October 25, 2009

We take a break from our overclocking series this week to take a look at an important component of every computer build; the power supply unit, or PSU. While at first glance this component may seem pretty straightforward, there are actually quite a few nuances that make selecting the best power supply a little tricky. It is not enough to simply pick the one with the most power that you can afford; rather, there are some key specs that you should watch for and select based upon.

As with most components, one of the most important considerations is brand reputation. While it is possible to get a bad power supply from any manufacturer (it sometimes just happens), selecting a PSU made by a quality, well-known company with a good warranty and reputation will greatly decrease the chances of receiving a DOA unit, due to the resources they devote to quality control during the manufacturing process. Corsair by far consistently gets the best ratings and reviews, and makes some exceptional power supplies. Some other leading manufacturers include PC Power & Cooling, Antec, and OCZ. However, this doesn't mean you have to pay a ton for a quality power supply. With the abundance of sales and mail in rebates available, it is not too difficult to find an excellent PSU for a good price.

Once you have established a budget and have narrowed it down to a few good brands to look at, it is important to evaluate your needs and select the best PSU you can afford based on that. First it is necessary to decide how much power your system actually needs. An excellent PSU Calculator can be found here, or you can do an online search for a similar calculator and get a second opinion. Newegg's calculator can be found here. Select the components you have or will use for your build, and then consider giving yourself a little headroom for future upgrades. For modern computer systems, 400W - 500W will be more than adequate, unless you are planning on running multiple video cards in SLI or Crossfire configurations for gaming. If so, add 150W - 200W per video card.

There are only a few other key considerations to look at. If you are planning on running multiple video cards as mentioned above, you also need to make sure your power supply has enough cables to support it. While it is possible to use adapters in some situations to give you the extra connectors you need, it is better by far and will result in more stable power distribution to simply select a PSU that has the required number of connectors to begin with. Most video cards use the PCI-E cable (check your documentation to be sure), so you will want to ensure the PSU you select has enough of these cables to accommodate the number of video cards you plan to run. Additionally, some power supplies are SLI/Crossfire "Ready" or "Certified" and it may give you more peace of mind to select one of these if you are planning on running such a configuration.

Another important point is to ensure that there are enough amps on the main +12 Volt rail to support your system. The explanation of what that means and why is pretty technical, but what it means to you is that when you are looking at the specs for your shiny new PSU, you want to make sure you have one with a high amp rating on the +12 Volt rail. This will usually be listed in the detailed specifications of the item description. While you'll get a number of different opinions on this, in general 20 amps is a good number to shoot for, and I would be hesitant to put anything less than 18 in anything I build. Where this comes into play is with the popular multi-rail supplies which advertise 4 or more +12V rails. While this sounds great at first, when you dig deeper you usually find out that each rail is only rated at 14 amps, which can cause instability in any system and would definitely not be sufficient for your high-tech video card. Find one with a single +12V rail rated at 20 amps or more (30 to 40 amps are not hard to find). The image the right is from a Newegg product page and shows what you are looking for.

Finally, there is the debate on modular versus fixed power supplies. Modular PSU's allow you to only connect the cables you need to use, which results in a much cleaner installation and build. Fixed cable supplies don't give you this flexibility, but have less resistance and result in larger amounts of cleaner, more stable power being supplied to your system. I use fixed cable systems in all of my builds, but the choice is up to you.

If you are worried about energy efficiency it is possible to buy more efficient power supplies, including ones that are certified "80 PLUS" or more, which means they are always at least 80% efficient. Make sure the power supply you buy also has enough power cables for the number of hard drives and optical devices you plan to connect, and finally, make sure the dimensions will fit inside your chosen computer case. : )

(Images courtesy of Newegg.com.)

October 19, 2009

Now that you have the tools you need and are at least slightly familiar with what they do, we can take a closer look at where you will work your overclocking magic: your motherboard’s BIOS. The “Basic Input/Output System” of your computer is the permanent (well, sort-of*) set of instructions that your computer relies on to do anything, regardless of the hardware you plug in, the software you install, or even the operating system you are running.

