13 things i learned in ACC 255

1. How to create a business developmental plan
2. How to create an e-book
3. What a landing page is and how to create one
4. How to set up a blogger account
5. How to set up a freewebs account
6. How to use google adsense
7. How to get affiliates on linkshare.com
8. How to set up products on CafePress
9. How to blog, in general
10. How to make money by talking about things that interest you
11. How to submit URL's to search engines
12. How to add a counter to your website
13. How to create a private policy on your website.

Pillar Article - Landing Page

There are many reasons why a person would come to this website. One reason would be to get information on how to build a desktop computer. Another reason would be to get information on the types of programs you need to install on your computer. This website has easy navigation on it, so therefore you can easily see what is being talked about. There are many reasons why a user would want to be a part of this website. If you become a part of this website, you are able to access blog posts, pillar articles, information on desktop computers, and basically anything you want to know about desktop computers. By joining this website, you will have access to all of those things. Along with that, we have future goals that are including providing information and specific guides for building certain computers. Along with these guides, they will be completely up to date and ready to use.
With all of these features, we also recommend a bunch of types of products. We have products ranging from fully build desktop computers to desktop computer parts and accessories. Along with the products that we recommend, we also include a description of the product, the price, where to get it the cheapest, and why you should chose that product over other types of products. Some of the gaming products we promote are from big companies that make customized gaming computers, such as Alienware and iBuyPower. If you review some of our blog articles, you can easily see that the Gamer Mage by iBuyPower was reviewed, along with a high up computer from Alienware. We break down these computers to the components, and compare them with other types of components that you could purchase to build the exact same computer. Anytime you buy a computer, you are purchasing the parts and labor to put it together, and then the markup on the parts. If you view our site a lot and decide to join it, you will save money by understanding why you need to purchase parts and put them together versus buying it from a company. It’s basically your own decision, because you have to decide if you want to purchase the parts and risk yourself putting them in together, or if you would just want to purchase a computer from a company. In many situations like that, building a more expensive computer and buying a cheap computer is the rule of thumb. Along with the computer comparisons, there are also comparisons of different types of computer parts. These are compared because people like to see the different types of parts and combinations you can purchase. Websites that give amazing deals and great offers are promoted through the usage of this website. Along with all these products that are promoted, you will also be exposed to different free programs and installing methods. For example, if you bought the Windows 7 upgrade for your computer, but you don’t have your previous Windows CD key, then we provide you with the steps in order to bypass that.
Along with posts relating to installation, there are posts that relate to protection for your computer. Products are recommended that are of free nature and paid nature. You have to either pay for them or you get them for free. Everyone always prefers a free program, so those are the ones that are highlighted more. Some categories that are covered in the free programs are system utilities, spyware protection, registry cleaners, and word processing programs. They range from free programs to paid programs as well, so you can choose which one would suit yourself. A large list of websites that you can use to enhance your desktop experience is also available by signing up with us as soon as possible. These websites are specifically categorized for people to be able to easily view each of the websites. Included with the categories are descriptions of the websites as well. They are detailed descriptions that allow you to pretty much understand the website before even having to click on the link. A list of torrent websites, and a guide on how to use torrents is included on the blog site, so do not forget to check that out either.
After one was to purchase a part for the computer they were about to build, they would need to know how to build it. Most people who build their own computers know what they are doing, so they wouldn’t need to refer to this information, but you have to start somewhere, right? Therefore, if you become an active member in our website, you can receive benefits, such as guides to connecting everything together. We all know the hardest part about connecting a computer together is the connections on the motherboard. Therefore, by becoming a member in this site you would receive many benefits, including guides on how to connect and install your computer. Along with connection guides, we go into depth with how to over clock your computer. By over clocking your computer, you can do things that you never thought you could before. We explain how a proper cooling system combined with a processor and computer that can be over clocked can create a beastly machine.
Therefore, it is urged that you sign up to this website immediately. If you sign up, you will receive newsletters from us every other week, explaining what we have coming up in the near future. Along with the newsletters, you will receive member benefits, such as access to the best deals that we have to offer. Members who are here longer also will be first thought of when we are looking to recruit forum administrators when we hit our traffic level. Our newsletters will be unique and interesting to read every time, we do not want any of that boring stuff! Therefore, by signing up for our newsletter, you would receive many benefits ranging from online guides to purchasing the best product deals available today.

What could go wrong if you put your motherboard in wrong!

So, you might wonder what could possibly go wrong, if you started to connect something wrong and turned on the computer. Well, there are a few things that could possibly go wrong, but if you follow these directions, then nothing bad should happen. If you plug in the power cord to your motherboard backwards, you have the possibility to destroy your motherboard, which could end up costing you about $65. Also note that when reading any motherboard tutorials online, all motherboards are different and they have different types of connections on them, so pay attention to the compatibility when purchasing any parts. Anyways, to not connect your motherboard power cord backwards, pay attention to the pins and make sure they line up. On the motherboards that I have connected, there is a plastic button that you have to push down on in order to allow the connection to even happen. DO NOT FORCE IT. If it will not go, you might have a compatibility issue or you are putting it in backwards. If either of these are the issue, then you might have to make a new motherboard purchase in the near future. Another possible expensive mistake that can easily be made is when you connect the processor to the motherboard. Again, note that the processor and motherboard are both compatible with each other, buy you have to connect the processor the correct way. On this connection, you will note that if you have everything connected, and you start to push down on the lock, it should make a cracking noise. This noise can be alarming at first, but it is common. The only way you will be able to truly tell if it works is once you turn it on…but if the processor fits right, then you probably did it the correct way. These are the two biggest issues when connecting things to your motherboard.

