Digital Storage vs. Physical Storage: “
I thought this was an interesting pictorial depiction of how technology has changed over time
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Hi Matt
Can you help me with "grounding" I wish to add RAM to my computer but whilst reading up noticed numerous references to "grounding" I don’t want to stuff it up, what’s the easy way to eliminate the chance of a spike? Cheers Brian
Hi Brian – good question! Whenever we stick our hands (or heads) inside a computer case we should be very cautious about the possibility of zapping the components with a static electricity discharge. Static electricity can cause quite a lot of damage to sensitive parts, such as ram, inside your computer.
Professional repair shops probably have specialised equipment for grounding themselves and the simplest of these is an ‘earthing strap’ which is basically a little wrist strap you put on your wrist and attach to the computer case. This basically levels out the static charge between you and the components so you don’t zap them. Really professional operations might have grounding mats and all sorts of other devices including temperature and dust controlled environments.
I have been fiddling with PC bits for years. I have never used a strap or other device and to my knowledge I have never stuffed anything. Just be aware of course that once you open your computer case you do need to be cautious. No only could you damage the components but there could be residual current and you could injure yourself. I have scratched and cut myself on sharp corners in there and your blood will do nothing to lubricate the performance of your PC!
The only precautions I ever take is to have clean hands and to touch the case and power supply before touching any other parts like the ram or motherboard. Unless you have been running on the carpet and rubbing a balloon on your tummy this should discharge any static electricity difference between you and the PC.
Below I have linked a couple of articles that may give you some more information on the topic. The first link is the Google search I did to find the other sites.
Of course you know that upgrading your ram will probably be like getting a whole new computer. Win XP struggles with less than 512mb of ram but will really fly with 1G or more. Vista needs at least 2Gb but that’s progress for you! Let us know how you go Brian
What is the best way to ground myself to discharge static electricity?
Have you ever lost a user manual or instructions for an item? Of course you have – I know I have!
It could be a TV or a DVD player, a food processor, an air conditioner or some other complicated piece of equipment. Or maybe you bought it second hand and the booklet didn’t come with it. And the frustration mounts!
There are a number of places on the web you can look for a copy of the user manual. An educated Google search can often turn one up and of course try the manufacturers own site too. But there are also some places on the net that accumulate the manuals for you and one of these is SafeManuals.com. Apparently they have over 800,000 guides saved and growing.
I have included their search function in this post – click the buttons below and give it a try. You might just find something you are missing!
As usual it’s "buyer beware" on eBay. Hey Ross – have you checked out the full capacity of that 32GB drive you have? 
China is a genius factory, don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. The latest tech gimmick to flood the market are some naughty USB keys containing a hacked controller and only half as much physical flash memory as they claim.
A lot of these cheap keys find their way to Ebay, advertised with a large capacity – usually between 1 and 8GB. When you plug it in, your OS will report the full capacity, however half of that doesn’t exist. Filling the key more than halfway writes to its imaginary memory and throws that data into a black hole. During normal use, the hack is a bugger to detect and will no doubt turn your day into a bed-wetting nightmare when crucial files are lost in the void.
While a similar trick has been around before, where 16MB was being exaggerated to multiple gigabytes, the problem this time is quantity: hundreds of these things get sold a day to Australians alone. eBay is so saturated with these things and you have to search hard to find the genuine article.
The hack works by tricking the controller into believing it has a larger memory chip attached than it actually does. If you open up a key, you will find two main chips soldered on: the flash memory (the large rectangular IC) and the controller (the smaller square IC). This exploit seems to be isolated to keys with an iCreate controller. However, without disassembling the key, there is no way to know what you will get. Pictured is a dicey iCreatei5127-lg based stick, but there may be others out there.
