Speed Up your Computer and your Computer Knowledge

What is a Hard Drive?

2008-06-27T20:38:00.002-04:00

A Hard Drive is the device in your computer that stores all your information.

1. Why is it important?

A Hard Drive is important depending on what kind of person you are. If you like to download a bunch of stuff!, you will need a hard drive with a lot of gigabytes. If you only use the computer for little things, you won't need as much. Usually an 80 gigabyte hard drive will fit most people's needs.

2. What Companies make Hard Drives?

There are many brands of Hard Drives. Here are several brand names:

Western Digital
Seagate
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hewlett-Packard
ioSafe
excelstor

3. How much do Hard Drives generally cost?

Hard drives, depending on the quality and how many gigabytes it can hold, go from as low as $35 all the way up to $400. Remember, in the world of computers, you get what you pay for.

4. Where is the best place to buy upgrade?

Hard Drives.

What is RAM?

2008-06-27T10:04:00.006-04:00

RAM is Random Access Memory. Many get confused and think it is where all the date is stored. It's not. RAM returns any data in a certain time. No matter where the data is, hint the name random access.

1. Why is it important?

RAM is important for anyone. If you are a multi tasker, RAM is one of the most crucial components of a computer. If you are a gamer, RAM plays a huge impact on how fast your game loads and will keep it from lagging. RAM is the most important component, in my opinion, for any computer. Most computers that people buy at wal-mart only have 526k or 1 Gig of RAM. In today's computing that will get you no where. Have at least 2 Gigabytes and that will keep you up to date.

2. What Companies make RAM?

There are many brands of RAM Here are several brand names:

G. Skill
Kingston Technology
OCZ Technology Inc.
Patriot Memory
Corsair
Mushkin

3. How much do RAM Sticks generally cost?

RAM used to be quite pricey. Now RAM is surprisingly cheap. You can find 1 Gig of RAM for as low at $19 up to $115. Keep in mind...You get what you pay for, especially when dealing with computers.

4. Where is the best place to buy upgrade?

RAM.

What is a Video Card?

2008-06-27T00:52:00.004-04:00

A Video Card, also known as a Graphics Card, is the device connected to your motherboard that produces an image on your monitor.

1. Why is it important?

It's function is to project an image. The importance is really up to you to decide. If you are a hard core gamer, you would want a good video card. If you are occasional computer person then a regular will work fine.

2. What Companies make Video Cards?

There are many video card manufacturers. Here are several of them:

ASUS
EVGA
HIS
MSI
XFX
Sapphire Technology Limited

3. How much do Video Cards generally cost?

Depending on the quality of the video card prices range from as low as $10 to $300
or more. Always remember...you get what you pay for, especially when dealing with computers.

4. Where is the best place to buy upgrade?

Video Cards.

What is a Motherboard?

2008-06-26T23:45:00.005-04:00

A motherboard is the primary unit of the computer.

1. Why is it important?

It provides all the connections for all the other hardware to communicate with each other.

2. What Companies make Motherboards?

There are many brands of motherboards all containing different chip sets. Here are several brand names:

Asus
DFI
Gigabyte
MSI
A-bit
eVGA
XFX
Foxconn
Intel (reference)
Biostar
ECS

3. How much do Motherboards generally cost?

Depending on the quality of the motherboard...Motherboards can range from I hate to say...But $25 to $230. Remember, you get what you pay for.

4. Where is the best place to buy upgrade?

Motherboards.

Easiest Tip Ever = More Disk Space!!

2008-06-26T02:50:00.000-04:00

This tip will boost your disk space. Disk Space is the the amount of date your hard drive can hold. This is how simple it is:

1. Click the Start Button.
-All Programs
-Accessories
-System Tools
-Disk Cleanup

Choose the C:/ drive if it asks.

Your computer is now detecting how much space it can free up for you.

Once it has finished it will open up a a window with a few icons that have boxes next to them. Check the box next to whatever you would like to delete. Confirm it, then windows will erase all the junk. Your computer will have more disk space. YAY!

Complete Guide to Getting Rid and Staying Away from Spyware!