(*It is possible to replace or upgrade your BIOS by a process called flashing. However, if done incorrectly you can easily render your computer inoperable, so it is highly recommended that a professional perform this procedure. In general, flashing your BIOS is not required, however, it can sometimes be necessary if your motherboard’s manufacturer releases an updated version that fixes a problem or provides improved hardware support.)

As you may have surmised, the BIOS comes pre-configured on your motherboard, and you probably weren’t even aware of it until you started learning about overclocking. It isn’t designed to require frequent interaction. However, it is what controls many of the hardware settings you are interested in for overclocking, and so you will be spending a significant amount of time there from now on.

To get into your BIOS, you will need to reboot your computer. As it is booting back up, there will be a key to press that will open it up. Usually there will be a message on the screen indicating something along the lines of “Press DEL to enter Setup.” This is what you want. If you time it just right, you only have to hit the key once, but I usually have to hit it a couple of times to get it to register and start loading the BIOS, which is usually indicated by a message along the lines of “Entering Setup.” As every motherboard and BIOS is slightly different, you’ll have to figure out what key you need to press. It may be Delete, or it may be an F-something Function key.

Once you have entered setup, you should see a screen something like this. Like I mentioned, every motherboard is a bit different, but they follow the same principles. What you are looking for are the advanced setup options for your CPU that allow you to set the Clock Speed or Ratio. There are a lot of other settings you can tweak in here, and messing with them has the potential to cause your computer to crash, or even cause physical damage to your CPU or motherboard. For now, tab through the different sections in your BIOS and get familiar with what is there and where everything is. If you don’t see any settings you can change for your CPU, then chances are your motherboard will not support overclocking. This will be the case for older motherboards, and any that are OEM, or original equipment that came with a store-bought PC such as a Gateway or Dell. Also, if you’re trying to overclock your laptop, chances are it won’t support it.

Next time we will have a look at the key settings you will be changing, and what they each do, as well as an overview of the process. Until then, another thing that would greatly improve your understanding and ability is to read the manual that came with your motherboard. Generally, most newer motherboards have excellent overclocking support, and the manual will tell you what each of the settings do. Understanding this will help you know how the instructions given here translate you your particular motherboard and BIOS.

(Image courtesy of Thomas Soderstrom at Tom’s Hardware.)

October 5, 2009

Continuing our series on overclocking, today we have a quick rundown of the software utilities you’ll need to be familiar with. Before you even start messing around with anything in your BIOS, you will want to make sure you have these tools ready to go.

First of all, you’ll want to download Core Temp here.

Get the latest version (as of this posting 0.99.5) in either 32-bit or 64-bit depending on your setup. This simple tool is vital to making sure you don’t toast your processor, and also provides some other key information such as voltage and processor frequency. It will look like the screenshot on the right when run, and provides separate temperature information for each of your cores if you have a multi-core processor.

(BONUS TIP: If you have one core that is significantly (i.e. more than a few degrees) hotter than the rest all the time, you probably didn’t put your thermal compound and/or heatsink/fan on correctly. Remove both and try again, being sure to seat your cooler properly.)

Secondly, grab CPU-Z from our friends at CPUID.

This handy tool provides more in-depth information than Core Temp, and also lets you check such other vitals as your memory speeds and settings. It is also available in both x86 and x64 flavors, and looks like this:


While you’re visiting cpuid.com, grab HWMonitor as well.

This provides much more in-depth information about all of your systems operating temperatures and voltages, including min and max values for as long as the program is running. This is vital for when you are stress testing your processor and want to see the maximum temperature reached, not just the current temp. It also provides temperatures for your video cards and hard drives which can help you determine if you have adequate ventilation in your case. HWMonitor looks like this:


Finally, head on over to mersenne.org to download Prime95.

No, you’re not going to be calculation Mersenne Prime Numbers (although you can if you want). Instead, you’ll be using the “Torture Test” capabilities of this program to stress your overclocked CPU and ensure stability at acceptable operating temperatures. The most recent version (v25.9, March 2009) looks like the screenshot to the left when run. On the website, just skip down to Step 3 and grab the utility, and make sure you get the 64-bit version off to the right if you’re running an x64 system.