Sneeze Page

Okay, so this is my sneeze page. Basically what I am going to do is go through all my blog posts, and explain what each page's content is made up of.

1. Torrents, there are 3 parts to the torrents, the first part explains what a torrent is, the second part explains ethical issues with torrents, and the third part explains the etiquette of using a torrent service. A brief review over all these parts is also available.

2. Another part of my blog involves a bunch of software recommendations. These software recommendations are paid and free. The purpose of these programs is to improve your computer. The blogs that you can view are part of the following: system utilities, word processing, messaging, ergonomics, registry cleaner, and paid spyware/maleware.

3. Another part of my blog gives specific information regarding parts of the computer. These parts include the following: accessories, motherboard, hard drive, cases, power supply, video cards, memory/RAM, and processors.

4. Another part of my blog includes different types of computers that i build, comparisons of gaming computers, and comparisons of computers created by large companies. They involves the following: built gaming computer, Alienware Aurora by Alienware, Gamer Mage by iBuyPower, break down of Alienware, break down of iBuyPower, a built home computer, Dell Inspiron 620, and Dell Inspiron 560 vs Inspiron 570.

4. Towards the beginning of my blogging, you can find information regarding my first computer and computer accessories. Also included is a guide on how to install your motherboard. You can find your way to them by clicking on any of the following: my first computer, my first computer part 2, compatibility with motherboards, compatibility with motherboards part 2, computer accessories, computer accessories part 2, and the guide on how to connect everything!

Review of Guide to using Torrents.

If we were to review the previous posts I have posted about torrents, one can easily see that you need to be ethical and have good etiquette when using this program. It is completely up to your own self control whether you are ethical or do the proper etiquette. It was reviewed that we covered parts ranging from explanations of what torrents are and what torrents do to the etiquette of this amazing downloading idea. Proper etiquette and the proper usage of uploading files, is a necessity in making this happen. Along with etiquette and ethics, we also reviewed that torrents can be downloaded from private and public websites. Private means you have to become a member, usually by invite only, and public means that you can download whatever you want. It’s safer to download from a private torrent website than a public one. Now that we have reviewed what we just went over, I will now point out some of the torrent websites, which are both private and public. The best and most well known torrent private website is www.demonoid.com. This website monitors how much users download and uploads, and you have to keep a certain ratio in order to continue using the site. A new public torrent site, called BitSnoop, has minimal advertising and great tagging of torrents. The website for this torrent site is www.bitsnoop.com. A website that people might find offensive, because of the advertisements, is called Isohunt. It’s fueled by Russian adult advertisements, but is still a good site to use. Just wanted to give a warning, because that website has been known for their advertisements like that.

Guide to using Torrents part 3

After covering information regarding how torrents work and it’s ethical issues, we will now cover some etiquette. The whole reason why we need to do etiquette is because that’s how the torrent process works. Proper torrent etiquette means that when you download something, you also seed it. When I use the term seed, it means to upload you part of the file to other people. With these advanced torrent programs, you can actually see a ratio on your downloading to uploading ratio, and some sites require a certain ratio in order to use them. The majority of sites that would require that type are sites that involve a ratio are usually private sites. The private sites usually make their own rules for etiquette. The “golden rule” of torrenting etiquette is to always upload after you download. It’s almost like giving back to the community. Along with uploading, you should also post a review of the item you downloaded. By doing that, you give insight as to whether the program worked or not. If you really want to give back to the community, sometimes I leave my torrent program on upload all night long, and that gives you a great ratio for downloading and uploading. People who only use torrents to download, and then they never upload are referred to as leeches. If you are wondering what a good download to upload ratio is, a 1:1 ratio is the best way to go. Upload as much as you download, and you should be in good shape.

Guide to using Torrents part 2

The main difference between the public and private torrent sites are that one requires membership (private), and the other one requires no membership (public). In order to get a membership for the private servers, you have to be recommended by a member, so it’s really hard to get into those. Also, you usually have to be very active to keep your membership up; otherwise you will simply lose it. Along with understanding how this works, there are many ethical issues that have been brought to attention. Many websites that are public are offshore from the United States of America, and have every bit of media material available for basically free. The problem with this issue is similar to downloading music for free, from Napster or Limewire. The proper use for torrents is to use it to download programs that are legally allowed to be shared. The US can’t have the jurisdiction spread out to the offshore companies, so they can’t stop the downloading, but the user who decides on what to download can. Therefore, all this information I am providing about using a torrent should only be used to download items that are free and are legal to share in the United States. I do not support illegal downloading, so please do not use it for that purpose. So, now that you understand how torrents work, and the ethical issues behind the whole process, we can move on to explain the proper etiquette and programs you should use when doing this.

