Tag Archives: Performance

Q. Some manufacturers sell Pro, Business, or Enterprise lines of SSDs. Are they worth it?

Posted on March 25, 2020 by quill

Q. Why should I invest more money in a Pro, Business or Enterprise line of Solid State Drives instead of the cheaper consumer SSD’s? A. In order to answer the question, we need to dive into how SSD drives are … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drives and SSD, Q&A | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Overclocking RAM, what does that mean?

Posted on March 11, 2020 by quill

Q. I have heard of overclocking RAM – Is this possible at all? A. Yes, a computer has a standard memory speed it is designed for, and it is possible to increase the memory speed, if your memory and computer … Continue reading →

Posted in General Computer, Memory, Q&A | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Do I upgrade my Drive or my RAM?

Posted on March 7, 2020 by quill

Q. What is better, a SSD Drive upgrade versus a RAM upgrade? A. It depends a lot on what you are doing with your computer, whether you have an adequate amount of either right now, and what your goals are. … Continue reading →

Posted in General Computer, Hard Drives and SSD, Memory, Q&A, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Why do I have to install my RAM modules in pairs?

Posted on March 1, 2020 by quill

Q. Why do I have to install my computer memory modules in pairs? A. Normally a motherboard addresses memory through a 64 bit data channel. When a computer motherboard is designed to use Dual Channel memory access, it can address … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Memory, Q&A | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. My machine feels slower than before, what do I do?

Posted on February 25, 2020 by quill

Q. My machine feels slower than before, I have done all I know to make it feel like before but no luck – do I need to upgrade? A. Performance slows when your software demands more than your hardware can … Continue reading →

Posted in General Computer, Performance, Q&A, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Why does it take much longer to copy a large file to a USB flash than to an external hard drive?

Posted on December 20, 2019 by quill

A. USB “keychain” flash drives are slower because the flash drive has much poorer writing performance than an external hard disk drive. The real world speed of writing depends both on the performance of the interface (USB in this case) … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drives and SSD, Q&A | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Q: News web sites lock up every computer I’ve used, using much of it’s resources

Posted on December 12, 2019 by quill

A: Your experience is not the same as others. Yes, news sites rely a lot on syndication, ads, dynamic content and loading content from multiple different sources. But the majority of computers do not bog down or lock up on … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Internet and Networking, Q&A | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Can I build a gaming computer under $1000 March 2018 edition

Posted on March 15, 2018 by quill

It’s March 2018 and we are revisiting our exercise in budget computing: Can we build a computer that will give acceptable gaming performance for under $1000 Canadian? Here’s what’s new: DDR4 RAM has doubled in price, and dragged SSD pricing higher along … Continue reading →

Posted in General Computer, How-To, PC Gaming, Performance, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I have lousy WiFi reception – what can I do?

Posted on May 1, 2015 by quill

I can’t get good WiFi reception in my living room, my router is in the basement on the opposite side of the house In order to achieve reliable WiFi performance, you have to get a strong radio signal from the router … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, How-To, Internet and Networking, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Memory for the new late Apple 2014 5K iMac, Mac Mini

Posted on October 19, 2014 by quill

Apple has released a 2014 model of the iMac, with a stunning new “5K” 27 inch Retina screen.  Happily, unlike the previous Retina iMac models, Apple included upgradeable memory in this configuration. It can go to a maximum of 32 … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Memory News, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is the state of Thunderbolt drives? (October 2014 edition)

Posted on October 17, 2014 by quill

Thunderbolt drive news (Note 4/2020, many of the products introduced in 2014 are now out of date in 2020) Apple has left Firewire and adopted Thunderbolt as their recommended high speed connection for external hard drives (and monitors and other … Continue reading →

Posted in Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD, Mac questions, News, Performance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can I build a gaming computer for under $1000 (Feb. 2014 edition)

Posted on February 21, 2014 by quill

Feb. 2014 An exercise in budget computing is to build a computer that will give acceptable gaming performance for under $1000.  In the past year we have seen hard drive prices skyrocket, then come back down to near normal pricing, … Continue reading →

Posted in General Computer, How-To, PC Gaming, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Q. How do I add memory to an Apple Mac Pro tower?

Posted on January 27, 2014 by quill

There are three main generations of Mac Pro machines, each generation has particular RAM types and installation procedures The models from 2006 to early 2008 use FB-DIMMs with large heatsinks in 667 MHz and 800 MHz. These models have two … Continue reading →

Posted in Mac questions, Memory, Uncategorized, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Can I get a good gaming laptop? For under $700?

Posted on September 19, 2012 by quill

First things first.  There is no such thing as a real gaming laptop – not if you mean a laptop machine that is portable, battery powered, and has game performance comparable to a desktop machine with a good graphic card … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, PC Gaming, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Will my computer run games on the highest settings?

Posted on September 19, 2012 by quill

The answer is, it depends. It depends on the graphic card:  Gaming is 90% about the performance of the video card (GPU). As long as you have adequate RAM and a reasonably modern CPU, then the video card Graphic Processing … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, PC Gaming, Performance, Upgrading | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment