One of the most important but overlooked components in your PC is the PC case. Selecting a good PC case is an important step in building your computer, since it determines several things. It determines the number of PC components you can have, as well as how well your system’s temperature. And heck, it also determines how good your PC looks!

Let’s take a look at the different factors to consider when selecting a good PC case.

External Space

The first factor to consider is how much space your PC case is going to take up. Are you placing it on a tight, crammed desk? Or on a large desk? If you have the space, tower PC cases are a good choice. If you’re short of space, you may wish to consider smaller mini PC cases which are getting more popular these days.

Internal Space

Another factor to consider is how many components you wish to fit in your PC case. If you’re a computer nut like me, you’ll want to fit in a good motherboard, CPU, a couple of hard drives, video card, LAN card, cooling fans, a CD-ROM drive and a DVD writer. That’s a lot of components to be cramming into a PC case! Again, a good choice would be a tower PC case. However, with so many components, you have to watch out for overheating problems - make sure you deck out the system with a couple of good fans.

Motherboard Support

One thing you must absolutely remember - check that your motherboard can fit into the case! Some cases are flexible enough to support AT, ATX and Baby-AT boards, but others only support one of these sizes. Even then, you need to be careful - some cheaper ‘ATX’ cases don’t really fit ATX motherboards. I remember buying a wonderful ATX motherboard and it couldn’t fit into my PC case! Imagine my frustration!

Power Supply

Most PC cases come with power supplies. With more and more components being fitted into a PC, you will certainly need enough juice to power them. My advice is to go for at least a 400W power supply. Also make sure the unit is ATX 2.01 compliant to avoid motherboard compatibility issues.

Cooling

If you’re a overclocker or have many system components, you’ll need to ensure you’ve got enough fans in that case to cool the system. Good PC cases allow multiple (4 or more) cooling fans to be installed, ensuring good ventilation.

Looks

Just a few years back, PC cases were boring white boxes. These days, you can find a plethora of colorful PC cases - if you’re concerned about your PC’s ‘look’. Many PC enthusiasts I know go for good looking PC cases that come in a variety of colors - red, black, green, blue and what not.

Conclusion

In summary, always remember to consider the above factors when selecting PC cases. For the average home or business user, a good, simple case like the Just 4 PC case is recommended. If you’re a hardcore computer enthusiast, you’ll want to pay more attention to factors like internal space, motherboard support and cooling. Cases like the Premium 2531 and the Ultra UV Wizard would be ideal. Just consider your budget and your needs carefully - then go grab that case!

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at http://www.build-your-own-computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

When you work in an office, it’s important to lock your workstation every time you step away from your computer. A pain, but a security measure. You wouldn’t want someone sending a nasty-gram in your email address, would you? Here’s a faster way to lock a workstation without going through the CTRL+ALT+DEL route.

On the desktop (Window+M), right-click an empty area and select New > Shortcut.

Copy and paste the following into the location box:

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

Name the shortcut "Lock workstation" or whatever you prefer and click Finish. Click on it and the PC stands guard until you return and enter the correct password.

FYI: rundll32.exe is already in the path.

A reader wrote in, "Firstly, I’m not totally sure how creating an icon is any easier than the ALT+CTRL+DEL option. Pressing those keys then hitting space I would say is more often then not going to be quicker than finding your desktop and clicking on an icon. However, if you are looking for a quicker way to lock your computer. Perhaps you should try Windows + L."

I responded saying the ALT+CTRL+DEL option requires selecting Lock Workstation. Since we have to lock our workstation so often, I find clicking an icon faster. However, the Windows+L will work for keyboard fans. However, I checked Windows+L and it didn’t work on my work computer.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl’s notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn’t wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.

How do you know when to buy more memory for your computer? Or how much memory you’ll need? If you can afford it, you should always buy as much memory as you can, since it boosts system performance.

But not all of us need 1 GB of RAM - most home users need only about 512 MB of RAM. Besides, computer memory is very expensive - a 512 MB piece of RAM costs about $50. This article will help you analyze when you need to buy memory and much memory is required in various scenarios.

When to Buy More Memory

Thinking back on my experience with building computers, there are usually five scenarios under which you’d buy memory for your computer:

• When upgrading your operating system
• When installing new applications
• When installing multimedia cards
• When adding computer peripherals
• When your hard disk starts ‘chugging’

Let’s look at these in turn.