Guide to using Torrents part 1

There are many programs that are too big to download through a mirror, or a website. Sometimes the upload speed on the website cannot be high enough, so some people use a method referred to as torrenting. Torrenting is basically a term that is used to explain the use of downloading through a torrent program. Basically what torrenting does is makes your downloading experience a lot more quicker because you have multiple people that upload certain parts of the data. Then you just download whatever people are uploading, to create your complete file. Torrenting is actually one of the quickest ways to download large programs, but your bandwidth is quite high on the downloading end. There are many things that I am going to recommend about torrents, starting with the procedure, ethical issues, etiquette, and different types of programs. So basically, when you download a torrent, you are putting many pieces of a file together that you are downloading from other people. Most torrent sites and torrent programs are safe, but some of them can be unsafe and have viruses. I will recommend a list of safe sites and programs that you can use to download. There are two types of torrent sites, public and private sites. Mainly the public ones have a bunch of files that people upload publicly. Unfortunately, a majority of the public sites are known to have many viruses uploaded to them, so be careful if you use a public site. You should always read the reviews of a torrent, before you download it.

Pillar Article - How to install Windows 7 Upgrade Without a Previous Product Key

Recently, I had an issue where I had my computer with Windows XP on it, and I wanted to upgrade it to Windows 7. Well, you are allowed to do that, but you need to have your Windows XP CD key with you, in order to do it. I did not have mine, so I had to figure out a way to upgrade to Windows 7 without my CD key. It is actually a pretty easy process, with just switching a few things around in the registry. I am going to give you 3 different ways that you can easily upgrade to Windows 7 without using a Windows CD key. Note that the upgrade to Windows 7 costs a lot less than the whole Windows 7, by itself. So therefore, I did not want to spend any extra money on buying a whole new operating system.
So, here is the first way that you can do this. I call it the “double install method”. Boot up your computer and then put the Windows 7 CD in it. Choose the Run option that comes up, and when the setup boots up, choose Upgrade. Windows 7 will install as it did before. Because you are upgrading, you don’t have to insert a user name and password from the previous version. Once you’re finished installing Windows 7, go down to your start menu, and type in “activate” in the start menu, and that should bring up the activate windows utility. You just have to insert your product key into there and it should activate windows. If that does not work, then you can try another few methods I am going to mention.
For this method, you insert the Windows 7 Upgrade into your DVD drive. Reboot the computer, and boot off your DVD drive. Follow the steps to install Windows 7. Make sure to back up anything that you have on your computer. If this is a first time install, then you should not have to worry that much about that. After you install Windows 7, you should reboot your computer. Next, you would want to run Windows Update, to make sure that your computer is fully up to date with Windows newest updates and patches. Make sure to keep rebooting when it tells you to, and keep updating until there are no more updates available. After that, type in activate in the Start Menu, which brings up the Activate Windows utility. Next, insert the product key into your and it should activate windows. If it works, you are all set to go. You should receive something that says “Activation was successful” followed by “Activation helps verify your copy of Windows is genuine. With a genuine copy of Windows 7, you are eligible to receive all available updates and product support from Microsoft.” If you receive that message, then you have completed it successfully. If you do get a code error that says something similar to “The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key: Code: 0xC004F061 Description: The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.” Then you should contact Microsoft and explain your problem to them, or you can try the last and final method.
This is my favorite way to fix this problem. It is not looked up upon by Microsoft, because if someone wanted to just buy the upgrade, instead of buying the whole Windows 7, then they could do that. If you are reading this, then you should only do this if you have a legitimate copy of Windows that you had before, and you are actually upgrading it. This workaround, to my knowledge, has a 100 percent success rate as well. First off, you should go to your start menu, and click Run. Once you have that opened, run regedit.exe. It should open a program called Registry Editor. Click on “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”, then “Software”, followed by “Microsoft”, then “Windows”, then “CurrentVersion”, then “Setup”, then “OOBE”. Once you have that opened, you should have “MediaBootInstall”, “RetailInstall”, “SetupDisplayedE”, and “SetupDisplayedL”. Double click on “MediaBootInstall” and then a little window should open up. When that opens, look at “Value data:”, and change the 1 to a 0. After you do that, close out of Registry Editor. Next, open up your start menu, and type in “cmd” in the Start Menu. Make sure to right click on the short cut that pops up for “cmd”, and choose “Run As Administrator “. In the command prompt line, type “slmgr /rearm” and then press “Enter”. You should get a message that says “Command completed successfully. Please restart the system for changes to take effect.” Then, close the command line windows and reboot your system. When Windows 7 reboots, go to start and type in “Activate”, and run the Activate Windows Utility. Type in your product key, and you should be good to go. If this does not work, make sure that there are no pending Windows Updates to install. Some of those cause the method to fail, so install them and reboot the PC. Then re-run the command line and everything, and hopefully it should work out. If it does not work, then you should just resolve with calling Microsoft about it, and hopefully they will give you an activation key.
Any of the methods that I have just explained usually work for everyone. If resolve to doing the registry method, then please make sure that you are following the directions exactly how I say them. The directory for the registry edit is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ Software/ Microsoft/ Windows/ CurrentVersion/ Setup/ OOBE/. Please only attempt the final method if you truly are a valid and licensed owner of a previous Windows version. Also, note that Microsoft has great support, whether it is through the phone’s or online, so never hesitate to give them a call. They can do amazing things through their support, which is extremely user friendly and help users out quite a bit.

