Last time we talked about upgrading your computer though artistic mods we looked at using paint and color to create a pair of one-of-a-kind speakers.  Painting is one of the most technical and time consuming mods you can do.  It takes a long time to lay down even layers of spray paint but once you master painting on plastic, you’ll start to look at everything in your house and office differently.  Imagine taking your desk phone apart and painting it gold or silver instead boring beige. 

Once you have painted everything you can get your hands on, it is time to move on to another form of computer upgrade and self expression — lights.  Adding lights to your customized projects is actually much easier than painting and the easiest form of light modification to complete is neon light tubes.  Neon lights come in four different styles, accents, liquid, sound-sensitive, and mini-tube and are usually used around the edges of a computer case or behind a surface.  

You want to plan your neon light installations before you purchase the light tubes.  Most neon lights are sold in lengths that vary from 3 inches to 20 inches and must be installed in straight lines because the tubes do not bend (unless you purchase speciality lights).  You should also measure the area you want to decorate carefully and purchase the appropriate length neon light tubes.  It is very easy to purchase a light tube that is too long and you will not be able to cut the tube down to size.

Neon lights do draw a little electrical current from your computer or an external power supply.  Some people play up this connection by incorporating a power switch into the design of the lights.  The tubes you purchase should come with instructions on how to connect the lights to your computer and to the necessary electricity.  Usually the electricity requirements for neon light tubes is very minimal and they should not put off excessive heat either, but you will want to follow the instructions provided to make sure you do not take the chance of damaging your computer electricity circuits.  

Adding colored neon lights to your computer modification projects can give you a boost of additional color and create a visual 3-D project.  Imagine accenting your painted speakers with lights that are sound-senstive and turn off and on every time you play music.  You could also choose lights are a contrasting color to your computer case and accent the front panel or the back.  One popular LCD monitor mod your can do with neon light tubes to very simple, install one tube along the back bottom section of your monitor and your desk will slightly glow with the neon color.  

Including neon light tubes in your modifications is a great way to expand your computer mod skills and upgrade your computer in a new and creative way.  You may want to try to limit the amount of neon you install in order to keep your office from being as bright as the outside but as long as you are having fun, who cares?

        

I get excited when new software hits the market, especially software that makes my life more creative and fun.  I work on the web and spent an enormous amount of time (not to mention money) looking for the perfect software to create webpages and that perfect “Photoshop Clone” but once it dawned on me that what I needed was Adobe Creative Suite, I stopped spinning my wheels with lesser programs.  Adobe Creative Suite is currently undergoing another upgrade so it is time to check my computer to make sure I have the components necessary to run this powerful money-maker and I have to ask — Are you ready?

Anyone who is not proficient with Adobe Creative Suite believes that the software is too large and confusing to use on their little projects and I will not mention the price but if you make the commit to Adobe you will soon find reason to use every piece of software in this suite every day.  I truly believe that the more you use the software the more uses you will discover.  Adobe Creative Suite will bring out your artistic side and make everything you touch a little more creative.

So what hardware do I need to have in order to run this suite and make my life a little more creative?  In all honesty, you need top of the line components but most of these components are probably in your computer already.  If not, the more projects the better, right?

1. Intel Pentium 4 Processor.  Most CPUs that you purchased or upgraded in the last year are powerful enough to run Adobe Creative Suite.  You do need a lot of processor speed and power to run this suite at it’s full potential.  Trust me, there is nothing more frustrating then having a creative flash and having to wait for your computer to catch up.
2. 1gb of RAM.  Ok, so you probably have at least 1gb of RAM already installed in your computer which means you are covered on the RAM.  But if your really a DIY geek and you are going to be upgrading components anyways, install more memory. 
   
3. 22gb of hard drive space.  In all honesty, when I first found out that Adobe Creative Suite needed twenty-two gigabytes of hard drive, I thought I misread the box.  But were talking about five different programs and in today’s software world that is only 4gb per program. Of course you also need space for your projects and if you are going to edit videos Adobe does recommend a separate hard drive for storage of the files.  Hard drives are so cheep these days, you could have two or three drives installed in your computer ready to go within 15 minutes.
4. 1280x1024 monitor.  You need a wide screen monitor to really get beyond the basics of this program and let me tell you this, once you go widescreen you will not go back.  If you do nothing else, treat yourself to a widescreen monitor and you will find an entirely new world of creative endeavors opening up to you.
   

