Computer Overhauls Forum and Message Board

Building a Small Form Factor PC

ComputerOverhauls — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:11:50 GMT

It's tragic that the vast majority of PC users are only familiar with the PC in all it's ugly functional glory in the form of a "tower" or "mid-tower" form.

But check this out:

This little computer is under a foot tall, under a foot wide, and slightly over a foot long. It weights about 8lbs, easy enough to be carried to and fro from work to house and back. It can house a powerful quad or dual core processor from Intel, up to 4GB of DDR-2 Memory, up to 2 hard drives, a separate video card that gives it more graphics than a PS3 on its best day -- and a separate memory card reader to handle all your digital media. Did I mention the optical surround sound built in?

Forum: Knowledge Base

Class Itinerary

ComputerOverhauls — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:38:56 GMT

Thanks for your interest in our class. Class time will be divided as following:

7:15:7:30: Welcome and greetings. Discuss vocab and diagram handouts. Pass around examples of computer components (hard drive, processor, motherboard, etc).

7:30-7:45: Brief History of Personal Computing Power Point Presentation

7:45-8:15: 3 common tasks (10 minutes each):

1.) Backing Up Data to an External Hard Drive (hard drive chart)

-- determining how much data you have

-- purchasing and installing an external hard drive or memory stick

-- Copying and Moving data to the external drive or memory stick

2.) Adding additional Hardware Like a Printer or Wireless Card

-- how to use the add hardware wizard

-- how to use the device manager

-- understanding the term driver

3.) Setting up a Wireless Home Network

-- Components and Services Necessary

-- the basics of TCP/IP networking

-- Securing Your Network From Intruders

-- Sharing Files On The Network

8:15-8:30: Questions and Answers w/ Food and Drinks

Forum: Events Listing

Computer Parts Diagram

ComputerOverhauls — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:19:36 GMT

The following basic diagram will give an understanding of how the various parts of a computer work together. Although a bit dated, the same basic structure is still used today.

Every computer is still composed of at least a power supply, motherboard, processor, ram, hard drive, monitor, keyboard and mouse. The keyboard, mouse, ram, processor, video card and other I/O cards (such as a sound card or network card) all plug into the motherboard.

The motherboard is the most critical part of any PC and any fast and stable computer features a good motherboard as its core component. Also of critical importance are the RAM (or "memory) hard drive, and processor. The processor and memory allow the computer to multi-task; the hard drive stores information and allows quick access to the stored information. In addition to these components many computers have separate video and sound cards that allow the machine to handle graphics and sound with ease.

Forum: Knowledge Base

Computer Parts Diagram

ComputerOverhauls — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:05:34 GMT

Forum: Events Listing

Hard Drive and File Size Guide

ComputerOverhauls — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:57:54 GMT

This guide will help you understand how much hard drive size you need.

How big of hard drive do you really need: why it all depends on how you use it.

One of the most common questions we get is: how many documents/photos/videos/songs can I fit on my hard drive? The first thing to know is that modern hard drive capacity is rated in gigabytes (GB). Most hard modern hard drives are between 40GB and 500GB. Most types of computer files, whether they are videos or pictures or songs or documents are much smaller than a gigabyte. Most of these files are rated in kilobytes or megabytes. For our purposes, there are roughly 1000 megabytes in one gigabyte. And there are roughly 1000 kilobytes in one megabyte. Most Word and other written documents on your computer are no larger than 100 kilobytes and many are no larger than 20 kilobytes.

For demonstration, lets say that your average Word document weighs in at 50 kilobytes. We can figure that roughly 20 documents will take up a megabyte. On a 40GB hard drive there are roughly 40,000 megabytes. Theoretically, you could store roughly 800,000 documents on a 40GB hard drive. And this is just on a smaller (by todays standards) 40GB drive. Unless your writing prowess rivals that of Proust or Marx I dont think youll have to worry about filling up your computer with documents. Photos are slightly bigger but dont pose a problem. Most modern digital cameras take pictures that are about 500 kilobytes in size. Accordingly, you could store roughly 80,000 pictures on a 40GB drive.

Songs and videos and programs are another matter entirely. For example, if you were thinking of installing the ever popular online role playing game World of Warcraft, which counts such notables as Dave Chappelle among its members, you would be taking up 6GB of hard drive space!

