Nowadays, computers are essential electronic devices which can be used in many ways, for many reasons and for many purposes by all of us as long as we are able to work with them properly so as for good results to be achieved in activities in which their use might be involved. There are many important ideas regarding computers, their components, the way in which they function and can be improved as well as related to the way in which we can learn to work with them better which many of us might be interested in becoming aware of.

Computers have been improved in many ways in the last few years and in this way they have become a good choice of use in many cases in which they have proved to be much more useful to us than they used to be.  There have been made available to us all sorts of accessories which can enable us to work more comfortably with our computers even when we need to use them for longer periods of time. There have been made available to us as well as all sorts of well functioning hardware components which might enable us to improve the performance of our computers or of those which we might intend to buy and work with.

Among these hardware components which might be considered as interesting to be used, external computer storage devices might also be very interesting to be analyzed as they might prove to be useful to all of us sooner or later for one reason or another. Among these storage devices, hard drives are also important to be taken in account.

One model of such devices is Toshiba 500GB USB 2.0 type of portable external hard drives which is nowadays available for all of us to analyze in our attempt of finding the best hardware components that might enable us to improve the way in which we might work with our computers and the way in which we can obtain good results in our activities involving the use of computers.

There are many important features which can be analyzed regarding this model of external computer storage devices. Among these features it might be interesting for us to consider the rigid exterior of the mentioned type of hard drive. The password-protected type of data encryption, the backup and the recovery of all sorts of files and folders and as well as the drive space alert which has also been considered as an interesting feature by those who have already analyzed the features of this external computer storage device.

This external computer storage device presents a complete type of system backup and recovery for Windows as well as other useful features to be considered by those interested in analyzing it. There are many interesting features to be considered when analyzing this model of external storage devices or another one.

There are also many such devices to be taken in account as possible choices of use when we intend to improve the functions of our computers or to do something new with the help of our computers, something that we might have not been able to do without the help of such devices. They can be very useful for us these days and we should be willing to analyze some of their features as some of them might also prove to be useful for us to use sooner or later.



We use computers on a daily basis, at home, at work or while traveling to access the Internet, play computer games, watch movies and so much more. Yet, most of the times if not ever, we never give a second thought to just what our computer is made off. You know it contains hardware components but what exactly they are, how are they called or what is their function within our personal computer are usually questions without answers or with vague ones. I'm going to be talking bellow above about the hardware components for a personal computer that are essential to it:

1. The PC Monitor is the device on which you visualize movies, games, and programs like word editors and Internet browsers. Older models featured a Cathode Ray Tube (hence the name CRT) with controls housed in a plastic case. Their diagonal ranged from 13 to 21 inches. Today LCD monitors have flooded the market, providing wide screen image display and smaller weight compared to their older counterparts, the CRT computer monitors. Most monitors feature controls used to adjust contrast and brightness while others have options to move the image left, right, up or down. CRT monitors also have a degauss option which can be used when the image isn't displayed correctly.

When it comes to picture quality we basically speak of resolution and refresh rate. Resolution is measured in pixels and is connected with how well our monitor displays images. Refresh rate refers to how often your image quality gets refresh. The recommended quality is usually 60 Hz, but since there are so many types of monitors it is best to consult the monitor's manual for the right value. Bear in mind that using a different value other the one recommended in your manual can damage your monitor.

2. The motherboard is the board that contains the CPU, the memory, BIOS, CMOS, Video devices, sound devices, storage devices, chipsets, etc. together with the connectors and logic circuits that tie all parts of your PC together. Together with the wiring in your computer it resembles to the network of veins in your body.

3. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is considered by some to be a computer inside another computer. This isn't to far from the truth since the processor manages the huge number of instructions given to him by the other computer hardware components similar to how the computer manages the instructions you give it by using external input devices like the keyboard and mouse.

4. The "hard drive" is a storage device with one or more metal disks (called platters), arranged on a spindle, one above the other; with a read/write head (often on an arm that can be moved to a specific point on the recording surfaces. This read/write machine can probably be called the first true 'robot'. Hard drive units are sealed hermetically to keep out dust. Even the smallest particle of dust can damage the platters so it's recommended you don't open them. The most recent hard drives can have up to 1.5 Terra Bytes.

5. The video card is an essential part of any computer. It provides your computer to play video files, computer games and other things. Without a video card to convert the binary code from the CPU and transmit in a graphic way to your monitor you wouldn't be able to watch anything. In some cases the video card can be integrated on the motherboard.

6. The sound card is very much like the video card, with the small difference that instead of converting CPU binary code and send it to your monitor it uses a different type of conversion allowing you to hear sounds in your computer speakers.

7. Over the years the CD-ROM drive and the DVD-ROM have proven to be essential to a personal computer. Information transfer had at its heart this hardware component. In recent years, with the development of the Internet, flash drives and portable hard drives, CD and DVD-ROMs have started to register a slow decline from the information transfer market. They will still be around for some years to come since they are the backbone of the music and movies commercialization.