For now there are some simple ways to test if you‘ve been duped. The quick way is to get your hands on a copy of HD-Tach (the trial version is fine), and run a benchmark on your key. If there is a sudden spike or dip , like the one in the image below, you might have purchased from wallet-rape central. If it stays flat you’re probably in the clear
The more thorough test involves filling your key and seeing if anything falls into the void. We suggest taking as many mp3s or similar as you can fit on the key and splitting them up into a few folders (8 is a good number; try and have folders of equal size). Copy them all to the key and unplug when done. At least a minute after unplugging the key, insert it into a different computer and test a few files from each of your folders. On a bad key, about half of these will be corrupted.
If you’re one of the poor sods who have one of these dodgy drives, all is not lost. First you should try and raise a dispute through the appropriate channels. Ebay in particular has facilities for this.
If you’re stuck with it, however, you can cut your losses and reformat it to the correct size. iCreate provide a tool called iFormat. We had a little trouble with this version, but there is an older (more stable) version available, which will correctly detect how much flash you have and repartition. As your drive shrinks, the pangs of buyers’ remorse may kick in, however the danger of losing files is now gone.
If you’re about to buy flash storage from Ebay, be very careful – and remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The example is just one that we’ve noticed — there are probably many others out there. If you are key hunting on Ebay, remember to use everything at your disposal. There are some good fraud-detection guides out there, and it always helps to double check seller feedback and use PayPal. Sudden up-crops of negative or neutral feedback in the last month are big warning signs. Spend the time to find out what those bad ones were about. Make sure you do your research and don’t buy impulsively if you’re in a hurry or you’re looking at a sale that ends soon – just like Dell specials, there will be another similar sale almost immediately afterwards. Good Huntin’.
This article can be seen at http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?SCID=20&CIID=105823
Hi
Lynette has a problem with a Vista PC
My daughter has a new computer with Vista on it. She has problems getting things like digital cameras that will work on Vista do you have any suggestions, she is already having trouble getting a refund for one camera, and the second one needs some additional stuff to go with it, should all this be happening? She asks if it works with Vista at time of purchase and the answer is always yes, but unfortunately it doesn’t work!
Many thanks, Lynette
Hi Lynette & Sorry for the slow reply
Did your daughter buy the PC with Vista installed or did she install it after?
Is it new from a big manufacturer or a ‘white box’ built in a local shop or by herself or a friend?
If it came with Vista installed from a big manufacturer then it should be set up properly
I installed Vista on my laptop (it had XP before) and it took a while to get all the drivers and things set up correctly
The wrong driver etc would stop some USB items from working properly when plugged in inc cameras
I have 2 quick thoughts that may help:
If the above doesn’t help can you get her to give us a few more details:
PC Details including when and where purchased and components (if she knows them) particularly the motherboard type
The Version of Vista and type of camera etc
If anyone has experienced similar problems with a camera please offer Lynette and her daughter some more suggestions
Thanks everyone
We have had some great feedback on this problem
Original post is down the page or click here
Here’s Wendy’s reply:
Thanks for all your help.
The CD Drive does light up but does not spin. I did check all the cables and they seem to be firmly in their places.
Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, the CD Drive is there but has an alert symbol beside it!
When booting up it goes too fast to access the screen to see the list of drives.
Everything else seems to be OK.
Here’s the feedback we have had from some other members:
Ok – so Lou has suggested a system restore. This is likely to fix the problem if it originates from Windows, e.g. a corrupt driver or similar. If you have a recent restore point set (in Win XP or ME) then try rolling back to the earlier restore point and see if it helps.
If not then I suspect we have a drive that has died. One way to test it would be to take the drive out of your PC and plug it into someone else’s. If it doesn’t work there then it is likely gone to heaven.
Like anything electronic CD drives are susceptible to power surge and the like. And anything with moving parts can break or wear out. CD burners are pretty cheap these days and if you took it to a PC repair place they wouldn’t even look at it they would just give you a new one.
So Wendy – try the system restore and if that doesn’t work send me an email and I will give you a replacement drive to try in it’s place.
Thanks everyone for the advice on this one
I found this posting on a site which details the assembling of a brand new computer system from scratch. It has explanation and some pics and makes for good reading.
Details are provided on the Corsair site. Corsair are manufacturer and online retailer of memory (ram) modules that come highly recommended.
