Memory Choice!

Chapter 2

Continued...

The memory (RAM)

Not to be confused with the hard disc memory, which is the space where you will be storing your files. The memory RAM is what your programs will be using to operate amongst other things.

The memory RAM is the second most important component in a computer, the choice of memory and the amount, is paramount to getting the most performance out of your new machine. The other thing you will have to consider, is how much memory RAM you will be installing and divide it between two or three chips. What I mean by this is; you are thinking of installing 4GB of memory in your machine. Instead of buying a 4GB chip, buy 2 x 2GB.
The advantage of this is that you can then run your memory RAM in Dual Channel Memory Mode to optimise your setup and get an extra performance boost. If you buy a single 4GB chip, you will not be able to do this.

Now, if you read my latest blog post (Chapter One), you will know that I mentioned six flavours of processors, by different manufacturers. These are some of the most recent CPU's in the market today and the memory you select must be compatible with the processor you choose. It will also need to be compatible with the motherboard you are planning to use in your machine. The memory and the motherboard are probably the most difficult components to match, each motherboard is only capable of working with certain varieties and speeds of RAM. I will go more in depth in chapter three when we discuss motherboards.

The latest memory type is DDR3 240 PIN and the fastest speed is around 2500MHZ, although, the average machine built today is using DDR3 1333, 1666 or 1860MHZ. If you took my advise and bought one of the CPU's I mentioned (Chapter one), you will need to buy this type of memory. The speed of the memory is relative to the processor you buy and what your motherboard supports.

This sounds a bit complicated, it's because it is a bit tricky. Most people just stick in the maximum that their motherboard supports. In some cases this works just fine, in others the power of your machine will be nullified. This usually happens when the rest of the system surrounding your RAM is inferior or incapable of running at such high speeds.

While in the processor world there are only two main manufacturers, in the RAM ecosystem there are literally hundreds of companies that produce this component. Too many to name them all. There are a few that stand out though, so, I will be naming those.

The top memory manufacturers in my opinion are, OCZ, Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, Patriot, Mushkin and Gskill. They produce the best memory chips and almost all, if not all, will give you a limited lifetime warranty for this product.

To finalise, you can choose your motherboard first. I only selected the topics for my blog arranged this way for one reason. You can go to a shop like www.computer-fixed.co.uk or to a major superstore like PC World and ask them to sell you a computer by a known brand, pre-assembled. When they ask you what sort of processor you would like to have, you will have an idea of what is out and go from there. The same goes for the RAM.

If buying a pre-assembled PC is not what you want to do, then read on and I will be writing about the Motherboard in the next chapter.

to be continued...

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Building A New Computer... From Scratch!

Every year billions of computers are sold. Most of them will be outdated as soon as they leave the shop.Keeping up with the latest trends and doing your research before buying a new computer is the key.

So, what to buy?

That is the question that haunts us all, when we go into a computer shop to buy a device that costs a significant amount of money.

Buying a new computer is a big investment, leaving the shop thinking we spent our money wisely is the satisfaction all of us crave. After all we have just bought a tool that will help us in our daily life, and in some cases in our work life also.

Computers are integrated in our everyday life more and more each day. There is always something new coming out. No one wants to wait around for our new computer to finish doing a chore. We need it to be able to multi-task and do various things at once.

A customer once said;

“I only do one thing at the time on my computer. If I am reading an article on a web page, I normally do not use anything else”.

This is true. We might not be doing anything else, but what about the computer? Well, that is another matter altogether.

Computers are always doing something, from updating an Anti-virus to checking for OS updates to scanning for infection in a file you have just download… the list goes on.

For this reason alone, it is imperative we select a good multi-core processor and a large amount of ram. These two components alone do the majority of the work. So we have to choose the best or near best at the time of purchase or we might live to regret it.

In today’s standards, at the time of writing this article, there are two major players when it comes to processors. The companies that manufacture these devices are AMD (which stands for Advanced Micro Devices) and Intel (Integrated Electronics).

AMD is the more accessible brand; Intel tends to be a bit more expensive. Nevertheless, this does not mean that AMD is inferior to Intel, by no means, and recent market statistics show that AMD is in a tight battle with Intel for market share.

Ok so what to go for when it comes to choosing the processor, you ask? AMD or Intel? Well, it all depends what your budget is. If you have a £300 budget just for this component, then by all means go for Intel. If your budget is more like £150 then I would suggest AMD as you get more bang for your buck.

The latest Intel offerings are the Core i3, the Core i5 and the top dog the Core i7. These range from about £230 to about £500.

The AMD variant has recently released a the AMD Bulldozer and they also come in different flavours, these are the FX-6 6200, the FX-8 8120 and the flagship FX-8 8150. These range from £130 to £260.

So, now you have it. This is the start of something big, you will see.

To be continued…

Have fun and see you in the next chapter

You can follow me on Twitter, add me to your circles on Google+ or Subscribe to me on facebook or YouTube. You can also check my website and blog to keep yourself updated with what is happening in the ever changing world of technology

15 ways to make your computer run faster!

Delete unwanted files

When I say to delete unwanted files, I do not mean you should go around your computer and delete any file you do not want. In this case, I’m talking about the files that you have created yourself, and are totally aware of what they are. For example if you created a Microsoft word document and you no longer need it, and never will, then I suggest you delete that file. This is the kind of junk that clogs up your computer. You have to ask yourself, “Do you really need it?”

Files that you have created such as documents and image files can be safely deleted by going to the file on your computer, right clicking on its, and choosing delete from the menu. Keeping your computer or organized and junk free, is a great way to speed up your computer.

