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- Tutorial: How to create a Windows rescue USB stick
- Review: Dell Inspiron 15r N5110
- Buying Guide: Top graphics cards for 3D gaming: 8 reviewed
- Review: Acer Aspire 5742G-384G64Mnkk
- Review: MSI U270
| Tutorial: How to create a Windows rescue USB stick Posted: 31 Jul 2011 05:00 AM PDT Anyone who's been on the receiving end of a PC disaster can testify to the pain that they can cause, and recovering from a major crash can be a long and difficult process. The beauty of Windows is that it can be fixed with an installation disc, which can work all kind of wonders with your PC - just stick it in your optical drive and reboot your machine. There's a problem, though - PC manufacturers don't generally like giving away copies of Windows with their machines, so if a shop-fresh system goes wrong, you're not only stuck up a proverbial creek without a paddle, but you're going to have to spend an enormous amount of effort getting out of it. Rescue discs Windows has a function that lets you make a rescue disc, which performs the wonders of the installation CD when things go wrong. The default way to do this is to use a blank CD, which is all well and good, but copied CDs are pretty open to getting scratched and not reading properly, and you'll need to fork out for a spindle for them, which will clutter up your home or office. Fortunately, as with most parts of Windows, there's a workaround. You can use a USB flash drive to act as a system restore disc in Windows 7, making part of an armoury of tools that you can call upon in times of need. To start making your recovery USB tool, you first need to create a recovery disc. You can go about this in two ways. The first is to actually burn a disc using the tool in Windows. Click 'Start', type create a system repair disk in the Search box and insert a blank disc. When you start the process, your disc will be burned, which can take a few minutes. This isn't ideal, though - CDs are slow and sometimes fiddly to make. With this in mind, we'd always opt for making a USB recovery key instead. Download ISO image
Whichever method you choose, you'll need to download an ISO disc image. To begin, go to here and download the appropriate image for your system. You'll need to use a torrent program to download the ISO, but it's fast and legal. It's now time to start turning your CD image into a USB repair tool. First, you need a USB flash drive that you're prepared to format. The ISO file is only 100MB, so an ordinary 512MB stick will be fine. Connect it to your PC, then click 'Start' and type cmd into the Search box. Right-click on the icon and select 'Run as administrator'. Once the command prompt has opened, you can use its partitioning tool to turn your bog standard USB drive into a powerful rescue disk. First, type diskpart into the prompt and press [Enter], which will enable the process. Next, type list disk to get a list of all available disks. They will be listed in numerical order, showing every partition, CD, USB connection and eSATA currently connected. Being DOS, it will neglect to call these partitions by their assigned name, so put your detective cap on and choose the disk that's the right size. Next, select the USB key by typing select disk #, where the hash is the appropriate number for your USB drive. The next step is to format the USB key so that Windows will recognise it as a bootable recovery disc. To do this, first type clean into the command prompt, then press [Enter] and your USB stick will be prepared for use. Next, type create partition primary, hit [Enter] and type select partition 1, followed by active. This process slowly readies your USB stick for action, but there's a little way to go yet. Type the command format fs=ntfs to finalise the filesystem on your USB drive so that it can be read by Windows when it boots. This process can take a few seconds to complete, and you'll be returned to the prompt when it's done. Now type ASSIGN and EXIT to complete the process. When the USB stick is prepared, if you burned your disc using the built-in tool, insert it into the drive and explore the contents when prompted.
