Build It: A Sandy Bridge Media Machine

By now, you've probably heard of Intel's new second-generation Core microarchitecture, best known by its code name, "Sandy Bridge." It's packed with technologies that can improve the speed and efficiency you edit photos, transcode videos, and perform other media-related tasks. Because it's also intended (at the moment, anyway) for the mainstream market, it's also relatively inexpensive. That means with a bit of shopping and a small time investment, you can construct a solid everyday PC that can move your photos and videos faster than that elaborate paperweight you may be using now.

Microsoft MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification and over 2000+ Exams at Actualkey.com

What follows is one way you can do this, using easily available (and generally inexpensive) components. In fact, this is the exact procedure and hardware we used for constructing our new Sandy Bridge test-bed system, which has been serving us well for over a month now. As always, you can swap out individual parts if they don't meet your specific needs or budget, but what follows is a good, basic strategy for putting together a good, basic computer using Intel's latest technology.

(Note: If you've been following the tech news for the last month and a half or so, you've heard of the Cougar Point B2 stepping glitch that caused some serious headaches for Intel with its motherboards and frustration with early adopters of Sandy Bridge. Intel has rectified the problem in its motherboards now, so you shouldn't expect any degradation in hard drive speeds.)

For the motherboard and processor, we stuck with the Intel Desktop Board DH67BL ($107 list) and the Intel Core i7-2600K CPU ($317 list)—the microATX motherboard would be easy to install and give us all the general features we needed, while the Core i7-2600K would provide faster Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated video for our non-media needs. The memory we chose was a 4GB kit of Kingston HyperX H20 ($94)—our PC won't be using liquid cooling, but this will give us more options should we decide to add it later. The power supply we settled on was an Ultra X4 500-Watt Modular PSU ($99.99), decently powerful and likely to help keep our computer interior tidy. We went with our standard Lite-On optical drive ($17.99) and 300GB Western Digital Velociraptor hard drive ($149.99) for storage.

We wanted to give ourselves more options, though, and since photos and videos were what we had in mind, that screamed out for as much convenient storage as possible. So we chose for our case the Thermaltake Dokker ($69.99), which has a built-in external hard drive dock on top. This would let us insert any 3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA drives at any time—even while the computer is on. We always have plenty of spare drives scattered around here, so this will let us use them to our hearts' content.

Lower Your Energy Costs with Tech

Times are tough, we've all got to save money where we can. But saving green doesn't have to mean abwandoning your favorite tech. In fact, with the right kind, you'll be able to save money over time. It may cost you more up front, but in the long run, you'll come out on top.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training – Microsoft MCITP Training at Certkingdom.com

If you're not in the mood to buy anything new, here are a few tips that will save you some money right now. If you've got an HDTV, you might want to modify its settings. Typically, these TVs have their brightness turned way up so you can easily spot it in the show room. You can go online and find calibration settings for your TV that will almost always lower its brightness and give you a better picture overall.

You should also pay a visit to the energy saver settings on your PC, so your computer will go to sleep when you're not using it. A computer still uses more power when it's asleep than when it's off, but this will still help you save you some cash.

To save even more money, you might want to be realistic and pick up some new tech. Find out some handy ways to lower your energy costs using the tech in the slideshow. Then you'll have a new problem: What to do with all that extra cash.