When you think trash, you surely don’t think about your old, trusty personal computer. But that’s exactly what will become of it when you make the inevitable move toward your next laptop or desktop. And, yes, buying a new computer is inevitable, considering the pace at which computer technology zips along. Just think—about a handful of years ago, a fast microprocessor for a laptop was at 233 MHz. Now you’re looking at about at least 2 GHz! That’s Giga, with a G.

So eventually, you will want a computer that can handle the latest software, the latest games, and the latest interactive Web sites, and then you’ll have to throw away your old computer, right? Wrong. Try selling your used computer instead. Throwing out your computer is one of the worst things you can do. For one, your computer may be useful for someone out there, even if just for scraps.

Trashed computers and other digital equipment also make up one of the fastest growing, and most dangerous, new trash “categories” out there in your neighborhood landfall. On one hand, computers are generally bulky and made of plastic and other materials that won’t be breaking down in a landfill for the next few million years. What’s more, other materials in your old computer are highly toxic to the environment, like mercury, lead and cadmium. They’re so toxic that their actually name in the waste-management field is “toxics.”

You don’t have to be a techie or a scientist to understand the danger in that—nor the benefits of selling your computer. On the Internet, there are a vast number of auction and classifieds sites, some better than others, where you can “download” you computer to a worthy buyer.

Before you boot up your replacement laptop or high-performance PC, however, be sure you read and compute the following tips. These tips will help you avoid the crashes and shutdowns that befall the computer seller who doesn’t do his homework first.

Hold onto all of the operating system and software manuals that came with your old computer. This will add value to your sale, not to mention it will make you a trusted seller for offering up these helpful books to the buyer.

Erase all personal information from the hard drive. And we’re not just talking about simply putting stuff in the “trash bin.” It’s extremely important to purge all data from your computer’s memory repository, even from invisible backup files on the hard drive. If you’re not sure how to do this, ask your IT expert at work or a techie friend for advice. You don’t want the next user to have access to your bank accounts, old e-mails, and other private info, do you?

Uninstall any application from the hard drive that you’d like to use on your next computer, keeping the installation disk and the software serial number for yourself. When it comes to software, the manufacturers made sure that you never really own software, you license it. So you don’t get free reign to keep software on multiple computers. You only get one license, so you need to bring your licensed version with you to your new computer.

Do your homework on your computer’s worth. Just like you would for a car, check around at other classifieds and auction sites to see what other people are selling your make and model for.

Be sure you want to truly get rid of old faithful. You may be able to repair your old laptop rather than buy a new $2,000 Centrino model. Or you may be able to add RAM memory and a new hard drive to your four-year-old desktop rather than invest in a new $3,000 multimedia masterpiece. In other words, do a thorough cost-analysis of what it would take to rebuild your old computer, versus what it would cost to sell it and buy a new one. And check your heart too. You might be surprised just how attached you are to your old faithful.

Once you go through these steps, you are prepared to make your move and sell, sell, sell. And then, of course, you’ll be ready to start on a whole new list of steps—for buying a new computer. But that’s a topic for another article!

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell and trade: auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more. For global and localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com, Free Buy & Sell Classifieds.

Computer microphones are a valuable addition to any PC and they greatly increase interactivity and communication levels. You can use a microphone for performing various tasks, both business and fun related. For example, you can hold a conference with your business partners, over the Internet, or you can chat with your friends online, instead of doing that on the phone. Of course, in order to enjoy accurate and high quality communication, you have to choose a good PC microphone. There is a huge variety of models on the market, ranging from microphones that you can buy for a few dollars and going all the way to expensive, high tech desktop microphones. So which PC microphone is right for you?

Price Vs Quality

You can pay $5 for a microphone, or you can pay $50. So where’s the difference, apart from the price? Well, cheap microphones have low prices for some good reasons: they offer average to low quality sound, they break down more easily and you can’t use them successfully in all applications that support a microphone. The materials they are manufactured from have to be cheap, which eliminates the idea of high quality, so the end product is of lower reliability. And at this price, you can be sure bulk manufacturing is present and quality tests are quick and far from rigorous. Microphones that come for a higher price have, in most cases, better sound quality and more features. Such microphones will have noise canceling filters, which help diminish background noise. Distortion filters and integrated circuits also help keep voice sounds clear and accurate. The materials used for more expensive microphones also last longer – plastic doesn’t crack so easily and if you drop it on the floor you know that the internal components are well protected.