There will be three folders on the CD. Drag these from the CD onto the USB drive, and then safely eject it. If you opted to download the ISO file, then you need to extract the file. You can use 7-Zip or WinRAR to extract the folders, and save them into a new folder on your machine. When it's extracted, navigate to the folder and drop them onto your USB drive to finish the process. Enable USB booting
Now that your USB rescue disc is set up, you can breathe a sigh of relief - almost. There's still one more task left. Your PC has a pre-defined boot priority, which tells it which devices to read from when it starts up. Normally, the first will the CD-ROM drive, so that an installation disc can be found before the hard drive, where the BIOS will expect to find your installed operating system. USB booting is normally disabled, or last on the list. The upshot is that if your PC suffers a huge crash, then your shiny new USB rescue disc will be as useful as a chocolate fireguard. There's a simple workaround though. Restart your PC with the USB stick connected and enter the BIOS menu. This is traditionally done by hitting the [Delete] key as soon as your PC starts, but manufacturers like to make life difficult and it could be [F1], [F2] or even [F12]. The key to access your BIOS should be labelled, but you can search Google for your PC brand if you're having trouble. When the BIOS has loaded, you need to find the boot menu, which is normally to the right of the screen. Check if there's an option for USB booting, which might be labelled 'External device'. Scroll down to this option using the arrow keys, then hit [Enter] and choose 'Enabled' if it isn't already selected. Next, you need to promote your USB drive to the top of your boot list. Every BIOS works differently, but you need to change the boot order to promote your stick above the optical drive and hard disc drive. When you've finished, go to 'Exit' and make sure you save your changes. There is a downside to enabling USB booting, which can become tiresome. While non-operating CDs won't affect the boot when the optical drive is chief of the boot list, USB sticks that are plugged in will often confuse your PC, making it fail to boot, citing an unrecognised partition. It's easy to fix though (just remove the offending stick) and you can recover your PC using your rescue kit if things go wrong. Rescue package
Now that you've made your USB rescue disc and your PC is primed to recognise it, you will be protected if your machine goes wrong. In the event of a crash, just plug your USB stick into a spare port and boot your system from cold. The BIOS will see a bootable disc and present you with a host of diagnostic options, which you can use to fix the problem. When your PC reboots, you can choose the right tool to fix it. The options are Startup Repair, which scans your PC for any issues that might be preventing it from booting up, or System Restore. System Restore is the most useful of these two. It lets you roll back your entire setup to a previous point in time, eliminating most problems at a stroke. Windows 7 is especially good a setting restore points when the slightest changes are made to the operating system, which means you can resurrect your system with a minimum of fuss. If you use the advanced features, you can also run Memory Diagnostics, or use System Image Recovery so that a complete system recovery can take place. Finally, you can boot to the command prompt and remedy problems like it's 1999. Having the option to recover your PC from USB is extremely handy, and it can make up part of a larger USB recovery toolkit together with Linux distros, which can keep your data totally safe. Of course, it's still essential to maintain regular backups of your files, and to take advantage of tools like System Restore and images of Windows, so that when you do recover your PC, getting back on track is as easy and painless as possible. 
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| Review: Dell Inspiron 15r N5110 Posted: 31 Jul 2011 03:30 AM PDT Dell has impressed us lately with a great range of laptops to suit all users, and the Inspiron 15r N5110 is no exception. It's quite expensive for a mid-range laptop, but still offers great value for money, thanks to its excellent performance. That extra cash buys you the latest Intel Core i5 2410M processor, which is a step above the Core i3 processors found in most of the other machines at this price. While other laptops can comfortably run all of your applications, the Dell provides an extra bit of future-proofing and won't need replacing any time soon. Even the most demanding software loads quickly and runs smoothly. You also get a powerful dedicated Nvidia GT 525M graphics card, while most other laptops make do with basic integrated graphics, where the processor also has to handle image rendering. The result is much better multimedia performance. High-definition (HD) movies run perfectly, you can comfortably edit all of your media, and gamers can play the latest titles without sacrificing graphics quality for a smooth frame rate. Tech Labs
Battery Eater '05: 166 minutes If you enjoy kicking back with action games after a tough day of studying, this is the laptop for you. Bright screen The 15.6-inch screen is bright, although the Packard Bell EasyNote NS44 HR-033UK compact screen is sharper. However, we found the Dell's screen was vibrant enough to fully enjoy our photos and films, with decent viewing angles. The built-in SRS speakers are some of the most powerful, making them good for music and movies, although audiophiles will prefer a dedicated external pair. While the Dell offers good performance, it's by no means the most portable. We didn't quite get three hours of use from the battery when watching films, although this isn't a bad result, and if you're simply typing out an essay or doing some other light work, you can expect to get another hour or so out of the battery. At 2.7kg it's quite heavy for a laptop, which also limits portability. Still, it can be carried around if needed and the body isn't too chunky to be a pain when you have to cram it into your backpack. This laptop might not be perfectly portable, but it's certainly attractive. The dark brushed-metal finish looks slick, with only a little flex around the edges, and our model came with one of Dell's swappable SWITCH lids. You get a choice of over twenty colourful designs, which make a refreshing change from the standard plain efforts. If you get sick of one design, just order a new one from Dell and they'll ship it out. Like many of the laptops here, an isolation-style keyboard has been used. The keys are well spaced, but we found the board to be spongy, with considerable flex in the middle when typing. It's not a serious issue and you soon get used to it, but we expected better.
