PC Forensic - Your PC Hardware & Software Source

Internet Cafe's Common Mistake

2008-07-16T09:50:00.007+08:00

I found that many visitor find this humble blog using keyword "How to setup a cyber cafe". Indeed, this blog has that post. So, to further the discussion under that particular subject, i present you a several internet cafe's owner common mistake did or still doing it when they run cyber cafe.

Computer Crash

This is the major main problem. It will make you customer go away. It is really frustating if the computer they use got crash. They have to wait to the computer reboot or will move to another sit and use another computer. Then, how will you assure the customer the computer at you cyber cafe will not crash again and again? You will loose them soon.

The thing is you must use brand computer such as Dell, Compaq and etc. If you have little budget, built your own pc. Use branded items like Intel's Processor, Abit Motherboard and so on. Try get the best product. Dont use the cheap or non branded one. After you got better computer, install Windows XP with latest update. Make sure your use original windows because the "pirate windows" will make you computer hang.

Slow Computer

This is another common mistake . Slow computer. With this problem you might loose your customer too. When computer become slow, you cant install up-to-date software and games. Many latest software and games use high performance computer. Although you cannot buy power computer but dont either buy slow computer. Try to find middle performance computer.

Smoke

Do not allow smoking in your internet cafe. Smoking will only attract few customers, but avoid more customers. As always, smokers can get into non-smoker area, but non-smoker cannot. So we should choose the bigger number of customers. In the other hand, smoking will cause your internet cafe stinky and dusty.

Not Enough Computers

The number of computers also has major impact in your business performance. Imagine if your internet cafe is always 100% full. Customers have to wait for their turn. Of course, you will think this is a good sign for your business. But unfortunately, this sign will only bring your business down. In the future, people will always thinking your internet cafe is full so they will avoid you internet cafe and go to your competitors' internet cafes. So, to solve this problem, you must make sure your internet cafe is always ready for more customer. Your customer will be very happy if there is always available PC for them when they come.

Employee Problem

If you have only 10 units of PCs, manage the internet cafe yourself. You will not able to pay your employee. If you got 20 and above unit of PCs then this is the right number to get a worker to manage your internet cafe. You cannot handle it by yourself. Employee also can bring your business up or down, so you must be very choosy. Some of them may cheat the amount of money paid by the customers and give their friends to use the computer free of charge. The best solution for managing your employee is by using the best internet cafe management software. The software must be able to log activity of the employee and be able to detect any suspicious activity by the logged data.

Bad Maintenance

Keyboard and mouse are the most important hardwares for your customers. Think. These two hardwares are the only hardwares interact with your customers. Bad maintenance keyboard or mouse will only make your customer use it for five minutes and then run away. They want the best for what they touch and hold. A higher budget for keyboards and mouses is needed to make sure your customers' satisfaction.

As a conclusion, you can make sure you are leading the competition if you try your best to avoid those mistakes

Referrence: Cybercafe-Info

The Proper Disk Partitioning

2008-04-22T22:47:00.002+08:00

Page 3

The other effective way to disk partitioning is, when setup Windows XP or Vista. You can delete partition, create a new partition and configure the sizes as you desired.

Conclusion

Disk partitioning is really important especially to backup your files to the other drive letter. Whenever your computer infected by a virus, you can reinstall Windows XP or Vista while retaining your important datas and files.

When you know how to use disk partitions, you can use it to optimize your computer with minimal times of disk defragmentation.

Thank you for your time reading this article. When your computer is infected with a virus, do you still wanted to reinstall Windows, drivers, programs and games? Surely not, how about a nice backup software? Let me guide you on how to complete backup your Windows, the powerful way.

The Proper Disk Partitioning

2008-04-22T11:55:00.018+08:00

Page 2

First Method to partitioning and formatting your harddisk drive.

There are many ways and utilities to make partitions for your harddisk drive. For making partitions, I personally recommend you to use the Administrative Tools in Windows XP. Click at start, point at settings, click at control panel, then choose Administrative Tools. Under Administrative Tools, choose Computer Management. Choose Disk Management.

With this tool, you can view your current harddisk partitions. You cannot format or delete your C: partition. You can create, delete, change drive letters and format the other partitions.

Be careful!! Don't delete or format partition now!! You'll lose all data on the drive!! Backup your folders and files in a pen drive or CD/DVD-Rs.

I recommend you to practise using blank pen drive or USB harddisk or connect a new harddisk to experiment with this tool.

Partition Optimization

Now, I'll tell you why we need at least 3 partitions. Connect a new or blank USB harddisk or pen drive for experimental use. Right click on new drive as shown on below picture.

Delete the old partition. Then create a new Primary partition below 10 Gb in size. This partition is for your OS like Windows XP or Vista and your Programs. "Why below 10Gb?" You can use your way for primary but I recommend below 10Gb for faster Windows and system files performance. The smaller partition, the faster data search. "10Gb is way too big!" You need to reserve spaces for temporary files for installations, or temporary burning files(CD/DVD burner/Nero) as it will save in drive C: by default.

Now, create an extended for the rest of the space. Once you created an extended partition, create a logical drive. Create as many as your desire but for the last logical drive, create a small partition below 3Gb. This is for Page File partition.

Page file is a virtual memory RAM created by Windows or other OS.

By default, Windows will create a pagefile.sys in C: drive. This file is a virtual memory file and it is used whenever Windows needs an extra memory for certain programs that is using large amount of memory like games or 3d graphic editing software. This file is frequently used so, I recommend you to put it on another partition.

Let me explain a little about page file and disk defragmentation. The page file created by Windows can adjust its size itself depending on it program you used. This can reduce harddisk performance and you have to defrag your C: drive frequently. Unless you adjust it permanently to 1.5Gb, 2Gb or so more. Or even better, in different partition.