Choosing the right computer microphone

Determining what price range you are in and what model to purchase depends heavily on the purpose you have in mind for the microphone. Are you going to use it just to chat with friends online? In that case, spending a lot of money on a professional computer microphone is not justified. Do you plan to hold business conferences over the Internet? Then maybe you should get a better microphone that will allow the discussion to be continuous and clear, without noise distortion. Giving vocal commands to your computer or dictating to word processing software with speech recognition capabilities is another use for desktop microphones. Quality should be first here – speech recognition software is very sensitive and demands a high quality microphone and sound card. Recording your voice and inserting it into music tracks is possible, but a high quality microphone is absolutely essential in this case.

Mantius Cazaubon is a successful author and publisher of http://the-microphone-guide.com, a resource for information and tips on buying computer microphones online.

The most popular and probably the easiest upgrade project for PC enthusiasts is still installation of a new hard drive. It’s just a matter of time before terabyte-eating applications demands an upgrade to a bigger and faster hard drive. And don’t forget video, audio and graphic files. There are several sizes to choose from and certainly all price ranges.

Most drives come in 5400 and 7200-rpm versions. The 5400-rpm drives are less expensive than the 7200-rpm models, but you will then loose the performance boost delivered from the 7200 version. If you need quicker access times and improved data transfers, the 7200 version is a better alternative.

You should plan to make your new drive your primary drive i.e. the new home for your OS. This simply because your new hard drive is bigger and faster. The old drive may be your secondary hard disk and you may use it for archives etc.

All major drive makers pack software with their upgrade kits that prepares the drive for partitioning and formatting and can also copy what’s on your current drive to the new one, helping to make the upgrade a breeze.

1. Preparation of PC Prepare Your PC’s existing Hard Drive from future problems. Make sure the current drive in your PC is trouble-free. Run ScanDisk followed by the Disk Defragmenter. These tests could take hours to complete but you will save time and headaches later in the installation process by ensuring that you will be copying error-free data.

Do not forget to make backup of your hard drive ie if you are able to. Don’t forget files like normal.dot from Microsoft Word and Bookmarks or Favorites from your Web browser.

2. Run the New Drive-Installation Software First of all, read your new hard drive’s manual. Almost all hard drives ship with installation software that takes care of formatting and partitioning. Some will even help you transfer data from your old disk to the new one. You must run most installation software before you physically install the new drive. You will either install and run the software from within Windows, or boot from a floppy disk. Program details vary by drive manufacturer, so read the directions carefully.

3. Open your PC Turn off your computer and unplug it before you remove the cover. Before you begin working inside your PC, put on an antistatic wrist strap. You can get this from local electronics supply stores. Clip it to a grounded metal object.

A. Find a space. Usually you will find an accessible space for your new hard drive next to your existing drive.

B. Find the drive. Make a note of where the red wire of the cable meets the drive (Pin 1) so you can connect your new cable correctly. Mark the location with masking tape.

C. Find a power connector. Alternatively you need a y-adapter if your power supply has no free connector.

D. Use your new cable. For best performance, today’s drives require an 80-wire cable. Most drives ship with one. Replace the old with the new one, the connectors are compatible.

4. Set the Drive Jumpers. It’s advisable to install your new drive as the second drive on the primary IDE channel. This is exactly the same channel where the current drive is connected. When two IDE drives are connected to a single cable, one must be designated ‘Master’, and the other ‘Slave’.

These jumper settings should be printed on the drives. Set your new disk as your PC’s boot drive, and its jumper to Master. Change the jumper settings on your old drive to Slave. Check that the installation software supports copying of data over to your new hard disk.

5. Assembling Install the new drive. Attach the two connectors on the new ribbon cable to both your hard disks. Make sure the red wire goes to Pin 1. Also make sure the other end of the cable is connected to the primary IDE connector on the motherboard, and that it’s correctly connected so that the red wire on the cable goes to Pin 1 on the motherboard connector.

Power up both drives. Check all your connections. Don’t put the cover back on until you’re sure that everything’s working correctly.

6. Finishing up Put your installation utility disk is in the floppy drive. Turn your PC on. Enter your PC’s setup utility. This is done either by pressing Delete, F1, or F2 at start-up, although details could vary by manufacturer. Make sure drives 1 and 2 are set to AUTO. If they’re not, your PC may not detect your new drive.

Save the setup settings. Reboot from the installation utility floppy disk. Follow the directions to set up your new drive and copy the data from the old to the new one.

