Building a Computer - 4

Hard drive

There are 2 types: PATA (Parallel ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA). PATA is old type so don't buy. Buy SATA. SATA comes with 2 interfaces: SATA 1.0 and SATA 3.0. 3.0 is faster so buy that.

Hard drives come with various capacities: 4 GB, 40 GB, 80 GB etc. 4 GB is adequate if you use your future computer only to surf internet or something. Use a very large hard drive (like 500 GB or 1000 GB) only if you are engaging in things like large video editing projects etc. Buy according to your capacity requirements. We'll use a 250 GB hard drive here. That's more than enough for all of your everyday needs.

Also there are many brands like Samsung, Kingston. We gonna use a Seagate Barracuda hard drive here.

Building a Computer - 3

Speed of Ram

For example, think you bought this Ram: DDR2 1Gb 800. What's this 800 number means? It's the speed of your Ram. The higher this number is, the faster the Ram would be.

A motherboard has a lowest speed specification for a Ram. You can't install a ram which is lower than that speed. For example, if your motherboard only accepts 800 or higher speed of Ram, then you cant install like 600 or 400 speed Rams.

Ram capacity

Your motherboard has a limited ram capacity. Currently the highest Ram any motherboard accepts is 4 Gb.

So now the Ram we'll gonna use is this: Kingston 1Gb (2x512Mb) 240-pin DDR2 800

Building a Computer - 2

Motherboard

When picking a motherboard, a main thing to look for is FBS or Front side Bus. It's main job is to to send information back and forth between CPU and Ram. So it's good to have a fast FBS.

When buying a motherboard, settle into a decently priced one. Don't buy a dirt cheap one.

Ram

There is 4 kinds of ram:

SDR (single data rate)

DDR (double data rate - twice as faster than SDR)

DDR2 (

twice as faster than DDR)

DDR3 (even more faster)

We gonna use DDR2 Ram.

You need to be sure your Ram has the same number of pins as the Ram slot in your motherboard.

(Ram Pins)

Building a Computer - 1

CPU: AMD or Intel?

Both are the same, it's just two names. So pick out any one you like. Here we gonna choose AMD.

What speed your CPU should be?

These days, 1.5-2 Ghz is adequate for browsing the internet and typing documents in MS Word etc.

2-3 Ghz is suitable for playing relatively old and small games, and if you are using the computer pretty often, and running bigger programs than MS Word. If you plan to do things like edit videos, do animations, creating games, below 3Ghz is not quite enough. Because current programs like Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Flash CS3 eats much memory.

Above 3 Ghz is needed for playing much bigger and new games, for editing Photos and videos, doing 3D modeling etc.

CPU Socket

Socket has to match with the motherboard. Here we'll use a AM2 socket, so when buying the motherboard, you should make sure it's supporting AM2 sockets.

Cores?

You can choose a Single Core (1 processor) / Dual Core (2 processors) / Quad Core (4 processors) CPU. We'll use a Dual Core processor.

So, the CPU we're gonna use here is: AMD Athlon 64x2 2.0 Ghz Dual Core processor.

How to upgrade your Laptop's RAM

• First you have to find a right type of ram for your Laptop to buy. If you are buying online, there are tools to find this for you. Here is the Ram finding tool on Crucial website: Crucial memory advisor
• 
• After you buy, check your laptop's manual to find where the ram is located in your Laptop. If you don't have the manual, check the company website for the manual.
• Before removing the ram cover, turn of, plug off, and remove the battery from the laptop.

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Inner working of a hard drive

HERE'S how a hard drive work. The Hard drive in the video is a one with a transparent cover. You can see how the servo handle searches for the data on the spinning magnetic disk of the hard drive.

What's the difference between Dual core and Core 2 Duo?

• Core 2 Duo is Intel's new processor architecture using 2 processors.
• Core 2 Duo processor is designed to be fast while not consuming power nearly as much as previous processors.

• Dual core is just putting two processors on one package. It's like using two heads to do a job. While one processor is doing one thing the other can simultaneously do some other thing, getting the job done faster.

Laptop Overheating

When will you know that your laptop is over heated?

• You know it when your laptop is above 80 C. You can use a program like CoreTemp (free) to monitor system temperature.

• Also you know it when your laptops' fan is making too much noise.

• When your system shuts down suddenly without no apparent reason. (though that's should not be because your Windows 7 RC is expired, and it's shutting down every 2 hours).

How to keep the temperature down?

• Don't keep the Laptop in dusty places. If dust get into the fans and cakes CPU heat-sinkand the grill, your laptop is going to get heated because of the reduced air flow.

• Don't keep it in hot places, don't expose it into direct sunlight.

• Always keep the laptop on hard surfaces, so there will be a space between the machine bottom (where there's heat vents) and the surface it's sitting on. This facilitates a good air flow. When you place it like on a bed, you suffocate the machine, so don't do that.

• Make sure the fans are functioning properly. If your machine is suspiciously silent, then your CPU fan might not be working.

• Set your hard disks and other hardware to turn off when you are not using the machine, so it will not get heated unnecessarily.

• Don't run it 24/7.