Anyway if you are interested read through the details here:
Hi Mulligrubs,
Thanks for the emails it is great to be able to have access to all that information.
I am not able to get to the meetings but I am very interested in the subjects that get discussed.
May I ask a question and may be get a bit of help please.
Something has happened to my E:drive – CD Drive.
It won’t come up in my list of drives and I have tried to enable it but that doesn’t work.
Could you suggest how I could repair the problem?
Thanks, Wendy
Thanks for the question Wendy and glad you like the notes
It sounds to me that the drive is no showing up in windows
Either it is dead or it isn’t physically connected any more
CD Drives are usually pretty tough (HDDs are more susceptible) so I would presume it’s more like a cable has come loose
Let’s try so investigations
Does the light on the drive light up when you open or close it?
If you put a disk in the drive can you hear it spin?
Most PC’s when they boot show a list of items that BIOS identifies
There is usually a ram check (that ‘counts’ the ram) and a list of connected drives be they hard drives or CD/DVD drives
Note some manufacturers hide this activity behind a ’splash screen’ which you can usually turn off in the BIOS settings
When your PC boots can you see the drive in the list of drives?
If it is lighting up but not showing in Windows I bet the ribbon cable is loose
If it isn’t lighting or spinning up then maybe the power cable is loose
Worst case is all cables are connected and the drive is dead
New replacement CD drives are cheap these days, even DVD burners are well under $100
I know I have a few CD burners lying around somewhere
As I mentioned though CD drives aren’t usually the first thing to go
So if your CD drive has died I would be doing a very thorough review of my PC to make sure nothing else has been effected too
Now would be an excellent time to back up all your important data and with the recent black-outs and brown-outs around town we should all take some extra care to keep our information safe
Wendy do a bit of a check up on what the drive does and doesn’t do
If you are game you can even take the side off the PC case and see if the cables are all secure
(Unplug the power first and be careful of static electricity)
We might even have someone who can come and help if you need it
If anyone has any other suggestions for Wendy or would like to volunteer to help then please write in
Cheers
MATT
Improve Battery Life of Your Tablet or Laptop Computer
You may have a very high-end laptop with lots of RAM, latest processor chip and an extremely powerful graphics card but still the battery inside your laptop computer or Tablet PC remains the weakest link – the average battery life is anywhere between three and four hours for most notebook models.
Whether we are traveling on the road or waiting in the airport lounge or taking a long flight (where there are no power plugs to recharge the battery), our most common wish is that the laptop battery should last as long as possible so that we remain connected, informed and productive.
Here are some simple yet effective tips that will help you extract the maximum juice out of your laptop batter per charge (though nothing substitutes carrying a spare full-charged battery):
Dim the Bright LCD Screen – Turn down the brightness level of your laptop screen to the lowest value possible. Similarly, lower the screen resolution and color depth as they again put stress on the display card and therefore consume additional power of your battery.
Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning – If you are using the laptop for offline work, like composing emails or giving final touches to that PowerPoint presentation, there’s no point checking for Wi-Fi network in your area when you are not going to use it anyway. Most laptops have shortcut keys to instantly disable wireless networking.
Disable Background Processes – You could have several maintenance related processes running on your hard-drive which can be turned off temporarily. Examples include the desktop search software that’s configured to index new files on the fly or any IM clients sitting in the system tray or any scheduled tasks that auto-run at pre-defined intervals.
Defragment the Hard Disk – Defragmenting will try to put all the piece of a file in a sequence so it will take less effort to see a file. You may notice a marginal jump in computing speed after defragmentation plus it also helps in extending the very precious life of your battery.
Turn off the Auto-save document feature of Microsoft Office and other applications. Programs that are run from a CD or DVD can be copied to and run from the hard drive, which typically consumes less power than an optical drive.
Also remember to fully charge a new battery pack before carrying it with you on an important business trip. New batteries should be fully charged and discharged a few times before they work to their maximum capacity.
Improve Battery Life of Your Tablet or Laptop Computer | India Inc.