When Upgrading Your Operating System

Each time I upgrade my operating system, I find that I need to buy more memory. Your operating system is a huge memory hogger. Windows XP , for example, requires at least 512 MB RAM to run smoothly (at least on my PC). Windows 2000 needs at least 256 MB RAM. Always check the operating system manufacturer’s documentation carefully - they always tend to understate memory requirements.

When installing new applications: Business software like Microsoft Office, video editing applications like Adobe Premiere Pro and games like Half-Life 2 really need a LOT of memory. Some will refuse to run if they find your memory lacking. Other applications will run but will crawl like a snail. Newer software these days assume you have a huge amount of memory. Again, check the manufacturer’s documentation carefully for memory requirements.

When Installing Multimedia Cards

Two types of cards come into mind - video cards and sound cards. Video cards have a built-in memory but they also consume main system RAM. Don’t be fooled by that fancy video card that says it’ll deliver fantastic 3D graphics performance. Video cards depend a lot on your main system RAM. Without sufficient memory, the video cards will still perform poorly even if they are the latest and greatest versions (the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro comes to mind).

When Adding Computer Peripherals

If you add a printer or scanner to your system, you should also consider buying more memory. Printers consume system memory particularly when printing huge files. Scanners consume memory when handling large image files.

When Your Hard Disk Starts ‘Chugging’

In general, you can tell whether you should be buying more memory by listening to your hard drive. Yes, by listening to your hard drive. If it makes a long drawn ‘chugging’ noise whenever you copy or edit large files, you can be sure you need a memory upgrade.

You see, when your system is low on memory, it borrows space from your hard disk to make ‘virtual memory’. This process is called ‘paging’ and it’s very, very slow and irritating . Get that memory upgrade and avoid this problem at all costs!

How Much Memory Do You Need?

Depending on the type of software applications you are using, the amount of memory you need will differ. As a bare minimum, computers these days need at least 256 MB of RAM.

Refer to the list below to see how much memory you will need based on the type of software you use.

• Administrative: Word processing, email, spreadsheets, surfing the web, general gaming, not many applications open at once. Get 256 MB to 512 MB of memory.

Conclusion

This article has explored the various scenarios when a memory upgrade is necessary. Once you determine you need a memory upgrade, decide how much memory you want. Remember that your motherboard has a limited number of slots for memory, so check that whatever memory you buy can fit into those slots. Good luck and happy shopping!

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at http://www.build-your-own-computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

Getting a new PC is exciting and a pain. It’s exciting because you get a faster processor, more storage and all the latest stuff even though it’s outdated as soon as it hits your desk. The pain comes with re-installing all of your programs, re-customizing your preferences for programs, applications, and Windows, and transferring data to the new PC.

It can be simplified by using a bootable external drive or something similar and letting it load everything on the new PC. However, if you are like me, you probably had a few problems here and there that couldn’t be found and fixed. So it’s better to start with a clean slate.

I am getting a new PC at the office and my hard drive crashed on my laptop. There’s nothing I can do about the laptop, but I kept it simple since it’s a supporting computer rather than the main PC. I often used a remote application to connect to my desktop from the laptop. Therefore, the laptop had few loaded programs and data. I did try to make a backup of my user profile before the crash, but it was having too many problems and the backup didn’t happen.

As for the work PC, here are the steps I took to prepare for moving to a new computer with the limited resources I had.

• Ensured all my work was on the network server. I kept backups of important files on the hard drive as a safety measure after my past experience.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl’s notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn’t wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.

RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory. RAM is an important part of any computer system. RAM is memory to hold frequently used bits of data for the computer to access in an efficient manner. Accessing RAM as opposed to the hard disk is a lot easier and quicker for a computer.

RAM is essential for several different applications, but more so for some than others. For example encoding video would take up a large amount of RAM as it is RAM intensive. Database applications also use up a lot of RAM due to the amount of data involved. Surfing the web and using word or powerpoint for example would not use much RAM at all. The question you need to ask is do you need the upgraded RAM. If you don’t then save your money. If you do please read on.

There are several options to choose from when upgrading RAM. The first is the size of RAM you want to purchase. They come in 256mb, 512mb, 1gig and 2gig varieties. Just as a quick reference 1gig of RAM will be enough for most things you want to do, 2gig might be overkill.

Once you pick the size of the RAM you want you have to choose the type of RAM. There are two main types of RAM. DDR and DDR2. What you have to take into account when buying the RAM is which type your motherboard will support. Most new Intel motherboards will take DDR2 as this is the latest technology. At present AMD boards are not compatible with DDR2 so if you have an AMD board then you will have to buy DDR RAM.

