The Right Way

Whether avid gaming enthusiasts or just typical users, everyone wants the best bang for their buck. And when it comes to buying processors, there are hidden opportunities in some product lines. When high-end processors are manufactured, there is always a certain percentage of those which do not meet the highest standards.

The AMD Phenom II X3

In particular, there may be problems with one or more cores, the amount of heat generated, their highest clock speed, or defects in the cache memory. If cache memory is at fault, then the faulty memory can be disabled allowing the processor to still be sold as a low-end model (e.g., Celeron & Sempron).

However, when cores are disabled at the factory because they’ve failed a test, there may not be any real-world problem with the core. This would be the case if the manufacturer needed to be more stringent in its testing methodology in order to force more processors into the budget model lines. And in most cases, these disabled cores can be unlocked and will perform without any significant issues, but currently, only AMD processors support unlocking disabled cores. In this article, we’ll give you an overview of how to do this and take advantage of value-priced processors.

First Step. Decide on a processor model which comes with one or more disabled cores. Currently, AMD ships some Phenom, Athlon, and Sempron models with single, dual, and triple cores that can be unlocked to use the additional cores. Everything depends on the processor model, so make sure you’re buying a processor with disabled cores. You should also be aware that you may not be able to unlock only one disabled core if there are others also disabled. It’s usually all or nothing, although Asus recently released new BIOS revisions which allow cores to be unlocked independently.

Second Step. Decide on a motherboard which supports AMD processors and unlocking. Though each motherboard will have its own set of options, most have an option somewhere in the BIOS (System Setup) labeled Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC). You can usually change this setting from “Disabled” to “Auto,” “Per Core,” or “All Cores.” However, use the “Per Core” option with care as some configurations can cause your system to be unstable. And with some motherboards, you may have to update the firmware (flashing the BIOS) for ACC to work properly.

Third Step. With your disabled cores now unlocked, run a stress test to ensure your system is stable. A stress test forces your processor to work at full capacity by having it process an algorithm many thousands of times.

A Quad-Core Layout

If there are any problems with your disabled cores, you will usually see errors after only a few minutes – though it is still a good idea to run the test for at least 20 minutes to ensure stability. Prime95 is an excellent utility for running stress tests, and we highly recommend it.

The Odds. The chances are very good that you’ll be successful, and the success rate is rumored to be around 70%. Accurate numbers are hard to come by because of course AMD will not provide statistics. But if you’re unsuccessful, the worst case scenario is that you bought a processor which only operates as advertised.

Also, for those of you who succeed, remember that your processor will be generating more heat from the additional cores and a stock heatsink and fan (HSF) may no longer be adequate. It’s usually a good idea to invest in a decent HSF, and ThermalTake and Zalman often have the best products in this area.

Real World. For example, we built a system with a Phenom II X2 545 processor, a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H motherboard, and a Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 1333Mhz stick of RAM. The Phenom processor with free shipping costs $89 on Newegg, but after unlocking the two disabled cores, it’s now the equivalent of the Phenom II X4 945 (a quad-core) which costs $166.

There are many things to consider when shopping for computer parts and related equipment, and unfortunately it’s very easy to pay too much and end up with a disappointing purchase. However, things have really changed in the past decade with the expansion of e-commerce and online documentation. So in this article, I’ll cover the most important things to consider when buying new computer hardware.

Compatibility. Before you begin shopping, you’ll first need to find out what your new hardware must be compatible with. For example, if you’re buying a desktop printer and your computer has USB2 ports, then you need to make sure your printer supports USB2. When buying other hardware like computer memory, the decision can be a lot more complicated. You’ll have to consult the specifications for your current hardware and maybe do some research online. If you’re still unsure, then I recommend talking with someone more knowledgeable (but not a salesperson).

Local Retailers. These are the absolute last places you should consider going to. Although it used to be somewhat reassuring to see the boxed product and know exactly what you were going to get, local retailers have now lost even that advantage. You can get much more information online than what’s printed on the box, and you can also get “real” photos showing everything the product comes with.

With a local retailer, you will always have to pay a substantial mark-up because the store, the employees, and the advertising behind them are all very expensive. Although some retailers claim their staff can help customers make the right purchases, that help is doubtful at best with a huge conflict of interest. The only advantage a local retail store offers is that you can have the product immediately after you’ve paid for it.

Internet Retailers. Thankfully, there are much better retailers online. My favorate is NewEgg.com, and the competition doesn’t even come close. The best thing about NewEgg is their online review system, which provides honest assessments from people who have already bought the product. Say one particular hard drive has 500 reviews and 75% of the reviewers gave it 5/5 stars. You might think at first that there must be something wrong because 25% of the reviewers rated it lower, but this is due to the fact that people are much more likely to write about bad experiences than good ones. Any product with over 75% 5/5 reviews is a good product, though before buying it is always a good idea to read the bad reviews too.

Another thing that’s great about NewEgg is that they will open the box and take detailed pictures of everything that the product comes with. You can see the cables, documentation, and other things that are usually not visible in the pictures on the outside of the box. You can also find many products that are meant to be sold to system builders rather than consumers – giving you more options and lower prices.

