March FAQ Update, Part 2

Often with pieces of technology as complex as computers, there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings with various aspects of hardware and software. A little bit of an explanation surrounding the basic concepts regarding the hardware and software in question can go a long way towards a better understanding of how things work. In particular it can help readers make informed decisions regarding purchasing hardware, and future trends.

Some of the FAQs presented over the next few weeks are no exception.

Sohcan is a very highly respected member who frequents the Highly Technical Forum and generally tackles some very difficult issues regarding processor architecture and performance. This week, he brings us an article entitled The Myths and Realities of 64-bit Computing.

This is a technical look at 64-bit processor architecture, operation, and what to expect in terms of coming processors such as the AMD Hammer family and the rumoured Intel Yamhill processor. He explains much of the background of 64-bit computing, the advantages and disadvantages it brings, and how SIMD works.

After a period of absence from the forums, Modus again returns to tackle some difficult and often controversial issues. This week he has written an article about Helping Windows Survive a Motherboard Upgrade. This issue is very commonly addressed on the forums, with members asking should they reformat their systems when they change their motherboard. This article offers a solution and takes you through step by step in detail.

The ASUS P4T-E along with a Northwood Pentium 4 processor is a very popular combination in the light of the great performance offered by the i850 chipset and RDRAM, and the overclockability of the new 0.13 micron Northwood with 512KB of L2 cache. However, with many P4T-Es actually being produced before the release of the Northwood, this motherboard requires a BIOS upgrade before it is able to operate with the new processor. With many members on the forums wondering why their hot new combination will not boot, the My ASUS P4T-E with Northwood won't boot up FAQ explains just how to get around the problem.

This week I would also like to draw your attention to the FAT32 vs NTFS FAQ. Many of the file system related questions are still being asked in the forums, and while the FAQ titles do not always seem obvious in the issues they address, usually they are detailed and thorough enough to cover just about all related aspects.

The FAT32 vs NTFS FAQ covers the advantages and disadvantages of each file system, maximum supported partition sizes, which operating systems support which file systems, FAT32 size issues with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, FDISK size issues, and other relevant points.