Finally, remove the floppy and reboot your PC. After this your PC should start Windows normally. After checking that everything’s working, reformat your old drive to wipe out its superfluous data and to prepare it for new files.

F.Fairline writes for http://www.hard-drive-resource.com

So how do you make sense of all the CPUs out there? Well, let’s start by splitting them into four broad categories:

• Obsolete Processors
• Budget Processors
• Mid-Range Processors
• High-End Processors

Obsolete Processors
These would refer to those processors which were around 5 or more years ago. They will typically come with older refurnished or budget computer systems. Be very careful if you are purchasing such CPUs as your system’s speed will definitely slow to a crawl. Worse still, some software on the market today simply cannot be run using older processors.

The Windows XP operating system, for example, needs the newer crops of CPUs to function. Overall, I’d only recommend buying these processors if you want to do extremely simple tasks with your PC - like word processing or general web browsing. Some examples of processors in this category would be: the older AMD Athlon CPUs and Intel Celeron CPUs, AMD Duron CPUs, and Intel Pentium III CPUs.

Budget Processors
Strapped for cash? Consider purchasing CPUs in this category - which include yesterday’s top-of-the-line CPUs which have been discontinued or the newer budget CPUs. While you may not get extremely good performance, these CPUs will give you the best bang for your buck.

While you’re not going to get super-duper performance for more CPU intensive activities like gaming and video editing, the speed provided by these CPUs will be more than enough for general applications. Under this category, you’d be looking at processors like the AMD Athlon XP, AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron (2.4 GHz and higher), as well as the Intel Pentium 4 (2.6 GHz and lower).

Mid-Range Processors
The CPUs in this category would have been king of the hill just 6 months ago. Due to the entry of newer, faster CPUs, processors will drop in price and become more affordable. These processors will still scream in performance and are very popular among current PC owners.

Whenever I upgrade my computer, I always go for CPUs in this category. To sum up: thes CPUs here give slightly outdated but extremely powerful performance. Examples include the AMD Athlon XP (2800+ to 3500+) and the Intel Pentium 4 (2.8GHz and higher) CPUs.

High-End Processors
Want drop-dead performance? The CPUs in this category will scream even if you run the most demanding gaming or video editing applications in the market today. Of course, be prepared to fork out serious cash. If you absolutely want no less than the best, be an early adopter and go for one of these CPUs.

Personally, I tend to avoid buying top-of-the-line CPUs for two reasons - the high prices and stability. These CPUs are not only expensive, they are also unproven - I’ve heard cases of extremely new CPUs crashing or overheating. CPUs like the AMD Athlon 64 FX and the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition fall into this category.

Conclusion
In summary, always consider your computing needs when selecting a CPU. If you want to do simple word processing or general computer tasks, go for the budget or low end processors. If you are more into gaming or do CPU intensive work like video editing, go for a mid-range or high-end processor.

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at Build-Your-Own-Computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

1. Get Rid of Dust
One of the most common causes of overheating is dust and dirt. So you need to keep your system clean, inside and out. Try to clean it once a year using lint-free wipes. Make sure you use an antistatic wrist strap as well to protect your system when cleaning inside the case.

2. Get Power Protection
One of the saddest things in many PCs is that they are not surge protected. Surge protectors are a good investment - they protect your PC from that unfortunate power outage or lightning strike. Try to get one that has a warning indicator and is UL 1449 certified.

3. Turn Off the Monitor
One tip I always apply at home - turn off the PC monitor when its not in use. I treat the computer monitor like a TV - don’t waste your monitor’s power if you’re not using it. This is especially important in LCD monitors, which may burn out or get bad pixels after long periods of use.

4. Keep the PC Running
Many people don’t realize that its harmful to power up your computer from a cold state. This is especially true when done repeatedly within a short timeframe. Try to leave your PC running as long as possible - or use the Microsoft Windows’ Power Management settings to put your machine into hibernation rather than completely shutting down.

5. Hard Drive Health Check
If you use Windows XP, you should regularly check your hard disk’s health with an error-checking utility. In Windows Explorer, click on the drive’s icon, select Properties -> Tools -> Check Now. If the check discovers several hundred errors, your drive could be full of bad sectors - you’d best backup your important data and then try to get it repaired.

6. Get an Anti-Virus Program
I still find it amazing that many home computer users do not have an anti-virus program installed. This piece of software is fundamental to any computer system. You should definitely consider getting a program like Norton Antivirus or The Shield Pro to protect against harmful attacks.