8. As a last entry to the list of computer hardware components I'll add a duo of hardware parts, namely the keyboard and the mouse without which you couldn't control you computer. That is until technologies similar to the touch screen will appear on the market, but this will undoubtedly take some time.

Backing-up your important data files on RAID mirrored internal HDDs or secure servers could sometimes prove inefficient. Another solution is to have an external HDD handy. Seagate has recently announced its latest external drives added to the FreeAgent lineup. This time, the HDD giant has prepared models for PCs and Macs as well.

It seems that the Mac users will be getting FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 support, while the PC oriented models drives don't get the FireWire interface for all the models, although they feature eSATA ports to speed things up.

According to Fudzilla, there is a new series featuring three new FreeAgent Go drives with capacities of 250, 320 and 500 GB. Each of these three drives comes with a special desktop dock. Additionally, Seagate introduced three new FreeAgent Desk drives which are free standing units with capacities of 500 GB, 1 and 1.5 TB.

Unlike the Mac models, the PC FreeAgent Go drives come with optional docks. The available colors will be silver, black, red and blue. The FreeAgent Desk PC models also include a 640GB model. Moreover, the PC lineup will also include a FreeAgent XTreme variant which will be available in the same sizes as the Desk model, featuring the FireWire 400 port in addition.

Prices for the new models are as follows:

1. Mac models:
- FreeAgent Go 250GB       $159.99
- FreeAgent Go 320GB       $189.99
- FreeAgent Go 500GB       Not Yet Priced
- FreeAgent Desk 500GB   $169.99
- FreeAgent Desk 1TB       $269.99
- FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB    $349.99

2. PC models:
- FreeAgent Go 250GB          $119.99
- FreeAgent Go 320GB          $149.99
- FreeAgent Go 500GB          $239.99
- FreeAgent Desk 500GB      $129.99
- FreeAgent Desk 640GB      $149.99
- FreeAgent Desk 1TB           $229.99
- FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB        $279.99
- FreeAgent XTreme 500GB  $159.99
- FreeAgent XTreme 640GB  $179.99
- FreeAgent XTreme 1TB      $259.99
- FreeAgent XTreme 1.5TB   $299.99

The new models will be available starting October.

The guys over at Micron, who bring you some of the fastest memory chips on the market, introduced a new series of RealSSD solid state drives for enterprise computing and notebook applications. According to the official press release, these new SSDs are providing a dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance for the applications they serve.

“We are seeing SSD interest in a variety of applications where historically hard disk drives have reigned. For many, the most logical place is in notebook computers, but there is incredible value for SSDs in enterprise server systems,” said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.

Micron’s RealSSD P200 family is specifically designed for enterprise computing and comes in densities ranging from 16 gigabytes (GBs) to 128GBs and is available in a standard 2.5-inch form factor. The overall improvements are facilitated through Micron’s high-performance single-level cell (SLC) NAND technology, which allows the P200 series to provide the industry’s fastest 3Gb/s SATA-based sequential read and write speed of up to a maximum of 250 megabytes per second (MB/s).

The RealSSD C200 lineup is aimed at notebook applications. C200 will be available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors, with the 2.5-inchers providing densities of up to 256GBs, while the 1.8-inchers offer densities from 32GB up to 128GB. The notebook line provides a read speed of up to 250 MB/s and a write speed of up to 100 MB/s.

“With our C200 products, we are providing a balanced price to performance solution specifically designed for notebook applications by utilizing MLC NAND technology and highly optimized NAND management algorithms,” continued Klein.

Mass production for both P200 and C200 lineups is expected in the fourth quarter of 2008.

There are huge amounts of information flowing all over the Internet and it seems like we are already making the transition from gigabytes towards terabytes. I, for one, can’t deal with my 400 GB total storage space. When I finally make some space by transferring stuff to DVDs, all that freed space gets immediately clogged with new stuff and I personally don’t like to have heaps and heaps of DVDs. I could buy a 1TB HDD or, better yet, maybe I should buy a couple of the newly announced Seagate 1.5 TB HDDs.

The 1.5 TB HDD is actually Seagate’s 11th generation in the flagship Barracuda 7200 family. Seagate claims that this is the largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives – a half-terabyte increase from the previous highest capacity of 1TB, which is due to the capacity-boosting power of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The improved Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive generation combines proven PMR technology, components and expert manufacturing to provide a maximum capacity of 1.5TB of reliable storage for mainstream desktop computers, workstations, desktop RAID, gaming rigs and high-end PCs, plus the standard USB/FireWire/eSATA external storage types.

The largest capacity drives pack 1.5TB on just four platters and come with fast Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface in order to deliver an industry-leading sustained data rate of up to 120MB/second for fast boot, application startup and file access. The standard desktop 3.5-inch drive will also be available in smaller capacities of 1TB, 750GB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB and 160GB with cache options of 32MB and 16MB.

The new Barracuda 7200.11 line will be released this August.