Connections are plentiful, with VGA and HDMI ports for hooking up external displays and even an eSATA port for attaching external hard drives. With 500GB of built-in storage, you'll most likely only need an external drive when backing up your important files. If you need the extra power and have the cash to spare, the Inspiron 15r is a great student laptop that will last you for a few years. However, portability and usability aren't as strong as we would have liked. 
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| Buying Guide: Top graphics cards for 3D gaming: 8 reviewed Posted: 31 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT Stereoscopic 3D might seem straightforward, but you'll need a lot of boxes ticked if you want to enjoy it on your PC. As well as a 3D-capable monitor with a refresh rate of 120Hz, your computer needs a graphics card that's powerful enough to handle 3D content. To generate 3D images, the graphics card has to produce the graphics twice, creating a slightly different image for each eye. This extra workload can put a lot of strain on the card. Most modern cards include 3D capabilities - especially recent Nvidia cards, which support Nvidia 3D Vision - so finding one that can display 3D content isn't a problem. The trick is finding a graphics card that can display 3D without any noticeable drop in image quality. You don't want to spend money on a card only to find that the frame rate plummets when you turn on 3D effects, leading to choppy, stuttering movies and unplayable games. Upgrading from two dimensions isn't the only reason to buy a new graphics card. More powerful GPUs make for better graphics all round. While modern computer games benefit most from a powerful card, other applications will also show an improvement. Video editing in particular benefits from a muscular card, because many movie-making tools now take advantage of technology like Nvidia's CUDA, which hands more processing tasks to the graphics card, freeing up the PC's processor for other tasks. Getting the right graphics card can make a huge impact on your computer, and we'll show you some of the best. EVGA GTX 460 1GB - £139 MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti - £176 Zotac GeForce GTX 570 - £260 Zotac GeForce GTX 580 - £385 Asus GeForce GTX 590 - £580 Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 - £181 HIS Radeon HD 6970 - £265 Asus Radeon HD 6990 - £501 EVGA GTX 460 1GB
Nvidia has had a long history of creating superb mid-range cards, from the 6600 GT to the incredible 8800 GT, and the GTX 460 can sit happily among such illustrious forebears. Its launch price was £200, but you can now easily pick up an overclocked 1GB version for as little as £140. If any graphics card can be described as a hero, surely this is it. It no longer leads the market in performance, but it's not as far off the pace as you might imagine from its age. It's the oldest and slowest model in this test, but its price keeps it competitive. When you consider that it's nearly £50 less than the cheapest HD 6870, and with performance that is just shy of the AMD card, it's quite a bargain. Read TechRadar's full EVGA GTX 460 1GB review MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Just as the GTX 570 was beginning to replace the GTX 480, leaving the GTX 580 on its own at the head of the single-GPU pack, the GTX 560 Ti appeared to take over from the GTX 470. That's a lot of numbers, but it does make sense - especially when you look at the performance of those GTX 460s, even in today's highly competitive market. It would make no sense for Nvidia to kill off one of its best cards, but it's not quite as simple as just another transistor-level tweak of the GTX 470's design. The GTX 560 Ti is more of a halfway house between the GTX 470 and GTX 460; it has 64 fewer CUDA cores and eight fewer ROPs than the former. To make up for this shortfall in GPU spec, it comes out of the box with the fastest core clockspeed we've seen in an Nvidia GPU since the FX 5xxx series. Read TechRadar's full MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti review Zotac GeForce GTX 570
This card represents the second tier of Nvidia's Fermi lineup. It's an impressive performer, and a little cheaper than AMD's top single card, the HD 6970. It has more in common with the Nvidia GTX 480 though, with almost the same basic GPU layout. The GTX 570 has the same 480 CUDA cores and 60 texture units, but has 40 ROPs compared to the GTX 480's 48. The 570 also has a smaller frame buffer, at 1,280MB compared to the previous generation's 1,536MB. It packs the same transistor-level re-engineering as the GTX 580, though. As such, it's a much more efficient, cooler graphics card, and its performance metrics will be almost as good if you're running a sub-30-inch panel. Read TechRadar's full Zotac GeForce GTX 570 review Zotac GeForce GTX 580
