are buying a new computer or laptop i would recommend:
Budget:Intel Pentium Dual Core, AMD Athlon or AMD Turion processor. All are great value for money and represent great speed and capability.
Premium: Intel Core 2 Duo. This is probably the most well designed processor on the market, great battery consumption, great speed, but unfortunately comes with a pretty high price tag, especially in the faster speed models.
Nov 06 2008
Today i am launching this blog dedicated to news and reviews of Logical Blue One. Here you will find reviews of products, laptop industry related news, photo’s, link’s, video’s, tutorials and basically anything that is based on mobile computing.
Customers if you want to write a review on a product you have bought from our website i urge you to create an account and go for it.
Otherwise stay tuned and i will be posting topics as soon as possible.