For videos, with the advent of HDTV many people are now building computers that act like home theatre devices (Think an HD-DVD player with a Tivo and a Dolby Digital surround sound receiver built in!) that can play and record HDTV on their TVs. One hour of HDTV quality video is roughly 3 GB in size! You can see that to store much HDTV quality video on your computer you will need a huge hard drive, something in the 500GB range. (There is a separate discussion here about the viability of downloading HDTV content via the Internet instead of renting DVDs, thus making DVD players obsolete, but that is for another day.) In general, video files are quite large and take up large amounts of space on your hard drive. If you like to download and store videos you will need a big hard drive, otherwise you will be forced to constantly delete old videos to make room for new ones.

Music is another hard drive hog. Your iTunes library (or wherever you keep all your music) might be quite big. Apple likes to say that you can store 500 songs on 1GB, which averages out to one song taking up approximately 2MB of drive space. This is a little white lie permeated by Apple and the other makers of digital music players. Most songs take up more than 2MB of storage. Most modern song files are about 1 megabyte in size per 1 minute of music. That means that your average 3 minute song takes up 3 megabytes. Accordingly, on a 30GB iPod you can store about 10,000 of these 3 minute long songs. This is equivalent to 30,000 minutes of music. Remember though that if you store videos on your iPod you will be able to store much less music, as videos takes up quite a bit of space.

The lesson: documents and photos do not need much hard drive space but music, high end games, and videos do. If you dont download many videos and have a modest size music library (about 100 full albums) you will do just fine with a 40GB or smaller drive. If you like to install programs such as World of Warcraft, watch high quality video files, and have a massive (and of course completely legal) music library you will want to invest in a bigger hard drive.

Most people are now familiar with the concept of an external hard drive that sits on your desk and connects to the computer via a high speed USB port. I always recommend that if you need a lot of storage buy an external drive rather than an internal drive. The cost per GB of an external drive will always be less than an internal drive. For example, if you shop around online you can get a 500GB (!!!) external hard drive for around $150. With this size drive you can store days worth of music, video, or if youre writing an On Capital sized dissertation -- all those pages and pages.

Forum: Knowledge Base

Common Computer Vocab

ComputerOverhauls — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:48:22 GMT

Critical Vocabulary

Hardware: the physical components of a computer. Examples include the hard drive, logic board, and keyboard.

Software: the code or instructions that runs the computers hardware. Examples include Microsoft Windows, Photoshop and iTunes.

Operating System: the most important software that provides the backdrop from which everything else can be run. Interacts with the hardware at the most fundamental levels. Every computer needs an operating system to work. Almost all computers today have either Microsoft Windows or Mac OS as their operating system. A free OS called Umbuntu is becoming increasingly popular. Dell now sells computers running Umbuntu.

Shortcut: In computing, a shortcut, taking the form on an icon or link, points to another area on a network or hard drive. Usually shortcuts are used to launch programs easily from the desktop. Most novices conflate shortcuts with programs and only delete the shortcut when the want to delete the entire program.

Desktop: In computing, the desktop refers to the area of the computer where all other functions are controlled. The desktop is the screen that first appears when the computer is turned on and the OS is loaded. From the desktop you can launch programs, change the background and do many other tasks.

Microprocessor: the brain of the computer. Think of an incredibly powerful calculator that can perform billions of calculations every second.

Hard Drive: (or hard disc): spins much like a record player and stores information magnetically. This is where the information on a computer (such as the OS) is stored. Hard drive size (how much information you can story) is commonly rated in gibabyes or GB for short. Hard drive is often confused with memory

Memory: computers use memory to temporarily store information because it can be accessed much faster than information on the hard drive. Memory is used when programs are running. More programs running requires more memory. Memory does not refer to how much information you can have on the computer, simply how many programs you can run at the same time.

Browser: a special software that allows a computer to access the World Wide Web. The browser is not the Internet itself simply a device for viewing the information on the Internet. Common browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera

Broadband: a high speed internet connection, either DSL or Cable. Broadband allows streaming video and reduces the time needed to download programs, movies and music by at least a factor of 10 and oftentimes by 100 or more! Broadband is a MUST to enjoy your computer fully.

Forum: Knowledge Base

Critical Vocab For Computer Class

ComputerOverhauls — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:03:42 GMT

Critical Vocabulary

You should be familiar with these terms by the end of class. You can get a head start by familiarizing yourself with them before you arrive.

Hardware: the physical components of a computer. Examples include the hard drive, logic board, and keyboard.

Software: the code or instructions that runs the computers hardware. Examples include Microsoft Windows, Photoshop and iTunes.

Microprocessor: the brain of the computer. Think of an incredibly powerful calculator that can perform billions of calculations every second.

Forum: Events Listing

January Class Schedule Announced!

ComputerOverhauls — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:59:49 GMT

As Of Jan 24th all classes have been cancelled until futher notice.