7. Check the CMOS battery
If you have a very old PC (four or five years old), the CMOS battery on the motherboard may need to be replaced. The first sign of a bad CMOS battery is when your system clock starts losing time.

8. Take Care when Opening the Case
Whenever you open the PC case, turn off the power and unplug your PC. Ground yourself first - by touching anything inside the PC to avoid destroying your circuit boards with a static charge. Another option is to wear a grounding wrist strap. I’ve destroyed my computer power supply before because I forgot about this point.

9. Maintain the Mouse
What’s one of the dirtiest components in a PC that you come in contact with? Yes - it’s the modest little mouse. Years of using a mouse will get it filled with dirt and grime.

If you have a mechanical mouse, you’ll realize this when the mouse starts to move erratically. To clean it, unscrew the mouse and use a small scraper to scrape the dirt off the two plastic rollers inside. Also remember to clean the scroll wheel if there is one. If you have a optical mouse, you need not worry about any internal rollers but you still need to clean the scroll wheel.

10. Clean Up the Registry
If you always add and remove computer programs in your PC, you can be sure the entries in your Windows Registry are pretty much in a mess. A clogged Windows Registry increases the time your PC boot up time and hogs system resources. Try to get a tool to help clean the registry safely, such as Registry Mechanic. Do not try to clean the registry yourself if you’re not sure what you’re doing.

Conclusion
I hope this article has given you many ideas on how to keep your good old PC in tiptop shape. Remember, take care of your PC and it will take care of you. Apply these tips once in a while to ensure a trouble-free computer system.

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at Build-Your-Own-Computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

A Lot More Bandwidth
First, to understand PCI Express, we need to know what it is capable of. Traditionally, most of our computers these days come equipped with PCI or AGP based graphics cards. Most of the latest PCs come decked with PCI Express enabled cards. Technologically, PCI Express allows graphics data to be transported at about 4 GB/s as opposed to 2 GB/s that the AGP 8X interface provides. That is twice the speed and hence twice the graphics horsepower we’re talking about.

What does this mean for game and content developers? Plenty. Given its speed, PCI Express will allow game developers to squeeze in more realistic content then ever imagined possible in a release. Video will never be the same again. If you can imagine yourself playing Half-Life 2 or Painkiller at the full graphics resolution and settings, then you can imagine what PCI Express can do.

Backward Compatible
PCI Express comes with a number of other benefits. One of the most important is its ability to be backward compatible with PCI. If you have an old PCI based motherboard, you should be able to use all your cards in a new PCI Express motherboard. That’s great, because you certainly do not want to be buying PCI Express peripherals just because your motherboard has been upgraded to PCI Express.

Not Just For Video
Remember that PCI Express is not limited to graphics – although initially the implementation will mostly be seen in graphics boards. We’re talking about sound cards, network cards and what have you all going the PCI Express way.

Conclusion
If you do intend to go the PCI Express highway, then you will want to first upgrade your motherboard to the latest PCI Express type. Then, from there, get a PCI Express graphics card. As time goes on, we should see more and more PCI Express cards – not just graphics cards – coming into the market. By then, you will be ready for them.

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at Build-Your-Own-Computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

The data on your hard drive is the most critical item inside your computer, and the only item which can not be replaced. It may be an unwanted hassle and expense to replace a defective memory module, monitor, or processor, but there is no replacing data once lost.

In addition to the possibility of a simple hard drive failure, the threat of internet borne worms and viruses has become an increasing risk to data loss or corruption. Although you may not be able to provide absolute protection to your hard drive, there are various ways that you can ensure that the data on your hard drive is protected. Five methods of backing up your data are summarized below…

1. USB Flash Drives

Although I am not recommending that flash drives be used for the actual data storage, they are a convenient means of transferring data from one computer to another. Important files can be quickly loaded onto a device such as the MINIDISK-512-DGRY-CS USB 2.0 Flash Drive, and transported to another computer for safe keeping. Installation and operation is extremely simple, and other than perhaps having to install a software driver, the use of a USB flash drive is a matter of having an available USB port on your computer. Just about every computer produced over the last several years has USB ports included, with more modern systems supporting the USB 2.0 standard. USB 2.0 allows for data transfer rates of up to 480 MB/s, which is a tremendous improvement over the original USB speed limit of 12 MB/s, and allows a user to fill their drives with data in a relatively short period of time.