Well, that’s it for now! Download these tools and have them easily accessible, and you’ll be ready to start tweaking your BIOS settings and sending your CPU into warp! As part of the continuation of this series, we’ll cover these tools and how to use them in more detail later.

(Images courtesy of MyPCReborn.com.)

September 28, 2009

Anybody who gets into system building will soon enough hear the term “Overclocking” tossed around left and right. As such, it helps to have at least a basic understanding of what this is, and how to go about it if you wish.

Simply put, overclocking is increasing the speed of one or more of your core computer components (usually your CPU) to achieve greater performance. In so doing, you can breathe new life into an older system and bring it more up to date, or get cutting edge performance from second- or third-tier products. While the most commonly overclocked component is the CPU, you can also overclock your RAM, and even most modern video cards.

However, overclocking isn’t without it’s downside as well. In order to keep your overclocked components stable so your system won’t crash, you have to increase the voltage to them, which increases the heat and rapidly speeds up chip wear. A drastically overclocked CPU, for example, will only last a fraction of the lifetime of a stock chip. Additionally, you have to ensure adequate cooling of the overclocked component, or you can very easily melt what you’re trying to speed up. Additionally, overclocking will most likely void your factory warranty, meaning you can be out a significant amount of money if you do end up turning your chip into slag.

Still, if after all that you are interested in giving it a try, the process is fairly simply though time-consuming. To overclock a CPU or your RAM you will need a fairly new motherboard with advanced BIOS controls so you can tweak the required settings. You then have to find the proper voltage to support your desired clock speed, keeping it as low as possible so the chip stays cool, but high enough that your system doesn’t crash. The most important (and time-consuming) part of the process, however, is testing. You need to stress test your system for hours at your chosen settings to ensure stability, tweak the settings, then test some more.

A more in-depth guide to overclocking your CPU will come later, as well as detailed instructions on how to test your setup. In the meantime, The Tech Report has a great guide for the whole process here.

Additionally, Benchmarkreviews.com, a dedicated overclocking enthusiast site, has another beginners guidehere.

September 21, 2009

Another popular upgrade due to its ease and low-cost is replacing your existing hard drive with a higher-capacity drive. Unlike the memory your computer uses while processing requests (RAM), the memory on your hard drive is where you can store all of your files. Having a larger hard drive (or Hard Disk Drive, HDD), allows you to store more documents, music, movies, photos, or anything else you need, and can also give your computer a slight performance boost. To determine if you need a new, larger hard drive, double-click on your My Computer icon, then right-click on your C-Drive. Select "Properties" from the list that appears, and check out the graph showing your drive usage. The more blue you have, the more full your drive is. If you have less than about 25% left on your current drive, it is probably time to start thinking of an upgrade.

The most common sizes for hard drives these days are 80GB, 320 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB (equals 1,000 GB), and now they even have 1.5 or 2 TB drives! The capacity of your current drive and the things you use your computer for will help you determine a good size for your upgrade. If you save a lot of pictures, movies, or music for example, you might benefit from buying a large hard drive now that you can slowly fill up. You tend to get more memory for your money when you buy a larger drive, but there's no need to buy a huge drive you don't think you'll ever fill up.

While you can still find slower IDE drives, the standard these days is SATA. These plug into your motherboard with a cable like this (top), to sockets like this (middle), and then receive power from your power supply via a plug like this (bottom). Increasingly common these days are a new type of drive called "solid-state." Whereas traditional drives use spinning plates to access and store data, the new solid-state disks have no moving parts and access the information much like a thumb drive or data stick. This increases the durability of the drive and makes it less likely that the drive will fail under normal usage, and also delivers much faster data access. However, you will more than pay for these advantages if you purchase a solid-state disk, as they are considerably more expensive than their traditional counterparts.

