Computer ram prices are currently at an all time low, I have seen allot of Laptops and desktops advertised as coming with 2,3,4 GB of ram, boldly highlighted to take the attention away from its short comings.
In truth adding more ram will not make a PC faster, unless it’s actually running out of available ram to begin with.
For general (office/web) use 1GB and 2 GB is more than you need for windows XP and Vista respectively.
Don't be fooled into buying a 3 year old laptop because "it now comes with 4GB ram", Its a great ploy from the seller, but the average end user ends up getting old tech and never runs any software that needs to look past 2GB let alone 3GB.
Summary: extra ram does not make a computer faster, unless its actually running out of ram to begin with.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Upgrade addiction, self regulation ?
I spent nearly 2 hours of "should be working" time, window (web) shopping for a new main board and Video card.
Thankfully common sense kicked in before I'd added a whole bunch of goodies to the virtual shopping cart. I'm not the only one suffering continual impulses to upgrade to the latest tech.
My primary rig is pimped up better than any of my mates, yet it’s never enough.
Striker X + Thermalright 120UX + E6850 + PC8500 OCZ Ram + 2x 320MB 8800GTS cards.
My proposed upgrade of a 780i mainboard and 8800 GTS 512 MB cards, would offer me little noiceable improvment other than an e-Penis boost, I caught myself this time but maybe not the next. Sometimes I wish I was still married so I'd have to ask permission before blowing money on the latest kit.
Thankfully common sense kicked in before I'd added a whole bunch of goodies to the virtual shopping cart. I'm not the only one suffering continual impulses to upgrade to the latest tech.
My primary rig is pimped up better than any of my mates, yet it’s never enough.
Striker X + Thermalright 120UX + E6850 + PC8500 OCZ Ram + 2x 320MB 8800GTS cards.
My proposed upgrade of a 780i mainboard and 8800 GTS 512 MB cards, would offer me little noiceable improvment other than an e-Penis boost, I caught myself this time but maybe not the next. Sometimes I wish I was still married so I'd have to ask permission before blowing money on the latest kit.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
TMS Award of the week (Tech made simple)
You’re not human if you haven’t accidentally deleted a file now and then, and if you skipped the recycle bin or emptied it, then its panic stations.
Windows offer no built in tool for un-deleting files, but luckily there are hundreds of 3rd party tools to do the job and many are free.
A nice simple util for recovering recently deleted files is Recuva, easy to understand and follow, its downside is its lack of advanced features but people would argue that is its upside, less options equals less complexity.
http://www.recuva.com/
Windows offer no built in tool for un-deleting files, but luckily there are hundreds of 3rd party tools to do the job and many are free.
A nice simple util for recovering recently deleted files is Recuva, easy to understand and follow, its downside is its lack of advanced features but people would argue that is its upside, less options equals less complexity.
http://www.recuva.com/
Friday, February 22, 2008
NSK 1300 Update
The NSK 1300 (little Cube PC), went well, it was near impossible to get the cables tidy, so i just gave up and made sure nothing was going to hit the CPU or case fans.
The new E4500 chips come with a half height Heat sink, so that helped with the installation somewhat.
All done it was very quiet looks nice on the desk with easy access to the DVD tray.
My daughter is very happy to have a working computer again.
Annoyances:
The spot where all the power supply cables come out is too low and butts into the main board.
The positioning of the stand offs were a bit off and I had to put allot of lateral force on the main board to get the screw thread to line up with the hole.
Only 1 SATA power connector, as had to dig up a Molex to sata adapter.
Blue ambience light in the front panel look lame unless you are looking at in front on.
Likes:
Build quality, noise reduction efforts, quality switches, single screw access.
Bundled slot mount fan, thermal transfer tape for HDD mounting.
Summary:
4.5 / 5 highly recommended, annoyances will be trivial to most .
The new E4500 chips come with a half height Heat sink, so that helped with the installation somewhat.
All done it was very quiet looks nice on the desk with easy access to the DVD tray.
My daughter is very happy to have a working computer again.
Annoyances:
The spot where all the power supply cables come out is too low and butts into the main board.
The positioning of the stand offs were a bit off and I had to put allot of lateral force on the main board to get the screw thread to line up with the hole.
Only 1 SATA power connector, as had to dig up a Molex to sata adapter.
Blue ambience light in the front panel look lame unless you are looking at in front on.
Likes:
Build quality, noise reduction efforts, quality switches, single screw access.
Bundled slot mount fan, thermal transfer tape for HDD mounting.
Summary:
4.5 / 5 highly recommended, annoyances will be trivial to most .
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Plans for my daughters PC, lamenting a monitor loss.
Not much news for today, had a long drive for my first job, basic email issues, printer mayhem and user confusion, later I bought a mini PC case for my youngest daughters PC.
I haven’t built a PC with this style case before.
Antec NSK1300 http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=91300
She had been putting up with a Franken build broken laptop with a CRT monitor for 6 months, while her older sister has my redundancy PC (fairly high specs)
I was going to get a cheap Celeron for her, but the $80 more I got a Core2Duo E4500, the rest of the parts needed are laying around from upgrades and experiments, and I have decided 3 monitors was more show than productive, so she gets 1 of my 17” LCD’s.
While I miss the symmetrical layout of the triple screens, 2 monitors is really the point of diminishing returns.
no more 3 screen drooling
I haven’t built a PC with this style case before.
Antec NSK1300 http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=91300
She had been putting up with a Franken build broken laptop with a CRT monitor for 6 months, while her older sister has my redundancy PC (fairly high specs)
I was going to get a cheap Celeron for her, but the $80 more I got a Core2Duo E4500, the rest of the parts needed are laying around from upgrades and experiments, and I have decided 3 monitors was more show than productive, so she gets 1 of my 17” LCD’s.
While I miss the symmetrical layout of the triple screens, 2 monitors is really the point of diminishing returns.
no more 3 screen drooling
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Spam, it's relentless
A client with an older sbs2000 network rang today with a major spam outbreak.Turns out the GFI mail essentials expired yesterday; it’s both amazing how much spam is getting around and even more amazing how effective an antispam program can be.
I have a new client making the move from a 11 PC workgroup to a SBS2003 domain next month, and I'm in two minds about setting the pop3 pickup with the ISP spam filtering instead of setting the MX record to the Server.
It’s that damn 15min retrieval timer that make a pop3 pickup such a crappy option.
I have a new client making the move from a 11 PC workgroup to a SBS2003 domain next month, and I'm in two minds about setting the pop3 pickup with the ISP spam filtering instead of setting the MX record to the Server.
It’s that damn 15min retrieval timer that make a pop3 pickup such a crappy option.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Office relocation, need a checklist i think
On one my clients with a small SBS2003 network, 16 workstations is relocating to a new building up the street, they want to be operational within 12 days, with the physical moving of all equipment is in 10 days.
I know I should get a checklist going so I don’t overlook something, the whole “fail to plan is planning to fail” premise.
Pre-move planning
1> Follow-up with cable installers on completion date
2> Confirm new ADSL account is active with a static IP address
3> Make sure the fitters don’t block any RJ45 outlets
4> Check fitters hole saw appropriate spots for running cables
5> ??? more to add, will revisit.
I know I should get a checklist going so I don’t overlook something, the whole “fail to plan is planning to fail” premise.
Pre-move planning
1> Follow-up with cable installers on completion date
2> Confirm new ADSL account is active with a static IP address
3> Make sure the fitters don’t block any RJ45 outlets
4> Check fitters hole saw appropriate spots for running cables
5> ??? more to add, will revisit.
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