Although the storage capacity of flash drives has increased greatly over the last year or so, users are still limited to common sizes of 512MB and 1GB. Mass storage is obviously not an option, but even 512MB may be enough to backup your “My Documents” folder, several albums of MP3s, or other important files to be stored elsewhere.

2. CD and DVD Writers/Re-Writers

The falling prices of CD and DVD writers/re-writers have made them a staple of just about every modern computer. These devices can typically be found installed in a computer case, but external devices supporting USB 2.0 or Firewire are available for greater flexibility and ease of installation.

A combination drive, such as the NU Technology DBW-521, will provide the user a high speed CD reader/writer, as well as a DVD reader, for under $40. The extremely low price of the drive (and the blank media) makes for an inexpensive means of creating data backups, and the re-writable media increases the convenience by allowing the same disc to be erased and reused many times. The main limitation of using a CD writer for data backups is that the discs are generally limited to a capacity of 700MB per disc. Not nearly enough for a full backup, but adequate for archiving key files.

The popularity of DVD writers/re-writers has surged thanks to dropping prices, and they are pushing the stand alone CD burner towards extinction. DVD media affords the user far more storage capacity than a CD, and DVD burners can generally burn CDs as wells as DVDs. The recent availability of double layer DVD burners, such as the Sony DW-D22A-DO-N, represents a large boost in the capacity of writable DVDs, taking the previous limit of 4.7GB per disc and nearly doubling it to 8.5GB.

With proper storage, CD/DVD media can provide long term storage that can not be jeopardized by hardware failure. The data on a CD or DVD can easily be read by just about any computer, making it a good choice for archiving files that aren’t excessively large.

3. External Hard Drives

As the name might imply, external hard drives are generally the same type of drive you might find inside your system, but housed in a smaller, external enclosure of its own. The enclosure will feature at least one data interface (such as Firewire, USB, or Ethernet), and the capacity is only limited by the size of hard drives presently available and the user’s budget.

The Ximeta NetDisk is an example of an external hard drive that provides a user the option of connecting an additional 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB of storage to their system by using either a USB 2.0 or Ethernet connection. Installation for such a device is rather simple, and may involve the installation of some basic software, as well as making the necessary connections between the computer and the external enclosure.

The capacity of external hard drives makes them ideal for backing up large volumes of data, and many of these devices simplify the process by including software (or hardware) features to automate the backup.

For example, some Seagate External drives feature a “one-button” backup option right on the case.In addition to being a convenient method of backing up large volumes of files locally, most external hard drives are compact enough to be portable. The inclusion of a common data transfer interface, such as USB, allows an external hard drive to be connected to just about any modern computer for data transfer, or for more than one computer to share the external hard drive as a back up.

4. Additional Hard Drives

By simply adding an additional hard drive to you system, you can protect yourself from data loss by copying it from your primary drive to your secondary drive. The installation of a second hard drive isn’t difficult, but does require a basic understanding of the inner working of a computer, which may scare off some users. We do offer a “how-to” section on our site for many tasks such as installing a hard drive into a computer system.

To take the installation of a second hard drive to another level of security and reliability, the hard drives may be installed in a RAID array. RAID stands for a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, and can be configured in several manners. A thorough discussion of RAID and all of its variations would be an article all by itself, but what may be of interest to this discussion is what is known as RAID 1. A RAID 1 array requires two hard drives of equal size to be installed on a RAID controller, which will then mirror one drive to the other in real time. Many motherboards now come with RAID controllers onboard, but the addition of a PCI slot controller card, such as the Silicon Image Sil0680, is an inexpensive purchase that will add RAID to any system. With a RAID 1 array in place, if one hard drive should ever fail, the system won’t miss a best by continuing to run on the remaining good drive, and alert the user that one drive may need to be replaced.

5. Online Storage

Online services, such as Xdrive, allow users to upload their files to a server for safe keeping. Although it may be convenient to have the data available wherever an internet connection is available, there are a few limitations.

The services generally charge a monthly fee relative to the amount of storage space required. At Xdrive, for example, 5GB of storage costs $9.95 per month, which can quickly add up to more than one would spend on any of the other options discussed.

Security is supposed to be very tight on these services, but no matter how secure it may seem, it is still just a password keeping prying eyes from your potentially sensitive documents.

The speed of your internet connection will also weigh heavily on the convenience of your backup, and no matter what type of connection you have; it can’t compete with local data transfer rates.