Let's not beat around the bush; Nvidia's GTX 580 is the best single-GPU card on the market. It held sway over all the others across every one of the benchmarks we ran. This is due to the GF110 GPU at its heart. Fermi has proven to be the best GPU architecture Nvidia has ever manufactured, and with this second generation (the GTX 5xx series) it's gone from strength to strength. The first Fermi, the GTX 480, was the top card of its day, but not without issues. These were the amount of power it needed and the amount of heat it generated. For the GTX 580, Nvidia's engineers went back to the drawing board and tweaked the design right down to the transistor level, tailoring the smallest parts to give the best performance where needed, and the best efficiency where speed wasn't the goal. Read TechRadar's full Zotac GeForce GTX 580 review Asus GeForce GTX 590
Nvidia has been the market leader in graphic card technology for so long, when it says it's reached the pinnacle of engineering with the fastest single-PCB (printed circuit board) graphics card it's ever made, you sit up and take notice. It's quite a boast, and it sounds amazing on paper - one board with two of the most powerful GPUs Nvidia has ever made combined on it. However, compromises have had to be made to get the chips to run happily on a single card, and to stay within the 375W limit imposed by a pair of eight-pin PCI-e connectors and the motherboard PCI-e bus. That means we don't quite have a pair of the GPUs ripped straight out of Nvidia's flagship single-GPU card, the GTX 580. Instead of the core clock of 772MHz and a shader clock of 1,544MHz, the GTX 590 houses a pair of chips running at a seriously toned-down 607MHz core clock and 1,215MHz shader clock. The memory clock has been dropped from 2,004MHz to 1,707MHz. Read TechRadar's full Asus GeForce GTX 590 review Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
The Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 appears to be the finest graphics card AMD has produced in a long time. In the sub-£200 market, it's as good as you're going to get, and it's a graphics card that offers much more than any of the opposition in its price bracket. The HD 6950 comes close to the HD 6970 and the GTX 570 in its plain state. The 2GB GDDR5 frame buffer means it can more or less keep pace with Nvidia's secondtier Fermi card, although it lags behind slightly for the most part. It does the same with the HD 6970, but that's to be expected from a card that's so much cheaper. The sub-£200 price tag is a fantastic psychological coup, making this an affordable yet powerful option. That impressive performance is all down to the Cayman GPU. As we've already mentioned, the Cayman contains the same core as the GPU powering the more expensive HD 6970, though with a lower clockspeed and a few other components switched off at a software level. This leads to a problem... Read TechRadar's full Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 review HIS Radeon HD 6970
AMD's fastest single-GPU model is a tough one to recommend. It's certainly the quickest AMD has released - the big problem is the second-tier card the came out alongside it - the HD 6950. The Cayman XT at the heart of the HD 6970 is essentially the same GPU you'll find paired in the Antilles chip of the dual-GPU HD 6990. It's clocked faster than the stock specs of the Antilles, but thanks to the Antilles Unlocking Switch (also known as the Screw Your Warranty Switch by those who choose to use it), the HD 6990 can run with its GPUs at the same speed as the HD 6970. You can get two HD 6970s for about the same as one HD 6990. So far, so good, but what of the HD 6950 we mentioned? Read TechRadar's full HIS Radeon HD 6970 review Asus Radeon HD 6990
