Colt Tech

Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

There are an infinite number of options for computers now. Whether you want a laptop, pc, or mac; and then you get into whether or not you want to buy one from a company such as Dell or build it yourself. I’m going to be discussing the steps you should take when building your own computer and give an example walkthrough.

What are the benefits of building your own computer? The biggest reason for me is cost. I can shop around for parts and find the lowest price. You also are afforded a lot more freedom in picking what actually goes inside your computer. And quite frankly, building your own computer is pretty darn fun.

Now, where do we start?

Before you think about what hardware to buy, you need to determine what kind of user you are, and what you need the computer to do.  I’ll break it down into three categories: Please note that there is an infinitely large spectrum between these categories, so try and gauge where you fit best.
1: Power/Hardcore User - You use the computer all day, and the main focus of your activities are graphic design, CAD, serious gaming, video encoding/editing, or writing code. You are going to want a computer that is fairly powerful in order to handle all the processes and demands that you’ll require.
2: Average User - You use the computer frequently, but don’t do anything too complex. You might do things ike Quickbooks, check your email, use word processing, and surf the web.
3:New User - If you are brand new to computing this would be you (i.e. you’ve been using a computer for less than a year). I would steer away from building your own computer. You haven’t established what you need it to do yet, so a cheap 300$ machine would be fine for now.

Try not to worry too much about the “what ifs” and just focus on what you most frequently use the computer for.

Also, set a budget. If you can only afford a $1,500 machine, stay within that $1,500.

Here are the main components we’re going to look at:
1- CPU/ Central Processing Unit
2- Motherboard
3- RAM/ Random Access Memory
4- HDD/HD/Hard Disk Drive/Hard Drive
5-GPU/Graphics Processing Unit/ Graphics Card
6-Sound Card
7-PSU/Power Supply
8-Cooling/Airflow
9-Case
10-Peripherals
11-Operating System
12-Other accessories

This might seem like a lot, but hopefully all these terms will become second nature by the end of this series.

The CPU:
Manufacturer: Intel or AMD
Socket: LGA 1366, 939, AM2, AM2+, LGA775, and there are many more
Number of cores: Single, Dual, Quad
Speed:  #GHz

The first two questions are to help prevent compatibility issues. If you have a cpu made by Intel it will not work on a motherboard made for AMD cpus. Sockets are brand-specific. For instance, all socket 939 motherboards and process refer to AMD chips. You need to make sure the cpu and motherboard match up. Unless you are a power user, stay away from the quad-core processors. They are fairly expensive, and you simply don’t need the horsepower. Think of it like giving a 16year old a Forumla 1 car. Dual cores are almost always a safe bet. The speed just tells you how much it can process and how fast. For a dual core, something around 2.4GHz will get the job done just fine.

For our tutorial we’re going to go with the Intel Core i7 2.66GHz socket LGA 1366 quad-core processor.

Cell phones are definitely not just for talking anymore. If a phone doesn’t have a camera, the ability to text, the internet, and a pluthra of other features most people won’t give it the time of day. There are two major names out there that take these features to the extreme. They are Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry. These so-called smart phones have the latest technology and have become quite popular. I will be focusing on the Blackberry more-so than the iPhone, because I own an Blackberry, and not an iPhone.

The most frequent question I get, and I’m sure other smart-phone users get is “do you really need a phone that can do all of that?!” I used to think the same thing when I had a regular cell phone, but after owning a Blackberry my answer would have to be no, I don’t need a phone that has all these features. With that being said I have used every single feature at least once, and they are extremely handy.

The one feature that I have become somewhat addicted to is how easy it is to check and send emails from my phone. This is the biggest selling point for the Blackberry, and also why they are so loved in the corporate world. All you need to do is set up the email account(s) you want to be linked to your phone, and that’s it - from now on, all emails sent to and from a particular email will now also go to your phone. I think it would be fare to say that in an environment where email is the primary mode of communication this feature is pretty fantastic. The full qwerty (qwerty is just an acronym for a keyboard that has an individual key for each letter) makes emailing and texting that much easier.

There is also something called Blackberry messenger. When you buy a Blackberry you get a special pin. You can give this pin to other people and send each other what are essentially text messages. I don’t ever use it, but it’s a nice novelty feature none-the-less.

Another feature that is fairly subtle but incredibly convenient is the small red light at the top right of the phone. When ever there is a message waiting for you it blinks red. This is probably my favorite feature of the phone.

It also has an mp3 player, camera/video camera built in. This is where the Blackberry falls behind the iPhone (a bit). IPhone’s come with either 8 or 16GB of memory where as the Blackberry only comes with 750ish MB of internal memory. So, iPhones have 10-20x more base memory than Blackberries which is pretty significant if you take a lot of photos or use the phone for an mp3 player as well. This is easily remedied by going to amazon and doing a search for “Blackberry memory” and purchasing an 8GB memory chip for around 18$. If you don’t plan on using it for an mp3 player and/or don’t take a lot of pictures I would still suggest getting a small 2GB memory chip since the internal memory gets used up pretty fast.

The camera on it is decent. It’s a 2 megapixel camera that has 1x,2x, and 3x zoom options, flash, geotagging, and the ability to select the picture resolution (1600×1200, 800×600 and  a few others). It can also be converted into a mini-video camera as well. They’re decent quality, but I would still have a real digital camera for anything half way serious.

The iPhone and Blackberry both are able to browse the Internet in full HTML. I don’t really use this feature all that much. It’s incredibly nice when waiting in the airport or for the bus/subway. Pages load relatively fast, especially if you have wi-fi or 3g activated. The only drawback is that a lot of sites have flash animation or java and this causes the phone to have some small hiccups since it can’t render that content.

I also have to talk about the Google Maps addon for the phone. Every single person with a Blackberry should have this. It’s also free. It works exactly like Google Maps on a computer, but it’s right there on your phone.

There are also some fantastic communities out there for the Blackberry as well. Crackberry.com has a really great website with tutorials, applications, wallpapers and tons of other goodies.

If you haven’t ever used an smartphone, I would suggest stopping in to your local AT&T, Verizon, or mobile carrier store and goofing around with one for a little while.

My next post will most likely be about some computer hardware and overclocking. Stay tuned!