Final Words

Although not a comprehensive list of options available for backing up your data, the five items listed provide some simple and relatively affordable means to ensure that your data is not lost. Data loss is an extremely frustrating and potentially costly situation, but one that can be avoided.

http://geeks.com/pix/techtips-11-04-04.htm

Jason Kohrs
Computer Geeks tech tips and computer advice

Gaming computers come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. The gaming industry is growing every year and has become big business, so the need for gaming computers has grown along with it. As computer games become increasingly detailed and graphics oriented, the demand for faster and more powerful hardware has become more of a necessity than an option.

With the increased demand comes a higher price tag. That being said, if you are in the market for a gaming computer, read on as we take a look at your options for buying the perfect gaming computer for you and how you can save yourself some cash.

When buying a gaming computer or any computer for that matter it is important to determine how much you are willing to spend and how good of performance you want.

Gaming computers can range in price from $600 to $7,000+ and come with a variety of options. But whether you buy a low-end gaming computer or a high-end gaming computer there are ways to save yourself some money.

You basically have three options when it comes to buying a gaming computer. You can buy a pre-built computer right of the shelf, or internet. You can have someone build your gaming computer to your liking, with the hardware that you choose. Or you can build it yourself. All three of these are viable options, and of course each have their upside and downside.

Buying a pre-built, of the shelf computer is by far the the fastest and easiest route to take. When buying a gaming computer this way you will have access to tech support in case you run into problems with your system. Your computer should also be covered by the warranty for a certain amount of time if something was to break. There are however a few downsides to buying a pre-built computer. You will almost certainly pay more for less. Also you will be extremely limited in choices on the hardware that you want.

You can save yourself some money by having someone build your gaming computer for you. Going this route will provide for greater flexibility in your choices on hardware and can have your gaming computer customized to your specifications. Having a computer built for you will take longer than buying a pre-built one and all though it will be cheaper than buying a pre-built computer, will still be more expensive than your third option, building your own.

Most people think that building their own computer is far to difficult and complicated, and in reality it is a lot easier than they think. All though it does require a little knowledge on how to do this, this information can easily be obtained online. This option will take you the longest time to complete but can be very rewarding. Buying your hardware and assembling your own gaming computer can save you a lot of money and you can build it with whatever hardware you like. Of course there is some downsides to this option as well. You will not have any tech support or warranty, except through the individual hardware companies. Even with this downside, having built your computer from scratch, should help in solving most of your tech problems on your own.

Which ever option that you choose, make sure you do your research and are not overpaying for a gaming computer that you could have for a lot less.

Nicholas Spriggs at desktop-computer-guide.com is dedicated to providing up to date and acurate information in the computer and technology field. For more information on building your computer check us out at build your own computer.

The power coming into a computer is the most critical component, and it may be one of the most overlooked. It is just taken for granted that it will always be there and working properly. A top of the line processor and ultra powerful video card do nothing if a system does not receive the ample, stable power it demands. Having quality components providing and regulating the power supplied to a computer is critical, and this brief overview looks at a few areas worth consideration.

Power Supplies

Computer power supplies take the high (110V or 220V) DC voltages from an electrical outlet and convert it to the various lower AC voltages required for a system to operate. The typical voltages required inside a computer are 3.3V, 5V, and 12V, where the 3.3V and 5V lines are generally used to power circuitry, and the 12V line provides power to run items such as hard drives, optical drives, and cooling fans.

Power supplies are sold in terms of their total power output, in terms of wattage. Choosing the correct power supply means not only finding one that will provide enough power for all of the components connected to the system, but also one that is the correct size physically, has enough connections for typical drives and fans, and if necessary, that also has special connections for things such as Serial ATA drives and modern video cards.

Choosing a power supply with enough power shouldn’t be much of a problem, as having more power than you need is never a bad thing. Just because a power supply is rated for 400W, or perhaps 600W, does not imply that it is drawing that at any given time. It just indicates the total power available to the various lines inside the computer. For those interested in getting a good idea of their minimum power requirements, this Power Wattage Calculator is a convenient reference. In addition to checking out the total wattage of a power supply, looking for strong amperage ratings on the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V lines is also recommended, as power supplies with identical total power ratings may distribute the power to the various lines in different quantities.