Pillar Article - How to Overclock Your System

There are many different ways you can make your computer run a lot faster. You can do things such as removing programs that slow you down, installing spyware, keeping your registry clean, etc. One thing that I think some people know how to do, and others wish they knew how to do is called Overclocking. This is a term that means to make your computer go faster than what it was designed to do. Overclocking can be dangerous to your system and can cause problems to your system over time, if you do it wrong, or do not understand what you are doing. There are many different types of computer components that can be overclocked. Some of them include the processor, memory, and video card. There is also a degree as to which you can overclock the component.
So, first off you have to pay attention to what exactly you want to overclock. Once you have determined that, you need to find a part that has good reviews when they have been overlocked before. You can do that by reading any customer reviews when viewing a product. Also, make sure that you choose the parts to be compatible with the motherboard. If you want to maximize overclocking, make sure that your memory is up to par as well, because that can slow down a lot of the over locking.
After you know that your parts are compatible, you need to notice the core speed. That is the speed at which the CPU executes instructions. This is the main frequency you want to raise when overclocking your processor. Next is the northbridge speed. If you increase the speed of the northbridge, it would boost memory controller performance and L3 cache speed. You will need to make sure that this speed is higher than the HypterTransport Link Speed. This speed is the frequency of the link between the CPU and northbridge. It’s usually equal to the northbridge speed. The last speed you will need to notice is the memory frequency. This is the speed at which the memory bus operates. It’s represented by the amount of Mhz it has.
There are some calculations that you can figure out about your computer, to determine the speeds. Note this:
Core Speed = Reference Clock * CPU Multiplier
Northbridge Speed = Reference Clock * Northbridge Multiplier
HyperTransport Link Speed = Reference Clock * HyperTransport Multiplier
Memory Frequency = Reference Clock * Memory Multiplier
If you wanted to increase your CPU speed, then you would increase it by increasing the reference clock or the CPU multiplier. In order to change these speeds, you would need to enter into your BIOS options. In your BIOS options, I am going to recommend some settings that you should have if your are trying to overclock your computer. Some of these settings include: disable cool n quiet, disable C1E, disable spread spectrum, disable smart cpu fan control, manually set your memory timings, and put the windows power option on “High Performance”. Please note that you should be overclocking at your OWN risk. Most hardware companies will not give you warranty on overclocked components.
I personally do not overclock my items, but I found someone who has done that, and I am going to explain his results. He takes a look at the stock setting for a AMD Phenom II X4 940. The motherboard’s reference clock fluctuates between 200.5 MHz and 200.6 MHz, resulting in a core speed of 3,007 MHz to 3,800 MHz. He claims it is a good idea to run performance tests on stock speeds, so you know the base-performance levels. So, to overclock this, you should download the AMD OverDrive Utility, and run it. Once you install and run this program, you can boot it up, and start messing around with it. When you boot up this program, you need to make sure that the “Select All Cores” option is enabled. After that, you start to raise the clock setting in slight increments over time. If you uncheck the option just previously mentioned, you can change each core’s speed. Keep an eye on the temperature, because you don’t want it to overheat. Make sure your constantly running stability tests as well.
Make sure that before you start overclocking, you have clear out your CMOS setting. If an overclock becomes unstable, and this is cleared, then you won’t have any damages done to your computer. In order to do this, you can do it through two ways. Way one involves you change position of the clear jumper on your motherboard, waiting a few minutes, and then replacing it back onto your motherboard. The second way is to unplug your computer, remove the CMOS battery, press the power button to let your capacitors discharge, and then waiting a couple of minutes. You need to do this before any overclocking to assure that your computer is safe, if the overclock becomes unstable. In addition to clearing you CMOS, you need to make sure if your computer is locked or unlocked. In order to do this, you must lower your multiplier from 11 to 10.5. Save and exit your BIOS, and restart your computer. If your computer shows the new speed, then that means that it’s unlocked. If it fails to do that, then that means your multiplier is locked, which can cause problems for overclocking. You can only overclock using the front side of the bus.
In addition to all these steps before overclocking, the final steps are to run some tests. You simply have to run a few simple tests, such as testing the utilities. You also need to include, with that, some testing of the memory timings. You need to know this information, in order for overclocking to be successful. You also need to note the memory chip quality before doing this as well. Having a low quality memory chip can cause serious problems. If you have done all of these things, then you should be ready to overclock your computer correctly.