Please refer to the online Syllabus. You can access the Syllabus online by clicking here.

Forum: Events Listing

Computer Class Syllabus

ComputerOverhauls — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:58:54 GMT

Computers 101: From the Space Bar to Google Earth (and more)

This class is aimed at the beginner, novice and intermediate PC user, with a focus on enabling students to take full advantage of technology in their lives by providing common tips and simple solutions to everyday problems.

GOALS: At the end of class students should have a basic understanding of how they can most effectively implement technology in their lives. Students should be able to prevent and solve typical problems encountered on computers and online.

REQUIRED READING: The Parts of a Computer (handout), and Vocab (handout). These two texts will explain common computer related terms and how computers work and interact.

WHEN: January 29^th @ 7:15pm to 8:15pm. There will be a short Q and A after class.

WHERE: Computer Overhauls Main Office

BRING: Bring your laptop to join in on the learning. We have plenty of outlets for everyone.

Space is limited! Admittance will be on a first come first serve basis. Limited seating available. Food and Drinks will be provided AFTER class and we will have a Q and A session.

Forum: Events Listing

Our Favorite Free Security Programs

ComputerOverhauls — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 03:12:01 GMT

There are a plethora of free programs out there that will help keep your Windows machine running free of malicious software. In general it's a "swiss army knife" approach to security that works best: i.e., it's best to use more than one program for protection. It's best to have a dedicated anti-virus program in addition to a one or more good anti-spyware programs. You should also make sure that your computer is behind a firewall. One of the easiest and best ways to use a firewall is simply to use a router. -- a device that "routes" an internet connection among many computers on a private network.

We recommend using either AVG or Avast anti-virus. Both of these programs leave small "footprints" on your computer (meaning they stay out of your way and don't slow things down) and update daily. You can download them free and their subscriptions never run out.

Spyware protection can be simply and powerfully provided by using a combination of Mozilla Firefox, Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware. Important: When installing Spybot be sure to "uncheck" the box that says "use tea timer protection".

After you install the programs use Firefox to browse the internet instead of Internet Explorer. It's much better. Open Spybot and update the program. Spybot is notorious for "freezing" during the update process. If this happens don't fret. Close the program by clicking on the "x" and then hitting "end now". Then just open it and run the updates again. It usually goes through the 2nd or so time. Then run the scan. This will clean your computer of spyware.

(thanks Gizmodo)

Firefox will automatically prevent pop-ups and combined with the two anti-spyware programs will keep your computer spy and malware free.

No protection is 100% however, and user error can still bypass the software guards. Remember to read carefully prompts that "pop up" on your computer. When in doubt, always just hit the "x" in the top right of the window to exit a window that looks suspicious.

Forum: Knowledge Base

IPOD FAQ

ComputerOverhauls — Thur, 27 Dec 2007 00:55:29 GMT

1.) How long will it take to fix my iPod? When can I bring it in?

90% of iPod repairs are done within 30 minutes of drop off. Walk-in service is available Monday through Friday from 12pm to 7pm and Saturdays 12pm to 5pm. You can drop your iPod off for return service outside of those hours. We can also pickup your iPod for you and return it the same day! Just "schedule a pickup" on our home page.

2.) How much will it cost?

Most iPod repairs run between $29 to $129 depending on severity of damage. Hard drive based iPods (all except Nano and iTouch) are susceptible to hard drive failure and drive replacement starts at $99 for part and service.

3.) If my iPod is too expensive to fix can I sell it and buy a new one from you?

Yes. We'll give you a trade in credit towards any of the iPods we sell in our store. All our iPods come with 1 year warranties from Apple!

Forum: iPod and Computer Repair FAQs

Extended Holiday Schedule

ComputerOverhauls — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:05:44 GMT

Until Christmas, Computer Overhauls will be open 9AM-8PM every weekday including Christmas Eve. Weekend hours will remain 12PM-5PM.

We will be closed December 25th and 26th.

Regular business hours of 9AM-7PM weekdays and 12PM-5PM weekends will go back into effect December 27 through the 30th.

We will be closed December 31st and January 1st. Normal hours (see above) will resume January 2nd.

Forum: News and Announcements

Open Source (Linux, Open Office, etc) Help and Discussion

ComputerOverhauls — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:56:06 GMT

Forum: Laptop Owners' Lounge

Wireless Internet Help and Discussion

ComputerOverhauls — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:55:26 GMT

All wireless discussion and help should be talked about in this thread.

Forum: Laptop Owners' Lounge

Dell CPI Latitude Owners' Thread

ComputerOverhauls — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:50:49 GMT

Forum: Laptop Owners' Lounge