5 PC UPGRADES ALMOST EVERYONE DOES WRONG

5 PC UPGRADES ALMOST EVERYONE DOES WRONG

(AND HOW TO DO THEM RIGHT)

Many newbs flub upgrades through inexperience, but it's just as common to see a hardcore system builder throw caution to the wind while swapping out a CPU, snapping in some RAM, or swapping out a hard drive or graphics card.

Adding RAM, swapping out a processor (CPU), or installing a new hard drive can be very simple tasks. But following basic precautions can safeguard your system and save you money, time, and frustration. And taking a few extra minutes (or spending a few extra dollars) to route cables well and to ensure that your power supply is up to the greater demands of new components can make your upgraded PC perform better.

The most common error failing to use static protection. Novices typically don't even realize that static electricity in their body can discharge into a PC's components with just a light touch, potentially damaging sensitive circuitry.

Old hats, on the other hand, have the opposite problem: Years of handling hard drives, memory modules, graphics cards, and CPUs desensitizes us to the very real hazard posed by static electricity, leaving us vulnerable to a problem we know perfectly well how to avoid. The use of an anti-static bracelet whenever you work on your components. COST APROX: $10-$12

1.    RAM UPGRADES

The number one mistake that novices make with RAM upgrades is to buy the wrong kind of memory. Buying PC components has more and more become a self-service activity, and fewer safeguards are in place to prevent people from choosing the wrong package. So take the time to find out exactly what kind of modules your system takes, including the bus speed (in MHz).

Memory manufacturers produce RAM with various pin configurations, data rates, and bus speeds. If your laptop calls for 667MHz PC2-5300 modules, but the store has only 1333MHz PC3-10600 for sale. It won't work, you could damage your PC trying it.

The biggest RAM upgrade mistake that experienced users make is to neglect to check the capacity limits of their machine. Some systems (netbooks and ultralights) can accept only a certain amount of RAM. So despite the fact that your local tech store sells 4GB modules that fit in your machine, you could pack them home only to find that your two-year-old laptop takes only 2GB modules. The advice here is simple: Check the manufacturer's documentation before you buy.

2.    PROCESSOR UPGRADES

It should come as little surprise that some of the most devastating upgrade mistakes involve CPUs. The CPU is basically the brain of the computer, and if you mess up the installation even slightly, you can expect serious trouble.

Assuming that you've bought the right CPU upgrade for your machine, you still have to avoid three incredibly common mistakes that plague processor upgrades: pin displacement, poor thermal paste application, and improper heat sink installation.

Every PC CPU has lots of little pins that seat them in their motherboard socket to form the vital connections through which the computer's data flows. If one of these pins bends or breaks, you're hosed. So whenever you handle a CPU, take care to avoid touching the pins against anything--your fingers, a countertop, the edge of the case, other system components, anything. Also, don't force the CPU into its socket. If it doesn't fall right into place, something is off--and increasing your pressure on the processor is bound to bend a pin. Instead, lift up the CPU, check that the pins are straight and the socket is wide open, and try again.

In the event that your CPU does have a bent pin, proceed with straightening it out very cautiously. Use a nonconductive material, such as a piece of plastic to gently nudge the pin back into position.

Between the CPU and the heat sink is a thin layer of thermal paste whose purpose is to conduct heat away from the CPU and into the heat sink, where it can dissipate. To ensure good contact with the heat sink and to avoid creating hot spots on the surface of the CPU, this layer of paste must be smooth, thin, and uniform. One mistake that upgraders frequently make here is to leave the existing paste in place, or even to add new paste to the old paste. This can produce clumps in the paste, leading to uneven heat transfer and in some instances reduced radiation of heat away from the processor. To avoid this problem, make sure that both the CPU and the heat sink are completely clean of paste, and then add a fresh, even, ultrathin layer before reassembling the system.

Finally, avoid the mistake of using an inadequate or ill-fitting heat sink with your CPU. If your new CPU is substantially faster than your old one, it probably creates more heat, too. So unless you're already using a high-performance heat sink, consider treating heat-sink replacement as part of the upgrade process. You don't have to go all out with an expensive, complicated liquid-cooling system, but if you're spending $300 on a new CPU, spending $30 to $50 on a high-quality heat sink to protect that investment (and the rest of your PC) makes sense.