I’ve got some upgrading to do in order to prepare.  

        

Early PCs had their own hardware and all the computer components were integrated into the motherboard, leaving no scope for connecting external proprietary hardware. However, this concept was changed by IBM in its PC’s when it defined the open Architecture. The open Architecture introduced the concept of external buses and expansion slots, which allowed proprietary hardware to be connected to the PC. So the motherboard could be a minimal system, with only the supporting chips embedded into it, whereas, the expansion slots made it possible for external proprietary hardware to be connected.

Old generation Buses and slots

Here is a list of the old generation of buses and expansion slots not used in the motherboards anymore.

Type of Bus	Speed	No of Pins	No of Bits	Processor	Addressable memory space
XT ISA	4.77 Mhz	62 contacts	8 bits	8086	1 MB
AT ISA	8.33 Mhz	98 contacts	16 bits	80286	16 MB
EISA	8.33 Mhz	102 contacts	32 bits	80386,80486	16 MB

From the above chart it is clear that as more advanced microprocessors were developed, the individual buses had to be improved and widened. For example, with the advent of 80286 16 bits processor, the XT ISA 8-bit bus with 8-bit slots became quite inadequate and the new standard AT ISA had to be designed. The bus architecture was improved in order to take care of faster processors and faster peripherals devices.

New generation Buses

Here is a list of the new generation of buses frequently used in the modern motherboards.

Type of Bus	Speed	No of Pins	No of Bits	Processor	Transfer rate
PCI PCI PCI PCI	33 Mhz 66 Mhz 33 Mhz 66 Mhz	188 pins	32 bits 32 bits 64 bits 64 bits	80586 80686	133 MB/sec 266 MB/sec 266 MB/sec 533 MB/sec
AGP 1 AGP 2 AGP 4 AGP 8	66 Mhz 66 Mhz 66 Mhz 66 Mhz		32 bits 32 bits 32 bits 32 bits	80686	266 MB/sec 533 MB/sec 1066 MB/sec 2133 MB/sec
PCI -16 Express	133Mhz	---	64 bits	80686	4266 MB/sec

PCI Bus

The proliferation of 32 bit CPUS and graphics intensive operating systems made it  obvious that the 8.33 Mhz AT ISA bus was no longer satisfactory. The PC industry began to develop alternative architectures for improved performance. Hence, the new architechture of  PCI bus was developed. The PCI is a 188 pin bus and has bus architecture that supports peripherals, such as hard disk drives, networks etc

The PCI architecture is capable of transferring data at 132 MB/sec – a great improvement over the 5 MB/sec transfer rate of the standard ISA bus. Another key advantage of the PCI bus is that it has automatic configuration capabilities for switchless / jumperless peripherals. It is possible to Auto – configure the bus.

PCI uses the linear burst technique of transferring data. It  is one of the unique aspects of the PCI bus because it will perform both burst reads and burst writes. This doubles the throughput compared to the buses without linear burst technique.

The devices designed to support PCI have low access latency reducing the time required for a peripheral to grant control of the bus after requesting access. The PCI bus supports bus mastering which allows one of a number of intelligent peripherals to take control of the bus to accelerate a high priority task.

PCI architecture also supports concurrency a technique that ensures that the microprocessor operates simultaneously with the masters, instead of waiting for them.

As an example computer parts like an Ethernet card and the Lan have control of the bus.

Finally PCI was developed as a dual voltage architecture.

In the PCI bus, to reduce the number of pins needed, the data and address bus are multiplexed together. It is the first bus to support the low voltage logic implementation of 3 volts. The clock signal provides timing for the PCI bus only and can be adjusted from dc o HZ to 33 MHZ Cache memory and JTAG support are also provided on the PCI bus.

