Computers: Hard Drive Selection

Hard Drive Selection

Written by J A Carpunky

Perhaps repparttar

biggest mistake people make when building their computer(s) is to underestimate repparttar 107754

importance of repparttar 107755

hard disk drive (HDD). In our modern society, bigger is synonymous with better, so when you go to buy a hard drive you look at how "big" it is, its data capacity. But is that all you should be considering when buying your hard drive?

Like every other component of your computer, repparttar 107756 HDD is far too complex a system to describe in any sort of detail here, but hopefully by repparttar 107757 end of this article you will know what to look for when you go to buy your new hard drive.

There are 4 primary aspects to look at in a hard drive (in order of importance): 1. Rotational frequency and average seek time 2. Buffer size 3. Internal/external transfer rates 4. Capacity

Rotational frequency has become a large selling point (5400/7200/10000/15000RPM) recently, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding out what repparttar 107758 rotational frequency of your HDD is when you go to buy it. Now of course repparttar 107759 faster it spins, repparttar 107760 faster it can read from repparttar 107761 disk (there are other advantages also), but be aware that repparttar 107762 faster it spins, repparttar 107763 more wear is put on repparttar 107764 drive, and repparttar 107765 more likely it is to encounter errors and malfunctions later in life. Hard drives are pretty much repparttar 107766 only systems within your computer that have moving parts (CD-ROM, floppy disk drives, and fans also have moving parts, but they're all cheap and if they break you won't lose all repparttar 107767 data you've accumulated over repparttar 107768 course of owning your computer, be sure to back up your data regularly!). If you know anything about physics or engineering, then you know that moving parts produce friction and wear, and a faster spinning platter (the part that holds repparttar 107769 data and spins) means more friction, and therefore more wear on your drive. Of course repparttar 107770 faster it spins repparttar 107771 faster it can read data from repparttar 107772 platter. So what can you do? well again you backup your data as much as possible and you get repparttar 107773 fastest spinning drive money can buy (which is 7200RPM for ATA devices (the sort you are buying) and 15000RPM for SCSI and some Serial ATA devices (you might get Serial ATA, that depends on your motherboard)). So look for a "7200RPM" label on repparttar 107774 drive you're thinking of getting, it's important!

The "buffer" I'm referring to is repparttar 107775 transfer buffer that temporarily stores data to read from or write to repparttar 107776 hard drive. The reason for this is that repparttar 107777 bus (data channel between repparttar 107778 hard drive and repparttar 107779 motherboard) can only handle so much information at a time, and it takes a long time for repparttar 107780 data to be found and retrieved from a platter (random seek time), so it takes a big chunk of repparttar 107781 requested data and stores it in a very fast data buffer to be sent at repparttar 107782 bus's convenience. So with a larger buffer you can queue more data for transfer over repparttar 107783 bus without having to keep sending requests to slowly find more data from repparttar 107784 platters. Some newer drives come with as much as 8MB of buffer capacity, but it is more common to see 2 or 4MB. Usually a drive with a large amount will use that as a selling point and print it on repparttar 107785 box/website, otherwise you can assume it has a 2/4MB buffer. My advice is to find one with as much as you can afford.

See How To Troubleshoot Your Power Supply

Written by Otis F. Cooper

The Power Supply convert's your regular household current into low DC voltage used by repparttar

computer. When this component fails,there is simply no activity going on wih your computer.Remember to do repparttar 107753

easy troubleshooting first.Inspect repparttar 107754

Power Supply for any damage.Double-Check all connections.

Learning how to check your power supply and how to replace it when needed can be a life saver if you're a computer buff or in business with repparttar 107755 trusted PC.Don't take for granted repparttar 107756 simple pleasure of turning on your PC and everything works just fine.

We turned on one of our computers recently and in about one hour,it just re-booted itself.And it continued doing so about 10 times a day until we found out repparttar 107757 power supply was repparttar 107758 culprit.Things to look for when your power supply is going bad or just dies on you are repparttar 107759 following.

NO POWER TO THE COMPUTER

Here you must first check repparttar 107760 wall outlet for power by connecting another device such as a radio or lamp to be sure power is present.If repparttar 107761 computer is connected through a surge protector,check it as well.

If repparttar 107762 wall out has power,check repparttar 107763 power cable going to repparttar 107764 PC to see if AC voltage is making its way to repparttar 107765 system unit.Do this with repparttar 107766 use of a multimeter.

If there is power,you will have to open repparttar 107767 PC and check for power from repparttar 107768 power supply to repparttar 107769 motherboard.

When using a multimeter to check voltage,be sure you have a good ground for repparttar 107770 black lead of repparttar 107771 multimeter.

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

One main problem you may face with an ailing Power Supply is that it may re-boot repparttar 107772 computer without any warning.All information is lost and it seems as though this happens at repparttar 107773 worst possible time.

Booting errors when repparttar 107774 computer first start's up is another indicator of this component going on repparttar 107775 blink.

POWER DISTRIBUTION PROBLEMS

When repparttar 107776 power supply begins to fail,you may receive power at one device and not another.For example,the Hard Drive may receive power but repparttar 107777 CDROM Drive has nothing at all.

Another headache with would cause re-booting is repparttar 107778 intermittent power going to repparttar 107779 drives or repparttar 107780 motherboard itself.Follow repparttar 107781 steps below to check your power supply should you experience some of repparttar 107782 above problems.

CHECKING THE POWER SUPPLY

If repparttar 107783 wall outlet,and repparttar 107784 power cord are good,make sure repparttar 107785 connection at repparttar 107786 motherboard is secure.Then you may have to face repparttar 107787 fact that repparttar 107788 power supply itself is bad.If you have a Multimeter you can test repparttar 107789 power supply output before purchasing a new one.Simply follow these steps.

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