Brand Names. Well-known brands are nice in that they give you some assurance of trustworthiness, but they also mean that the manufacturer is a larger corporation – and this means they can be pressured to meet deadlines and ship products with known defects. It sounds bad, but it’s common even with relatively good companies like Seagate and Western Digital. This is another reason to buy online where you can see what people have said about a specific model.

Some of the larger brands with products in many different categories – such as Sony and HP – will re-brand cheaper, generic parts in order to compete in as many markets as possible. There’s not really a way to know which company is really manufacturing the product, but a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself what the brand name is famous for. For example, an HP-branded CDRW drive or flash drive is probably not made by HP, while on the other hand, an HP LaserJet printer is made by HP.

OEM vs Retail. A product’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is the company which manufactured it, and historically, system builders have purchased large quantities from OEMs for resale inside new systems. So when you see “OEM” products for sale on NewEgg, what they mean is that the product is not packaged for display in a retail store. This is a good thing because OEM parts are cheaper, but in some cases the retail version will include extra features and support.

In the case of hard drives, you should always go for the OEM version (which in almost all cases has the same warranty as the retail version). But when it comes to processors, the retail package usually includes a heatsink and fan (an HSF). Unless you already have a compatible HSF, or you’re planning to buy your own, you will want to buy the retail package.

Warranties & RMAs. Even though they show the manufacturer’s good faith, warranties are often not that useful when it comes to computer parts. If you were buying a computer from Dell, then the warranty would be very important because there’s a substantial risk of an expensive, proprietary (i.e, made by Dell only) part failing. However, if you’re buying standard parts (which are much cheaper), then you can simply buy another if it fails. And if you did your research before buying to make sure you were getting a high-quality product, then there’s little chance you’d ever need the warranty anyway. What you would really need is a good return policy from your retailer. A Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) is a request that you can submit to your retailer to return the product. So if you receive a defective or “dead on arrival” (DOA) part, you will have a way to get your money back.

Although less common now than it used to be, I frequently see people run into problems when a web browser does not work well with a particular website. Most people assume the browser is at fault if the website works without problems in other browsers. It seems like good reasoning, but it’s often far from the truth. In this article, I’ll explain why these problems exist, what web developers are doing, and how standards compliance helps.

The Problem. Since the early 1990s, there have been many browsers to choose from. Because of the web’s rapid growth, there was high demand for browsers to add new features, to make it easier to write web pages, and even to allow mistakes. So browsers like Navigator and Internet Explorer added support for non-standard and improperly-used web page elements^[1]. This led many to develop websites which worked well in only one browser, and it was very common to see “best viewed with browser X” on a web page.

The situation has improved since then, and Internet Explorer is now the only major browser with poor standards compliance^[2]. The other major browsers, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and Apple’s Safari, do a much better job adhering to standards. In particular, Firefox now has between 20 and 30% market share^[3][4][5] – which means web developers can no longer afford to build websites which work only in Internet Explorer.

Web Development. This conflict among major web browsers has made it difficult to create websites which work properly in all browsers. Many people developing websites for themselves simply do not have the time to test their site in other browsers. Additionally, as the web grows and the official standards become more complex, it’s harder for browsers to support new standards while maintaining backward compatibility with existing web pages.^[6]

So every major browser has exceptions in which it doesn’t follow the standard – known as “quirks.” And now that standards compliance has become more important, browsers generally have two ways of interpreting and displaying a web page – “standards mode” and “quirks mode.”^{[7][8][9][10]} When a web page specifies compliance with a newer standard, browsers generally use standards mode. When a page doesn’t specify a standard or when an older standard is used, browsers generally use quirks mode.^[11] However, even in standards mode, a browser may still have some quirks.^[12]

So what do web developers do now? A good website written today will specify compliance with a newer standard and implement browser-specific fixes for whatever quirks or bugs affect the site. Additionally, a good site’s code will be valid according to the standard it specified. The most common cause of website display issues is poorly written code.

Standards Compliance. The Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an organization which publishes official standards for web pages – which they call “recommendations.” Once a standard has been published, web browsers can begin to implement support for it. And once that happens, web developers can write websites which make use of the new functionality. The greatest benefit of having a standards compliant website is compatibility with every browser which supports the standard. Of course some browser-specific fixes may still be needed, but it usually takes relatively little effort to support other compliant browsers.

Something else that standards compliance creates is a guarantee that the website was developed properly. Many older, problematic techniques can still be used today even though their use is highly discouraged. If a website is compliant, you at least have some assurance that the website was well-written. And in some cases, visitors like to see compliance icons, and many websites publicly display the standard they comply with.

One of the tools you can use to test a website’s compliance is the W3C Validator. It can parse a web page and highlight any non-compliant elements. All you need to do is provide the URL of the page you want to check. While this tool can be useful, it’s worth noting that websites with frequent updates or dynamic content do have a harder time maintaining compliance.