Once you buy the RAM then you have to install it. Installing RAM is really quite simple. Firstly you need to remove the case in order to be able to get to the motherboard. Once this is done you simple need to put the RAM into one of the free slots on your motherboard. Something to take note of would be the particular slot you put the RAM in. Some motherboards can be particularly fussy so read the user manual of your motherboard before upgrading the RAM.

There you have it, improving the speed of your computer by upgrading the RAM is very simple and can be very effective.

www.technologyslice.com

For more great technology related articles and reviews visit http://www.technologyslice.com

Nvidia has done it again, with it’s newest video card, the geforce 7800 GTX. If money is no object and you demand the best, this is the video card for you.

The 7800 GTX, which promises 600 MHz, 256 MB of 256-bit DDR3 memory and a graphics core clock speed of 430 MHz, is the absolute fastest video card, to date, that money can buy.

Despite the high clock speeds, the 7800 utilizes a single-slot cooling solution. This is made possible because of the processor size which is 20 NM smaller then their previous 8600’s. Also contributing to the cooling of the card is the improved power managment system, which automatically turns off unused portions of the chip.

The 7800GTX is equipped with 24 pixel shader units and 8 vertex shader units. With over 200 GFLOP’s of shading avaliable, Nvidia raises the bar, once again, on video card’s graphics and performance.

This is all in just one videocard, pair them up in SLI mode and you have the best video cards in terms of speed, stability and appearance. One thing to watch however, when running dual cards in SLI mode, is that unless you have a top of the line processor, such as the FX-55 you may find your video cards waiting on your processor to catch up. In this case you may want to hold off on getting both cards untill you upgrade your processor.

Nicholas Spriggs is the author and creator of desktop-computer-guide and is dedicated to bringing you the most accurate information on computers and all things related

http://www.desktop-computer-guide.com - Your guide to computers

Running a business from home has its advantages, including no commute, a more accommodating work schedule, fresh coffee and home-cooked meals at any time you want.

But running a business from home using a home wireless local area network (WLAN) with your computer may lead to thievery of confidential information and hacker or virus penetration unless proper actions are taken. As WLANs send information back and forth over radio waves, someone with the right type of receiver in your immediate area could be picking up the transmission, thus acquiring access to your computer.

Here is a list of things that you should consider as a result of implementing a home wireless network setup used your business:

Viruses could be loaded onto your laptop which could be transferred to the company’s network when you go back to work.

Up to 75 per cent of home wireless network WLAN users do not have standard security features installed, and 20 per cent are left completely open as default configurations and are not secured, but are made for the users to have their network up and running ASAP.

It is recommended that home wireless network router/access point system setups be always done though a wired client.

Always change the default administrative password on your home wireless network router/access points to a secured password.

Enable at least 128-bit WEP encryption on both card and access point. Change your WEP keys periodically. If equipment does not support at least 128-bit WEP encryption, consider replacing it. Although there are security issues with WEP, it represents minimum level of security, and it should be enabled.

Change the default SSID on your router/access point to a hard to guess name. Setup your computer device to connect to this SSID by default.

Setup router/access points so as to not broadcast the SSID. The same SSID needs to be setup on the client side manually. This feature may not be available on all equipment.

Setup your home wireless network router to block anonymous internet requests or pings.

On each computer having a wireless network card, network connection properties should be configured to allow connection to Access Point Networks Only. Computer to computer (peer to peer) connections should not be allowed.

Enable MAC filtering. Deny connection to wireless network for unspecified MAC addresses. MAC or physical addresses are accessible through your computer device wireless network connection setup and they are physically written on network cards. When adding new wireless cards / computer to the network, their MAC addresses should be registered with the router /access point.

Your home wireless network router should have firewall features enabled and demilitarized zone (DMZ) feature disabled. Periodically test your hardware and personal firewalls using Shields Up test available at http://www.grc.com. All computers should have a properly configured personal firewall in addition to a hardware firewall.

Update router/access point firmware when new versions become available.

Locate router/access points away from strangers so they cannot reset the router/access point to default settings. Also, locate router/access points in the middle of the building rather than near windows to limit signal coverage outside the building.

You should know that nothing is 100%. While none of the actions suggested above will provide full 100% protection, countermeasures do exist that will help. The good collection of suggested preventative actions contained herein can help you deter an intruder trying to access your home wireless network. This deterrant then makes other insecure networks easier targets for the intruder to persue.