Power supplies come in a few different physical sizes, but the most common are designed to fit the standard ATX and micro ATX (mATX) form factor cases. A typical ATX power supply, such as this Echo-Star 680W unit, measures 3.25” x 6” x 5.5” and features two cooling fans to not only cool the power supply, but to also help draw hot air out of the computer. A typical mATX power supply, such as this A-Power 320W unit, measures 2.5” x 5” x 4” and due to the smaller size features just one cooling fan. mATX cases are generally much smaller than ATX cases, and therefore have smaller power supplies, with generally lower power ratings, and fewer connectors.

The connectors on a power supply also deserve consideration. Most power supplies come with what looks to be an electric octopus of wires hanging off the back surface, and you need to make sure that somewhere in that tangled bundle are all of the connectors you need. The power supply should at least have as many connections as the number of drives, cooling fans, and other items found in the case. Up until recently power supplies had a fixed number of connections, and if you needed more, you needed to use splitters to distribute the power to all the components. Modular power supplies, such as the Ultra X-Connect 500W unit, are now available that eliminate that “electric octopus” all together, and allow the end user to connect just the cables they need. The flexibility of a modular power supply design not only lets you customize the connections to your needs, it also makes for a simple and tidy installation, since there are no extra wires dangling inside the case.

The selection of a high quality power supply may cost more money up front, but down the road it could wind up saving money. Many manufacturers now offer power supplies that consume less energy thanks to high quality internal components, advanced designs, and active power factor correction. These units are now able to provide the same power to the components in a computer, but due to increased efficiency, draw less power from the electrical outlet.

Surge Protectors

Surge protectors are intended to protect your electronics from a brief increase in voltage caused by such things as lightning, rolling blackouts, and heavy drawing electrical equipment. A surge protector reacts to divert the extra electricity to ground, and thus protects your expensive computer equipment from damage. A surge is any increase lasting three nanoseconds or longer, so a surge protector needs to react quickly. Most surge protectors also include a fuse (or breaker), and if the surge is too great to be handled without interruption, the fuse will blow. Although the fuse may be destroyed, it’s a small loss compared to what it may have saved.

Surge protectors come in all shapes and styles. Some basic models can even be found at your local dollar store, but offer no more than a few outlets connected to a breaker. No serious protection is obtained, but many people just want more outlets, not protection.

More serious surge protectors will probably cost a bit more than a dollar, but will offer some peace of mind that your equipment is actually being protected. In addition to protecting from electrical surges, some devices include extra features such as conditioning to filter out line noise and ports to protect other lines such as cable television, telephone, and networking.

The Fellowes Smart Surge Power Strip protects up to 10 devices from surges, as well as offering line conditioning and ports to protect your phone line. A highly appealing feature of such a surge protector is that 4 of the ports are designed to accept bulky AC adaptors. For those with surge protectors that weren’t designed to be this user friendly, there is still hope in the form of Power Strip Saver Cables. Basically just 7 inch long extension cords, these items can come in very handy when trying to connect multiple AC adaptors to a more traditional surge protector.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies

Many people familiar with Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) know that they can keep a computer up and running during a total power failure, but don’t know what else they do. Most UPSes will also provide protection from voltage surges and sags (when the voltage drops below normal), as well as protection from the possibility of a shift in the electricity’s frequency.

UPSes come in two varieties, standby and continuous, although standby versions are far more common and less expensive. A standby UPS allows the devices connected to it to run from the normal electrical connection until a loss of power is detected, at which point it quickly (in a matter of milliseconds) switches to the battery backup of the UPS. A continuous UPS always has the devices connected to it running off of battery power, while the batteries are recharged by the normal electrical connection.

UPSes are sold in terms of their capacity, in terms of VA (voltage multiplied by amperage). This implies that devices connected to the UPS can draw a maximum of so much amperage at a specific voltage. A run time after a power failure is also generally specified for a UPS based on a full load being placed on the device.

Selecting a UPS needs to be based on the intended use… A smaller unit, such as the Fenton 600VA, would be adequate for powering a typical desktop computer, monitor, and smaller peripherals such as a printer and lighting for what they rate as 15-23 minutes at full load. If multiple systems need to be powered, or perhaps there are plans for future expansion that will add to the power demands, a larger unit such as the Tripp Lite 1500VA may be more appropriate. The first two units are intended to be set in close proximity to the devices to be powered, perhaps on the floor behind a desk, but if you are seeking to add a UPS to a server, there are also rackmount solutions such as the Opti-UPS 1100VA.

No matter the application, sizing a UPS may seem overwhelming. One manufacturer, APC, has created a handy UPS Selector Application which will take some of the guess work out of choosing the right UPS for any particular application.

