Article written by jcjjica.

If you have a computer and want to get better graphics, you can update your PC’s graphics card. Most people don’t know how to do this, or that it can even be done.

First, you need to check the graphics card driver on your PC, which can be done very easily. Go to the Control Panel’s Device Manager (Start menu - Control panel - System - Hardware tab) that is available on all Microsoft computers. Then go to the display adapter. There, you will see which video card you are using.
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What is a computer virus? Yeah, yeah, it’s this disease that infects your computer so that all your hardwares aren’t working properly. You can’t surf the web and your hard disk is completely messed up and erased. The virus could be so contagious that other computers become infected as well.

That is one way to look at it from a “human perspective.” If you look at it from the “computer’s perspective,” you will realize that the two are very different from each other. From a “computer’s perspective,” a computer virus originates from puny software programs that are made to spread from computer to computer. The virus blocks the computer from functioning properly.

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Is your IBM laptop making a “buzzing” noise and preventing you from doing anything productive? No, it’s not your imagination. Nor is this noise the consequence of listening to earphones for too long (although that does contribute). The noise is coming from your CPU fan.

Some noticeable signs of aging that your laptop gives are:
-It becomes very hot under your laptop
-You can feel the keyboard getting hot
-Your laptop will overheat or freeze
You may have considered taking your laptop to a repair shop, but after you have read this article, you will be able to fix it yourself! Not only will you save hundreds of dollars, but you will almost certainly feel a sense of accomplishment.

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The old days of computing asked us to be content with computers that uttered no sound except the occasional “beep,” printers that made more noise than a cat using a scratching post, and monitors that offered either an orange or green glow.

Fortunately, all that is history, and we may now bask in the glow of our high resolution monitors which offer us life-like images on a daily basis. We no longer squint at fuzzy displays, but instead, enjoy almost seamless animation on many websites. These images are simply a mass of barely visible dots, also known as pixels.

“antique” Nvidia GeForce2 MX

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Hard Drive Size - Why It’s Important

The hard drive disk of a computer is the primary storage device of the computer. It is a non-removable device that retains all the information when the computer is turned off. A fast hard drive supplies the computer with data as soon as it is needed. Hard drives are measured in Gigabytes (GB) and the larger the number, the bigger the computer storage capacity. When seeking to purchase a new home computer or laptop, it is important to understand how the hard drive works with your computer and how much storage capacity you will need.

When saving information on your computer, the application is recorded on a magnetic platter inside the hard drive. Most hard drives have several platters that allow them to spin up to 15,000 times per minute. The amount of hard drive space the computer has will affect how much data can be saved. The data on a hard drive can be deleted or erased from the memory at any time and does not need a constant power supply to save the information.

HDD platters

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1.6 Software

1.6.1 Temperature

Like I mentioned before; as soon as you start overclocking, the CPU will get warmer than normal, thus a good CPU cooler is very important. To check the temperature of the CPU, you can use a program like Coretemp. This program allows you to check the temperature of both cores separately.

1.6.2 Stressing

It’s very important to check the stability of the system during overclocking. To do this, you can use a program called Orthos which only stresses the CPU and memory. This program will constantly stress the CPU and memory and will also constantly check whether the CPU or memory is making any calculation mistakes. As soon as it detects any miscalculations, it will notify you. It also measures the maximal temperature of the CPU when stressed.

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How to Select A Hard Drive For Your PC

Deciding on the appropriate hard drive is a personal decision made according to an individual’s computing needs. These days, 160 gigabytes, up to 300 gigabytes, 400 gigabytes, 500 gigabytes and even larger are common. When pricing hard drives, it is common to see very little price differences between smaller size drives and larger. For instance, the price difference between a 160 gigabyte and a 250 gigabyte may be only 10 dollars. An old rule of thumb among the computing community has always been to buy the largest hard drive that you could possibly afford since everyone loads and uses more software than they initially imagine they will, and since that will put off the need to upgrade the computer the following year. However, if your budget is limited, remember that a 160, 200 or 250 gigabyte hard drive is plenty for the average user.

These hard drive sizes would astound a computer user from the 1980’s or early 1990’s. Back then, hard drives were sized in megabytes, not gigabytes. The original IBM PC commonly had a ten megabyte or a twenty megabyte drive, and when the thirty megabyte drive came out, it was considered absolutely gigantic. However, that was a time of smaller programs, less software and before Windows dominated the home computer world. When choosing a hard drive you should always remember that the type we are most familiar with is called Parallel ATA type. A new type, serial ATA, is gaining popularity. This type is much faster – as much as twenty percent – and has other benefits including improved airflow. Your hard drive will need flowing air because it is constantly rotating at extremely high speeds and generates heat. The airflow helps the hard drive stay cool and run properly.

Old IBM hard drive

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1.1 Introduction

Overclocking. For one it’s a sport, for another it’s a way to increase the performance of the PC. Overclocking is actually no more than letting the hardware components run on a higher speed than the stock speeds. Depending on the product that you want to overclock, there are several ways to do it.

One thing that is impermeable connected to overclocking is cooling; electric components have the quality to get warmer as they go faster. Only by cooling the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) as best as possible, the die-hard overclockers are able to get their rigs to go extreme. Luckily for the normal people in this world, we don’t have to go all exotic with cooling solutions like water cooling or Peltier cooling or even more extreme like the usage of liquid carbon dioxide as most manufacturers keep a margin in the stock speed which the chips are running and the max speed the chip can run on. This lets us increase the performance without using extreme cooling.
The experts will find this article less interesting. But so, this article is not written for the pros.
To all the others, that are not/less experienced, you should read this article. I will explain to you by hand of this article how to overclock an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.

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