TechSpot PC Buying Guide

The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best hardware, spanning four unique yet typical budgets. Whether you're a first time builder seeking guidance or a seasoned enthusiast, we have you covered.

After working on this guide for many years, we learned the biggest pitfall of our previous work along with many other buying guides online: they expire shortly after publishing. Prices change daily, components come and go, and the guides simply degrade in worth until they're eventually rewritten a few months later. Recognizing this, we're taking an alternative approach.

We will add and update new hardware to the mix as it's released. All four builds will be updated on major product launches and we'll keep monitoring components and their prices over the course of weeks and months to catch anything in-between. We wholly welcome your support and input to keep this guide as fresh as possible. 

The Budget Box • Decent performance • Good for everyday computing • Gaming with add-on GPU Granted, if you just need to create a few documents and check your email, you can get by on much less than a $500 desktop. However, if you follow our Budget build to the T, you'll have a system acceptable for any role apart from running graphically intense applications -- which could also be attainable by investing in a dedicated video card. The Entry-Level Rig • Good performance • Fast for everyday computing • Casual gaming Our Entry-Level Rig should be an excellent companion for running general applications and a sufficient solution for even the newest games on the market, albeit with some of the eye-candy dialed down. The Enthusiast's PC • Excellent performance • Great Multitasker • Perfect for gaming Our Enthusiast's PC incorporates the perfect blend of both the Entry-Level Rig and Luxury System, making this the most harmonious of builds. Our intent is to keep this system within the grasp of the average computer enthusiast, offering a fully-loaded PC minus some of the unnecessary bells and whistles that could set you back an additional grand or two. The Luxury System • Workstation-like performance • Heavy multitasking • Extreme gaming The Luxury System is a screaming-edge machine lacking any virtual price cap. Every component in this guide is thoughtfully scrutinized, offering the most horsepower for your greenback. If a component's premium price isn't justified, it simply doesn't make the cut.

Mobile Operating Systems in 2012.

Simply said, 2012 was the year of the Androids. It didn’t only win new acquisitions in smartphone market but also snatched market-share of other operating systems (See table below). Clearly it continued to increase its share in the market.
Other Mobile Operating Systemsin the market continued to get customers as well and some of them didn’t only survive but thrived. We are here to discuss their (and Android’s) growth and improvements they had in 2012 and also what to expect from them in the future. But first, let’s start with the market-share table of Mobile OSes:
Top Six Smartphone Mobile Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2012
(Units in Millions)
Operating System
3Q12
Shipment
Volumes
3Q12
Market
Share
3Q11
Shipment
Volumes
3Q11
Market
Share
Year-Over-
Year
Change
Android 136.0 75.0% 71.0 57.5% 91.5%
iOS 26.9 14.9% 17.1 13.8% 57.3%
BlackBerry 7.7 4.3% 11.8 9.5% -34.7%
Symbian 4.1 2.3% 18.1 14.6% -77.3%
Windows Phone 7/
Windows Mobile 3.6 2.0% 1.5 1.2% 140.0%
Linux 2.8 1.5% 4.1 3.3% -31.7%
Others 0.0 0.0% 0.1 0.1% -100.0%
Totals 181.1 100.0% 123.7 100.0% 46.4%