2008-06-24T10:23:00.000-04:00

Complete Guide to Getting Rid and Staying Away from Spyware!

This article is going to be a detailed piece completely dedicated to keeping your computer spyware free. I will be going over how to get it out, how to keep it out, and free resources to use. Before you start learning how to stay away from, let's learn how to GET IT OUT!

Getting the Spyware Out!

Getting rid of spyware can be really easy, or it can be very difficult. In my situation it is very easy for me to get rid of spyware. In most cases it isn't so easy. It is easy for me to get rid of it because I don't have any...Haha. Anyways... What you first have to do is find software to clean up your computer. Don't have any money. GREAT! Because you don't need any. I have never spent a dime on spyware protection. Here are two fantastic programs that have always worked for me.

AVG

Spybot Search & Destroy

Install them and run them both one at a time. Usually for me, if one doesn't get them out... the other will. However, if you run both and they were not able to get out all of the spyware...You will have to do something called reformatting. Reformatting your computer is basically starting all over. If there are things on your computer that you MUST save. Save them on to a disc before reformatting. Also, before you reformat, make sure you have a windows disc and the cd key that goes with it. The best thing about reformatting is that your computer will be brand new again. YAY! Haha.

Here is a tutorial for how to Reformat.

Keeping the Spyware Out!

So... let's see where we are. We have either ran the programs and got everything out. Or we have reformatted and have a brand new computer. So all the spyware is out. THANK GOSH! Now we need to keep it out. There are several ways to keeping it out.

1. DO NOT look at porn. Don't download it. Don't go to those websites that are full of junk. Just don't do it. If you HAVE to make sure it is a safe website, if that is even possible.

2. Avoid file sharing. Most file sharing programs are free. Ever thought why they are free? Because along with the content you are downloading for free you are getting data miners. Things those companies use to get information about people using the internet. Such as keywords...stuff like that. Anyways avoid them.

3. When you download things like AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Be sure that when you are installing them you read before you hit next. DO NOT install their tool bars. The most annoying thing when I go to a friends house, is when I open up their Web Browser, Internet explorer or FireFox, and there are like 5 different toolbars. That is full of junk. The safest and most reliable search engine is google. Use it and love it.

4. Don't click on popup ads. The new tactic that spyware vendors are using is that Anti Spyware ads. In their ads they say click for a free scan. What you are actually getting is a computer load of spyware.

5. Use a reliable Web Browser and keep it up to date. Honestly, stop being arrogant and just download firefox. It is the best and most reliable web browser out there. It is so easy to use and it's just the best thing ever invented. Download Mozilla FireFox with Google Toolbar.

6. Download and install Zoned Out. Zoned Out loads a whole directory of websites that are known for spyware to your Internet Explorer's Restricted Website Section. Download Zoned Out for Free.

7. Avoid Questionable websites. Any website with free ware, free this, free that. It is free for a reason. So they can load a bunch of spyware to your system. Avoid these sites. They could give you spyware without you even knowing it. Only visit websites that are trustworthy.

8. Never give out personal information to an unreputable website. That is a definite NO NO!

9. Use a good firewall. There are 2 free firewalls that I know of that work wonders.
Download Zonealarm Firewall.
Download Outpost.

10. Use your AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy regularly. I would check for problems every 2 or 3 days.

The End!

Well that's that. I hope you found this article helpful. I did my best to describe my situation and how I got to it. I have not had a spyware problem in 4 years. All because I got computer savvy and know what I am doing. Hopefully you do too after reading my article. If you liked it please comment or send me an e-mail, dollarmenuhero@gmail.com, and give me some insight. This is my first Pillar Article. Thanks for reading.

Buy Stuff. Yayyyy!

2008-06-24T09:35:00.000-04:00

Ok...let's see. The most influential things when you are speeding up your computer is the RAM and the Processor. RAM being the most important in my opinion. Most people that buy computer's don't know anything about them. They see 520k RAM! and they are like wow I have a good computer here. FALSE. 520k won't get you anywhere in today's world. I have 1 gig plus a 256k stick and I still feel left behind.