Pillar Article - A List of Products You Need

There are a bunch of products out there for sale that you should purchase for your computer. Some of them are really expensive, while others can be really cheap or even free. I am going to come up with a list of categories and products that I am going to recommend for people. Along with these recommended products, I will give a review on what I’ve heard about the products and what I think about them.
Operating Systems:
Windows 7 Home Edition – $100. This is the most general Windows 7 edition you can purchase. It comes with an improved desktop navigation. It also starts programs a lot more faster, and makes it easier for you to quickly find documents you use most often. It also lets you experience the web faster and safer than ever before with Internet Explorer 8. You can watch free TV through internet TV. Also, there is a new sharing center with this, which allows you to share better with other PCs in your network.
Windows 7 Ultimate Edition - $200. The perks to Windows Ultimate are not many, compared to Windows Home. You get everything that Windows Home does, except this comes with a download that you can run Windows XP business programs in a Windows XP mode. You also connect to company networks more securely because it uses Domain Join. In addition to the full-system Backup and Restore, which is found in all editions, you can back up to the home or business network.
Windows 7 Ultimate Edition - $220. This is the exact same as Windows Ultimate, except it has two more features. Feature number one is it helps protect data on your PC and storage devices against theft with BitLocker. The second feature is that you can work in any language of your choice. It comes with 35 different languages. This is a great way to get people to pay extra for stuff.
Linux – Free. This is a free operating system that you just have to boot onto your computer. It is not nearly as user friendly with any other types of Operating Systems, but users who know how to use this operating system, say it’s the best. I’ve had friends that have used it, and absolutely love the system.
Office Programs:
OpenOffice.org – Free. This is a free program that has amazing features. The features include being able to create reports, write word documents, create presentations, and even examine and edit spreadsheets. This program is a huge downgrade compared to Microsoft Office, but if you don’t want to purchase it, then it’s a must.
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010- $280 – This is the most up to date copy of Microsoft Office that is out there. This comes complete with Access, Excel, InfoPath, Lync, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Projector, Publisher, SharePoint Workspace, Visio, and Word. This combination makes Microsoft Office extremely worthwhile for the price. You can pretty much do anything with that. You have everything included from databases, spreadsheets, word documents, and presentations.
Desktop Publishing
Adobe Pagemaker - $500 – This program lets businesses and professionals create high-quality publications such as brochures and newsletters. You can quickly lay out publications by creating frames to hold text and graphics, and also apply master pages. You can also use things such as kerning and tracking to typeset your text professionally.
QuarkXPress - $800 – This program does the same thing as Adobe Pagemaker, with allowing you to create your own designs and stuff like that. It’s obviously more expensive, and it does have better reviews, but I think that this program are for people who are truly dedicated to what they do. Adobe would be more of an intermediate level program.
Photo Editing
Photoshop 6 - $600 – This program is for hardcore professionals that want to do photo edit. This is for people who take photographs and usually end up editing them. It has an amazing and friendly user interface. It also has amazing layering technology implemented into it as well. It also lets you use lots of different shapes as well.
Paint Shop Pro - $100 – This program is for people who are not as professional. This is a raster graphics editor and vector graphics editor for computers that run Microsoft Windows operating systems. The newest editions of this are user friendly with Windows 7, and come with many things such as Multi-photo adjustments, express lab, camera RAW leb, object extractor, and project creator.
Internet Browsers:
Mozilla Firefox – Free – Mozilla has been known for quite a while and had a lot of loyal customers, until Chrome rolled around. They are known for having a strong foundation, and great speed with this browser. They say that their speed is in fact, more faster than Google’s. The bad about Mozilla is that they have a crash potential, which is unlike Chrome.
Internet Explorer – Free w/ Windows – The nice thing about having this website is the support that comes with it from it being the cyberspaces gladitor’s internet browser. This program has a reputation of having the safest browsing features. Along with that, the searching has improved in recent upgrades. The only bad things about this browser are the speedtests, which show that this browser is significantly lower than other browser choices. Also, this browser has the potential to cause a lot of crashes. Some users are complaining the problems are getting worse. In my opinion, this is the worst of the browsers.
Google Chrome – Free – Chrome is the number one browser that people are using today. It has superior reliability, and rarely crashes. Chrome is also extremely fast when it loads up, and has a clean design that waste’s no screen space. Also the searching for this browser combined with the “Incognito” mode for privacy makes this browser superior. The only bad reviews about Chrome is that it monitors and collects too much data from you, has vulnerabilities because it’s a beta browser, sites and online services don’t work with Chrome, and doesn’t have any add-ons or customizable menu’s yet.

Software Recommendations - System Utilities

A lot of different programs can be used for a lot of different things. I have gone over a lot of different programs regarding system security, speed, messaging, and alternative office programs. There are still another few categories I would like to go over with and recommend some programs for. This blog’s category includes system utilities. Well system utilities are usually used to get certain diagnostics about your system. You can use them to read your computer’s temperature, see how strong the processor and video cards run, and many other abilities. One of the more popular programs that people use for system diagnostics is called EVEREST. This program, if you get the free edition, gives you system information, system diagnostics, and benchmarking solutions. This program has won awards before for being one of the better free system diagnostic’s programs. This program hasn’t been updated too recently, but it’s still one of the better known programs for system utilities. Another type of system utilities freeware program that is available is called the Belarc Advisor. This program actually builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, and then displays it for you. The results are displayed in your Web browser, but all of this information is kept private on your PC and not sent to another web server. This is different than the other program because it actually keeps a profile of almost everything your computer has installed into or onto it. If I were to choose between these two programs, I would decide on the Belarc Advisor.

