PC Tips

Ram

Random Access Memory is probably the most popular upgrade for computers. RAM is the fast memory used when operating computer systems. If the RAM is exceeded, the computer slows dramatically or crashes. In about the year 2000, computers with 128 MB of RAM were regarded as powerful. Nowadays, less than 512 MB is regarded as under powered. Advanced games, image editing and video editing, or even just viewing, are the main reasons for overloading the RAM.

To find out how much RAM your system has installed, Click: Start / All Programs / Accessories / Systems Tools /then System Information. The Total Physical Memory is what RAM is installed in your system. If you have problems with your computer crashing when using programs with large file sizes, you probably need to install more RAM.

If installing new RAM yourself, you have make sure you buy the correct modules and do not exceed the amount of RAM your system can cope with. The website for the maker of your system will give information on the type of RAM in your system and how much can be installed.

Above is a view of RAM. The way to replace these modules is to disconnect the power supply, take off the side cover of your tower, pull the side clips back either side of the modules, remove old module, line up the new module correctly and firmly push down till the side clips snap back inn. You have to avoid touching anything else inside the computer when carrying out this operation. Computers have between two and four slots to allow adding multiple RAM modules. The largest module should be installed in the first slot.

Not sure about what RAM to get for your PC or about installing it yourself, PC World will provide you with the correct RAM and install it for you for around £15. Module prices are about £25 for 512 MB and £50 for 1 GB. Prices can vary quite a lot depending on make.

Hard Drive/Disk

The Hard Drive or Disk is where all the the data is stored on a computer. Computers only a few years back had between 20 GB and 40 GB Hard Drives. Today, you can buy computers with 750 GB Hard Drives. Although you can upgrade your computer with a new Hard Drive. Most people now opt for an External Hard Drive to boost storage space. These are ideal to store large files such as digital camera images and video. You can now buy 500 GB External Hard Drives for around £99.

Most External Hard Drives now just need to be connected via a USB port in the computer, no need to plug them into a power source. If you take high resolution Digital Camera photos at around 3 MB or over, you can see large hard drives are needed to store the data. Video at about 2 GB per hour in MPEG 2 format also fills hard drives up fast.

Many people will advise you back up all your data anyway, especially photos you want to save for generations. External Hard Drives are ideal for this. A computing guide also states you should back up your back-ups, so two External Hard Drives are ideal for that. Running the Defragmenter on your computer now and again rearranges all the data on your Hard Drive so your computer runs smoother.

CD/DVD Burners

CD/DVD Burners keep improving even when prices continue to lower. Many now have multiple features such as the HP DVD1040e External unit (from as little as £40 including the burning software Nero 7 Essentials). This unit also incorporates Light Scribe (etching images on special CD/DVDs with the laser) and can write to and play DVD Ram.

DVD Ram discs are an excellent way to back up data as they are supposed to be good for about 30 years. Double sided 12cm DVD Ram discs can hold over 9 GB.

Eight cm DVD Ram discs are normally used for many of the new cam corders. These cam corders can be used to record a home movie then just take the disc out of the cam corder and place it in a DVD player that can play RAM discs. You can then view instantly what you have created. Many modern home DVD players for use with TVs can now play DVD Ram.

Nero Showtime for PCs, that comes with Nero 7 Essentials, plays video files from the DVD Ram discs, Windows Media player will not as they are VRO files. The software AVS Video Remaker allows you to edit and save Video from the DVD Ram discs. AVS Video Remaker will save these files as MPEG2 that can then be viewed on any player.

External CD/DVD burners now work as good as internal burners. The only disadvantages of an external burner is it has to be plugged into a power supply and into a USB port on your computer.

The advantages of an external burner are, you can install them yourself and they can be replaced by yourself any time. Many new burners come with burning software compatible with them as your old software may not be compatible with a new burner, you should check for this when buying. If there is no software with the burner, Nero 7 Essentials can be bought for as little as £2.