[TECH] MY TIPS in COMPUTER HARDWARE (VERSION1)
This Post is actually accumulation of my post in several technical forums.
Hence , over time, the little tips become whole junk of it and therefore i rather post it in blog than in forum, as post in forums always get submerged over time.
Most of the tips are common knowledge, just that, i learn many of then through "trail and error" method, ( like changing 7 motherboard, 8 rams, 4 hardisk, 6 power supply...... in 6 months time), therefore i think of having my hardwork saved in this blog.
phew!! Sweat Sweat .... Now i no longer doing computer stuff , as too much time had been spend. I already sold most of the item, remaining whats best for me.
Actually i should say, what remaining in my hand now are even more junkier than ever.
As you know, now i am in Medic, so there is no use of having a great computer. A decent Power point processing capable computer is more than enough.
Tips are still Tips ... Not Rules ... You can either ignore or apply .... And even you ignore it , the tips still applicable up to certain extend .
Rules are things must applicable under most condition .
Laws are thing must applicable throughout the universe .
Nowadays , the technical Support team is Doing Dignosis on a Relative Machines ... all machines are relative to each other and not all machine are the same , just there is some common in them and that will be the tips
Anyway, Since it is written in 2005, certain Tips may still apply. Even they dont, the basic principle still remain the same.
Just like a flower plant, no matter how you modify it, its basic still remains as a plant and old tips may still apply. (Yup, i mean - May)
GOLDEN TIPS (1) :
PROCESSORS must always be kept in Optimum Temperature in order to function at Maximum Performance !
All silicon Product had electron flowing in it .
According to thermodynamic law , The electron will be moving faster is in higher temp .
But the higher the Temperature , Fast moving Electron will Bombard and knocking around the silicon wall (causing Thermal resistance) and sometimes Knock off the other Valence electron from the silicon structure .
If the Silicon structure been altered , the Efficientcy of electron transport will decrease .
Somehow these High speed Electrons may Break the wall and fly to the other side of the circuit and cause short circuit ( electron tunneling ) . The Optimum Temperature for most processor is about 35 celcius to 65 celcius depends on architecture and model. Too cold a temp may cause electron refuse to move .
GOLDEN TIPS (2) :
PROCESSORS and HEAT SINK .... why still need thermal compound in between ?
Flat surface on the processor and Heat Sink looks like mirror ... when the two in contact , shouldn't it have any Thermal transfer Problem , since Metal is a good conductor ... anyway , this is wrong in microscopic level .
All Perfect flat surface of any molecular object is build of Millions of atoms .. this atoms do not align perfectly in a orderly manner like crystal do but create manny micro pits and valleys on the so called flat surface .
When the two surface in contact , the microscopic Pits and Valleys Reduce the surface in contact and creates Gaps in between . Thermal conducting Paste or compound is used to fill this gap so that there is no insulating Air trap in between .
GOLDEN TIPS (3) :
The More RAM the better ?
RAM , called Random Acess Memory .... is a crucial part in your PC system ..
It store all the recent Active data as temporary files . Same function as Hard Disk , RAM also used to save and cache Data , but one big diffrent between Them , The Data Acess Speed .
A normal DDR400 (2X200MHz RAM) had transfer speed at Few GB persecond while a Hard Disk ATA133 (133MHz) had data transfer at 133MBps ....
Some Hardisk transfer rates examples :
Ultra DMA ATA 33 : 33MBps
Ultra DMA ATA 66 : 66MBps
Ultra DMA ATA 100 : 100MBps
Ultra DMA ATA 133 : 133MBps
SATA : 150MBps
SATA 2 : 375MBps
The MB's still looks big , but if we comparatively use a larger data transfer between them , the performance will be much a diffrence .
Thats why the Lagg when lack of RAM.
When the RAM ussage is full , all your data is store in your Hard Disk as Page files .
When running a program , Files are acess in a large scale , expecially Video editing and Gaming , where the compressed files need to be decompress before use (You open one JPEG file of 1MB with notepad , end up using 40MB space in RAM , thats what i mean decompress the compressed files before the system can processed it for your editing processes ).
Since it is in simultaneous files acessing , acess files from the hard disk (Read) and Write at the Hard Disk (write) as temporary Page files at the same time will burden your hardisk (as it had only One set of Moving Read/Write Head and usually the Decompressed files are much more than the original compressed format ) .
If we can let all the Decompressed files taken care by the RAMs , the the Hard Disc will be relax by concentrate at Output data and save data when needed . Split the Burden .A
nyway , For a normal Windows XP, about 100MB will be used by Clean System , 100MB used by Background Programes ... Always keep your system With RAM >256MB for system ussage .
