Cable Management

The most important factor to consider when it comes to air cooling is air flow. Generally, you want front to back and bottom to top air flow. Your also going to want the most airflow possible, which means bigger or faster fans. Most systems will have one front fan, one side fan, and one rear fan. Additionally, some cases may have another side fan, more front fans, and even a top fan. Regardless of how many fans you have, you still need to make sure your air flow is unimpeded. The best way to obtain maximum airflow is to manage your cables. Most modern cases have cable management holes that allow you to take your unused cables and hide them behind the motherboard tray. These holes also allow you to reroute cables such as your front usb, front audio, pci-e, cpu power, and sometimes even your 20/24 pin power cable behind your motherboard tray. This not only makes your case look better, it increases airflow. A system with proper cable management can obtain a temperature difference of up to 5 degrees Celsius! Note, that is it also handy to have cable ties (zipties) handy. Sometimes, if your case doesn't have cable management holes, simply using these ties to minimize their surface area and impedance. If your case doesn't have cable management holes, you may want to considering drilling them.

GTX 260, 260 Core 216, or 280

So your computer is ready for a video card upgrade (see "Your Power Supply Is Important") and you're not sure which video card to get. If you know you want a nVidia card, your probably considering three cards. The GeForce GTX 260, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, or the GeForce 280. To make it easier to understand, I'll rank the cards. The regular 260 is the weakest of the three, followed by the 260 Core 216, and the best of the three is the 280. That being said, an overclocked 260 Core 216 will outperform a 280. But, a overclocked 280 will remain at the top of the list. Now, the dividing factor for most people is cost. A 280 is over $400, while a OC'd 260 Core 216 is only $250. So my recommendation is an overclocked 260 Core 216 because of the price/performance ratio.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Surround Sound System

Its no secret that mp3 files are not 5.1 encoded. What does that mean for someone using a surround sound system? That means your only going to be using your front two speakers and your subwoofer. How do you get surround sound out of stereo music? The easiest way is to download and install Aud-x. I've only had luck with this program working while using Windows Media Player, so I'd recommend using that. Now, you just have to set Aud-x to surround sound and your music should now play through all your speakers. Another way to get surround sound audio is to get a Logitech Z-5500 sound sytem. This has a Dolby Music Decoder that can decode audio into surround sound.

Now that you have surround sound, you need to make sure your equalizer is set up correctly. A flat equalizer on most sound systems will make the audio sound dull. I find the "U" approach to sound the best. Set 31 hertz about 3/8's way up and progressively lower each following bar until the 500 hertz bar is about 1/4 way down. Then raise each following bar until the 16k hertz bar is at the same height as the 31 hertz bar. This should get you optimal audio, but you can tweak it.

Troubleshooting Hardware Failures

Your all pumped up to play some Call of Duty after a hard days work, and you go to turn on your computer and you get a black screen. Your monitor won't display an image and you can't get into your BIOS. How to you determine which part of your computer has failed? To be able to determine the solution, you first have to understand the problem. For example, a blank image doesn't mean that there is something wrong with your computer, you could be having monitor issues. The process of elimination is very handy in solving your computer problems. Once you've established that something in your computer has failed, you need to narrow down the possibilities. To help you do that, there a multiple steps you can take that will eliminate certain parts. Number one. Reset your BIOS using either the jumper, or removing the BIOS battery and putting it back in. Oftentimes, a simple option change in the BIOS can prevent your computer from posting. If this doesn't solve your problem, move onto the RAM. Remove all the sticks and boot up your computer. Normally, the computer should beep multiple times if there is no RAM installed. If your computer beeps, replace one module and try different combinations of DIMM modules and slots. If your computer doesn't beep, this may indicate that you have a faulty motherboard. If you identify the bad RAM slot, remove it and purchase new RAM if you'd like. However, if you are still having issues, you probably have an issue with your motherboard, CPU, or graphics card. Try using onboard video or swapping graphics cards if possible. If all these fail, you should attempt to get your CPU and/or motherboard replaced. Diagnosing issues with hard drives is much easier. If your computer turns on and you get a message saying something about no OS to boot, your hard drive is probably faulty. Note that you should verify that your power supply is functioning, but if you computer powers on, your power supply is probably fine. The most difficult issue to diagnose is video card failure. This is because many component failures may cause a black screen, and your video card is obviously one of them. Luckily, video cards usually do not fail without cause. Overheating and artifacting during games can damage your video card, so always make sure to note those kinds of signs.

Overclocking; Risks and Benefits

So, you built your computer a year ago and its not as fast as you thought it was. You don't want to spend any money, but you need to increase your performance. Many people in similar situations turn to overclocking. What is overclocking? Well, overclocking is increasing the front side bus (FSB) of your motherboard. Which, as a result, increases the speed (gHz) that your CPU will run at. However, its not that simple. Increasing the FSB will increase the voltage the CPU needs to operate, but you can't increase the voltage too much. Why? Increasing the voltage to the CPU increases the amount of heat that your CPU will produce. Also, exceeding the manufacturer's maximum recommended voltage may fry your CPU, so check with Intel or AMD. Lastly, when you overclock your CPU, you also overclock your memory at the same time. This is because the FSB dictates the speed for both the CPU and the RAM. So, if you're running a motherboard with limited overclocking options, you may not be able to change the memory multiplier and keep your RAM at rated speeds.

Eliminate Bottlenecks To Increase Performance

A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. The components of a computer function as one, similar to the way all the organs of a organism function together as one. To obtain the best performance out of your system, you need to make sure that one component isn't slowing down all the other components. For example, a extreme gaming rig with a Core i7, 3-way SLI, and 4GB of RAM will be sluggish if it is running an IDE hard disk. When I upgraded from a 40GB IDE hard disk to a 320GB SATA hard disk, it boosted my FPS by up to 25FPS. This is astonishing considering the drive at the time only cost $65 on NewEgg. Another critical, yet inexpensive pipeline is your RAM. Most RAM modules won't cost you over $50, yet is one of the most vital components in the entire system. The CPU needs RAM to store data to reference and without enough RAM, or RAM that is too slow, the CPU literally has to wait for the RAM to deliver the data, hence slowing down your system drastically. Finally, one last central component I will cover is the motherboard. This is the component that can slow down the most components. It can limit your RAM speeds, your front bus speeds, your overclocking ability, and the speed you hard disks can communicate with the CPU, amongst other things. Although it is not the cheapest componenet to replace, a decent motherboard that won't slow down your components will run around $80.

Your Power Supply Is Important

Getting tired of that old video card that can't handle the newest games very well? Ready to invest in a new video card(s) and boost your computer performance? Not so fast. If you built your computer a year or more ago, you may have purchased a power supply with 500 watts or less of power. And if you didn't spend a whole lot, you may have a power supply with less than 35 amps, too. So, OK what's the problem, I thought 500 watts is plenty. Wrong. Unfortunately if you're looking to upgrade to a high-end video card, your going to need a power supply with at least 500 watts and 36 amps, at least. And even if your power supply meets those standards, you still may not be golden quite yet. A 500 watt/36 amp power supply is just enough to run a computer with a EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 260. However, during continuous peak usage, this may lower the life expectancy of your power supply, and maybe even your other components. Additionally, a power supply running at peak outputs may not maintain stable power, and may reduce performance significantly. So, before you pull out your credit card and buy the next greatest video card, check your power supply specs and make sure you exceed GPU manufacturer's required power, that way you do not run the risk of damaging other components.