Configure your Pagefile

Right click on My Computer icon, choose properties. Then choose Advanced tab. Click at Settings in Performance tab.

In the performance options, click at the change button inside Virtual memory tab.

Here you can see your virtual memory is in drive C: Choose C: drive, click at No Paging File. Then, create a custom size in your desired drive like picture shown below. After finished, click set and restart your PC to save changes.

Lets continue to page 3

The Proper Disk Partitioning

2008-04-22T10:21:00.023+08:00

Introduction

The proper ways.. I've seen many sites that provides ways on how to format your harddisk drive. And I've seen many people is having trouble with harddisk detection, viruses and unkillable spywares! I'll post later on harddisk troubleshooting guide, but now I'll write about the proper ways on disk partitioning.

The NTFS, FAT32 and FAT partition

"Why do I have do disk partitioning on my harddisk properly?" The reason is compatibility and speed. Have you ever think about why NTFS, FAT32 and FAT exists? Those type of partition has its different structure, file allocation size and several optimization for file systems. For Windows NT, 2000,XP and vista, we'll use the NTFS partition for its compatibility to the OS and system files. For Windows 95, 98 and ME, we'll use the FAT32 partition. FAT is for MS-DOS 6.22 or older, and the Windows 3.x series. For more information on these file systems, checkout Wikipedia.

Criteria and tips for partitioning harddisk

The NTFS supports longer filename and more allocation unit size for because harddisk nowadays spins like wow! a minimum of 7200 rpm, and a large size of cache e.g 8Mb,16Mb, etc. So, the NTFS is built for these purpose. I'm still using FAT32 for my Windows XP because my harddisk has a capacity of 20Gb and only 2Mb cache. Enough saying about those partitions, now i'll tell you the proper ways to partitioning and optimization.

I personally recommend NTFS partition for new harddisks for compatibility and speed. Then, devide it by at least 3 partitions. Why at least 3 partitions? Take a look at picture below.

This is my current harddisk partition configuration.

The C: partition is the 'Primary' partition. The D: and the E: drive is my 'Extended' partition. The Primary partition is used for system files e.g. command.com, msdos.sys etc. and OS like Windows XP, Vista etc. The Extended partition is used for other datas like Mp3s, Documents, Videos or any other types of files.

I've seen many people only using one partition for their harddisk. Imagine like 80Gb harddisk only one partition! Even its properly managed in folders, what if one day the primary partition infected with a viruses or spywares? The best way is to format your harddisk. But the best could be worse! We'll lose all files! Ouch. Can we format partition halfway? No.

On page 2 I'll tell you a simple partitioning guide to prevent loss of data, and also smart ways to improve your disk performance. Lets continue to page 2.

How To Setup a Cyber Cafe - Page 4

2008-04-16T22:02:00.003+08:00

Finishing Setup - The Final Touch

Everything is set up for your newly made carrier. The Cyber Cafe business. Woo hoo! Cool! Ok now, before you start your business, make a test run for your Cyber Cafe. Call your friends, brothas', sisters or even your daddy to come for free test play! Test your Online games, test your multiplayer game, lighting, test everything! The more problems you encounter, the better first opening day business will be! Fix every problems during your test run day.

There are many things that you've done with your shop. Love your shop. Give your finest touch for your shop. Give distance Reiki to bring out negative buffs in your shop. Lastly, prepare for the grand opening day. Thats all folks. Good Luck!

Conclusion

Opening a Cyber Cafe requires quite a lot of investment. Preferrably 20 PCs or above is a good kick start to run a Cyber Cafe business.

However, if you are experienced Cyber Cafe businessman, you could do only Internet and office work Cyber Cafe. By maximizing the use of Internet connection, you can encourage people by advertising to download via Ares to download MP3, MTVs, errmm... warez... hehe.. and games too! Many people nowadays using those neat mobile phones that can run Mp3 song files and other shiny things like Mp4s and Java Games. Teach them! Guide them! Encourage them to download from one and only speedy Cyber Cafe. Your shop of course!

Do a routine check on viruses, spyware and make sure your PCs in top condition. Clean your PCs so people will come and love your Cyber Cafe.

Thank you for spending time reading this guide. I hope this guide will help you to start or manage a Cyber Cafe business. Good Luck and Enjoy!

How To Setup a Cyber Cafe - Page 3

2008-04-16T16:48:00.011+08:00

Putting It All Together

Assuming that you have the SSM(Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) registered, your license have been approved by Majlis Daerah or Majlis Perbandaran(Malaysia), its time to put it all together.

Color theme for your shop.

I recommend you to use color theme which you've learned in secondary school. In my opinion, warm colors like orange, red, yellow and white is suitable for Cyber Cafes. The above Cyber Cafe uses a nice warm color theme. The carpet is green like orange, the wall is dark orange, the desk is bright white and yellow. Nice eh? Put on posters on the blank wall. Well, if you want..

Placements

For starters, I recommend you to place all your PCs one row near the wall as seen on the above picture. This way, you can hide away your messy wire especially network cables.

Your network switch is preferably to place it near the cashier table. This is because if you can't connect to certain PC or problems with the network, you can always check the blinking light on the network switch. Also, if you don't have the case protecting for your network switch, its better to secure the network switch near you. You can hide messy network cables this way too ^_^.

It is better for the cashier's desk is placed near the door. Its easy to monitor all people who went in and out. And most importantly, your customers wont run out easily without paying ^_^. As a service counter too, you should be placed in front too right?