Android
Android is easily the most popular OS of this time and apparently it will only increase its lead over the time in the future. After losing its race withiOS, Symbian and even to Windows Mobile in the first fewyears, the Android made a greatre-entry in HTC’s Nexus One and it never looked back from that point onwards. It currently holds 75% of the smartphone market (worldwide) and is raising this figure swiftly.
Android saw the release of a major update in 2012 in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean which was showcased in the first ever Nexus tablet, the Nexus 7 in June this year. The most important thing it brought was the Project Butter which makes the Vsync of the screen work at 60 fps and also makes the CPU, GPU and display co-ordinate well.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean came with updated camera app, made notification system even more functional and also brought smart app updates plusGoogle Now.
Google also rolled out the Android 4.2 update later which brought features like better lock-screen, better keyboard, multiple user support and even better controls. We are now looking forward to the “Key Pie Lime” update which is due sometime next year.
iOS
Apple’s products have always been among the most refined intheir class and iOS is no exception. First announced in 2007, iOS has become only better despite the restrictions enforced by Apple to provide a better ecosystem and keep glitches away.
2012 saw another yearly iOS version release in form of iOS 6 which brought several cool and important features. These included more functional Siri, heavy Facebook integration, Facetime calls over cellular networks and ‘iCloud Tabs’ in Safari.
iOS 6 also brought the Maps application which was declared by CNN as among the top 10 fails of the year and is madly inaccurate. If we put aside the Maps app though, iOS 6 was actually quite an update.
Blackberry
RIM is strongly betting on its upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS, which will be released early in 2013. And hence, all their current product developments are seemingly kept on hold.
BlackBerry 10 will be their reply to the iPhone and Android and it looks quite promising already but you shouldn’t be buying a RIM product until then.
2012 saw the release of only a handful of BlackBerry products (less than 10 to be exact) and soas a result, their market share plunged to just 4.3%. This will most probably change next yearas just like Nokia, RIM has its own share of faithful customers. 2012 didn’t saw any major developments for this OS.
Symbian
No doubt, the end of Symbian isnear . Its market-share continued to fall after the advent of iPhone, which furtherfell several folds after Android arrived into the picture. With a worldwide marketshare of just 2.3%, this OS will most probablyend in the near future – some say around 2014 .
Some companies are still using this OS on their phones, most notably the Nokia that uses Symbian as a secondary OS on its Asha series of affordable phones, mainly because Symbian doesn’t require much GPU and runs well on less capable hardware. Symbian, like BlackBerry, remained a neglected OS this year.
Windows Phone
Microsoft’s Windows Phone debuted just couple of year ago in 2010 and hasn’t been particularly successful so far. Their market-share of about 2%is nowhere near the 75% that Android holds but most of this share has been captured in the last year especially after their partnership with Nokia .
Windows Phone saw a major update this year with Windows Phone 8 which had features thatthe original Windows Phone 7 version should’ve got but still gave it an upper hand in terms of openness from iOS.
The update brought support for higher res. Displays, multiple-core processors, IE10,microSD card plus a complete change in core architecture making porting apps from Windows 8 to WP8 easier.
Unfortunately though, things aren’t going well for them. Their market-share has actually dropped from earlier quarters of this year. They did take a different approach earlier than Android and iOS by introducing live tiles rather than icons & grids but design isn’t everything.
Microsoft also angered old, faithful customers by declaring that old Windows Phones wouldbe non-upgradeable to WP8 andinstead presented them with a Windows Phone 7.8 update. Also the lack of a notification centre and quality apps have left customers unconvinced so we’ll have to see how it plays out for Windows Phone in the future.
What about 2013
2013 will be an interesting year to look out for. Because of the intense competition, the companies will be churning out some great software so it’ll be interesting to see what they’ll do to stay out of each other. 

The Best Computer Tips and Tricks: Windows Vista

Advanced Screen Captures with the Snipping Tool

Leave the Prt Scrn key in the 1980s where it belongs. In the Accessories folder on the Start menu, you'll find Vista's Snippin g Tool, which lets you capture just the part of the screen you want. Start it up, click and drag the mouse to outline the area you want to preserve, and release the mouse button. After you've snipped, you can draw on the image with a pen tool, highlight or erase certain portions, or save it to a file.

Display Multiple Clocks

If you're a frequent traveler or have friends or family in another time zone, you can set up Vista to display multiple clocks at once. Click on the clock in the Start bar, then click "Change date and time settings"¦," and then the Additional Clocks tab. Check the box next to "Show this clock" for each additional clock you want to add, then specify the time zone and display name for each clock. After you apply your changes by clicking OK, clicking on the clock in the Start bar will show you the clocks for every time zone you've selected.

Improve Program Access with Quick Launch

The Quick Launch toolbar doesn't get a lot of respect, but it's a great way to launch your regular apps faster. If the toolbar isn't visible, right-click on the Start bar, select Toolbars, click on Quick Launch to add it, and then drag programs or shortcuts to it. You can start programs instantly just by clicking or, better yet, use the Windows key. Windows key+1 will open the leftmost program, Windows key+2 the next one, and so on, up to 10 (the 10th opens with Windows key+0).

Windows Mobility Center

Sorry, desktop users, this one's just for the notebook folks. The Windows Mobility Center, which you access by pressing Windows key+X, gives you the opportunity to tweak all sorts of settings on your laptop, all in one convenient place. You can change your display brightness, adjust the volume, check your battery status, turn off wireless connectivity, switch your screen orientation, set up an external display, and more.

Find things now with Instant Search

You don't have to open up a special window to find the files or programs you're looking for. Just hit the Windows key or click the Start button and start typing—Vista will present you organized lists of the top files and programs that match the text you've entered. (If you want to see Vista's full findings, click on the "See all results" link at the bottom of the Instant Search window.)

Change Preinstalled Vista Features

If you don't think you'll ever use preset features like Remote Differential Compression, the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 XPS Viewer, or Windows Meeting Space—or if you really need a simple telnet client—it's easy to remove or add them. Go to the Control Panel, click on "Uninstall a program," and select "Turn Windows features on our off." Then just click on the checkboxes to add elements you need—and lose those you don't.

Maximize Performance

Not sure if your computer is operating at maximum efficiency? Vista can let you know for sure. Just check out the Reliability and Performance Monitor, which you'll find at Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools > Generate a system health report. Windows will check your disk drives, drivers, services, software and hardware configuration, and more to give you a full accounting of what might be causing you trouble.