AGP Bus

3D rendering is used in games and all types of presentation and CAD software. This  requires intensive processing and lots of memory. This lays strain on ordinary 3D video cards that make use of the PCI bus. The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) was developed by Intel and it uses a variation of the PCI bus slot. It provides a high speed data pathway between the 3D video card and main memory. It allows the AGP video card to utilize main memory for graphics work.

The AGP system renders the textures of 3D scene in a game or graphics application by using the main system memory rather than the video memory, thus allowing the graphics engine on the chip to perform faster rendering.

The AGP has deeply pipelined memory read and write operations which fully hide memory access latency.

Demultiplexing of address and data on the bus, allows 100% bus efficiency.

The 133 Mhz data transfer rate allows for real data transfers in the range of 500 Mb/sec.

The AGP is a system primarily meant for connecting fast 3D graphics video display devices, which makes gaming applications come to life.

The high speed AGP is totally independent of the PCI bus. It is a specialized bus system only meant for video display, whereas, other peripherals could make use of the PCI bus. For implementing AGP you need a motherboard of at least Pentium II ATX with a recent chipset that supports an AGP slot as well as an AGP video adapter. You also need a video driver for the particular operating system you are using.

PCI Express Bus (PCIe)

The PCI bus supports only 32 bits. The PCI standard has not been able to increase the width of the PCI bus. This has caused several bottlenecks in the development of new peripherals like 3D graphics cards. Even the AGP bus could not satisfy the need of serious gamers.  Hence, the need for faster and better bus was felt. This gave birth to the PCI –Express standard.

The PCI –Express bus is a new development and it is derived from the PCI bus. The PCI bus is a parallel connection bus, while the PCI-Express is a Serial connection bus and each device is connected to its own individual bus (called lane). PCI Express enhances the graphics capabilities of the video display. The PCI-Express is also known as the PCIe bus, and PCIe – x1, x2, x4, x6 etc and x16 are standards of PCIe bus.

The PCI – Express x16 can support two graphics cards. PCI –Express 16 is much better than the AGP bus for video rendering. The PCI – Express x16 is now mainly used in the high-end 3D video graphics cards developed by NVIDIA and ATI and is excellent for 3D texture rendering, etc, which requires large amounts of memory to function efficiently. Hence, for serious gaming needs the PCI-express x16 is the bus of choice, and it is better than the PCI and the AGP buses. Peripheral cards other than the video display using PCIe are very few as compared to the video display cards.

        

This weekend the United States will be celebrating the 4th of July which means it is time for a three day weekend.  Do you have your computer upgrades planned?  A three day weekend is a great time to complete any DIY computer upgrade projects you have been putting off.  During your weekend, you will have enough time to complete the installation and configuration while still being able to focus on other projects during the weekend.  Unless you plan on completely rebuilding your computer this weekend, completing a simple computer upgrade project will take about 15 to 30 minutes. So jump right in and upgrade something during the 4th of July weekend and you may start to believe that you have an entirely new computer.

1. Install more memory - Installing memory is one of the quickest and simplest upgrades you can perform.  The most difficult part of this project is making sure you purchase the correct memory components for your computer, but using one of the many memory selector websites will help you find the memory modules you need.  Most computer manufacturers make it easy to upgrade memory so why not take 15 minutes and install more memory. 
2. Install another hard drive - If your constantly having to remove files from your hard drive, or have several external hard drives cluttering up your work space, install a second hard drive inside your computer and liberate your desk space.  Internal hard drives are much faster then most external hard drives you plug into your USB or Firewire ports and can make organizing your computer files much easier. 
3. Speed up your life with a new CPU - If you have some time to devote to you computer and your upgrade, you should consider upgrading your CPU.  Upgrading your CPU is actually a fairly easy project as long as you follow the step-by-step instructions carefully.  You will also need to spend some time researching 
4. Replace your current monitor - OK, not really an upgrade you need to install, but the 4th of July is a great time to catch a sale at your local computer and electronics store and pick up a new larger monitor. 
5. Replace your keyboard and mouse - We have all seen reports on how dirty our keyboard and mice become.  Have you turned over your mouse lately?  This upgrade should take no time at all and make you feel like you are using an entirely new computer. Besides upgrading your memory, replacing your keyboard and mouse is really the simplest upgrade you can complete.
   