For Aircond air flow, it is important for you to place it in a high place. The cold air goes down and the hot air goes up. Place it above the entrance door or other suitable places. Remember! Fan+aircond doesn't goes well.

Ok, now lets setup up the PCs and the Server.

The PC's system and software

You may want to check out these article on "How to build your own PC","How to setup a Computer Network" and "Simple Tweak for Your PC and Maintenance" before you continue.

After setting up your PC and Network, its time to put on the juice in your PCs. The software. Here is the list of a good software and games for Cyber Cafe.

Computer Maintenance
Acronis True Image - Check out this software. "Acronis True Image. The Guide"
Avira Antivirus(free)
Matrix Screen Locker (only for server)
Spyware Terminator (scan only)
Norton Utilities (Not Antivirus ok?)

Softwares
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Java Runtime - Many websites nowadays needs Java Runtime to run its script
Latest DirectX 9
Winamp
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Izarc - File compression/decompression freeware

Multiplayer PC Games
Counter Strike
Half Life 1 & 2
Halo
Battle Realms
Street Racing Syndicate
Unreal Tournament
Warcraft - The Frozen Throne
FIFA 2008
Worms World Party
Command & Conquer - Zero Hour

Online Games
Ragnarok Online with EuphRO 332 rate & Trinity add-ons(free Ragnarok Online)
World Of Warcraft Online
Ran Online
Tales Of Pirates Online
Mo Siang Online

Issue about Internet Browser

On first use, Install the Flash Player or youtube will be malfunction. Some of government website requires Internet Explorer browser. Eww..

The Server

You can use either Win9x or WinXP for server. But for many reasons and stability, use Windows XP and upgrade your Pentium 2 PC with at least 256MB of RAM(memory). Install the Server software and then install the client on each PC in your Cyber Cafe. You need to insert the IP address for each PC. I'll write a guide about ecafepro later.

Continue to Page 4

How to Setup a Cyber Cafe - Page 2

2008-04-16T12:23:00.014+08:00

Criteria for choosing the right PCs.

With RM 6370 budget, you can choose to buy a new PCs, recondition PCs or second hand PCs. The main question here, what type of services do you want to offer? What do you want your PCs capable of? The Office work and Internet type PCs are the cheapest around, the gamer PCs would cost a lot(for more details, you can read through my 'How to build your own PC' guide). Now we have small amount of budget. The best option here is the office work and Internet PCs. Ha!
A little story of my Cyber Cafe: In my experience, I'm doing a game, Internet, Office work, CD-writing(self service), scanning, custom made PCs and PC sale. I'm focusing only computer type of service to minimize my margin cost. Most of my profits comes from multiplayer games compared to the others. A constant of RM 80-100 a day with only 2-5 hours peak time that is, 2pm - 7pm, RM 2 per hour. Imagine if my location is in town. With only 12 PCs how much profits my PCs could generate? In towns, the peak time would be 2.30pm - 7pm, then 8pm - 1am(I'm not allowed to open at this hour :( .

The main point is, MULTIPLAYER AND ONLINE RPG GAME IS THE BEST FOR CYBER CAFE for starters. The best multiplayer around is still, Counter Strike, Serious Sam, Warcraft 3 DOTA and of course, Half Life. Those games requires a minimum of 256MB RAM PC, Pentium 4 for Warcraft 3, and a nice cheapest but best around graphic card of ATI Radeon 9250.

Let me make this straight. The best multiplayer online game such as Ragnarok Online, Ran Online, Half Life, Counter Strike and many more requires a minimal Gaming PCs. Lets try to calculate a NEW PCs specification for these type of PCs.

This price is based on latest PCZone on Low Yatt Plaza. You can download the PDF version of this price list here.

Processor - Intel Celeron 420 RM 120
Mainboard - ABIT L-N73V RM 185
Memory - Kingston PC 6400 DDR2 PC 800 1GB RM 70
Storage - Seagate ST380811AS 80GB SATA 8MB RM 125
Keyboard + Mouse Combo RM 35
Case + Power Supply RM 100
Recon 17" Monitor RM 150

One DLink 24 Port Switch RM 190

Total of RM 785 Per PC. We don't need a CD or DVD on each PC right? LCD Monitors would costs much. Now, with RM 6370, we can get 7 PCs for your Cyber Cafe woohoo! Those PCs capable of office works, Internet, and good game performer. With integrated nVidia 7 graphics, you can play even a Need For Speed Most Wanted or Carbon with these PCs. 80GB storage is more than enough for gaming. The DDR2 PC 800 is taking maximum advantage to its processor's FSB that is, Celeron with with 800 FSB.

Recommended Upgrade with PC this configuration:
You can use a Core 2 Duo or Quad Core with this mainboard. Use 2 stick of 800 memory to channel those memory to use a dual channel technology. There is an expansion slot for PCIe graphic card.

Now, you have balance of RM 685. Buy a Pentium 2 recondition PC worth about RM 350 and plastic chairs for your customers. Hehe..

Conclusion on PC Criteria

It is important to choose the best value for your budget PCs. As said by 'Meepo', one of the Warcraft 3 DOTA hero, "Devide We Stand!". Multiple PCs will generate more profits. This is sample of RM 10,000 budget. What if RM 20,000 or 30,000?

The Server

Use an old PC, recondition PC, gaming PC if you have a good budget or even a Pentium 2 PC to run the eCafepro server software.

Financial Plan & Marketing Strategy

Advertising

Fliers? or Newspaper? ha! Just kidding. If your Cyber Cafe is only for Internet or office works, its better to put a partition on each PCs. Play Mp3 with a nice Altec Lansing speaker, dim lighting in the room and get a color theme for the Cyber Cafe room like above picture. This type of Cyber Cafe needs to be beautiful and a nice smell for maximum surfing or working experience. Its really important for those who are concentrating on reading and writing. ^_^.