 

3.    HARD DRIVE UPGRADES

Next to RAM, a hard drive is one of the easiest PC components to upgrade. Often, the most difficult part of the process is reaching all of the screws with your screwdriver. That's because many system cases open only on one side, or contain framing components that block access to the drive cage. Resist the temptation to take the easy route of screwing the drive in on only the more accessible side. An unevenly mounted hard drive is likely to wobble slightly in its bay, causing undesirable vibrations that can make your PC noisier than it should be and potentially shorten the drive's life.

Nearly all PC chassis are designed to give you access to both sides of the drive cage. In most instances, the cage itself is removable, so you can snap it out, screw your drive in properly, and then snap the cage back into place. Take the time to do this, and you'll probably reap the rewards of a quieter PC and greater longevity from your drive.

Another common mistake--even among experienced PC builders--is to use the wrong type of screws to mount your hard drive. This error usually isn't disastrous, because the difference in diameter between case screws and hard-drive screws is subtle. But 6-32 case screws are slightly thicker and have a wider thread spacing than M3 hard-drive screws, so using the wrong screw will mangle the screw holes on the drive, which may cause problems later if you ever need to remove and reinstall the drive.

  

4.    POWER SUPPLY UPGRADES

As we upgrade our PCs, we almost never reduce the system's overall power consumption along the way. So, after a few significant component upgrades, your machine's power demands could outstrip the capabilities of the power supply that came with the computer. This is especially true for users who upgrade an older graphics board to a newer, more power-hungry board with dual power connectors. Case in point: Upgrading an Nvidia GeForce 8600 board to a GeForce GTX 295 can quadruple the power demand on the PCI-Express channel. Not surprisingly, the power supply is one of the most commonly overlooked components in the world of PC upgrades.

If you've made a few upgrades to your system, take a moment to evaluate whether your current power supply is up to the workload you're giving it. Asus has a pretty good power supply wattage calculator to help you with this assessment. You may very well discover that you've been expecting a 650-watt power supply to run a system that can draw more than 800 watts under peak load. Upgrading to a more appropriate power supply can make your system faster and with greater stability.

5.    ROUTING CABLES NEATLY

I know how it is: Maybe you're busy, or you don't care about the aesthetics of your system's components, and you just want to finish the upgrade so you can boot the thing and play some games. But it's a mistake to leave your PC's internal cables hanging like an impenetrable cobweb in the middle of your machine.

Good heat dissipation is critical to the stability and performance of any PC, especially as you add more-powerful (and therefore more-heat-producing) components to the system. If you block the flow of air through the center of the chassis by leaving it full of jumbled cables, you're undermining the performance of your system's fans and heat sinks. Routing cables neatly increases airflow through the system and helps keep your PC cooler.

If you look inside a really sweet machine from a performance builder like Velocity Micro or Maingear, you'll find cables virtually concealed from view, routed behind the walls of the chassis, under the motherboard, and along the corners of the case, held in place by itty bitty zip ties trimmed neatly at the neck.

You don't have to be as fastidious as the pros to give your machine better airflow and a slick, orderly appearance. Just buy a small bag of zip ties and use them to cluster cables together into vaguely coherent pipelines, leaving as much open space as possible in the center of the case. Then take a small wire cutter and snip off the ends of the zip ties.

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UNSORTED IDEAS WHEN BUILDING YOUR OWN PC

UNSORTED IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUILDING YOUR OWN PC

Building PCs is a hobby that many tech enthusiasts enjoy. Even if building PCs is not your hobby, it is sometimes the only way to get a machine that exactly meets your needs, or meets them at a reasonable price. 

1.    SSD VS. MECHANICAL DRIVES

At this point in time, I think the drive selections have more to do with performance than the CPU choice does. Modern CPUs have more than enough power for typical loads, but as the applications we use get bigger, and the data they handle gets larger (video games, multimedia editing, giant-size Outlook PSTs, etc.), the drives can become the bottleneck.

Solid state drives (SSDs) are lightning quick, especially for accessing lots of small files at a time (like when the system boots). The price to pay is in the cost-per-gigabyte: They are many times more expensive on a per-GB basis than traditional drives. While there is debate about whether traditional drives are as fast reading long, sequential files, or if the read/write limits on SSDs make them less reliable than the mechanical failures of traditional drives, the performance on typical usage is not a question.

One possibility, especially with an OS like Windows 7 or Linux that make it easy to separate data from applications, is to use an SSD for the main OS and application space and put user data on a traditional drive. That way, you can get both speed and disk size at a reasonable price.