Installation of your new drive is straightforward. A few screws will secure it in the drive bay and then it is simply plugged into the motherboard and power supply (Make sure the power supply is switched off and unplugged first!). If you don't have the space to install a second drive and are completely replacing your old drive, you will need to back up all of your data first, and then completely reinstall Windows onto your new drive.

While replacing or upgrading your hard drive is a fairly straightforward procedure, it is always best to have a trained professional help you out. Feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance.

(HDD image courtesy of Asim18. SATA connector image used under the GNU Free Documentation License. SATA ports image used courtesy of Rudra. SATA power cable image courtesy of Ed_g2s.)

Foremost among these innovations is the elimination of the front-side bus and the integration of the memory controller on-board. This allows for bandwidth rates up to 38.4 GB/s using three channels at 1600 MHz, compared to 12.8 GB/s on a Core 2 with a 1600 MHz FSB. These chips also boast improved performance when handling multi-threaded applications, using such technologies as Intel's TurboBoost and Hyper-Threading.

Is it worth trading in your Core 2 Quad for the latest processors? Probably not. However, the advances made with these chips are impressive enough that they are probably worth the extra money when it comes time to upgrade again.

The folks over at Tom's Hardware have an excellent in-depth review and analysis (with benchmarks) for the Core i5 and i7 brands. Read it here. And TechReport.com breaks the new tech down quite well for those of us without Doctorates in Electrical Engineering. Here.

Here are Intel's official pages:
Core i7
Core i5

And you can always count on Newegg for all of your shopping needs.

(Image courtesy of Intel.)

September 7, 2009

Perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective upgrade you can do is to increase the amount of memory in your computer. Known more precisely by geeks as RAM (Random Access Memory), this type of memory is not to be confused with your hard drive, which is memory you use to store files. RAM can be thought of as "short-term" memory, which your computer uses to quickly access the files you are using at the moment, while you're hard drive is slower, "long-term" memory used for storage. Having more RAM improves your computer's performance by allowing the processor fast access to more data at one time. You will notice a greater benefit if you frequently perform memory intensive tasks such as video and audio encoding or photo editing, if you multitask a lot and have many different applications open at the same time, or if you like to play the latest games with all of the graphic settings on high.

To determine if you would benefit from more RAM, open Task Manager in Windows (press Ctrl, Alt, and Del at the same time), go to the Performance tab, and look down just below the graphs on the right side for "Physical Memory." The top number is the total amount of memory currently installed, and the second is how much is available. If you don't have much available, you might want to consider getting some more. Another way to tell is by looking at the second graph on this tab "Page File Usage History." If it is showing maxed out most of the time, having more memory might help improve your computer's performance. A more in-depth discussion of the page file and ways to tweak it to improve performance can be found here.

There are currently a few different types of RAM depending on the type of motherboard and processor you have, more common among these include: DDR, DDR2, and DDR3. DDR2 is likely the most common in use today, with DDR being mostly outdated and DDR3 the newest technology available. To determine what type of memory (and how much of it), your computer supports, go to http://www.crucial.com/ and use their free scan or advisor tool. Then you can simply purchase the correct memory from Crucial directly (an excellent memory manufacturer), or search for a deal on the right type of memory module(s) armed with your new knowledge.

Installation of the memory modules is relatively straightforward. Crack your case (of course, your computer should be off) and ground yourself (touch something metal not inside your computer). Find the memory slots which should look something like the picture to the right. The slots open by push the the tabs down and away from the memory, which will also push any installed memory up and out slightly. Remove any installed modules if necessary, then use some compressed air to blow any dust out of the slots. Being careful not to touch the gold contacts on the memory you are installing, gently push the new memory into place. Turn your computer back on and then right-click on My Computer. Select "Properties" and then look at the bottom of the information box that pops open. It should show the newly installed memory. Congratulations, you did it!

PC World has a great overview of the entire process as well as some additional information here.

Newegg.com is a great place to shop for RAM, or anything else for that matter!

(Corsair memory image used courtesy of Victorrocha and the GNU Free Documentation License. DIMM slot image is public domain.)