2. Game type do need dim lighting, beautiful environment and nice smell too ^_^. This type of Cyber Cafe don't need partition. Don't even think about partitions between PCs! Its because, when experienced game player is playing a game, other people will get excited and will try to learn and play that game! Free advertisement I say. Place your PCs in two row or more. Not circle. It will be noisy, fun, and exciting environment.

The only advertisements we need is other services like CD Writing Service, Printing, Scanning and others. Place the advertisements on the wall behind the cashier's position or on the cashier's table. Posters of PC games is good for blank space of walls.

Managing Profits

1. The eCafepro offers a summary of monthly, daily and each PCs profits. You can analyze it yourself. Many of Malaysians make a loan from bank to start a business. The basic cost of your Cyber Cafe is electricity bill + Internet bill + shop rental. My average profits for the month for example, total of 10 PCs.

Monday - Friday RM 85
Saturday & Sunday RM 150
Monthly = Monday to Friday x 5 x 4 + Saturday & Sunday x 2 x 4 = RM 1700 + 1200
Total of RM 2900

Electricity RM 200
Internet bill RM 77
Shop rental RM 150 ( hehe.. peace man..)
Bank Loan nil

Total profits RM 2900 - (200+77+150) = RM 2473

With total of 10 PCs, 5 hours of peak time on Monday - Friday, 10 hours on Saturday & Sunday. This is rough calculation and only 10 PCs. For towns, get at least 20 PCs ok? Because shop rental in towns maybe like RM 1000 above. But! Towns offers you more business opportunities like more peak hours! and they are mostly PC educated. No... problems..

Continue to Page 3

How to Setup a Cyber Cafe

2008-04-15T20:38:00.012+08:00

Introduction

Many people asked me "How to run or do a Cyber Cafe business?". Today, I'm going to write on "How to Setup a Cyber Cafe". In this article I will tell you about almost anything on how to start a Cyber Cafe business. Running a Cyber Cafe is fun and enjoyable job.

The First Big Step

Opening up your own business can bring up benefits:-

1. Freedom!
2. Flexible working hours
3. More carrier opportunities
4. Many of your dreams could come true, e.g. BMW M5 hehe..

Decision

So.. you've make a decision. You have to make a Cyber Cafe business. But before you do this! Please follow this checklist to get started, then write it down the answers on a piece of paper.

1. Examine yourself. Your personal self. Why do you want to start a business?
2. Consider your work habits especially working hours. Business services like Cyber Cafes has peak time and downtime. Do you prefer working in the morning, evening, or even 24 hours?
3. Why people would go to your Cyber Cafe? What kind of audience do you target? List down your service that you'll offer in your Cyber Cafe and what type of Cyber Cafe that everyone love?
4. List down a potential suppliers around you. The electricity, Computer hardwares, Air cond, everything!
5. Financial plan. How much profit do you need to stay afloat?

As most people already know, starting a business will take a lot of efforts, investment, courage and a pure interests about what business you gonna do. Number one priority is, plan your business well. In this case, I will tell you how to plan your Cyber Cafe business.

Plan Your Business.

Location! Location! Location! This is really important for Cyber Cafe business. I'm running a Cyber Cafe for villagers! Yes its funny but its true. I'm not going to tell you how I'm running a Cyber Cafe business in a village here lol. Of course its really hard but villagers needs to be educate too right? With the right method, I'm really sure that this business will flow smoothly with good income. A good location for Cyber Cafe is where people living around there know how to use your product, which is in this case, computers. With little or no explaination, they can use your computer and understand if something goes wrong with the computers. Towns are targeted for Cyber Cafes. Even parents in towns will give permission for their kids to play with computers nowadays. Well, mostly. The point is minimize the problems as much as you could! Choose your destiny on that location, either to educate, entertain or both.

Plan Your Business - Budget sample for smallest RM 10.000 business for Cyber Cafe.

Let's say you only have RM 10.000 to start a Cyber Cafe business. Wow RM 10.000!? This is a really small budget to start a Cyber Cafe business. To start a Cyber Cafe business, the most important thing is the location. The second is what type of your computer and services that you'll offer in your Cyber Cafe. So now you have RM 10.000. With small budget, get a small shop that can support up to only 10 PCs and you can rent it about RM 150-250 per month. Minimum deposit with that shop will be about RM 500. The format for Malaysian Cyber Cafe is bright entrance, preferably white glass. White front aluminium glass door costs about RM 400. SSM(Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) now is about RM 70.00 for business registration, the license for the shop is about RM 250.00 and lastly two fire extinguisher( one for front door, one for back door. This is needed for shop license). Combined all budget now at least RM 1300.00

Wiring

Do we need a wiring for this shop? The bigger wire can support stable electricity, thus prevent it from being burnt. We'll only use an extension plug here because we have small budget PC that will use minimal power on each PCs. We'll use a Pentium 4 PC for this type of Cyber Cafe. Wiring cost is about RM 25 x 4 = RM 100.00.

I recommend you to modify a bit on the main fuse of electricity in all shops that requires power like Cyber Cafe shops. Get a fuse of 60 amp per fuse so it can support more stable electricity.

The table

We'll need only one table or two for cashier. One big table with lock for money and server PC or one table for server PC and one table for money. Two table costs about RM 140. For workstation PCs, we'll use two thickest plywood, drilled with L shaped metal or steel. This cuts a lot of money compared to workstations on each desk or table. Each 3 feet desk costs about RM 75. Two plywood costs only about RM 190 for all PCs. L shaped steel costs about RM 100. Budget for the tables is RM 140 + 190 + 100 = RM 430

The Air Flow

We'll need only one horsepower Aircond here. A new Air Cond cost about RM 800.