Then the extra RAMs for your program depends on what program you use ...
A Flash progame may use 300MB , Alexzender Games uses 1.3GB , Video editing with Pinnacle uses about 400MB on editing .....
A tips is that , always have at least 512MB RAM in your system . 1024MB is even better .
Add Ons :
some 2 gig RAM are perform less than 1 Gig because the Higher Space per Ram and the Memory Speed is still the same ... it take longer time to Acess a data in it ... and it is called Latency ...
The Time Lagg before a Data can be find and acessed ... So it is better to had 4X512MB ram running than 1X2GB running , unless your RAM speed is high .
More Ram Pieces means the data acessing and writing will be growing Parallel .
Ah ... Dual Channel DDR is better than Single channel DDR as Data can be write and acess simultaneously .
GOLDEN TIPS (4) :
Long Time to LOAD a Program ?
Experience 10 mins to open a Programe (expecially Adobe or other Graphic editing software ) .. the only thing is that the data transfer from HDD to RAM and to Graphic card is so slow that it need to wait till everything is in placed ...
Data transfer on Computer system is very important when Loading a program ...
First is HDD speed ... if your HDD (acess and transfer) speed is low ... more time will be taken to seek and acess a program ... Try to defragment always and leave enough space for windows pagging .. If you can affort , get those RAPTOR or SCSI HDD and make use of the SATA2 300MB/s transfer speed .
These are really for workstation where Data Acessing and storing is very important . Recomemded for graphic / audio editing personel and also Gamming RIG .
Then the CPU ... if your CPU is slow , then the instruction per clock will be very slow ... As CPU is giving the Power to Encode and Decode a File ( usually all data saved in Computer is not in RAW form but Compressed form ) Try a better Multitasking CPU and Higher FSB value .... ah ... temperature affect the effectiveness of CPU too ...
Then the RAM speed ... If your ram speed is too slow ( compare DDR200 and DDR400) the Data need to load from HDD and CPU to RAM and save as temporary folder is slow ... Low latency RAM may help also .
Big ram may let your RAM to be "free" to random data paging and acess ... Insufficient rams may only Cause system to be slower as data had to force to PAGE at the HDD at the same time Load from HDD .At last the Graphic Speed .. first the path speed .
High speed AGP slot may save the day at 8X but 16X PCIE is even Better .....
The Picture of Processed graphic may show more instantly than waiting for the Lagg to produce Pixel by Pixel ....
Then the Graphic processing speed ....
The Graphic LAGG usually indicate by Scrolling a Pic or Page ...
The Graphic Processor is struggle to produce the pixel you need ...
Other than these hardware issues, software issue such as overloaded fonts types and files types may also slow down your computer. As the operating system may just struggle to recognise all the diffrent file and font types around your computer in order to preload to the RAM so that they can be acess more readily .
GOLDEN TIPS (5) :
Same Resolution VGA and TVout ... why on TV is worse and how to contrast the wording ?
words in computers screen are build out of EFFECTIVE PIXEL per Word ....
The more the pixel per word the More detail the word will be ...
So get a higher end graphic card that support higher TV out resolution ...
The Wordings on window will be clear on tv ( but still not that clear as Most old tv do not run at 1204X768 resolution but mostly 400X300 or 800X600 Settings ...
New graphic card can set TV out Gamma and contrast ...
You can use that to Contrast your TV settings and Enhance the words ... but not that effective ...
The Minimum effective Pixel Per word for normal partially Visible Words is 5x3 ....
So since your Main Monitor is 1024x768 (if) and your TV Output is 800X600 (if) there is lots of Pixel loss as Tv Out do not resize your 2nd Desktop - as a normal 800X600 VGA desktop will be (if you use clone mode) and hence "blured" .
GOLDEN TIPS (6) :
BROKEN Items on Motherboard , Can Fix Ka ?
Ah ... Anythig broke from MOBO (expecially those with embeded legs ones , not surface mounted ones ) very hard to save ...
those things are so small and are perfectly manufacture that they dont spark or touch between them .. if you end up soldering it back ... there is danger of futher short circuit or fire ... dont try it .. or try at your own risk ...
Ah , some of the motherboarded use multiple layers soldering ...Thats mean there is few layers of circuit ... The top and bottom layer can be seen but those "sandwich" between the Bord cant be seen ...
Dont try to "Be self Clever" because we dont know what are the connection are ....
Be safe , give the Mobo to the professionals and let them decide ...
