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Although notebook/netbooks PCs are rapidly becoming more and more energy efficient high performance desktops just keep demanding more power.

So if you are looking at buying a new PC or upgrading your existing power supply (maybe to accommodate a high performance graphics card) you might want to make sure you are buying a 80 plus rated power supply.

All 80+ power supply’s must meet strict limits on power consumption with the most important one being that they must be at least 80% efficient. With this level of efficiency every of every 100 watts of power that goes into your PC from the mains 80 watts must end up with the components inside.

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Are you tired of slow or choppy game play? Was your PC top of the line just 2 years ago but now looks like the ZX Spectrum? If so then maybe its time for a graphics card upgrade!

Fortunately Novatech are here with three great offers on graphics cards to suit every budget and every case size.

That extra boost ATI Radeon 5670 – £92.99	Powerful without the cost GeForce GTX 465 – £163.98	Ultimate graphics power ATI Radeon 5850 – £233.99
Designed for the gamer who wants to play the latest games with great detail – Crysis works great at medium resolution.	Requiring a minimum 500W power supply this graphics card is capable of playing Crysis at max resolution.	Designed to work with multiple displays at the same time this is a true monster of graphics performance.

Solid state disk drives are great if you want super fast storage but once you leave the 128GB mark they just get into silly money (at least for most people).
So what if you are a enthusiast PC gamer who wants the fastest load times but wants to keep the budget at around £1,000?

It must be time for the new and greatly improved 6Gb/s Western Digital VelociRaptors.

Available now from Computer Planet (link) in any compatible PC and from Novatech (link) as a upgrade to your PC these new hard drives have double the transfer speed of the previous generation and a capacity of up to 600GB.

So what makes the VelociRaptor so special?
While most normal Desktop PC hard drives would spin at either 5,400rpm or 7,200rpm the VelociRaptor spins at a massive 10,000rpm; furthermore it comes with the latest SATA-III connector (which is why you need to be sure your motherboard is compatible) allowing for up to 6GB/s of transfer speed.

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Ever wanted a leave a quick note for yourself but couldn’t find some paper? Or maybe you just need to quickly jot down an idea or two and leave it on your PC Desktop?

Sounds like a need for sticky notes in Windows 7!

This simple little feature (which can be found in the start menu if you type ‘sticky notes’) can be used on any Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate PC.

If you need you can have multiple sticky notes open at the same time (just hit the + arrow) on the top right of the note (will appear when you click on it) as well resizing them (bottom right corner) and change the colour (right click).

For more information about the features of Windows 7 visit the official website here.

AMD Vision is a classification system that is used by many PC manufactures as a way to gauge which tasks any given PC is capable of undertaking. Just by answering a few simple questions on the AMD Vision website (link) you can find out which AMD Vision classification you should be looking out for.

The questions range from how much you use video editing to what level of gaming you are into which are then used to determine if you need a Vision Basic, Premium, Ultimate or Black PC. For more information visit the AMD Vision website at this link here.

If you are a student of an eligible UK College or University and aren’t yet aware of the Microsoft Ultimate Steal then you could be passing a fantastic offer on Office 2010 and Windows 7.

With full editions of Office 2010 Professional Academic edition and Windows 7 Professional at dramatically reduced prices this could be the perfect ticket to the best PowerPoint presentation ever or even the backup fail safe that you need.

Once bought you can download your software straight away however I would suggest that you also order a backup DVD just in case.

If your not a member of a College or University then you still might be able to take advantage of a similar deal just click here.

Office 2010 was officially made available to all to buy from the shops a few days ago and while its not as big a step up as going from Office 2003 to 2007 there are still some big changes that you should know about and may even help you decide if you want to upgrade or not.

Some of the biggest changes are-

• Office 2010 starter edition is replacing Microsoft Works
• PowerPoint now has tones more fancy effects and using templates is even easier before
• There’s ‘Jumplist’ integration in Windows 7
• Simple printing and sharing
• All new feature called Office Web Apps which is free to all
• A version designed for 64bit PCs

Read on for more!

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It looks like HP are preparing to launch their next wave of Notebooks in the UK and as such they are offering price cuts on many models of the current series and are even offering a free Digital Headset for all buyers.

So should you consider ignoring these offers and just waiting for the next wave?
Probably not! There are some fantastic models in the current series which include-

HP Pavilion dv6-2113 – £549 – Blog post – A massive 500GB hard disk and plenty of graphics processing power. With an LED HD screen and media centre remote control is this the ultimate entertainment PC.

HP Mini 210-1000 – £259 – A 10.1” compact netbook PC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Memory Card reader. Comes with Windows 7 starter edition and a multi touch track pad.

HP Pavilion dv7-3101 – £559 – With a 17.3” HD screen and dedicated graphics this portable gaming PC comes with all the extras including Bluetooth, 4GB of RAM and 2.1 (that’s including a subwoofer) speakers.

HP Envy 15-1060 – £999 – Envy by name and nature, made out of aluminium and with a Intel i7 Quad Core processor and powerful ATI graphics this 15.6” PC knows no limits.

For more information and to buy online visit the official HP UK website at this link here and remember every notebook PC comes with a free Digital Headset!

A short while ago I wrote about the Novatech X10, its a low cost netbook PC that you can choose to be delivered to you without Windows pre installed. However if you don’t have Windows you need some other operating system – that’s where Ubuntu Netbook Edition comes in.

Designed for small screened and low performance notebook PCs (commonly known as netbooks) this edition of Ubuntu Linux is designed to make it quick and easy to get you surfing the web, listening to music and typing up your next letter to your aunt.

Its freely available from the Ubuntu website (link) and while it won’t run any Windows programs (and I do mean any) it is a great low cost alternative to spending an extra £35 on Windows 7 and includes all the programs you would use a netbook for anyway.

Keep reading for features of Ubuntu!

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Have you found the perfect PC case for your new PC but just can’t find a custom build manufacturer who stocks that particular case and will put the guts of your dream PC inside it?

Although PC Specialist only offer 11 different cases (which in the grand scheme of things isn’t much) they now offer the option for you to buy and mail in your own case for them to then install all the components of your new PC into.

Naturally there’s some criteria you have to meet and if you are ever unsure about is the case right for the PC hardware you should contact PC Specialist before buying to make sure your making the right choice.

So if you are a enthusiast gamer looking for the ultimate case or a home user looking for something a bit more original than a black box visit PC Specialist (link) to find out more about their ‘choose your on case’ option.

On the launch of Windows Vista many of those who were upgrading from Windows XP found themselves unable to run many of Vistas fancy graphical effects and other programs started to run slowly. This was all down to the simple fact that the operating system was too advanced for the hardware and the basic graphics processors of the time simply couldn’t handle the additional work.

Recent advancements in graphics processors (like the ATI Radeon 3200 and 4200) have however made that problem go away with even the most basic PCs (excluding some netbooks) capable of HD video playback and running the full host of Windows 7 graphical effects.

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Two days ago AMD released the worlds first affordable six core processor under its Phenom line; dubbed the Phenom II x6 and currently available in two different models clocked at either 2.8ghz or 3.2ghz.

Designed to make modern high intensity programs (like games and video editing software) run faster by being able to run different parts of the program on different sections of the processor all at the same time (instead of one part of the program on the whole processor at any one time) these new six core processors certainly have the distinct advantage over their previous quad and dual core brothers.

Prices start at around £165 from Novatech (link) for the 2.8ghz version or if you are into over clocking and the want the very top performance from your PC have a look at the £235.99 Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition at this link here.

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