The Internet

The heart of Cyber Cafe. In Malaysia we have ADSL broadband service called Streamyx. This service needs a telephone line to connect to the Internet. Telephone line registration for Malaysian shops is RM 400. The Streamyx package for the fastest Internet experience now is 4MB cost RM 268 per month. First time registration will be about RM 400 + (268 x 2 + activation cost) Its about RM 1000.

Combine all budget is about RM 430 + 100 + 1300 + 800 + 1000= RM 3630

RM 10.000 - 3630 = RM 6370

What type of PCs we can do with RM 6370? Lol! Only 2 PCs running in Cyber Cafe?? How cool! :p

Ok now, the most important part is choosing the right juice for your Cyber Cafe shop. With this small budget what type of service will you offer in this Cyber Cafe?

Continue to Page 2

How to Repair an Optical Drives

2008-04-09T14:59:00.005+08:00

Today i am going to write a simple guide on how to repair CD/DVD-ROM drives.

This method can be used for CD, CD-RW and DVD drives or any other optical drives. Firstly, you have detect or diagnose an optical drive problems.

These are some diagnose from symptoms and solutions caused by optical drives.

Common Symptoms and Solutions

I cannot access the drive and the light does not go on

Check that the power and controller cables are securely attached to the drive.
Verify that pin #1 of the controller cable is matched to pin #1 on the drive and on the motherboard.
The operating system may not be configured to use or "see" the drive.
If it never worked, verify that the jumpers on the drive are set correctly.

I cannot access the drive but the light does go on

The CD may be damaged or unreadable.
Try removing and reinserting the disk.
Try cleaning the CD.
Verify that pin #1 of the controller cable is matched to pin #1 on the drive and on the motherboard.
If it never worked, verify that the jumpers on the drive are set correctly.

The drive drawer will not open

Press the button once and wait at least a minute.
In Windows, go to "My Computer", right click on the CD-ROM drive and choose "Eject" from the menu.
With the computer unplugged, you can open most CD-ROM drawers with a unwound paper clip. Poke it, as straight as possible, into the hole and push with moderate force (the paper clip may bend a little) to force the drawer open a half inch. Now pull the drawer the rest of the way open.
If the problem persists, check that the power connector and controller cable are securely connected to the drive.
A CD may be jammed or broken inside the drive. Access may require the removal of the drive's outer case. If this is necessary, it is very likely that the drive will have to be replaced.

I hear it spinning and then stopping repeatedly

The CD may be damaged or unreadable.
Try removing and reinserting the disk.
Try cleaning the CD.
Verify that pin #1 of the controller cable is matched to pin #1 on the drive and on the motherboard.
If it never worked, verify that the jumpers on the drive are set correctly.

The drive seems to transfer data too slow

Is the drive on the same controller cable as the primary hard drive? If so, performance will be slowed because only one device can communicate at a time. Move it to the second IDE controller

Conclusion

There are times when our PC hardware at the end of its life hehe.. sometimes.. especially optical drives, floppy drive and hard disk. In my opinion, these are 3 devices that easily broken due to frequent use.

My advice is:

1. If you're using CD/DVD for playing PC games, backup your CD and make an Image of the CD/DVD. You can create an ISO image of your CD/DVD with a free burner called DeepBurner. Click to download DeepBurner. Then, use Daemon-Tools to mount or unmount CD/DVD. Click here to download daemon tools.

2. Don't put your PC in a dusty environment. Dust could kill your optical devices such as optical mouse and optical drives.

I hope this guide will help you. Good Luck!

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 8

2008-04-09T14:57:00.001+08:00

The Floppy Disk

What do i have to say about this thing? Hmm.. this thing still exist to make a boot disk.

You need a FDD to access floppy disks. Although floppy disks are limited in capacity, only 1.44 mb, every old PC is almost guaranteed to have a FDD. Floppy disk drives and now coming the end of their life span as some current PCs are built without a floppy drive. This is due to the popularity of USB Flash drives.

Criteria for choosing floppy disk

It really does not matter which one of FDD you purchase as they are cheap and performs the same task.

Conclusion

Even CDs and DVDs are bootable now. Don't buy this if you're not going to take any advantage from this device ^_^.

Thats almost all of the basic devices for PC. Ok now, lets assemble the hardwares.

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 7

2008-04-09T14:56:00.003+08:00

The Optical Drives

Nearly all operating systems and applications software comes on CD. It is therefore essential to have a CD-ROM drive for installing your applications. Certain programs requires the CD to be in the CD-ROM drive for that program to run. For example, various encyclopedia and games. CD-ROM can also be used for playing standard audio CD's on your PC.

If you are intending to watch DVD movies on your PC then you would require a DVD-ROM which can perform all the tasks of a CD-ROM as well as play DVD movies.

CD-ROM's come in various speeds, the faster drive, the faster it will install your applications. DVD drives specifies two types of speeds, one for the software installation and other for the DVD extraction. For example a DVD drive with 16x32x specification means that it is a 16 speed DVD and 32 speed CD.

Criteria for choosing Optical Drives.

1. Nothing much to say here, as there not much technology development within optical drives. Just buy a DVD-RW. Its all in one I say. It can burn CDs, CD-RWs, DVDs, DVD-RWs read and write data using software like Nero Burning ROM.

Conclusion

It is important to have at least one optical drives for software installation. I recommend you to use Sony, MSI or ASUS product for optical drives.