Greg Lietz is an internet business man, freelance writer and computer enthusiast. His websites provide information on wireless internet networking and personal computer hardware that may be of interest to you.

Human beings are scaling new heights day by day. Markets are becoming more and more complex and competitive. Companies launch new products, market them, but even then are not sure if their product will match the taste, need and pocket of the consumer. This is because numerous brands are associated with a single commodity. Some companies try to win the consumer’s heart via a low price while a few others offer an impeccable quality at significantly good amount. But at the end of the day what matters to the consumer is how the products minimizes the labor, enhances the work and its durability. This article will shed light on some of the eminent and world’s top quality products called ‘Ergo Products’. There are a wide variety of ergo products. They range from keyboards, mice, armchairs to keyboard stickers, footrests, foot switches etc. The ergo products one amongst the largely used ones nowadays . The reason being their consumer friendly nature and their troubleshooting strategy.

1. The first and foremost widely used ergo product besides many others is the ergo keyboard. These keyboards come in different shapes, sizes and colors. For instance there are Ergo Flex Keyboards, Comfort Track 35 PM, Evolution Desktop, Pace Keyboard and so forth. These keyboards provide different advantages and come in varying but affordable price range.

The main and basic advantage of the ergo keyboards is that they are designed in such a fashion that they reduce the threat of various problems that may afflict those who work on online for hours together. They are made keeping in mind the excess strain on user’s arms and hands while working. Quite often the extra exertion results in chronic disorders such as tennis elbow, tendinits and the like. These disorders are mainly read under the name of CTDs i.e. cumulative trauma disorders. It is not just the posture of the hands that is distorted but also the entire body that gets uncomfortable due to it.

So, the ergo keyboards are mainly concerned with safeguarding you against the musculoskeletal (MSD) ailments. The large list of ergo users have revealed that how these keyboards have enhanced their work proficiency and comfort. Their feather touch keys and other comforts make the work easy and stress free for the users.

2. Ergo products focus on the all round health of its users. This is made evident by the uniquely designed and convenient ergonomic chairs. Two most popular ergo chairs are the Salli Saddle Chair Classic and the Salli Saddle Chair Twin. Both these are at the same manageable price of $ 345. Some of the few of the many advantages of the ergonomic chairs are the –

* The height of these chairs can be adjusted according to that of the person seated on them. This enables the person to have the ground support even with a small height.

* The depth of seat can also be altered to allow shorter as well as taller people take the backrest support.

* The backrest height can also be adjusted as suitable to the user.

* There are facilities if accommodating the lumbar support to prevent the frequently occurring problem of flattening of lumbar spine.

* What more, even the height and width of the padded armrests can be modified to met the comfort of one’s shoulders and upper arms.

3. Last but not the least are the super beneficial ergonomic mice. There are again different kinds of these. The Graphical Tablet, Quill Mouse, Zero Tension mouse and the Evoluent Vertical Mouse to name a few. The mice have the merit of giving total relax and minimum exertion to the user’s palm, fingers and forearms. With these ergonomic mice you can bid goodbye to the aching palms and tired fingers. A simple touch or clicking the button will do maximum of your work and will save you from the trouble of rotating the mice here and pressurizing your forearm.

This is not all for the ergonomic products. There are many others that have not been mentioned and perhaps cannot be enumerated in a single go. A lot of information is available online regarding them. So waiting for what…go “ergo”..!

Mansi aggarwal writes about Ergonomic Products .

In the early days there was a vast difference between an inkjet printer and its laser version but with time the difference has narrowed down to point where it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the two. Most individuals continue to use the Inkjet printers, as they are less expensive and nearly all of them are colour capable. The quality of the inkjet printers has improved over time and now there is not a huge difference in printing quality with the Laser printers. It’s for this reason that small or home business can use an inkjet printer without having to worry about documents looking unclear or looking cheap.

The laser printer is capable of printing much faster and usually produces better quality image, it is far more expensive as compared to the Inkjet version. Laser printers are usually used for black printing but there are colour laser printers available now.

Having pointed that out, it is also useful to note that the general rule of the thumb for printers is ‘the lesser the cost of the printer, the more expensive the running cost”. This could however depend on the volume of printing the printer is being used for. If the printing volume were minimal, it would be more cost effective to use an inkjet printer. It is very easy to get carried away by the initial price of an inkjet printer but people buying them are often not aware that the running cost of the machine would play a huge part and should be factored into the decision making.