If you are anything like me, you will start the weekend with a list of plans and projects you want to complete, but once Sunday rolls around you will discover that you only got through one or two of the items.  Avoid having to return to work on Monday without any projects completed by starting off your weekend with a quick computer upgrade.  Then when everyone in the office asks what you did this weekend, you can tell them you upgraded your computer. 

        

I have this habit of constantly needing a new computer.  I have become a joke in my own family because even the five year old knows that Auntie will be buying a new computer soon and he wants my old one.  Even though my current computer is less than six months old and it is running very well with no issues, in the back of my head there is this nagging little voice that tells me I need a new computer.  I waste hours online looking at and configuring custom built computers.  My brother tells me I’m being neurotic then mentions that if I do get a new computer he could use my old one.  I need to stop this madness, I have finally decided to upgrade my computer components instead of replacing my computer. 

I can not figure out what it is about a new computer that attracts me so much.  If you really think about it when you get a new computer you spend at least one entire day doing nothing but installing and configuring software.  Upgrading your components means you avoid having to reinstall your software again and again.  Now, when the urge for new enters my head and I simply pop a new component into my computer and try to explain to the voices in my head that upgrading is better than purchasing new. 

I saw my computer in an entirely new light when I began thinking of my computer as upgradable components instead of as a unit that needed replacing.  All the issues and quirks that I use to put up with, not enough memory, a slightly underpowered CPU causing hang-ups if I opened three programs, that click, click, click sound I heard from my speakers, were all gone through a few simple upgrades.  Upgrading components gave me a new hobby and a understanding that perfect is only a new memory stick or sound card away.

If you choose to upgrade your computer it is going to save you incredible amounts of money.  I was spending at least $1,000 every year on a new computer how much are you spending?  Think about why you purchased your last new computer, did you need a larger hard drive, maybe a faster CPU, or are you like me and you simply followed your desire for new?  Upgrading instead of buying new will allows us to fix the limitations of our current computers without spending our money on components that you do not need.

Upgrading your computer will also allow you to become familiar with computer technology as well.  Even if you are not interested in becoming an expert in CPU manufacturing processes, knowing a little about computer components and technology will allow every trip to your local technology store just a little more interesting.  No longer will you be overwhelmed by the poorly trained sales person who is trying to earn a larger commission by recommending you purchase a computer that does not fit your needs.  Now you simply need to upgrade what you have to get what you need.

        

Do you remember back in the days when CRT monitors took up half of your desk space?  The big bulky CRT was a monster on my desk and when my job gave me a 17-inch CRT monitor, I thought I had won the job lottery.  The 17-inch CRT took up so much space on my desk that I had to do my paperwork on the floor.  Luckily, that job and the  days of CRT monitors are finally over.  LCD monitors have finally given me my desk back but now my problem is I want more computer windows open, and I find myself working with two monitors daily.  I can never stop fidgeting with my computer and I am not thinking that three monitors may allow me to multitask in an entirely new way.

The ViewSonic Optiquest Series (model Q20W 20-inch LCD monitor is going to fit nicely on my desk.  This high-defiinition monitor delivers crisp text and vivid colors that can handle all my computer games and still make a spreadsheet readable.  I’ve tried out many expensive monitors that showed up on my door with dead pixels and had problems with ghosting but the ViewSonic Optiquest has earned a place on my desk because it did not have any of these problems.  I have actually been living with a LCD that has several dead pixels because it was my third LCD monitor and they all had the same problem so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the ViewSonic monitor was much brighter and no dead pixels.

Overall this ViewSonic monitor boasts a full 160 degree viewing angle and an anti-glare screen.  If you have ever tried to work on a computer when the evening sun beats down into your window, you know my pain and my need for an anti-glare screen.  On the days when the sun shines in Seattle, I find it hard to work because my current monitors do not have anti-glare screens. 