AMD pipped Nvidia to the post, releasing its dual-GPU, top-end graphics card a few weeks before the GeForce GTX 590. The HD 6990 is the fastest single-PCB graphics card the Texan brand has ever made, and houses two of the cores from its current fastest single-GPU card - the HD 6970. The Cayman XT from that card has been doubled up and redubbed 'Antilles', and comes with slower clock, shader and memory speeds out of the box. You're not taking as much of a hit in clockspeed as with the GTX 590's GPUs, but that's because the Cayman XTs run a little slower than the GF110 GPUs in the GTX 580s in the first place. There is a key difference here, and that comes from the little Antilles Unlocking Switch. Like the Cayman-powered cards that came before it (the HD 6950 and HD 6970), the HD 6990 comes with a dual-BIOS switch hardwired into the PCB. This comes with an attractive yellow warning sticker covering it, which warns you that as soon as you flick the switch, you effectively invalidate your warranty. Read TechRadar's Asus Radeon HD 6990 full review The award winners Most of the cards we tested here do the job well, and upgrading your PC with any of them will give a serious performance boost. However, there are a couple that you should avoid to get the best possible 3D graphics on your PC, and there are others like the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 that stand out from the crowd. Things become a little more confusing when you consider using multiple graphics cards in SLI or CrossFire mode. This allows two or more cards to work together to boost performance. Although it might seem slightly unintuitive, it can be cheaper to buy two graphics cards to get the same performance as one expensive card. If you're really after the best graphics and your computer can handle it, then this is the way to go. Editor's choice Zotac GeForce GTX 580 The GeForce GTX 580 is Nvidia's flagship card for a reason - its performance in our tests was extremely impressive, and it can handle the latest games and 3D content with remarkable ease. It might be a bit on the expensive side for a graphics card, but it's money well spent. If you have the budget and the space to spare on your motherboard, then a pair of GeForce GTX 580s will serve you well and effectively future-proof your PC for many years to come. Verdict: 5/5 Value award Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 While the GeForce GTX 580 has the best performance for a single card, the Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 easily wins the best value award. On its own it's a great performance card, but when you also take into account the overclocking potential of this graphics card, you have a fantastic product for under £200. Upgrading to 3D is expensive enough, so it's heartening to see such good value for money. Verdict: 4.5/5 
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| Review: Acer Aspire 5742G-384G64Mnkk Posted: 31 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT Students on a tight budget will find great value to be had from the Acer Aspire 5742G-384G64Mnkk. Strong performance is just the icing on the cake, with plenty of great features to speak of, although the short battery life is a pain. The Aspire 5742G-384G64Mnkk looks immediately familiar with Acer's usual raised keyboard filling the interior. Anyone used to bevelled, rounded keys might be put off by the completely flat design, but we find them perfect for touch-typing, thanks to the generous key size. Only the arrow keys are a little cramped. However, the gaps between the keys are a magnet for crumbs, so typing while eating crisps is not recommended. The body features a matt-black finish, which prevents fingerprints and other marks from showing up, although we did notice some flex around the palmrests when we pushed down on them. At just 2.4kg it's perfect for slipping into backpacks, thanks to the slender frame. Unfortunately, the battery dies quite fast, lasting just two hours when watching video. Colourful screen Like every laptop here besides the Packard Bell, the Aspire 5742G has a 15.6-inch screen. It's not particularly bright, but it is colourful and great for enjoying your photos and movies. The display also tilts back almost to horizontal, so you're bound to find a comfortable viewing angle even when the machine's resting on your lap. However, the integrated speakers are rather muted compared to the likes of the HP G62-b32SA, so you'll need a decent pair of headphones or earphones to enjoy your music. A previous-generation Intel Core i3 380M processor provides strong performance, despite being older technology than the new Sandy Bridge Intel processors. In our benchmarking tests, the Acer was beaten only by the Dell Inspiron 15r N5110 and HP G62-b32SA. You can comfortably do all sorts simultaneously making it perfect for any multi-tasking student who needs to bash out an essay while doing web research and chatting with friends through instant messenger programs. The 4GB of memory keeps everything running smoothly. Acer has included dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 520M 1GB graphics, which makes this the best multimedia laptop after the Dell Inspiron 15R. If you need to edit video or perform other complex media tasks, or simply want to play games, this is a great option. Just bear in mind that you'll need to turn down detail levels on some of the more recent games to keep things running smoothly. Tech Labs