Delete hidden junk files

Hidden or temporary files are created without the user knowing. All you have to do is open files, browse the Internet, install programs, and more files are created in the background. There is so much happening in the background that most people are unaware of and do not know that this area exists. This is something you are going to have to learn about if you want to speed up your computer.

Remove unwanted programs

Are you one of those people that constantly download programs and install them onto your computer? Every software program you have on your computer is taking up space. It is not only taking up space, but it might also be checking for updates and connecting to the Internet. It also might be starting up when your computer starts up. There are so many good reasons why you should remove unwanted programs. After you have removed the software program that you did not want, make sure you restart your computer to complete the process.

Defrag to speed up your computer

When you install programs and save files on your computer, the files are automatically saved to the closest available space on your hard drive. This means that files for your programs are fragmented if your hard disk drive is not organized correctly. This is why we need to de-frag our computer to place the files back together and to place the most frequently used files at the front for easy access.

You should defrag your computer at least once a week if you use your computer often. If you do not use your computer that often, then you can defrag less often.

If you are using the Windows disk defragmenter which is located at start menu>accessories>system tools>disk defragmenter, you can choose to “analyze” first before you choose defrag. This feature will tell you if you need to perform this task or not.

Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup comes free with Windows and will get rid of the rest of the junk files that you have missed. Go to start menu>accessories>system tools>disk cleanup.

Always pay for a virus program!

By all means, you can waste your time trying to find the best free anti-virus program, but do you really want to risk it.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a free anti-virus program. In fact I will recommend Avg as my number one freebie. However, even though this proved to be secure, it is safer to have the extra security features that come with the paid versions. Now days most new antivirus also come with a firewall that if they do not, Windows provides a perfectly good firewall for free.

Over the past 25 years I have tested at least 10 paid virus programs and have ended up with Avg running on my computer. It does not annoy me; it is not asked me stupid questions that I cannot answer, and is not making me deal with difficult settings. I like a program that just does its job.

If you do not have a virus program installed you are risking everything! Sometimes your computer will gradually slow down when it gets a virus, and other times it will be crashing within minutes. Is that really worth the hassle?

Avoid multitasking with large programs

If you’re anything like me, you will have 20 Windows open at the same time, with your Internet browser having at least 15 tabs opened as well. Yes I know it is crazy and I’m trying to reform. I have a lot of experience in multitasking and have realized that some programs cannot be open at the same time as others. For example you should not be running a large program like Photoshop or Pinnacle video studio, while running a virus scan at the same time. We all know what the right thing to do is, but we just can’t help ourselves.

Warning: Working on 20 programs at the same time is not good if you are trying to speed up your computer!

Use an external hard drive for backup

Nowadays there is no excuse for not backing up your files! It is unbelievably cheap to buy an external hard drive or even a portable USB flash drive to store backup files on. Both these portable devices are simple to connect to the computer via a USB plug. Once connected, you will find the device if you go to your start menu and then press on computer. For older versions of Windows it will be called my computer. You can use these devices to store all of your files on, leaving your computer clean and free to work on.

Update programs regularly

Every program on your computer must be updated regularly. If you do not do this, you will find that you will get problems, guaranteed! Even Windows itself needs updating, along with any other applications and games, and even hidden device driver software.

To see if your device drivers are performing properly you can go to the Control Panel, click on system, advanced settings, and then you will find device manager under the hardware tab.

I use a program called Driver Finder. Most computers need a program like this because having outdated driver software on your computer can cause horrendous problems. Having the wrong driver software on your computer has been known to cause black screens, blue screens, and total computer crashes.

To find out if Windows needs updating, simply go to your start menu and type in the search section, “Windows update”. A link will appear in the menu, click on it to see your details. See the screen shot below.

Upgrade your computer memory

When you buy a new computer now days it should come with a minimum of 2 GB of memory installed. This should be okay for a year or two, however as times change, you will eventually need to upgrade your memory.

Older computers are in an even worse situation. People are using old computers to do new things that these computers were not made for. Upgrading your computer memory and increasing your hard drive size can help speed up an old computer.

When upgrading your computer memory in order to speed up your computer, there are two options, to do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you. If you are seriously hopeless with technical stuff, like my friend Deb, I would suggest you take it to a computer store for the upgrade.

If you are willing to give it a go you can buy computer memory online (making sure you have the right type) and do it yourself.

5 more quick tips on how to speed up your computer:

1. Keeping a clean computer means a faster computer. Therefore you should always organize your computer files in a way that makes them easy to find and also easy to backup.
2. When you boot into your computer it is not only the Windows operating system that is starting, as most people have many other programs starting at the same time. To speed up this process you need to disable startup programs.
3. A great way to speed up your computer is not to overwork it in the first place. For example most people have five or six programs open at the same time and they really aren’t using all of them. Close down programs you are not using.
4. Keep up with your computer maintenance as it is will speed up your computer just by doing this.
5. Another good way to speed up your computer is to disable automatic updates on certain programs. Did you know that programs are checking the Internet every time you start your computer to see if they need to be updated or not? I am not talking about disabling Windows automatic updates as it is really all the other little programs that are doing the damage. If you have a notification icon in the notification area you can usually right click on it to get to the settings and disable the updates that way.
6. And one extra. Try and disable indexing to speed up the computer.

You can follow me on Twitter, add me to your circles on Google+ or Subscribe to me on facebook or YouTube. You can also check my website and blog to keep yourself updated with what is happening in the ever changing world of technology