Blog Archives

• Taking the plunge with a new PC

  Posted on June 3rd, 2019 at 02:20 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Buying a new PC was once a fairly simple shop-and-buy process. There wasn’t much to consider beyond memory and drive capacity — and maybe an upgraded video card.

  But recent innovations have made choosing a new machine more complicated. Intel’s Optane technology, for example, claims to make a hard drive as responsive as an SSD!

  See the full story in the June 3, 2019, AskWoody Plus Newsletter (Issue 16.20.0)

  Hardware, LangaList, Tech Help AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Buying PCs, hardware, LangaList, Windows

• The Best Cheap Video Cards

  Posted on May 21st, 2009 at 08:56 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  As I’ve described in my Windows Secrets Newsletter articles, there are two obstacles to turning a fairly-recent Windows XP machine into a Windows 7 powerhouse: memory and video cards.

  If you’re contemplating changing your WinXP or Vista PC over to Windows 7, start by running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. That will tell you immediately if you have a show-stopper problem: no Windows 7 driver for a specific piece of hardware, for example, or no Windows 7 support for your favorite program.

  Based on experience with more than a dozen old Windows XP machines, if your PC passes Upgrade Advisor muster, you should also make two hardware changes: bring your memory up to 1 GB; and install a decent video card. Memory’s cheap. So are good video cards.

  Joel Durham at ExtremeTech just posted a thorough review of Budget Gaming Graphics Cards. In the $175 category, he recommends the ATI Radeon HD 4870. In the $100 category, he gives the nod to the  Radeon HD 4770.

  From what I’ve seen, putting $30 of additional memory and a $100 video card in a fairly recent Windows XP machine creates a very competent Windows 7 machine.

  Now the big question is… how much will Microsoft charge for Windows 7?

  Windows News ATI Radeon 4770, ATI Radeon 4870, hardware, video cards, windows 7