2.    VIDEO CARD

People often tend to buy either too much video card or too little. Unless you are playing video games, the on-board video card should be sufficient. You should not need to devote too much system memory to it, either.

If you are playing video games, keep in mind that games are now putting the lion's share of the hard work onto the video card. There is a definite price curve on the video cards. You can often get last year's top-end models for a good price, and they will handle all but the most modern and intense games at reasonable settings (often the highest settings). If you are doing a lot of multimedia, numerical analysis, and other computationally intense tasks, check to see whether your applications can leverage the video card and if so, what cards it is compatible with.

3.    X86 VS X64

When installing the OS, there is no reason to not use the x64 version at this point, unless you have an extremely outdated application that refuses to run on it. And you should almost always install the x64 version of applications. That said, there are some things where you need to make a choice. Internet Explorer, for example. While it installs both versions, always use the x86 one — the one labelled "Internet Explorer" instead of "Internet Explorer (64-bit)" — because the modernized JavaScript engine in IE 9 is available only in the x86 version. Many IE users I've met have been baffled by the lack of speed in IE 9, and that was the reason.

Also, be very wary about installing Microsoft Office's x64 versions. Many, if not most plugins still do not run under x64 Office, and it looks like they probably never will. The only reason to go for x64 Office is if you routinely work with monstrously huge files that the x86 version can't handle.

4.    RAM DENSITY

Let's say your motherboard holds up to four DIMMs, each one with a maximum size of 8 GB, and supports Dual Channel RAM, and your goal is to have 8 GB of RAM. If you buy one 8 GB DIMM, you are leaving lots of room open to eventually fill the machine to 32 GB, but you are giving up the speed advantages of Dual Channel. If you buy 2x4 GB DIMMs, you get the speed of Dual Channel. But if you want to get the full 32 GB in the future, you'll have to replace the two 4 GB DIMMs with an 8 GB DIMM.

5.    RAID

A RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) allows you to combine various physical disks into one volume. The main RAID levels to think about on a desktop are:

RAID 0: Allows multiple disks to be combined into one large disk; a single drive failure takes down the whole RAID and often loses data. The volume size is the total of the size of all of the disks.

o    PROS: adds the complete size of each hard drive like one, example: 80 + 80 = 160

o    CONS: if one drive fails, fails all

RAID 1: Mirrors a pair of disks into one volume; if one disk fails there is no data loss, and the drive can be replaced (and the data automatically copies to the replacement), usually with no downtime. The volume size is the size of the smaller of the two disks.

o    PROS: the PC will never stop working and continue if drive fails, everything in Drive A (Master) is the same on Drive B (Spare)

o    CONS: 2 drives of the same model, RPM and capacity DOUBLE your budget and this is ideal for servers and non-stop workstations

RAID 5: This is more complex. It takes three drives and combines them in a way that they all provide some redundancy for the others, with an optional fourth drive as a "hot spare" to be immediately incorporated into the RAID if the drive fails (highly recommended). A little bit of drive space is lost due to the way the redundancy is performed.

o    PROS: never will stop working and can be replace even working, this mode call “hot swap” and is very reliable

o    COS: more expensive and used for storage. Like: 1 HD + 1 HD + 1HD + 1 HD = TOTAL size of 3 HDs and 1 for SPARE (80 + 80 + 80 = 240 and 1 is for SPARE)

Each of these RAID types can bring some speed benefits. In nowadays, all the new motherboards and enthusiastic PC brands, some models offer the option to use the RAID option. This feature was only available in servers and was very expensive. Now can be used according your work. Example: hard video editing, a hard-core gamer, an enthusiastic PC consultant as ME! And even more choices such as web design, CAD and other hard working.

6.    CPU CHOICE

This is not an Intel vs. AMD debate. Just compare capabilities and price and get the cheapest CPUs that meet your needs. Here are some questions to ask yourself when picking a CPU:

o    Does it support virtualization and do I need that support?

o    Does it support Hyper-Threading (HT)? HT allows one CPU core to act as two, and while it does not always improve performance, it can often increase it.

o    How many cores do I need? Remember, many applications still are not written to leverage multicore architecture, but the OS will. And more cores means a better experience on the whole if you like to do many things at once or play games.

o    What speed do I need? Few things will actually max out a modern CPU long term. I would rather have four cores at 2.0 gHz than two cores at 4.0 gHz, all else being equal.

o    What does my work’s needs? Do I edit videos? CAD? Design? Web? Programmer? Gamer? Or just need to surf and email for my work?

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