Transform your XP into Leopard!

Sooo what's that? A screenshot of my Mac? Nope! It's a screenshot of my XP  which is using the Leopard theme!
I have a few friends who just cannot switch to operating systems. "It's so beautiful and elegant" they say. That's true. And I do have some friends who still stick with the good old XP for many reasons. This post is for all the XP users who are bored with the XP themes. And I also dedicate this post to one
special friend of mine who wants to use Mac (for its interface) but doesn't have one.
Well, there are ways to install a Mac OS X on PC but it's illegal and the steps are a bit complicated and I don't think it makes any sense because as
an operating system, Windows is a little ahead.
Now let us come back to the topic. There's a free tool pack called LeopardXP BricoPack that can be used to give your XP a Mac OSX Leopard look. 
It offers a complete visual transformation. Not just the wallpaper and the icons will be changed. It looks exactly like Leopard. It's so complete that it looks exactly like Leopard. Even the Window controls are moved to the left! The Dock is also there.I have added a slideshow of screenshots. Watch it and decide whether you need it or not. It's absolutely wonderful.

If you think you need it, all you have to do is download it from here and just install it. It's very easy.
Enjoy!

Play games without a disk using Daemon tools lite

Many of the games that we use today need the game cd/dvd to be inserted during gameplay. It is very annoying especially if you play the game frequently. And there's a good chance of your disk getting damaged due to frequent use. There's another technical non compatibility here. The game is installed into your hard disk and it uses the cd/dvd for getting additional data during gameplay.The hard drive is much faster than your optical drive. So the game might run slowly.

There are ways to get around this problem. If we create a false/virtual optical drive and mount the game cd/dvd 's image onto that, then the system would think that it's a real optical drive with the game cd/dvd in it! So how do we emulate a drive? You need software to create a virtual drive and image file. Most of them are expensive. But there's an inexpensive option :Daemon tools lite. The lite version is free for personal and non commercial use.

Step by step instructions

1.Download Daemon tools lite from here

Daemon tools tray icon

2.Install it (don't forget to choose the free license option while installing) and reboot the machine.

After the reboot, the software will launch itself and create a new virtual drive which you can see in 'My Computer'. A tray icon will also be there.

3.Now insert the game cd/dvd, then right click on the daemon tools tray icon and click on 'Disk Imaging'.

4.The 'Disk Imaging' window will appear. Select the drive into which the disk is inserted and choose a reading speed. Reading at low speeds is better and safer.

5.You can change the destination of the saved image file if you want by clicking the button next to the file path. There's no need to change the image format. Many users are not familiar with the MDX format. But actually it is a very good one.

6.Leave the checkboxes the way they are (1,2 and 3 selected). But if you want to prevent somebody from using the image file (kind of parental control), you can add a password by selecting the 4th box.

7.Click start and close the window after the image creation.

8.Now to mount the image right click on the tray icon->go to image catalog->choose your image file.

Now the image will be loaded to the virtual drive and you are all set to go. Start the game and enjoy.

9.To unmount the drive, right click on tray icon->Virtual Devices->select your virtual drive->unmount image.

It is better to prevent daemon tools from starting with windows as it may slow down your system. To do that, r.click on the tray icon->preferences->uncheck 'Autostart'->Apply->Close.

Virtual drives can be used for many purposes other than gaming. And image file creation can be used as a method to backup your old disks.
If you enable compression, you can save disk space too. It compressed my 679 MB CD into a 413 MB MDX image file.
Have fun!

How to find the best motherboard that suits you..... A guide on motherboard and its various parts.

I promised to write a post on motherboards in one of my previous posts. So here it is… After reading this post, you will get a fair idea about the motherboard and its various components.
Before you buy a motherboard, you should decide which cpu you’re going to buy.