Software Recommendations - Word Processing/Microsoft Office Alternative

Since we have reviewed different types of programs on how to protect your computer, how to make it faster, and how to communicate with others on the internet; I think it’s time to go over a few programs where you can create certain word documents. Basically, if you don’t have Microsoft Office, or you don’t want to purchase it, then you can use some of these programs that are absolutely free to use and download. If you wanted to spend any amount of money on a program to create word documents or make spreadsheets, then I would highly recommend buying Microsoft Office. It’s a great program, and you will use it for a really long time. Anyways, here are some free programs that are somewhat like Microsoft Office. The first program, and most popular, that I would recommend is OpenOffice. You can download it at www.OpenOffice.org, note that it’s a .org website, so it’s non-profit. OpenOffice is a free open-soruce software program that is the free alternative to Microsoft Office. Another free program that I have used in the past and would recommend is called AbiWord. You can easily use Google to find it, but I downloaded mine through www.MajorGeeks.com. AbiWord is basically just Microsoft Word, and not the complete office set, but that’s just another suggestion I would recommend. If you want to get the whole Microsoft Office alternative package, then I would suggest going with OpenOffice because that comes with the ability to make presentations, excel spreadsheets, and reports/papers.

Software Recommendations - Messaging

Now that we have covered how to protect your computer, how to improve your computer, and how to improve you; I am going to cover how to connect yourself to others through the use of the internet. There are many ways to communicate with people over the internet, mainly through email or the use of websites, but the fastest and most fun way to communicate is through messaging. Messaging has developed a lot throughout time, starting with just sending text only chat messages, to adding faces to the messages, to adding pictures, to now being able to stream live video feed. Therefore, I am going to give a list of free messaging programs that I would like to show you. The first free program that I would recommend is called Skype. It’s a simple and fast program that allows you to make calls anywhere in the world. You just have to download, register, plug in your headset, and call anyone on Skype. It also allows you to call people through their phone service, so you can call your friends instead of using your cell phone. Rates are charged for that though. Another free program that I would recommend is Yahoo messenger. This is another free program that a lot of people use to communicate through. Yahoo is also similar to AOL’s Instant Messenger, which both use to be popular a few years ago. Now a day, the main way of communication is through Skype or chatting with friends through Facebook’s chat service.

Software Recommendations - Ergonomics

Throughout my last few posts, I have made recommendations of different types of software, whether it cost money or free to download. I am now going to give some recommendations on software that improves you, and not your computer. How can software improve you? Well there is something called Ergonomics, which is how you sit in front of your computer. These ergonomic programs are designed to help reduce eye strain, magnify things, and reduce carpel tunnel syndrome. The first program that I think everyone should use, is called EyeCare Reminder. This program is really simple, because all it does it reminds you to take a break from using your computer. This is an extremely simple and free program, but it’s a great idea to use it because a lot of strain is done to your eyes from viewing a computer screen all day. Another program that I would recommend is Zoom, which is a free magnifier tool. It’s another simple program that you can download to magnify anything that would cause harm to your eyes. Another program, that I thought was interesting, was called GYM-O-FIZZ. This program is designed for people who are stuck in an office all day. It basically gives you many different ideas on how to do fitness in your office. It will actually remind you when to do fitness after being in front of a computer for so long. It’s just a bunch of short exercises that take a minute, but you do them so much throughout the day that you get 10-30 minutes of exercise a day through this free program. After improving you, I will return to programs to improve your desktop computer.

Software Recommendations - Registry Cleaning

Just on the last post, I have decided to talk about the different types of paid programs you can use to protect your computer from harmful spyware and malware. Now, I am going to explain different types of programs that you can use keep your registry clean. Why would you want to keep your registry clean? Well a clean registry makes your computer run a lot smoother. Along with a smoother running computer, the registry cleaners also free up more space on your hard drive, so you can store more stuff onto it. Your registry keeps track of a lot of things, so by cleaning out obsolete files and data, you can free up a lot of space. The most common free registry cleaning program that I would recommend is called RegCleaner. This basically just removes all your old registry entries that your computer never uses anymore. You can download it on many websites by just searching it at www.google.com. Another popular registry cleaner is called Lexun RegScrub. This registry cleaner cleans out your registry, but if you made a mistake and cleaned out something that you needed, you can easily reverse the clean and get everything back. This is why this program is so cool, because if you accidently cleaned something you did not want to, it ends up being extremely easy to get it back. This program also allows you to make an exclusion list, so that it blocks it from cleaning out registries you do not want to have cleaned.