Build Your Own PC - Page 8

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 6

2008-04-09T14:54:00.004+08:00

The Graphic Card

For those who are planning to use a built-in graphics, you may skip this part. Please continue to read if you wanted to upgrade your PCs. You may find this part useful. Many mainboard with built-in graphics nowadays supports an add-on slot for graphic card. But those mainboard with built-in graphics may not support your graphic card or not fully compatible with your graphic card.

The graphic card provides display output to your monitor. As for built-in graphic card, they will use your system's RAM for its texture rendering. The PCI-express or its simply called PCI-e and AGP(Advanced Graphic Port) graphic card has its own onboard RAM for texture rendering. PCI Express graphics card offers much higher graphics bandwidth which results in higher performance. The current top end graphics card are made by nVidia (Geforce cards) and ATI (Radeon cards). The speed of the card will be determined by its technology support such as Pixel shader 4.0, HDR-R(High Dynamic Range Rendering), the chipset's core clock frequency and memory frequency.

As most of you know, most of the PC games now needs a DirectX 9 support. Meaning that your graphic card must supports at least DirectX 9 engine in order to play computer games.

Criteria for choosing a 3D Graphic Card.

1. There are many graphic card with Direct X 10 support now and there are many graphic card manufacturer that makes these card. Leadtek, Asus, ABIT, MSI and Sapphire is known to be among the best graphic card manufacturer out there.
2. For smooth gaming experience, get a card with a high GPU clock frequency, a board using 256-bit memory and at least 256MB onboard memory capacity. Of course, if you have a good budget, get two same card with an SLI technology for maximum gaming experience.
3. Get either ATI with an 'XT' sign at the end of its model e.g. ATI Radeon 2600XT. XT is meaning... its like "hey i'm the extreme performer of all my family" and for nVidia with GT sign at the end of its model e.g. nVidia 8600GT. GT is like.. "i'm fast like a grand turismo cars!".

Conclusion

The graphic card is the heart of gaming type of PC. Make sure u have a good budget if u tend to make one. If you are on a budget but trying to make a good gaming performer PC, get a card with at least DirectX 10 support and at least 128-bit of memory interface.

Build Your Own PC - Page 7

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 5

2008-04-09T14:51:00.006+08:00

The Processor

Hail to the King! The Intel Processor and AMD Processor are the main manufacturers of PCs processor in the world. Intel was once beaten by the AMD's Athlon and Duron Morgan processors but now Intel has taken back its throne when Intel Core 2 Duo was introduced.

The processor also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of a computer. The faster the processor, the faster it will execute instructions and run your programs.

Some say "Intel sucks! go buy AMD processors!" and some noob would say "AMD processor is unstable and super hot! Intel processors are extremely stable. Lol!". So what are the differences between these processors? Which processor should we use?

For me, these question is really unnecessary because the main question is, what type of your PC is going to be? Right? If you're going to build an office use PC, you don't need a Core 2 Duo. Celeron D would do fine. If you're going to build a gaming PC, modify it by using a Core 2 Duo processor, an ATI PCI-e Graphic Card, add more RAM capacity and a LAN Party or any nVidia based chipset mainboard. Anyway, if we want to see which processor performs well, we can do professional method called Benchmark. Well, thats pretty much of it, lets take a look at criteria for choosing a CPU.

Criteria for choosing a Processor Unit

1. For office or normal use, use a Celeron D processor a Celeron dual core. For gaming or media editing PC, use a Core 2 Duo with a high FSB support to make use of your DDR2 FSB advantage.

2. Usually, when choosing a processor, i would buy the cheapest one that supports features that i really want such as 1333Mhz FSB and a sweet boost of 6MB L2 memory cache in processor. Why? It is because we buy its technology not its Ghz.

Conclusion

For office use PC, it is easy to choose a processor. The cheapest one!
For gaming PC, use a powerful processor at least a Core 2 Duo or AMD Dual Core X2 with a good L2 Cache memory and a high FSB(Front Side Bus).

The Processor

Hail to the King! The Intel Processor and AMD Processor are the main manufacturers of PCs processor in the world. Intel was once beaten by the AMD's Athlon and Duron Morgan processors but now Intel has taken back its throne when Intel Core 2 Duo was introduced.

The processor also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of a computer. The faster the processor, the faster it will execute instructions and run your programs.

Some say "Intel sucks! go buy AMD processors!" and some noob would say "AMD processor is unstable and super hot! Intel processors are extremely stable. Lol!". So what are the differences between these processors? Which processor should we use?

For me, these question is really unnecessary because the main question is, what type of your PC is going to be? Right? If you're going to build an office use PC, you don't need a Core 2 Duo. Celeron D would do fine. If you're going to build a gaming PC, modify it by using a Core 2 Duo processor, an ATI PCI-e Graphic Card, add more RAM capacity and a LAN Party or any nVidia based chipset mainboard. Anyway, if we want to see which processor performs well, we can do professional method called Benchmark. Well, thats pretty much of it, lets take a look at criteria for choosing a CPU.

Criteria for choosing a Processor Unit

1. For office or normal use, use a Celeron D processor a Celeron dual core. For gaming or media editing PC, use a Core 2 Duo with a high FSB support to make use of your DDR2 FSB advantage.

2. Usually, when choosing a processor, i would buy the cheapest one that supports features that i really want such as 1333Mhz FSB and a sweet boost of 6MB L2 memory cache in processor. Why? It is because we buy its technology not its Ghz.

Conclusion

For office use PC, it is easy to choose a processor. The cheapest one!
For gaming PC, use a powerful processor at least a Core 2 Duo or AMD Dual Core X2 with a good L2 Cache memory and a high FSB(Front Side Bus).