GOLDEN TIPS (7) :
PerFormance of PCTV worse than Real TV ?
This is mostly happen on internal PCTV ( or Personal Computer Television ) .
First of all , to determine why The Performance is worse , we must look into the First expect ... Why there is Lines and Blurs and Dots on the Screen . This is mostly Due to Interference .
Interference of Signals . Internal PCTV unit usually Located very near to other electronic component such as High Power Circuitory on Motherboard and Cards ( the current flow in each individual circuit had create a mess of Electric and Magnetic field Interference inside the PC ) , Fans ( usually Motor device create Spikes in Current when the magnetic Flux is Cut , current induction being formed and the Flatuation of current during the Brush Contact - even nowadays the Brushless DC fans is being used , but the Theory is still the same , there is a few Coil which is constantly being Energised synchronusly to move the rotating Magnet ) and also others Power Component as well like inductors and Transformers .
As you know that Radio Signal is in a Electromagnetic Wave Form , There is a electric field which is Perpendicular to the Magnetic Field . If any of this field is distorted , there is when interference happens . Likewise , When you Open a florocent lamp , the few starting Blink can interfere with near by radio or televison .
The sudden acceleration of electron (due to The Sudden pulses from the starter and nature of alternating current ) had create E.M wave that will Interfere with your system .
You cant advoid them but you can minimise them by Shield all your wires and ground them .
Finish talking about the field interference , another most important Issues that PCTV usually cant receive good signal without antena is because of the nature of your casing .
Metal Casing is a good conductor . And there will be no electric Field in a Hollow Conductor ( or get though it ) unless there is a electric field source in the the hollow conductor ( as you know from first explanation about interference , you will know that there is lots of Electric Field in the Metal casing which is produced by the PC Circuitry itself but the Electric field cant reach into your PCTV tuner card ! because it is shield by the Metal casing ! ...
you are actually receive the signal from the circuitry rather than the signal from the TV station ) .
A Radia E.M signal is received if an electron being oscillated by the electric field of the E.M Wave and hence produce current in the antana which will be detected by your tuner .
So it is always Adviceable to Use a Antena to your PCTV tuner .
If you had an Outdoor Antena , it is even better . S
o you may ask why Your TV set receive Signal better than the PCTV tuner ? The answer is , your TV set is not make of Full Metal Casing but plastic , polyfiber or Wood .
Electric field still can pass through them .Why there is sometimes Pixels in the screen and not as clear as the real TV .
This is only applicable to older Tunner cards running with Analog TV Signal .
The analog is actually converted into digital signals before an information can be read by the computer .
The more powerful the converter , the better the Digital signal is reproduced .
Newer Digital Signals are Clearer than before expecially HDTV Pc Media center tunners and WiFi TVs .
So Is External USB PCTV better than Internal PCTV tuner ?
External PCTV of course can get better signal than internal ones but the quality is still Dependent weather your USB Port Can supply enough juice for Your external Device .
a Typical USB port can only Supply 500mA per port .
if higher than that , is consider not stable .
So far , if you had internal PCTV tunner with powerful antena is consider O.K. and cheaper than those external ones .
GOLDEN TIPS (8)
Do Dust Kills ?
yup Dust kills But not much experiment done on this yet .
May be you can do the experiment on it .
There is lots kinds of dust particle (tiny particles in air)This may include Oil vapour , Microbes , tiny metal pieces , sand particles , unburn hydrocardons , water molecules , Heavy metals , furs , meteorite dusts ............
All these are called Dirt if it is collect on a opening surface of object .
Cleaning Dirt .... you must know what the nature of those dirt .
But so far i know most of the dirt is come from Cooking Smoke , car exhaust and exposed lands . These Dust are relatively sticky and grey ... (get dark if too many of them entangle each other ) Hence they are oily in nature .But which are to ways to clean each of them ?
That tips issn't complete for show yet . Because not enough of sample for perfect cleaning .
So far i try is Air Brush , paint brush , vacuum , liquid cleaning (using alcohol , special cleaners) . others method must still be verify If anyone have it , do contribute a little Anyway , i found that Vaccum is dangerous if you do not take care . as Fast moving Dust Particle in Plastic tube will generate enough static to fried your motherboard .
(Some cases i encounter here had their Motherboard Mulfunction after Vacuumed )
GOLDEN ADVICE (9)
i planning to add another 1gb for dual channel. so as for virtual memory, should i set it or leave it to default ??actually wad does physical and virtual memory does hor ?? issit the setting we do in bios reflect this ?