I’ve saved the best for last with this monitor, the price of this 20-inch wide screen is out of this world.  LCD monitor prices have decreased tremendously in the last two years and with the ViewSonic Optiquest Q20WB I do not feel that my money is wasted.  You will want to make sure that your graphics card is able to handle a widescreen 1680x1050 display.  If you do not have a graphics card that can handle a widescreen monitor, install one today and if you really want to live it up, make sure your graphics card can handle dual monitors.  Because you will like your computer with one ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q20WB monitor and you will love your computer with two of these monitors.

The widescreen format of the ViewSonic Optiquest Q20WB may actually cause me to replace one of my original square LCD monitors without having to resort to three monitors.  The price of this monitor is so reasonable that I will not feel guilty about replacing one of my old monitors for this vast improvement.  Welcome to my desk ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q20WB, may you fill the computer desk with fabulous details and still leave enough room for a pencil and paper. 

        

The Computeris a modular equipment. You can add or remove the peripheral devices as and when you want. However, this also throws up some challenges. Each device added to the system must be configured in order that it functions properly. It must be assigned a unique IRQ, DMA and Input/ output resources.

In early days of the PC, the devices were configured manually by means of jumpers on the peripherals and inside the adapters and the motherboard. This would cause problems in assigning unique resources and overlapping of the resources would inevitably occur. Hence, adding new devices into the PC system used to be a trial and error and time consuming job for the technicians and the end-users.

Plug and Play is the technology that allows for the automatic configuration of the devices. The Plug and Play technology simplifies the task of configuring the devices connected to the computer, thus relieving the technicians and the end users from configuring the devices all by themselves. Hence, an understanding of the Plug and Play configuration technology can go a long way in making the task of those involved in repairing or assembling their computers much more easy.

The three components involved in making a system plug and play are the Pnp devices, the Pnp Bios and the Pnp operating system. We will take a look at these one by one.

Pnp Devices :

You need to fit several peripheral devices into your computer. These devices must be Plug and Play. If they are Plug and Play devices only then they will be recognized automatically by your system. Nowadays, almost all the peripheral devices you purchase are plug and play devices.

Pnp BIOS.

If you connect Pnp devices to your PC but the version of BIOS in your PC does not support Pnp, then it would be no use connecting Pnp devices. There must be a Plug and Play BIOS in the system in order to connect Plug and Play devices. The Plug and Play BIOS is required in order to initiate the Pnp devices during the POST and transfer control to the operating system.

Pnp operating system.

The windows operating system is a Plug and Play operating system. When the BIOS detects and initializes the Pnp devices  attached to your computer, the control gets transferred to the operating system. The Pnp operating system loads the device drivers needed to operate the proprietary devices.

How does the Pnp system operate?
 
The Pnp devices, the Pnp BIOS and the Pnp Operating system work in cooperation for the Pnp system. The BIOS in the PC performs certain initialization and configuration of the Pnp devices. The BIOS passes control to the Pnp Operating System transferring certain information about the devices. The Operating system identifies the different resources such as the IRQ, DMA and the I/O addresses required by the attached devices and configures the devices accordingly. The Operating system identifies each of the devices and loads the device drivers for the devices and transfers the information of the resources allocated to the device drivers.

How to manage the Plug and Play Devices?

By ‘Managing the Plug and Play Devices’ is meant the installation, updating, removal and disablement of the Plug and Play devices. The operating System such as the Windows Xp provides the necessary tools to install, update, remove and disable the Plug and Play devices.

Installing the Plug and Play devices is simple. You can just insert the adapter board into the expansion slot, connect the device to the adapter and turn on your Pc. The device gets automatically installed into your system : it gets detected automatically, the resources are assigned to the device automatically and the device driver gets installed automatically. In case your PC does not have the device driver support for your peripheral device than the operating system asks you to insert the disk provided by the manufacturer of the device. The device driver is then loaded into the PC from the disk provided by the manufacturer of the device.

Sometimes it may be necessary to update the device drivers. One such case is when the  manufacturer improves upon the existing device driver and announces an update. The procedure to update the device driver in your system is as follows :

Step 1.

In Windows Xp go to the control panel and click on the systems icon. Click on the Hardware tab. Click on the Device Manager. You will see the list of devices connected to your system. You can check to see whether the devices are being recognized and they are properly installed or not.

