Sometimes pc assemblers just write their components with their specifications without telling what exact model they are going to use to build that particular pc configuration. Well these small model numbers sometimes can make a huge difference. Today I did some benchmarking on two different Western Digital 320GB Hard Disk models just so I can see if there is any difference in the performance. A simple benchmarking test with HD Tune Pro 4.01 showed some interesting results.

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As you can see the average read speed of the Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAKS is about 86.7MB/s which is a lot faster than the 60.0MB/s of the Western Digital Caviar WD3200AVJS. Similarly case is with the average write speed. The Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAKS has scored 85.8MB/s and the Western Digital Caviar WD3200AVJS 59.5MB/s . Having in mind that the classic hard disks (not SSD’s) are the slowest link in a modern PC configuration, these differences of 25MB/s have a lot of significance in the overall performance of a PC. So if you’re buying a new PC, better ask for that exact model of your hard drive and see how it compares to others.

The exact models used in the benchmarking process were:

Western Digital Caviar WD3200AVJS-00WDA0 and,
Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAKS-00L9A0 .

Here is a small gallery with both of them, and one old Western Digital 20GB just to break the monotony ;)

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Manufacturers sometimes change their packaging depending on the market they deliver to as well as the price they want to set. So customers asked me why these particular processors come in different packages, so I decided to make a small comparison.

Here are the unboxing videos of both of them

Well basically the main thing you buy is exactly the same. No differences. Same GHz same performance so there is nothing to worry about. The manuals/warranty that comes with it are a bit small in the smaller packaging, and the sticker is also the same with the only difference being that in the small package the sticker is out of the plastic box. But there seems to be a more significant difference at the fan comparison. As you may guessed, the bigger package has a little bigger radiator. Well because the AMD Athlon X2 240 works at 2.8GHz the fan doesn’t seem to make any significant difference in the temperature, but still if it costs even a dollar or two more I think it’s better to get the bigger one. Here are the pictures of both.

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I had a one to one combat with the language bar recently as the language bar just won’t minimize. If you go through the “regional and language options” and tick the show language bar, the language bar shows up as a flying icon which you can move through the screen. But if you want to minimize it and make it appear on the right of your taskbar (where it actually belongs) the language disappears completely, but if you check and see at the “regional and language options” you will notice that the “show language bar” is ticked.

Missing Language bar

I myself, like 99% of the windows users, find that the most comfortable and practical place for the language bar to show up is the right of the taskbar. That’s why I searched a lot around the internet, I tried and tried to edit the registry, and in the end I found a simple registry file that does the trick, it fixes the bug completely! Here it is:

Download Missing Language Bar Fixer

It is a simple registry file which you just have to double click and then select yes and that’s it. Your language bar will get back right at the task bar and you won’t have to guess which language are you typing at.