I read the Atomic Forums all the time and recommend them as a great place to get some first hand computer information. You can also post questions and so on. This young fellow wrote this guide on how to pick components for a PC. It doesn’t provide much how-to information, that is how-to assemble the parts – but for the buying process it is quite informative. Check it out
Note: This tutorial assumes you know how to assemble a PC.
This forum (www.atomicmpc.com.au) is constantly being filled with questions about “Budget PCs” and “Cheap Upgrades”. So I thought it would be time for a tutorial about how to design a suitable computer for different needs.
Recognising the uses of the computer build
When designing a computer, you cannot just decide on a budget and then throw whatever fits within the budget into the build. You must have an aim for the PC. Whether this aim is video editing, gaming or word processing, you must establish your goal before the design commences.
The budget
After you have thought about the intended use of the PC, you must think about your budget. Your budget should generally be the highest you are willing to pay for the PC. Don’t get too enthusiastic, if you can’t afford it, lower your budget. Remember that you’re not going to get a new PC for under $500, and if you do manage to do it, don’t expect quality. A good benchmark would be $1000+ for a decent PC.
Recycle!
One of the major goals for a PC designer is to extend the budget as far as possible. One of the easiest methods of doing this is to recycle useful parts from a previous PC. These parts may include the case/tower, optical drives, peripherals etc. Please be careful with what you are keeping for the new system. One of the worst things you can do to a system is ‘bottleneck’ it. For those of you who don’t know, ‘Bottlenecking’ is when a component in your system is slowing down other parts due to it’s lack of speed or efficiency. For example, a slow CPU (Central Processing Unit) can effect the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), possibly the speed of optical drives, and maybe even the HDD (Hard Disk Drive). Essentially, you can spend thousands on an upgrade which is useless due to a ‘bottleneck’.
Bottlenecking and how to avoid it
The easiest way to avoid bottlenecking is to do some research. A quick Google search can provide a wealth of information. Another way is to ask other Atomicans if they have experienced any bottlenecking on certain parts. If you are keen, a bit of careful overclocking can ease some bottleneck issues. For more information on overclocking, see: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=6&t=510
Getting into gear – What parts should I get?
Going back to your aim for the PC, you base the specifications of the parts on the tasks you require the PC to perform. Here is a quick guide for what you should get for different systems:
Gaming
The main requirements for a gaming PC are decent specification GPU, CPU and RAM. If you desire a rig that caters for the highest settings and the latest games, a high performance GPU and CPU are in order. At present day, 2GB of RAM would be considered minimum and possibly a copy of Vista Home Premium/Ultimate for DirectX 10 gaming. The GPU should be from the latest generation e.g.. Nvidia 8800GTX and the CPU should be minimum dual core with a decent cache and clock speed. An good example is the new E6300 for high performance gaming. When choosing a monitor, please keep in mind that the higher the resolution, the less FPS (Frames Per Second) you will get. Sometimes this will mean that you have to get better GPU than originally planned. Search Google for benchmarks using different resolutions. This will help you decide which card is best.
Remember that this is a guide which includes some unnecessary high performance parts. This power may not be required for your design. Use research to find the “sweet spot” of performance/price.
Video Editing
Similar to gaming PCs, video editing requires a moderately powerful CPU, fairly recent GPU, a large amount of RAM and a huge HDD. 2GB of RAM would be considered minimum and a modern dual core CPU (a Core 2 Duo would be optimal at this stage). The sound processor can be either bought separately or inbuilt into the motherboard. Inbuilt sound is usually of a high standard, but for audiophiles a separate sound card is a must.
Word Processing/Office PC
These PCs are the cheapest to build due to the lower specification requirements. A single core CPU would suffice although the dual cores are fairly cheap presently anyway. The GPU can be inbuilt into the motherboard because it doesn’t have to be powerful, as with the sound processor. The HDD can be as large as required, but is generally smaller than gaming and video editing machines. Depending on the OS (Operating System), the PC should have 512MB+ of RAM minimum when running XP.