Step 2.

Insert the new CD in the CDROM drive containing the updated version of the device driver supplied by the manufacturer. Click on the update driver icon. This will display the dialog box to update the driver. Click next and the device driver will be updated.

During troubleshooting, it might become necessary for you to disable or remove the peripheral device from the PC, to check whether the PC runs properly when the device is disabled or removed. When you Physically remove the Plug and Play device from the PC the Pnp operating system will automatically remove the device driver and, thereby , remove the device from the system.

For disabling the peripheral device without removing the device physically follow the following procedure. Go to Control Panel. Click on the System icon. Click on the hardware tab. A list of devices attached to your system is displayed. Click on the device you wish to disable and click on properties icon in the tool bar. Click on the option to disable the device.

If you wish to assemble or troubleshoot your PC, understanding Plug and Play is very important. Plug and Play removes the uncertainties accompanying the installation, updating and disabling of devices in the PC. It makes the task of device management easy and automatic for the technicians and the end-users.

        

The inbuilt video adapters of the motherboard are not sufficient if you want to run advanced games or multimedia applications on your PC. The inbuilt video adapter is a conventional video adapter and can carry out normal functions perfectly well. But if you are looking out for realistic rendering, higher resolutions or more colors than the use of 2D or 3D accelerator video adapters becomes a necessity. The video boards disable the onboard video adapters and fit into the expansion slot of the PC. This Article deals with conventional video adapters as well as the 2D and  3D video adapters and is particularly important if you are in the process of learning how to build a computer because you may be tempted to take the cheap approach which is to go with the on board option. 

Conventional 2D video adapters.

The following is a list of conventional 2D video adapters. The display adapters went on improving and could support higher resolutions and more colors. At first available as separate cards, they were later integrated into the motherboards.

Video Standard	Resolution	Colors
MDA	8 x 24 rows
CGA	160 x 200 320 x 200 640 x 200	16 colors 4 colors 2 colors
EGA	640 x 200 x 16	Max 64 colors
PGA	640 x 480 x 256	256 colors
MCGA	320 x 200 x 256	256 colors
VGA	640 x 480 x 16	262,144 colors
Super VGA	640 x 480 x 16 1024 x 768 x 65000 640 x 480 x 16000000	256 colors 65000 colors 16 millions
X (extended) VGA	1024 x 480 640 x 480	256 65000

By using the conventional 2D video adapters higher frames rates required for graphic intensive gaming and multimedia applications of today cannot be achieved. At higher screen resolutions and use of greater amount of colors, it is not possible to achieve high frame rates without slowing down the processor. The games and multimedia applications of today are so much advanced, that even the use of PCI bus does not result in improvements of speed.

2D Video accelerator boards.

Use of the 2D Accelerator video boards can solve the above problem. The 2D Accelerator board has a small dedicated microprocessor which takes over the computation jobs and relieves the CPU of processing the data. This increases the

frame rate, without loading the CPU.

Along with the onboard dedicated processor, there is an onboard graphics co-processor which takes up the functions of specialized mathematical calculations, and allows the CPU to attend to other functions.

The 2D video accelerator boards also have onboard video Ram (VRAM). The video RAM is faster than the Dram and the EDO Ram. This can store lot of graphics data on board, thus enabling higher frame rates, resolutions and colors.

3D Video accelerator boards.

Many graphics applications of today want to display realistic scenes and create 3D effect on the 2D screen. However, the millions of calculations involved in the realistic graphics displays puts more strain on the CPU and the internal memories.

The 3D video accelerator  cards address the needs of the high-end 3D graphics applications. The 3D graphics cards  makes use of the AGP bus or the PCIe –x16 bus, which are wider and faster than the PCI bus.

In case of 3D video accelerator cards speed is the main factor as higher frame rates create realism and true-to-life atmospheres in 3D games and other 3D applications. The 3D accelerators have onboard video memory and GPU or ASIC (dedicated microprocessor chip) to achieve the higher resolutions and more amounts of colors. 3D geometry and rendering tasks are carried out by the ASIC, relieving the CPU of the task of performing the calculations. The use of higher-end buses makes possible fast operations, since the transfer of data between the adapter and the PC can take place at a faster rate.