Physical memory is the REAL memory that can be found hardwarely available in a computer system ... This is indicated by your ram space .
This can be detected in Bios .
Virtual Memory is not the the Real memory of a system .
It is windows created Memory paging in a computer . ( cant detect in Bios) .
Windows will write excess Memory requirement as paging files in the Hardisk when low in Physical memory .
The maximum Virtual memory that can be used (mean how much you want to sacrifice your hardisk space for windows paging) can be set in windows .
Virtual memory usually can be left as 1024mb-2048mb .
in case you really dont have enough physical memory , your system at least know there is some place like "virtual memory" to put excess memory.
Anyway , Virtual memory speed is much lower than Physical memory . Hence you may encounter Slow Down .Add another 1GB is not a problem . But to run in high speed dual channel Mode you need two identical rams for that . (that means assume you had another 1 gb in hand )Futher Explanation .....
You can set the Windows Paging Files Settings at Advance system settings .The Easiest way to go is rightclick at your "my computer icon" , Click "Properties" and it will come out the "system Properties" . Click The "Advance" tab and Look at the first data , "Performance" section . Click The Tab "settings" under this category and it will popup a "performance Option" window . On this window , click the "advance" tab and you will see three coulombs . Go to the last one that state "Virtual Memory" . Click "Change" if you want to adjust the Virtual Memory settings .
For Normal XP it should be 512MB min and 1024MB Max . But if you had a larger HDD , You can set it to 1024 to 2048 or 2048 to 4096 .The increase of virtuall memory will reduce the available space for other data ( like wise is you set new value 2048MB from previous 1024MB , you will notice the hard disk ussage increase by 1024MB . This Page Space Is not Nessasary Already Used , but a reserved space where no one can interfere .
You can always reduce the page files by the same method , if you always run into not enough HDD space for your document .Anyway , increasing your Virtual Memory will not derease your System Performance (unless you RAM is full and data being Page into HDD) .
But Low in Virtual and Physical Memory will give lots of warning of "virtual Memory Low" . Some times if your HDD is no space left , Some program will be halt , because no place to write the following memory .
GOLDEN ADVICE (10)
As for physical memory, does the application we runs reflec the amount of system cache ?? Cos i notice my system cache memory on 256ram is alwiz less than 100k ... while my 1gb ram alwyz around 500~600k . almost half of the memory eaten up. is there anyway to reduce ??
System Cache is use by Window OS , System information and also working application .
The actual Memory you see will always be lower as system is taking up all the cache ( System Cache may include what device are connected , what device is active and deactive , what Information is recently being used , whats the data correct path , wheres the referece point and cheack point of data , how a memory and data must be adressed correctly .... )
To reduce memory ussage you can close down unwanted startup application by using 'msconfig' . or some programes that constant refresh the rams to eliminate used data that is not nessasary for futher ussage .
Remember that ... Memory is the one that gives us the ability to get back acessed data and also the function of "undo" and "redo" and also the ability to save a modified profile .
The lesser the "Undo" times , the more memory space you save .
Just that if too less undo times and you had not save the project recently ... you may had the problem to eliminate the current unwanted "errors"
GOLDEN ADVICE (11)
basiclly a HDD performance is depend on its RPMizznt?SATA2 SATA PATA does not effect much?
RPM is actually Speed Of Disk Spin .
The Higher the Disk Spin the faster the Reader Head Can Swap across the disc and Acess the data . (remember everytime a data is needed , the Reader Head will Swap across the Disc until the data required found - hence Seek time )The higher the RPM the Lower the seek Time .
Remember , Application mostly run on few Small file controlled by one EXE file .
To increase the Loading time , The seek time must decrease (in 7200rpms HDD , seek time is about 10 Miliseconds in 10000Rpms , seek time is about 4ms - this depends on your fragments , the more the fragment the more it need to seek for its parts of data ) .
After the Seek Times , Next thing is Data Transfer .
PATA had data transfer of 100 or 133MB/s , SATA had data transfer of 150MB/s and SATA2 had Data transfer of 300MB/s .
If a large amount of data need to be transfered (not number of files) , the performance extremely depending on it .
This may include when you are recording High Quality Movie , audio or when doing streaming .
For most case Higher RPM will win because most of the time Application spend more time on seeking their components which is relatively very small .
Likewise if you had 1000 Pieces of 1KB files need to be acessed , it take more time to get the data than one 1000KB files .
Windows logon and programes loading benifit allot from higher RPMs . Heard of Loading windows in 5 Sec ? This is what a High RPM Western Digital Raptor 10KRPM HDD can do