What am I looking for when researching?
When you are researching parts for your build, you need to consider a few critical factors. These factors are:
- Cost vs performance (also known as “The Sweet Spot”)
- Upgradeability
- Features (such as extra USB ports etc.)
- Freebies (this is usually associated with GPUs)
They are the the main elements to look out for. Below is a quick guide on what to look out for when buying different components:
Motherboard
The motherboard is where all your components connect to and communicate with each other. The upgradeability of this component is much sought after when designing a PC. The things to look out for are:
- The CPU socket type: Does it cater for future upgrading? Is the socket type already outdated?
- RAM frequencies supported: Can the motherboard support high end RAM if/when required?
- Type of expansion slots: Does the motherboard have PCI-e slots etc.?
- Amount of expansion slots: Is there enough slots to cater for your needs?
- Specific technology support: Does it support technologies such as SLI/Crossfire if required?
- BIOS options: Does it have advanced options if overclocking is desired?
- Inbuilt services: Does it have inbuilt audio and LAN if essential?
- Ports: Does it come with USB and Firewire ports built in?
RAM
RAM is fairly easy to research. The main things to look out for are frequency and latency. Latency is displayed in the form ‘y-x-x-x’ where ‘y’ and ‘x’ are numerals. Without getting into detail, all you have to remember is that the ‘y’ should be as low as possible. The ‘y’ is also referred to as CL (CAS Latency). The frequency of the RAM is opposite to this, the higher the number the better. As a benchmark, start with ~667Mhz RAM. If you plan to heavily overclock your system (and change FSB values), an 800Mhz or higher rating would be optimal.
HDD
Researching a HDD is fairly simple. The standard for PC HDDs is 7200RPM. Faster models are available which run at 10000RPM, but they run louder, hotter & generally use more power. When researching, look out for fast seek times and low noise output.
GPU
GPUs have become quite complex in design recently. The best way to find the GPU you need is to search Google for benchmarks. Try and acquire a DirectX 10 card (if your budget allows it). Make sure the card you choose can support the resolution of the monitor used in your rig. Benchmarks should help you with this decision. Make sure you focus on the minimum FPS not the maximum, after all you don’t want any lag while playing games. Look out for added freebies which are bundled with some GPUs. Sometimes some expensive games/software are included which you may want/need. Be careful not to buy a card because it has expensive extras if you don’t need them. An exception to this is if the GPU is cheaper than other brands anyway. Be sure to check if the GPU is SLI/Crossfire enabled if you need it (for a high resolution monitor).
Some companies such as XFX sell pre-overclocked GPUs. These cards are a good choice if you can spare the money. Generally these cards can be overclocked even further, which is a bonus. Don’t invest in a SLI/Crossfire setup as an upgrade, it is better to get a new single card in most cases.
Case
There are 5 types of cases. Small Form Factor, Minitower, Midtower, Full Size Tower & Desktop. Full Size Towers are the best choice for upgradeability, but they take more room than the other cases. Midtowers are the most common choice because they use less room yet still have enough space for extra HDDs etc. A note to keep in mind is that some GPUs require a large case to fit. An example is the 8800GTX. If you are recycling an old case, make sure it suits the new ATX style motherboards and PSUs (Power Supply Units). Anything before 1995 will most likely not support this standard.
Some cases come with PSUs pre-installed. Make sure the PSU can handle your chosen components. (See the PSU section for more details).
CPU
The CPU is the ‘brain’ of the PC. Choosing the correct CPU for your components is a hard task, and requires more research than other components. The CPU must be able to keep up with all the other components to avoid the dreaded ‘bottlenecking’ problem. It is usually the GPU that strains the CPU the most so keep that in mind when doing your research. Google will help the most with research, look up benchmarks and reviews to guide you. Remember that clock speeds are not the only factor that determines a fast processor. Cache, multiple cores and architecture all play a part in performance.
Optical Drives
Optical drives are easy to choose. A DVD writer with 18x reading capabilities should suffice, although some have better features and are more efficient though. Again research is great to select the right one. Most drives come with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) CD/DVDs. Usually this software is Nero.