Software Recommendations - Paid Spyware/Malware

So I was thinking about more of what to talk about regarding desktop computers, and have decided that for the next few posts I am just going to make a bunch of recommendations on the types of programs that you can download onto your new desktop, to help it run better. I am going to cover a lot of different types of programs on different days, so I have decided that today’s program category is going to be paid programs for spyware/malware removal. The first program that I would highly recommend for getting rid of any type of malware is called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. You can buy it off of www.majorgeeks.com for $25. The download size is only 9 MB too. Over 6 million people have downloaded this through MajorGeeks alone, so therefore it is a highly recommended product. How does it work? Well it basically monitors everything that you do on your computer, and instantly removes any types of malware or harmful software that is detected. Another program that I have heard about that people have paid for is called Spyware Doctor. This program is used to clean out spyware, trojans, adware, and keyloggers that can steal information about you and give it to another party. This is an extremely up to date program, and has great reviews on it. I would recommend buying both of these programs in order to keep your computer ultra safe from spyware and malware that could harm your computer. Next up, I will recommend free registry cleaners to clean out your registry.

Part Information - Accessories

So on top of all these specific parts, I am going to cover a bunch of accessories that you can buy for your computer, that you might need some day. These accessories do different types of things, such as enhance sound, allow you to upload videos faster, and cool your parts that can overheat. Along with the video cards that you can purchase and stick into your motherboard, you can purchase cards for wireless internet, fire wire (which is used to upload video’s more fast than the USB), and even sound cards. These can be found for the best prices on www.newegg.com. I promote this website a lot, because it offers the best deals, and has the most friendly customer service websites. It’s easy to install any of these cards, since most motherboards have slots for them. You should always double check though with your motherboard. Along with all these cards, you can also purchase cooling systems for your memory or processor. They have liquid cooling systems as well, which work very well if you like to over clock your system a lot. You can also add fans into your case for better ventilation. Obviously some other accessories include a keyboard and mouse, which are usually USB now a days, and any motherboard and computer case comes with plenty of USB connection spots. You can also get wireless internet through the usage of USB. Also, there is plenty of connection space for your modem or Ethernet cords, and connections for your speakers and microphones. All these accessories are needed to enhance your desktop computer’s abilities. Below are some example's of some fans you could purchase for your computer. 

Part Information - Motherboard

This is the most confusing part when building a computer. The reason for this is because the motherboard has so many different compatibility requirements that you have to meet with each part. I will explain each compatibility part really briefly. Remember, you have to make sure that your processor is compatible with your motherboard, so you have to check that first. Second, you need to make sure that your RAM is compatible as well. Make sure the Mhz and the appropriate amount of RAM is exactly what your motherboard says. Make sure you have a slot for a graphics card, and they match up. Usually a PCI-Express x 16 is the more common type for video cards now a days. Also, you should make sure you have enough power from your power supply. Along with that, you need to make sure that the hard drive connection cords match up with your motherboard. Most are the SATS 3.0 Gb/s. Lastly, make sure that your motherboard can fit into your case. There are different sizes of motherboards, such as the ATX and the ATX Micro board. You have to make sure your case can support that type of motherboard, before purchasing anything else.  Some people will say it is better to choose your motherboard first, and then build off of that. I usually build a motherboard off of the type of RAM and CPU I want, because most common motherboards support everything else that I would want to use. Therefore, anyone who reads this should be able to figure out the proper motherboard for their computer. Here is a motherboard you could look at below. 

Part Information - Hard Drive

Along with the many types of different parts, there are many types of hard drives. These hard drives come in different speeds and capacities. The prices fluctuate accordingly with each of the types of drives. You can get different types of hard drives too, internal and external. External hard drives are usually really large, like in present days they would consist of multiple terabytes, which in case you didn’t know, 1 terabyte equals 1000 gigabytes. The external hard drives usually hold a database or something for companies. Some people use them to hold their media collection, such as movies and music. An internal hard drive is usually half a terabyte, or 500 gigabytes, in present time. Before they were as little as 50 gigabytes, and even 10 gigabytes. Along with the amount of space present in the internal hard drive, you need to pay attention to the RPM. The RPM, stands for rotations per minute, determines the access time on the hard drive of the computer. Common RPM’s are 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM. Basically, the higher the RPM, the better the hard drive it is. You can find decent deals on www.newegg.com for 500 GB to 1 TB hard drives with 7200 RPM for around $60. That’s a really good deal now a days. Also, you will note that there are Cache’s marked with the hard drives. The cache pretty much lets the computer multi task better. It can do things faster with a bigger cache, so you want to aim for a larger cache when looking at hard drives. Along with the capacity and speed, you have to make sure that the connection cord matches your motherboard. The most common connection type in present day is the SATA 3.0Gb/s connection. There are other connections available such as the SATA 1.5 Gb/s and the IDE connections. 

Part Information - Cases

Now I am going to review what you should look for while choosing a computer case. First off, the computer case is the skeleton for designing your computer. You need to decide if you want it to be a small and compact computer, or if you want it to be a large computer that’s going to be able to do many different types of things and needs a good air ventilation system. After deciding on the amount of space you have available, you should decide on the internal space amount. If you are going to put many different types of drives, and cards into your computer, then you need to make sure it’s big enough to house all that. After deciding that, comes the motherboard compatibility.  You need to make sure that your motherboard is compatible to fit inside the case, because without that, your motherboard won’t even be able to screw into your case, causing you to buy a new part. You also need to note the power supply size for your case, because the power supply slot in your case needs to match the size of your power supply. If you’re a gamer or someone who enjoys over clocking their computer, then you should make sure your computer is big enough to house a lot of fans, or cooling technology. Also don’t forget to make sure you like the look of your case. If your case meets all of these factors that I just described, then you should be able to choose the correct one for yourself. Here are some good cases for great prices that are available.  