Battery Eater '05: 120 minutes You can fit a huge number of games and high-definition (HD) movies on the 640GB hard drive, which offers twice as much storage space as most other laptops at this price. A 2-in-1 memory card reader can also be found on the side of the laptop for backing up important files. This laptop also features built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi support, so you can quickly access the internet by connecting to a wireless network. You also get HDMI and VGA ports for attaching monitors or televisions, and a DVD drive for watching films and installing software.
Despite the short battery life, the Aspire 5742G-384G64Mnkk is still a great-value laptop that will suit almost any student. The strong multimedia performance, huge hard drive and excellent keyboard make it an option well worth considering. 
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| Posted: 31 Jul 2011 02:30 AM PDT The MSI U270 looks and feels like a netbook, but its sharp screen and graphically capable processor push it more into the realm of an ultraportable laptop. It's best suited to regular travellers who need a basic machine for running simple office applications. An AMD processor runs the show, and it's the same model as found in the HP Pavilion DM1-3100sa. First impressions were bad as it scored a similarly low score in our benchmarking tests, and was thoroughly beaten by the Intel-powered machines. While you can comfortably browse the web and run basic office applications, the U270 does drag when you try to do things in parallel. We were pleasantly surprised when we ran the graphical tests. In a massive turnaround, the U270 scored well, narrowly edging out the HP, and we found that photo-editing software ran acceptably. However, some of our high-definition (HD) films actually stuttered quite badly during play. Tech Labs
Battery Eater '05: 162 Also bear in mind that, like the HP, there is no built-in DVD drive. If you want to install software from discs or watch DVD movies, you'll need an external drive that connects up via USB. While the 11.6-inch screen may be a little small for fully enjoying movies, it's still a colourful and well-designed panel. Along with the HP, it has a sharp, while the lack of a glossy Super-TFT finish means you can see perfectly outside, with no reflections to hamper your view. The tinny speakers are rubbish though, so you'll need some headphones to enjoy music. Highly portable Although performance falls short, the MSI makes up for it with portability. This is a light machine at just 1.5kg, so you'll barely notice it when stashed inside your bag, although the 42mm chassis is surprisingly thick. The battery will put up a good fight, giving almost three hours of video playback before finally running out. You'll get over four hours when performing lighter tasks such as checking your email, so you won't need to pack the charger if you use it on your daily commute. Despite the compact frame, we still enjoyed using the isolation-style keyboard. It stretches the width of the interior and all of the keys are a good size for touch-typing, except for the tiny right Shift key. The touchpad is a little cramped, but the increased sensitivity makes up for this. You can always attach a mouse using one of the three USB ports. One of these ports is the latest USB 3.0, indicated by the blue colouration. This is the latest and fastest version which allows data to be swapped with compatible devices, such as external hard drives, at twice the rate of the old USB 2.0. Most users will be satisfied by the 320GB of storage. This gives you enough space to hold a sizeable media collection, including thousands of holiday snaps and music albums. Both VGA and HDMI ports are available for connecting external monitors. If you want an affordable laptop for working on basic office software, and need a mobile machine so you can stay productive on the go, the U270 is worth considering. However, those after a bit more power should look elsewhere. 
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