I broke my PC's motherboard :( Please help me pick a replacement and guide me through the installation process... [more inside]
posted by mullacc on Jul 3, 2009 - 4 answers

How do computer speeds vary with different core counts? Is a twin core 3000 as fast as a single core 6000? What about a quad core? Is there any point in multicore chips for home use and gaming, or does this need fancy threaded software to take advantage of it?
posted by talitha_kumi on Jul 31, 2008 - 11 answers

I want my computer to work exactly the same, but faster. I can't add any more RAM. Motherboard/CPU upgrade? [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 on Mar 2, 2008 - 16 answers

Laptopfilter: I'm curious about how CPU usage, noise level, and being able to go to standby/hibernation and shut down properly are related. For a long time (over a year, I think) my HP laptop(running Windows XP) was at 100% CPU usage all the time, ran loudly, and wouldn't go to standby or hibernation or shut down all the way. There's a lot [more inside]
posted by sleeplessunderwater on Jan 31, 2007 - 11 answers

Shopping for a cheap used laptop: What are the minimum specs I should be looking for with respect to CPU, RAM, HD? I'm planning to use WinXP (maybe I'll settle for 2K), Open Office, and FireFox (including some AJAX-heavy web sites such as gmail, Google Docs, del.icio.us), with a wifi card. And not much else. I want to avoid "I'm always waiting for this stupid slow computer!" but not spend much more than the minimum needed to avoid that.
posted by Leonard of Vince on Dec 18, 2006 - 24 answers

I am updating an old server actually on dual xeon 450M/512k processor to xeon 500/2Mb. I know the motherboard support the new cpu's but do i need to change the vrm or will the old one do just fine ?
posted by selfsck on Aug 25, 2005 - 1 answer

[DeadComputerFilter] I just moved, and as is customary, my PC moved in a separate trip, re-boxed in its original container, and generally cared for better than even myself. Now, I plug it in, turn it on... well, almost. It just doesn't come on anymore. [more inside]
posted by ChrisR on Jul 9, 2005 - 6 answers