Final Words

A computer system is only as strong as its weakest feature, and many times that distinction falls on the power supply and related components. By choosing a quality power supply, surge protector, and perhaps a UPS, one can make sure that they have adequately strong and stable power to keep their system running now, as well as down the road when upgrades may increase the demand on their system.

Jason Kohrs
Computer Geeks tech tips and computer advice

Most people understand preventive maintenance like changing the oil in your car will help your car run better and last longer. The same principle holds true for your PC. Based on the computer repair services we do on computers in Cincinnati, we believe 80% of computer slowdowns and problems can be prevented!

The purpose of this article is to help you understand how you can prevent computer slowdowns and other issues.

The top 10 ways you can prevent computer slowdown are…

1. Ensure antivirus software is installed, automatically checking for updates, and automatically scanning all incoming files. If there is a virus associated with a new file it will automatically be repaired or quarantined. New viruses come out daily. Because of this, the anti-virus software needs to be configured to automatically updates it’s self. McAfee and Norton’s are the most popular anti-virus software and what we recommend.

2. Run antispyware/antiadware software. Spyware and adware are hands down the most common cause of PC slowdowns. This software is critical if you are surfing the Internet. Spybot Search & Destroy or Ad-aware are the two most common free anti-spyware/adware packages. We recommend a more proactive packages like Spy Sweeper which proactively scans your system and cost less than $30. A combination of Spy Sweeper and Ad-aware provides very good coverage today.

3. Install a hardware firewall to keep hackers out. Hackers have automated tools that are looking for any PC connected to the Internet without a firewall. To give you an idea, at the time of this writing, my home PC was scanned 158 times in the last 24 hours. This means it was scanned an average of every 9 minutes. If you’re connected to the Internet but don’t have a firewall, hackers (criminals) will be in your PC. Beyond stealing your information they can install programs that can damage or slow your PC down. A hardware firewall to protect all the PCs on the local area network provides the best protection. Recommended hardware firewalls are Linksys, Netgear, and D-link. Hardware firewalls are easier to set up and maintain than software firewalls.

Software firewalls work but we don’t recommend them because they are complicated to maintain and often cause other confusion and issues.

4. Microsoft Windows is constantly releasing updates for their operating system. Most of these updates are repairing security holes in their software. You want to configure your machine to automatically check for and download critical updates as they become available.

5. Delete your Internet temp files monthly. This will keep your system cleaner and allow it to run faster.

6. Defrag your hard drive quarterly. This is not the issue it was but there are still benefits to defraging your hard drive on a regular basis.

7. Read the terms and conditions before signing up for or downloading anything for free on the Internet. Free downloads like Kazaa (music), games, toolbars, and coupons often come with adware or spyware. The terms and conditions of downloads explain adware will be installed on the persons machine in exchange for the free software, music, pizza or whatever. Of course, few people read these terms and conditions.

8. Don’t open e-mails from strangers. Don’t open attachments from people you know if your not expecting it. Call the person and ensure they sent it. If they did not, don’t open it. E-mail from strangers and unexpected attachments may contain adware or spyware waiting to install on your computer. It probably won’t install if you don’t open the e-mail or attachment. (Note: If you’re using e-mail software with a mail “Preview Pane” like Microsoft Outlook, previewing the mail is the same as opening it. You should turn this feature off. Unselect “Preview Pane” under the “View” drop down list in Outlook.)

9. Use the Firefox web browser from www.mozilla.org. It is more secure and less vulnerable to popup ads, viruses, computer slowdowns, etc. It also has some additional tab and other options not available with other browsers.

10. We’ve talked about preventive maintenance but issues still happen. Hard drives fail. Computers are stolen, etc. Because of these risk, it’s important to backup your data on a regular basis. The best backups are stored off site. This can be done with an Internet service or store the data to a CD and take it to another location on a regular basis.

In summary, we guarantee regular preventive maintenance will keep your computer running better. We suggest doing these things yourself or schedule a computer professional to proactively perform and ensure these preventive maintenance steps are in place and working on a monthly basis. This will prevent computer slowdowns and issues!

John Daniell and the Swordfish Computer Solutions team help people prevent computer slowdowns and resolve computer issues. They do this by providing IT outsourcing computer services including computer networking, repair, training, website development, and graphic design in Cincinnati, Ohio. John can be reached at http://www.SwordfishCS.com.