Build Your Own PC - Page 6

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 4

2008-04-09T14:50:00.003+08:00

The Storage

Hard disk drive stores all your data including operating system, applications, user files and documents. It is a non-volatile storage, which means the contents of the HDD is not lost if the PC is switched off. We're using a Serial ATA type hard disk drive nowadays.

For office use PC, you don't need so much space for data and documents. For gamers PC, you'll need a huge space since games data and installation takes up large space.

The most important thing about choosing hard disk drive is its storage. The standard size of hard disk nowadays for normal user is 80GB or 160GB.

Criteria for choosing HDD

1. You can choose any size from 80GB, 160GB, 250GB and so on.

2. If you want speed for some reason, here's what you need to know:

HDD has a cache memory technology. HDD nowadays supports a minimum about 8MB of cache memory. The bigger the cache memory, the bigger data transfer and the faster HDD result. This cache memory makes a big difference on HDD data transfer speed.

RPM(Rotation Per Minute) is how much the disc platter in your HDD spins in one minute. The more the faster. HDD nowadays supports a minimum of 7200RPM. For home video editing PC or gaming PC, get the 10,000RPM HDD.

Conclusion

An office use PC usually working on a small data like documents, pictures and others like mp3 or video files that is not using much HDD processing power.
A gaming PC needs a lot of HDD processing power and speed for smooth gaming experience.
A video editing PC also needs a powerful HDD size and speed for compression and decompression video formats like DivX, Mp4, AVI and other video formats.

Build Your Own PC - Page 5

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 3

2008-04-09T14:48:00.004+08:00

The Memory

Memory is the name given to silicon chips that stores volatile computer data. Volatile means that the contents of memory will be lost if the power of the computer is switched off.

Memory stores some of your operating system and application data while it is being run. The more memory you have in your system, the more application you can run simultaneously and will provide an overall better system performance.

The memory runs at the speed of CPU bus speed. Whats that suppose to be? I remembered when i use SIMM and then EDO type of RAM. Now, i still don't know what is SIMM and EDO RAM technology. Nowadays we're using SDRAM with DDR2 technology. SDRAM is a short form of Synchronize Dynamic Random Access Memory. It will run synchronize with the CPU speed. Lets say, you are still using AMD Athlon XP 1700+, that runs about 133Mhz of FSB. Your SDRAM will run at 133Mhz too but with DDR(Double Data Rate) technology, the speed doubled to 266Mhz . BUT! Many mainboard nowadays enables RAM running to its original speed!

For many reasons and for stability, by default, BIOS will select the FSB speed automatically according to your CPU's FSB speed. Many mainboard enables you to change the RAM speed according to your RAM's speed for optimum performance, some don't.
Ps: Choose ABIT mainboard! Super stable and speed! Tweak it!

Criteria for choosing RAM

1. For office PC, just use a single 1GB or 2GB of Value Kingston, Kingmax or Corsair RAM.

2. For gaming PC, use 2 piece RAM of Hyper X Kingston or Twin X Corsair and a minimum of 2GB RAM(well, you'll need more RAM capacity in the future i think ^_^). The two piece clone speed and brand enables you to use the dual channel technology for DDR RAM.
In my experience, with super fast RAM and a big amount of RAM, you can squeeze more FPS(Frames Per Second) in computer games. FPS is crucial for gamers. In other words, FPS is life!

Conclusion

A big amount of RAM can reduce CPU(processor) load, harddisk activity, and motherboard chipset(north bridge and south bridge)load. The bigger the better.
If your PC doesn't have enough memory, OS(operating system)es like Windows 9x/XP/Vista will create a bigger page file. Page file is a file(pagefile.sys) created by your OS to make a virtual memory making more hard disk activity, CPU activity and mainboard activity which will make your PC unhappy. More disk activity+CPU activity+GPU activity+mainboard activity=frypan PC. Just kidding ^_^. The point is, a big RAM is like a 4 or 5 lane of road full with transportation. What if the road has just one lane? OMG! bla bla bla thats all..

Build Your Own PC - Page 4

How to Build Your Own PC - Page 2

2008-04-09T14:46:00.003+08:00

The Motherboard

The Motherboard(it's also called mainboard)

The second important thing to choose for your new PC is the mainboard. This is where you need to choose, the type of your PC is going to be. I like AMD processor like Duron Morgan and Athlon XP back in time when they beat the Intel processor. But now, the Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Quad Core works for me. When choosing a mainboard, decide which processor that you wanted to use. An Intel processor or AMD processor. They have different size of socket so you might don't wanna buy wrong mainboard for your processor.

Criteria for choosing a good Mainboard.

1. I recommend you to buy an ABIT(the best) or ASUS mainboard. These two mainboard manufacturer uses a high quality electronic components which make those mainboard fast, cooler and most stable mainboard compared to any other companies. And it is heavier :p

2. For office use i recommend you to get a built-in graphic mainboard and has basic features like built-in sound, ethernet and USB.
For gaming purposes, i recommend you to get a mainboard that have no built-in graphic card which has a PCI express slot for graphic card, an Intel Core 2 Duo mainboard and at least 2 DDR2 RAM slot for dual channel DDR2 RAM. For extreme gaming purpose, i recommend you to get an SLI mainboard(two same brand, same speed in other words clone of two graphic card were used in SLI graphic slot) 4 DDR2 RAM slot and an Intel Quad Core mainboard.

3. I personally recommend you to get an ABIT mainboard with an nForce chipset. Try it ^_^.

Conclusion for choosing mainboard

What features that I wanted to use for my new mainboard? That's the first good question you should have in your mind when choosing a mainboard. The mainboard is the second most important thing for your new PC hardware. The mainboard is the key of which type of your PC will be.