The Socket
The socket on the motherboard supports the cpu. Intel and AMD use different types of sockets. Intel uses Land Grid Array (LGA) and AMD uses Pin Grid Array (PGA).
Socket 775 and socket 1156 are the most common sockets for Intel processors (as of now). Socket 1156 is the latest one which offers support to the Core series (i3,i5,i7) processors.
Socket AM2+ and AM3 are the common AMD sockets. AM3 is the latest model that offers support to CPUs like Phenom II.

Bus Speed
The Front Side Bus (FSB) is a system that connects the cpu to the northbridge. The northbridge contacts the memory (RAM) and other components and passes the data to the cpu. The speed of the FSB plays a very important role in the overall performance of a computer. So choose a motherboard with a high speed FSB. This will enable you to install a faster cpu in the future, if needed. Overclocking is another advantage which I’m not going to cover here.

The Chipset
The north-bridge and the south-bridge together constitute the chipset. The

north-bridge is the more important component as it is more involved with the cpu. The chipset plays a major role in the graphics performance of machines without graphics cards, as it accommodates the IGP (integrated/onboard graphics processor). Other functions include memory controller (regulates communication between the CPU and RAM), graphics controller (handles communication between graphics card and CPU), onboard audio etc. So try to buy a motherboard that has a good chipset. Go to a manufacturer’s website and you will be able to find the chipset that suits your needs.
Most part of the above paragraph doesn’t hold true for the high end models of core series CPUs from Intel (i series). The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), memory controller and the graphics controller are integrated the to CPU’s die itself!
AMD had moved the memory controller to the cpu die a long time ago. But nothing much has happened since.

Memory Slots
It is into the memory slot that you insert the RAM. DDR, DDR2 and DDR 3 are the three types of RAM that are in use today and DDR3 is the fastest of them all. The type of RAM which the motherboard uses will be specified in the manual itself. A slot can accept only one type of RAM. Always go for the motherboard that supports the latest RAM module. No. of slots and max. memory support are the two other factors. That is not very relevant for a desktop user as most of the boards these days have at least 4 slots and can support a minimum of 4 GB which is more than enough. If you’re a pro. gamer or somebody who frequently uses memory intensive programs, you may consider these 2 factors also.

Peripheral Interfaces
As you know, all the peripherals of a computer are connected to

the motherboard. There are ports inside and outside the motherboard to which we connect the peripherals. Different types of ports are described below:

IDE port    : predecessor of SATA port. Used for connecting optical drives,HDD.

SATA port: a lot quicker than PATA. Used in all modern systems.

FDD port  : Floppy disk drives are not used anymore (normally) but many motherboards still come with an FDD port. Maybe for advanced users. But even bios flashing is too easy these days so you need not worry about it.

USB port    : Generally used for connecting external devices viz. pen drives, external hdd, printers to the pc. USB 3.0 is the latest . Make sure that you buy a board that supports USB 3.0. It’s about 10x faster than USB 2.0.       

FireWire port: Very similar to USB, but offers better speed (not on paper but in reality) and networking capabilities. Almost all the modern motherboards come with a firewire (IEEE 1394) port.

Other ones like parallel port, serial port etc are standard across all motherboards.


Expansion slots
These are the array of slots located on the south and central part of the board. You will generally

see only 3 types of expansion slots theses days : PCI, PCI x1 express and PCI x16 express slots. The PCI slot houses devices like LAN card, sound card etc., the PCI x1 express is not commonly used. Certain TV tuner cards and graphics use it. PCI x16 express slot is used by graphics cards. Make sure that you have at least two PCI slots and one PCI x16 express slot on your motherboard.

Manufacturer’s reputation
It’s always better to buy a crucial component like motherboard from a reputed manufacturer. Reliability and post sales service are the major reasons. Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI and Intel are some of the leading manufacturers. If you ask me, I will always recommend Gigabyte motherboards. They often add useful features to their motherboard. It is also the most stable motherboard out there.

Final words
Hope that I managed to cover almost all the factors you need to consider while buying a motherboard. A good motherboard alone cannot make a super fast system. It’s a combined work. CPU, RAM and Hard Disk are the three other important members of the network. Make sure that the other three are also in good condition.