PSU
PSUs are easy to select. Try to steer clear of generic brands, after all this is powering your system. PSUs are rated by wattage, and it is vital to choose a PSU with enough grunt to power your components. Search Google to find the wattage required by each of your components, then add them up to find what it required. Just to be safe (and futureproof) get more than is required, but don’t go over-the-top.
Monitor
Monitors are mostly personal preference. The two major types are CRT and LCD. LCD is the best option for most situations. LCDs are compact, crisp and comparable in quality to CRTs. The things to look out for in LCDs are contrast ratio, and refresh rate measured in ms (milliseconds). The lower the refresh rate, the faster the monitor reacts when pixels are ‘told’ to change colour. Try to get a 8ms or faster LCD to reduce ghosting. Obviously it is optimal to get the fastest as possible given your budget. Contrast ratio is the difference in luminosity between the highest and the darkest shades the monitor can display. This is displayed in the form ‘x:1′ where x is a numeral. The bigger the ‘x’, the better the contrast ratio is. Aim for 800:1 or higher, 500:1 would be minimum.
CRT monitors have very fast refresh rates compared to LCDs. The refresh rate in CRTs is measured in Hz (Hertz). The higher the Hz, the faster the refresh rate. 75hz is a good frequency, try not to go below 60hz. Good quality CRTs provide a better picture than LCDs, which may be essential for multimedia applications & possibly games.
You might want to look out for ‘dot pitch’ in monitors, this is the gap between its pixels. It is measured in mm (millimeters). The smaller the better, BUT they can be misleading. Try to judge with your own eyes if possible.
All in all, the best thing to do is read reviews and try the monitors out yourself.
Have I chosen what’s required?
You must remember your budget! Getting the best of everything will most likely kill the budget. This is where research is required. Again, Google & Atomic are great resources to find reviews and specifications on different components. A great little tip in Google for comparing different components is to write, for example, “8800GTS VS 8800GTX” (with or without the “”). Remember to look at multiple different sources to confirm your findings. If you believe you have designed a system worthy of being bought and constructed but need verification, don’t hesitate to post your findings on Atomic where we can check it for you for mistakes/improvements.
What about cooling?
Stock cooling is generally enough for your PC is run without a problem. This situation can change if you have either:
-High performance parts
-Overclocked parts
-An obstructed airflow eg. Messy cabling
If you do experience overheating due to obstruction, try tying the cables together and place them out of the way. If the problem is due to high performance gear or overclocking, then extra cooling is required. This may be in the form of extra fans/heatsinks, better thermal paste or water cooling systems. Remember that water cooling can be louder than extra fans! Try and place the extra cooling systems where the heat is being generated for more efficiency.
Where do I get the parts?
A challenge when building a PC is finding cheap parts. Thankfully there are search engines that can do most of the hard work for us. Atomic has its own component search engine which can be found here: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/shopping.aspx Another popular search engine is: http://www.staticice.com.au/index.html Try and get all your parts from the least amount of different resellers as possible. It will make your life easier if parts don’t arrive, or if you have any problems to follow up.
Can I start buying now?
Have you researched the compatibility of all the components? Can all the parts fit in the case you chose? Have you gone over the budget? Can you do more with your budget? Use these questions to make sure you are ready to spend your hard earned cash.
Now can I buy stuff???
Yes, but don’t blame me if something bad happens. 
I just realised that I don’t know how to build a PC…
That’s fine. Most computer stores can build your PC for a small fee. If you are fairly confident in doing it yourself but want guidance, there are many resources that can help:
- Your motherboard manual
- Online tutorials
- Atomic forums
Now go build your newly designed beast of a rig! 
I built the PC, but it isn’t functioning properly…
There can be many reasons for this. A Google search can assist you, or this thread from these forums: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=8&t=15955
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Any suggestions? Please tell me about it by posting.
I’m only 16, I don’t know everything!
Thanks!
(c) Vito Cassisi
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