RAM is probably the cheapest way to speed up your computer. It is super easy to install ( a frog could do it...) Anyways here is a great link for the cheapest and best online computer parts store. They have a deal going on right now...4 Gigabytes for less than $100.00. That is amazing.

Wide Selection On All Types Of Memory at Newegg.com

Get your Blogs to the Top of the list.

2008-06-23T09:29:00.000-04:00

I found about this awesome website. It is called www.blogtoplist.com.

It is easy to submit a blog...
1. Go to their site.
2. Press Submit blog

BOOM more traffic to your blog. Gotta love it. Also you have a ranking system that is nice. When someone views your blog they can click the link...like that one I have...and rate the blog. It's really neat.

5 Tips to Keeping Spyware Away.

2008-06-23T01:42:00.000-04:00

5 Ways to keeping your computer spyware free!

1. DO NOT look at porn. If you must...use a clean website...if possible. By clean I mean you know your not going to have to sign up or download anything.

2. DO NOT download anything from a sketchy website. www.downloads.com is a good website to download almost anything from.

3. DO NOT sign up for anything that sounds illigitement. Such as... "GET "____" FOR FREE JUST SIGN UP AND DOWNLOAD!!!"

4. If you must download music...Make sure no spyware comes along with it. Bearshare Lite is a great music download program.

5. Run AVG or Spybot Search and Destroy or any other Spyware remover every 2 to 3 days.

Tomorrow's Tip will be something good. Haha.

Get Rid of your Spy Ware and Ad Ware!

2008-06-22T00:02:00.000-04:00

Spyware and adware and two of the biggest issues I see with slow computers. There are programs such as McAffee and other "big" virus protectors. In my opinion...those are bad programs...Programs like those limit almost anything you can do on your computer. They take up a ton of space and if they start up automatically when you turn on your computer, it takes FOREVER to start up. Also...they are constantly running...constantly using cpu...it's miserable.

Two programs that work fantastic and are free:

Spybot Search and Destroy:
Download Here

Ad-Aware:
Download Here

AVG:
Download Here

In my opinion AVG is the best one.

Tomorrow's Tip will be on how to stay away from Spyware!

Put all your files together. DEFRAGMENT

2008-06-21T02:21:00.000-04:00

This will reorganize all your files so that all the pieces of each file are closer together. This attempts to create more space. Huge impact if it has not been done in a long time.

1. Click Start Menu
2. Click Control Panel (Put it in classic view.)
3. Click Administrative Tools
4. Click on Computer Management
5. Click Disk Defragmenter
6. Analyze it to see if you need it.
7. If you do...Degfragment it.

Tomorrow's tip will be about how to rid your computer of spy-ware.

Stop your computer from bogging out!!

2008-06-20T00:52:00.000-04:00

This will help your CPU (processor) Usage. Your computer won't bog out( go slow and or lag really bad.)

1. Ctrl + Alt + Del
2. Click the Processes Tab.
3. End all the processes that you are not using at the moment.
DO NOT END THE SYSTEM OR LOCAL PROCESSES

If you do happened to end a process that you need. No worries! Click on the Start Button. Press run... and the type in the process you accidentally deleted.

Tomorrow's tip will be about how to put all your scattered files all neat and together in no time or hassle!

How to Help Make Your Computer Boot Up Faster

2008-06-19T15:40:00.001-04:00

This will boost your computer's start up speed.

1. Click The Start Menu Button.
2. Click Run...
3. In the text type in MSCONFIG, hit Enter.
4. Press the Start Up Tab.
5. Uncheck All unless there are some programs you like that run automatically on start up. I suggest just leave them all unchecked.
6. Restart.

It is that easy. This tip will make a huge impact on how fast your computer will start.

Tomorrow's Tip will be about How To keep your processor from bogging out.

What this Blog is About.

2008-06-19T15:39:00.001-04:00

This blog is about making your computer perform better, faster, smoother, faster boot-ups. It will be a guide for people who don't know much about computers. I will make it really simple to understand. I recommend that most people use these tips. I have gone to so many friend's houses and amped up their computers in less than 30 minutes. =) Enjoy!