How to build your own computer: Part 2

I read through your comments (and took on board reminders of things to include) and it seems some people are confused about blue LEDs. Blue LEDs are pretty much needed in any build because, frankly, they look bad-ass. Every good computer builder knows that you can never have enough blue LEDs! Anyway...

What kind of build do you want? What will you have to get? You have to consider a number of points.
    -Do you want high performance computing?
    -Do you want to game on your computer?
    -Will it be a server?*
    -Is it just for everyday use?
    -How much heat will everything make?
    -How powerful is the PSU going to have to be?
*A server is a computer that is dedicated to performing one task, usually something over the internet like hosting a website or running a game like Minecraft.

So think those over carefully. Remember, the more powerful your computer is, the more power it needs from the PSU (Power Supply Unit).

So lets say you want to build a gaming rig (chances are you do). What are you going to need for this? Well, obviously you'll need a graphics card. RAM is also essential here. A mid-range processor is probably the best choice here, because it isn't as processor-intensive, the load is taken by the graphics cards. You'll also want a few fans to pull as much air as possible through - graphics cards make quite a fair amount of heat. You might also want a fancy sound card that supports high quality surround sound if you have the speakers for it.

What about a high performance computer? Well, you probably don't need a graphics card for this, except in certain circumstances where certain programs use a graphics card for calculations. But the big daddy of this kind of build is a big processor. You can even have up to four in one computer, if you get a kind that supports that! We'll need a nice powerful PSU for the processor and other components. A large amount of RAM is good here, 8GB is a nice amount. A great heat sink will be needed to drain heat away from the processor - perhaps liquid cooling if it is within your budget.

That's all well and good, but I know some of you are just going to want a new computer for regular use. So what do we need for this? Well, it's fairly simple and flexible. If you choose a motherboard with built in graphics you won't need a graphics card - if you don't, you'll need to get a mid-range or lower one for that. You can have a sound card if you are an audiophile, a somewhat powerful processor is good and a fair amount of RAM for your daily activities. 4GB will probably be enough for this. Simple, eh?

Now we've got just how you can customise your build to be how you want it out of the way, next time I'll be going in to just how to decide what to get for your build, how to understand what all the specs mean for the parts and how not to get ripped off when buying. Till next time!

How to build your own computer: Part 1

You may or may not know the benefits that building your own computer has. It's a greatly rewarding and educational experience - you learn all about just what your computer specs mean and how everything fits together in there. But, of course, the most important reward is cost. If you just want a real fast computer, like I did, you can build a computer that doubles the specs of retail computer at half the price. If you want graphics cards, you will also beat retail computers. You just have to look for the right deal. And since a lot of people are getting ripped off by buying at retail (Apple, anyone?) I decided to write a guide on building your own from scratch.

First: What parts do you need? Fairly simple.

Necessary:
    -Motherboard
    -Processor
    -Power Supply
    -RAM
    -Hard drive
    -Case
    -CD drive

Optional:
    -Graphics card
    -RAID card*
    -Sound card
    -Extra fans
    -Blue LEDs (Pretty much required, right?)

*A RAID card allows you to use more than one hard drive and make them act like a single hard drive. You can use one as a fail-safe in case your main hard drive fails, you can use them to double your disk space or you can set up a mixture of the two.

So that is all you need! Tomorrow I'll go in to more detail about what you should get depending on budgets, white kind of computer you are building and so on. Keep tuned.

IPv6 upgrade looms

As some of the may know, June 8th was IPv6 day. IPv6 day is when loads of companies around the world agree to test their IPv6 support. Some of you might know from World of Warcraft - it had a bunch of IPv6 servers running for a 24 hour period.
But what is IPv6? IPv6 stands for Internet Protocol version 6. It is a web standard that controls how information and your IP addresses are communicated between computers. Currently we all run on IPv4. This is your traditional 127.0.0.1 kind of IP, pretty much everyone should know that. But the problem is we are running out of IP addresses to give to people!
That's where IPv6 comes in. It allows 340 undecillion IP addresses. That's such a stupidly huge number, we can probably never run out (think the number 34 followed by 38 zeroes). IPv4 supports a mere 4294967296 addresses, and that simply isn't enough for us humans.
But good news! After IPv6 day, a bunch of big companies like Google and Facebook have confirmed that they will be supporting IPv6 permanently in the near future. I'm thinking IPv6 will be the standard in a few years, not long to go now!

4TB Hard drives round the corner

Samsung has been showing off their new designs for a 4TB hard drive (4 1TB platters) this year. They claim it will be shipping out for consumers before the end of the year. It's speculated to be able to store 630GB per square inch! Currently the biggest hard drives on the market are 2.5TB drives. Barely anyone even has 1TB yet, but they are rapidly dropping in price (They have at least halved in the past year) as technology is developed. It won't be long before 1TB, or even 2TB, is standard. But what do we need with all this space? I've only used 110GB on my 500GB hard drive, and that's more than what most people use. But hell, I want me a 4TB drive just to say I have one. Should set up a RAID array and make it 8TB! Good stuff.

Windows 8

So some time in 2012 we are to see Windows 8. Now I'm sure most of you guys hate Vista -- almost everyone does. But surely you can agree that Windows 7 was a big turn around? I use it and I am very happy with it. I think it's an improvement on XP. Can Microsoft keep this up? Currently Windows 8 is at build "6.2.8011.0.winmain.110520-1745".

Looking pretty darn similar to 7 isn't it? Though, if you look carefully there are some subtle differences. Currently Build 7959 have been leaked and can be found on torrent sites for those of you who are curious to try it out for yourselves. I'm just hoping they don't go back down the drain with this one. I also hope it isn't too expensive, but there you go, it probably will be.