Part Information - Power Supply

After reviewing processors, ram, and video cards, I think it would be appropriate to point out the different types of power supplies that you can choose, and how you should choose the right one. First off, the power supplies job is to supply enough power to certain parts of the computer, so it can run correctly. Having too little of power can cause your computer to run at slower speeds. Also, having a lower quality type of power supply can be a bad decision for your customized desktop computer. The part of your computer that take up the most power are your processor. The more present and up to date processors take up about 60W to 90W of power. Before processor’s got so power hungry, they would only take up about 45W. After the processor, comes the video card, usually. It depends on if your computer is a gaming computer or not. If you have a gaming computer, then your video card will be the next one that is the most power hungry. After the video card comes the RAM. The RAM would be the next power hungry, taking in anywhere from 40W to 60W of power, depending on today’s RAM. The motherboard trails after the RAM with 30W of power required, and then the hard drive and DVD drives follow with power requirements of only 10W to 20W. A good power supply for a regular computer would be about 300W to 400W. I personally have a 600W power supply in my gaming computer. 

Part Information - Video Cards

After explaining the memory, I have decided to now explain graphics cards. Basically the graphics card controls how good your 3D image is on your screen. A higher performing graphics card is usually preferred by gamers and expensive ones are used in gaming computers. They are constantly being upgraded almost every week, so therefore it’s ridiculous to spend a huge amount of money on a graphics card. One day, a brand new graphics card is about $350, and then within a month, it drops to $200. It’s always best to spend around $200 on a graphics card for a gaming computer; anything under it wouldn’t be too bad either. The graphics card has it’s own processor and memory in it. The graphics card processing unit is referred to as the GPU. It creates images and then stores it in the memory, that’s what some graphics cards are better than others, is because they have more memory. An example of this would be a graphics card with 512MB of memory versus a graphics card with 1GB of memory. For a deep explanation, the memory connects to the digital-to-analog converter, which takes the data from the memory and converts it to an analogy signal. That analog signal is then directed through the cable to the monitor and it displays the image. Now the different types of names refer to how fast the processor runs. Usually I use www.google.com and have to look up reviews on what the speeds are, but if you saw Geforce 9700, and a Geforce 9800, you could easily assume that the 9800 is better because they’re similar in the make and number. You would want to review a video card if it was a Gefore 9800 and a Geforce gtx 460.

Part Information – Memory/RAM

There are a few things you have to note when deciding on the type of RAM you want to get. To be honest, the specs of the RAM are various for almost every card. The first thing that I tend to notice with RAM is the amount of pins it has. Today, the most common types of pins are 240-pin, but a few years ago, they had 200 pin and 184 pin. You have to pay attention to what your motherboard allows you to use for the pins size, but most common pin sizes today are 240. The next thing that you want to pay attention to is the mhz. Your motherboard also specifies the amount of Mhz allowed, because it has to match up with what the processor would be able to work with. They use to run down to 266 Mhz, but now they go up to 1600 mhz. This is important to note, because getting an incompatible Mhz with the motherboard, could cause damage to your system. The last thing you want to note is how much memory it uses. Those uses to be measured in 256 megabytes and 512 megabytes, but now things are measured in gigabytes. For example, you can buy sticks with 2 gigabytes of memory, or sticks with 4 gigabytes of memory. You have to notice how much RAM your motherboard can support, let alone your operating system. If you have Windows 7 64-bit, then it can support up to 16 gigabytes of memory. If you have an older operating system, like windows xp 32-bit, then that would only support up to 6 GB of memory.

Part Information - Processors

After building all these computers, you have probably noticed that there are a lot of different types of processors, motherboards, video cards, etc. I am going to try to give an explanation of how tell the difference between the many types of parts. For example, a question such as “why is an Intel i5 Quad-core 3.2 Ghz processor better than an Intel i3 Duel-core 3.2 Ghz processor?” that is what I am trying to answer. So therefore, I am going to explain how to tell a difference. First off, a processor’s speed rate is determined in megahertz and gigahertz, meaning how many cycles per second. Now a day, you only see processor’s with gigahertz, but back in the 1990’s, you saw the majority of processors with megahertz. You can easily access a processor by looking at it’s design, more than it’s clock speed. You use to be able to say that a 3.2 Ghz processor is faster than a 2.2 Ghz processor, but if that 2.2 Ghz process happened to be a duel core, then it would be more powerful, because its 2.2 x 2, meaning 4.4 Ghz processor. It is faster because it can process double the amount. Intel has released six core processors now, with 3.2 Ghz. If you do the math on that, its capability is at 19.2 Ghz. If processors are really close in their speeds, some people use benchmarking programs to measure the speed. So now that you understand processors, I will explain RAM in the next blog.