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.

10 things I stumbled upon

So, I was reading through some google articles on what else to blog, and I came across this article titled “10 things you should know about building a computer from scratch”. You can view the article by clicking here. I am just going to go over his 10 points, but add my own opinion on it. My previous post, can relate on how this all fits together. You should read the previous post first, before continuing on. 

1. Select the mobo carefully – I cannot agree more with him. There are so many requirements between all the parts, that you must make sure everything is compatible. 

2. Review CPU options – Make sure you get a processor that is going to last awhile, since once you buy that, it’s basically bound to your motherboard. 

3. Don’t skimp on the PC case – I tend to do this a lot, because they can be expensive if you look through. I always prefer Raidmax cases; they have always worked for me. 

4. Power up – I think anything over 500W will do any computer good, especially gaming computers. 

5. Check the RAM – I personally think that 4 GB of RAM is enough right now, but it never hurts to get more. 

6. Choose the right disk format – Remember to notice what type of SATA or IDE hard disk it is, and double check it with your motherboard.

7. Consider video requirements – If you’re a gamer, spend a little extra on one to enhance your gaming experience, otherwise I would just use the integrated graphics that come with the motherboard, to save some money.

8. Secure everything – Make sure every connection is secure, you don’t want to blow any of your expensive parts. 

9. Buy a burner –You can burn so much with a good DVD burner. I would recommend one, otherwise you’re going to have trouble booting up your operating system.

10. Cool is good; heat is bad – Purchase a few extra fans if your case has bad reviews on cooling. There are temperature utilities you can download for free under the Utilities section in my pillar article.

Information for building a gaming computer with NO spending limit.

After trying to make computers at affordable prices, I am going to make a computer with a no price limit. This is simple, I am going to go to Newegg, and create the most expensive power hungry computer that I can possibly create, and post about it on here. Note, that technology is always changing, so as of this date, this is the most expensive power hungry computer I can create, meaning that if you view this tomorrow, it probably won’t be. So, here is the list of parts that I would choose:

Processor: Intel core i7-990X 3.46 GHz six-core desktop processor, $1000.

RAM: Ripjaw Series 24GB 240-Pin DDR3, $600.

Video card: PowerColor LCS 4GB Radeon HD 6990 4GB 256-bit w/ liquid cooling, $900.

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage Black Edition ATX Intel Motherboard, $560.

Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200W, $450.

Case: Zalmen Extreme Hybrid ATX Mid Tower Case, $800.

DVD Drive: DVD Burner 8X Black SATA Model, $150.

Hard Drive: Western Digital 1 TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, $1300.

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate SP 1 64-bit Operating System, $100.

The total cost of this computer with shipping, tax, and rebates included, ended up being $5,944.91. This computer is honestly a beast, but it’s not worth the price, considering in a year from now, this same computer could probably be built under $1,000. Note that the total cost of this computer could have been a lot higher, if I went with a 3 TB internal hard drive that had a cost of just under $7,000.