Build Your Own PC - Page 3

Build Your Own PC

2008-04-09T14:35:00.007+08:00

Now, I am going to guide you on how to build a PC. But why do you need to build a PC yourself? The main reason is firstly budget, secondly is the PC that you'll build matches your criteria as well, for knowledge purposes(knowledge is power!), a unique PC and etc.

What type of PC do you want to use? For example, you wanted to use your new PC for Office works that has a scanner, printer, stereo speaker. This type of PC doesn't need to be powerful processing unit, built-in graphic card and only needs about 1GB of RAM. This could save a lot of money, and you can choose a high quality and branded hardware for your PC. If you are planning to play computer games or Playstation 2 emulator on your PC, make sure you have a good budget because this kind of PC needs a lot of CPU power, RAM, fast data processing and the core of this PC is the graphic card which cost more compared to a normal office purpose use PC.

Now, I will tell you on how to choose a good hardware for both of these two types your new PC.

The Hardware

The Computer Case

Computer case is needed to protect the hardware inside. For me, the most important thing is the Power Supply Unit. Usually the case comes with the Power Supply Unit inside the case. Many users do not treat the computer power supply very seriously as it usually does not provide exciting new features or direct performance improvements to a computer system!

Criteria for choosing the Power Supplies:

1. Get a branded Power Supply Unit(PSU), such as Antec, RaidMax, BlueThunder, Lian Li(the best) and others, they made a good Power Supply Unit which support claimed wattage labeled on their Power Supply Units.
2. Don't buy a cheap PSU and don't be cheated by the label of the PSU that claim to be a high wattage support as it only support about 200W of power or maybe lower! There are so many cheap PSU out there so watch out! Many motherboards nowadays needs a powerful PSU. A cheap PSU would not work on some motherboards especially gaming purpose motherboard. Gaming type of PC needs about 450W t0 500W of power. If you are going to use an SLI for graphic, 500W to 600W of Power Supply is needed.
3. The heavier the better the PSU.

Conclusion on Power Supply Unit

A good PSU is considered the most important thing compared to the other hardwares in your PC. Most of broken hardware in your PC is caused by PSU and even monitor(if your monitor power connected to your PSU.

Build Your Own PC - Page 2

Perfect Way to Unlimited Rapidshare Downloads

2008-04-01T23:21:00.010+08:00

I'm a free user of file sharing like Rapidshare and Megaupload.
The free feature have many restrictions on free feature and do not allow you to download more than a specified limit within a time span. They have very strict checks over IP addresses so you may not bypass their download limits.

Before this, i have to switch off my router modem(I've setup my modem as a router) to reset my dynamic IP address so Rapidshare would recognize me as a different person who downloaded file from their server. This works with dynamic IP user like me ^_^. But it is painful when application or games have multipart like 30 or 40 parts! I have to reset my router and key in the Captcha code the whole time! eeww yuk! This software solves everything for me and of course you too.

Believe it or not, this free software really works!! As a free user, what I really love about this freeware is;

1. It has an engine to search the fastest server before downloading process begins.
2. The ability to read Capcha code.
3. Automatic reset IP or modem which can be customized.
4. Everything Automated.

Although its still in beta testing, I've tested it myself with my Streamyx(Malaysia's broadband) PPPOE connection.

The (E)lephant Version 0.0.1.2

Before we can start using (E)lephant to automate unlimited downloading from RapidShare, you’ll need to configure it. Most important configuration is the reconnector. That’s where it will auto reconnect your internet connection to get a new IP address.

The Guide

This will only work with MODEM to dial-up for internet connection and dynamic IP.

1. Download the (E)lephant. Type in Elephant Rapidshare in google search box.

2. Click on Options at the menu bar and select Settings, then go to Reconnector tab.

3. I don't recommend you to use the built-in reconnector because it might not work for everyone. Of course you can try it yourself but I am sure that the external connector method will work for everyone with all types of connections.

4. Lets make the batch file for reconnector. Open the notepad type in the code shown below and save it as e.g rasdial.bat

Whats is this command? I'll explain this real quick.

The first line

The name of your connection. As u see below, I'm using 'Streamyx' as the name of my connection.
The [%Systemroot%\System32\rasdial Streamyx /disconnect] command will disconnect my connection.

The Second Line

The second line, %systemroot%\system32\ping -n 20 127.0.0.1 >nul] will ping localhost 20 times which is good to let your modem rest for 20 seconds before reconnecting again.

The Third Line

The third line,[%systemroot%\system32\rasdial Streamyx username@streamyx password] will dial up to your ISP. Change your username@streamyx and your password. Save this file example: rasdial.bat not rasdial.bat.txt ok? hehe..

Try running the batch file by double clicking on rasdial.bat to test it. Its working? Read on!

5. Now, click the 'Use the external reconnector', then enter the path where you save the rasdial.bat batch file, or click at the '...' to locate the rasdial.bat batch file.

Now we're done with the reconnector, lets see how to use this software.

Perfect Way to Rapidshare Unlimited Download - Page 2

Perfect Way to Unlimited Rapidshare Downloads

2008-03-30T14:38:00.002+08:00

Page 2

Open the (E)lephant program. Now go to the sites that has Rapidshare links, press CTRL+C on your keyboard to copy the link, a small (E)lephant dialog box will appear.

The links will be added to (E)lephant. The last thing you need to do here is to click the Start button to start downloading.

You will notice that it can auto decrypt and enter rapidshare CAPTCHA codes and will reconnect your internet whenever it detects that you’ve have reached the download-limit for free-users!

Conclusion

This software is totally legal because it does not hack or exploit Rapidshare servers.