Many of the 3D functions are incorporated as hardware functions and these tasks are performed by the graphics processor (GPU) on the 3D video accelerator card itself.  The 3D accelerator video card has support for the following :

1. Perspective corrections
2. Lighting effects
3. Texture transparency
4. Palietized textures
5. Texture mapping
6. Fogging
7. Alpha – bending
8. Gouraud shading
9. Double buffering and
10. Color dithering.

If a game or any application requires any of the above named support and the video card does not have it, the game or the application will either not run or run very slowly.

The two main companies producing 3D video cards are the NVIDIA and the ATI. The  NVIDIA  GeForce 7600 GT is older model of  3D video card produced by NVIDIA , whereas NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS is a new model. These video cards have onboard memory and GPU and provide high frame rates of around 30 FPS. The processor requires cooling and separate power supply connection. The video cards use the PCIe – x16 bus. Although the older model is good enough, the new model gives very good 3D performance and can be used for serious gaming applications.

        

I went to San Miguel de Allende for the first time about 5 years ago. It's a small town in Mexico that is popular with the American art "collectors" as well as many x-pats that end up retiring south of the boarder. The truth is, you won't find a beach in this Mexican destination, but in it's place are many great restaurants, galleries and thanks to its altitude, the weather is perfect for most of the year. Hence the attraction to the American retirees!

By now you're probably wondering why I'd be talking about Mexico on my tech blog... well, it's because I just had the opportunity to try out the open source content management system Joomla. I'm in the process of launching a website project for the town of San Miguel de Allende Mexico and instead of paying someone to code it for me, I thought I would try out the Joomla platform.

Nothing is perfect, but I have to say that I am very happy with the Joomla system. I had a simple site (without any design or branding) up and running in about four hours. And, it was much more that a static HTML page. It was really easy to add member login functionality, directory functionality, menus, and... I even found a module to load in the weather from San Miguel's 3-day forecast!

        

Are you running out of hard drive space?  Do you constantly have to shuffle files from one location to another just to make enough room for your new pictures or work files?  Sure, external hard drives are cheep and easy to connect to your computer, but an internal hard drive is just as cheep. Stop hogging your prime USB slots with external hard drives and spend a few minutes adding another internal hard drive to your computer.

Upgrading your internal hard drives is a quick and painless process and in most cases you will not need to remove your current hard drive or reinstall any software.  Consider installing a second drive to use as you would an external hard drive.  Adding a second (or third) hard drive to your computer will increase your storage space and save you from having to reinstall your software.  

The process for adding an additional hard drive to your computer is fairly straight forward.  First, buy the new hard drive, then open your computer case and plug hard drive into one of your open IDE or SCSI cables.  You may need to spend a few minutes formatting the drive or configuring your operating system to see your new drive, check your hard drive for any specific instructions you need.

If your computer is a little older, you may need to do a little research on the type of hard drive you currently have installed, some hard drives simply do not play well with others.  If you are still using a hard drive that is two or three years old, your computer will probably need a little more work before you can install a second hard drive.  

If you have an older RLL or MFM type drive you will need to replace the drive and replace your hard drive controller as well.  You can verify if you have a RLL Or MFM drive by opening up the case and looking at the label on your hard drive.  If you find you need to replace your existing drive instead of adding another drive, you should make sure you have all the software that came with your computer before  beginning your project.  

The entire replacement process will go easier if you have all the drives and software that came with your computer, but if your like me and constantly throwing out old disks, you need a copy of your current operating system at the least. Oh, and do not forget to back up your files that you want to have on your new hard drive.  There is nothing more annoying than replacing a hard drive only to discover that you forgot to make copies of your files.  

Replacement of your hard drives can be as easy as installing a second drive.  Purchase the drive, open your computer case and remove your old hard drive.  Replace any needed components and install the new hard drive.  Close up your computer case and start installing your operating systems software.

Once you have your new hard drive installed you will wonder why you lived life with so many external hard drives in your way.  And once you fill up your new drive add another, and another …