This would be better understood with an example. Let us consider a Canon i320 colour bubble jet printer. It usually does not cost more than £30 obviously subject to the discounts applicable at your store. The cost of a cartridge is usually in the £10 range and on an average it prints 170 pages. Even if you print as few as 7 pages a day that works out to 2100 pages over the year. This in turn works out to an annual expense of approximately £135. The amount one spends on cartridges is approximately 4 times the price of the printer in the first year itself. This is the reason the subsequent expenditure needs to be taken into consideration while buying a printer.

Inkjet printers come with some added problems that need to be looked at and taken into consideration.

1. To begin with they are not as fast as the Laser printers. This is one reason why Inkjet printers are not recommended when printing needs to be done in large volumes. 2. They are known to throw up cartridge error messages even though the cartridges might be working just fine. This is not to say that Inkjet printers are always problematic but these are just a few errors that do crop up once in a while. 3. The print can also start going haywire sometimes and it may start printing in endless loops. 4. It is often difficult to minimize and regulate the amount of ink being used in the Inkjet printers. 5. There is a difference in quality of an Inkjet print and a laser print. Often the laser print is of better quality.

It is for these reasons that the laser printers sales have taken of in a very big way in spite of being a more expensive buy.

However, in comparison to the laser printers, there are a few positives about the inkjet printers, which are more suitable to the requirements of a small or home business where they do not need to print as many in terms of volumes.

Colour laser printers have been around for some time but they were frightfully expensive a few years ago. A recent study found that last year nearly 1.85 million colour laser printers were sold, a substantial growth from the previous year. A large number of offices are going in for the colour page printers. This is however not recommended if you do not need to print fliers or brochures in large volumes consistently.

There are a few other advantages that come with a laser printer, for example:

1. Using a duplex unit: This would enable the user to print back to back. This is particularly useful for creating brochures and leaflets. 2. Add a paper drawer: This would reduce the number of user interventions and in turn reduces the printer errors 3. Assigning different paper trays for different drafts can be used to print different documents without messing about with the tray each time. 4. An Ethernet or a wireless network card can be added to the printer to attach it to a network. This functionality can be availed in the laser printer.

This is just to outline the benefits of using each kind of a printer. This is aimed at helping the user to weigh the pros and the cons before buying a printer.

John Sollars is the managing director of Solar Electronics, which are both ink and pc peripheral suppliers based in Shropshire, UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original and re-manufactured printer inks please visit http://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk

Science-Fiction meets reality with this new video display technology.

The Heliodisplay includes patented and patent pending technology to transform normal ambient air and display video images into free-space. Some Heliodisplay models are interactive allowing a finger or hand to move images around in the air as if one were grabbing a tangible object.

The Heliodisplay requires a power outlet, and a computer, TV, DVD or alternate video source. The current version of the Heliodisplay projects a 22′ to 42′ (depending on model) diagonal image that floats above the device.

The Heliodisplay system is backward compatible and accepts most 2D video sources (PC,TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game consoles). For connection to a computer, the Heliodisplay uses a standard monitor VGA connection; for TV or DVD viewing, it connects using a standard RGB video cable.

Interest in this new technology has been so strong, that curious visitors have crashed IO2Technology’s website.

Obvious Applications :

Less Obvious Examples:

While the new video capability will doubtless usher in a new era in computing and home entertainment, I wouldn’t rush out and buy one just yet. That is, unless of course you have a burning desire to part with some extra cash in hurry.

I haven’t seen the system in person, so I can’t say for sure, but the old computer axiom of "Never buy version 1.0 of anything." probably applies here.

Odds are that the price is out of line for most people. Also, all the kinks in the system are most likely not perfected yet.

I get this impression because IO2Technology is taking only limited numbers of orders right now. This tells me that the company has limited production capacity and is not fully prepared for demand. They probably haven’t sold enough units yet, to account for all possible system configurations and usage scenarios. So for now, I’d steer clear of buying one for home or small business.

Still, the announcement is impressive because it is bound to create another era of "Star Trek" type innovations and change some of the ways that we react with our computers and televisions.

Visit The Heliodisplay Website

Discuss The Heliodisplay On The PDA and Mobile Today Forum

Steve Bralovich runs a Pocket PC and Smartphone development company. Visit the weblog at: http://pdatoday.blogspot.com for lots of information on Computers, PDAs, Notebooks and SmartPhones.