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Optical mouse vs ball mouse. - S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

I am looking to buy a computer and would like to have the following doubts explained.

1) What is the difference between original motherboard and other motherboards? Which one ought I to go in for?

2) What is the difference between DDR memory and SDRAM? Which should I use? How much RAM is preferable?

3) Which hard disk should I buy, SATA or ordinary hard disk?

4) What is the difference between DVD Combo and DVD writer?

5) In the market, both ordinary mouse and optical mouse are available. Is there any performance limitation to the ordinary mouse?

6) Also, please compare monitors, ordinary vs TFT. Which is preferable and what is the cost difference between the two?

Rajeswari R

The Intel "original motherboard" means that all the chips that reside in the motherboard (entire product) are manufactured by Intel. The chipset board means third-party companies have designed and made the circuit board but used the chipset provided by Intel. When we refer to a "chipset" it is a set of ICs that primarily controls the processor, memory and other main functionalities. However, the third-party company that has designed the circuit board can use other company chips for audio and other communication peripherals. Buying a chipset board is always a compromise. However, third-party companies do make some good boards that are cost-effective and reliable too. For home PCs you may go for chipset boards. Basically the selection of original/chipset motherboard depends on one's budget and the usage.

DDR SDRAM, or simply DDR is an advanced type of memory, which has evolved out of SDRAM. Even though DDR and SDRAM have the same physical dimensions, the number of pins is different. The DDR has 184 Pin DIMM, Single Notched, Two operations per clock cycle whereas the SDRAM has 168 Pin DIMM, Double Notched, One operation per clock cycle. In the latest motherboards, DDR is superseded by the newer DDR2 DIMMs. DDR2 can effectively operate at twice the bus speed of DDR. So depending on the motherboard's memory slot specification you need to buy the memory module. You can get this information from your Motherboard manual.

If your new motherboard supports SATA (Serial ATA) hard disk, it is advisable to buy SATA hard disk. The advantages of SATA hard disks are that they support maximum transfer of 300 MB/sec (SATA II) and consume less power as compared to PATA (Parallel ATA).

Nowadays CDs (Compact Disks) have almost lost their importance due to the availability of DVD. DVD stands for Digital Versatile/Video Disc. CD-ROM supports 700MB Size whereas DVD (a single-layer, single-sided DVD) holds a maximum capacity of 4.7GB (about seven times the capacity of a CD-ROM). The Combo drives and DVD writer support both CD and DVD. The combo drives (CD Rewritable + DVD-ROM) can read/write the CDs but read only is possible for DVDs. DVD writer can read/write the CDs as well as read/write the DVDs (supports both). It is advisable to buy DVD writer.

While using mouse, you will not see much difference between ball mouse and optical mouse. The optical mouse is maintenance-free whereas in ball mouse the moving parts are more, hence failure chances too are more. Also, one needs to periodically clean the ball mouse to keep it free of dirt.

Talking of monitors, CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) as well as TFT (thin-film transistor) technology monitors are available today. TFT monitors are preferable because they are slim, take up less room than CRT monitors, and consume less power. The drawback is TFTs are more expensive than CRT monitors. TFTs generally have smaller viewing angles, which means that if the screen is viewed from a side or above, there may be some colour inversion. TFTs are not very durable, with very soft and easily damaged screens.

Solution by M. Sampath

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