Power Supply

Power Supply is indeed one of the most critical parts of your PC and it must be working without a hitch all the time - otherwise your PC will stop dead in its tracks.

Here are 5 Essential Things You Need to Know When Buying A Computer 

Power Supply Compatibility & Connectors

What's the most important feature of a computer power supply? Well, its got to be its compatibility. Older motherboards will need a 20-pin ATX connector. Newer, more advanced motherboards will need the 24-pin ATX connector in a power supply.

Molex Connectors

If you look at a modern power supply in a PC, you will see it has many of those octopus-like connectors. Those are really 12V Molex connectors and they hook up to peripherals like hard drives, CD and DVD-ROM drives and PC case fans. You need to make sure the number of Molex connectors in your power supply is enough to meet the number of components in the PC.

SLI and Crossfire Technology

What does SLI do? It allows you to combine the processing power and memory of two Nvidia video cards. There is an equivalent term called 'CrossFire' if you're using ATI video cards.

Think about that for a moment - we're talking about insane performance. If you intend to go the SLI path, then your power should be SLI Certified (if you are using Nvidia video cards) or ATI CrossFire Ready (if you are running ATI video).

Overrated Peak Wattage Numbers

One thing you should always know about purchasing power supplies is that the peak wattage is usually overstated. If you building a system, going for anything less than 400W is not a good idea.

Size of the Power Supply

Another factor to consider is the size of the power supply unit. Most of the power supplies out there conform to the ATX specification. Make sure that your case is also in the ATX form factor if you are buying such a power supply.

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Memory Module

Memory Module

Computer memory is responsible for a wide variety of tasks in the modern computer system.

How Memory is organized?

Let's get started by seeing how computer memory is organized. Think of memory in a PC as many 'boxes' to store numbers. Each box has a unique address. Collections of these boxes work together to store meaningful instructions that can be interpreted by programs.

The numbers stored in individual bytes in memory range from 0 to 255. For those more technically inclined, this is really what can be represented by 8 bits. Each 'box' stores 1 byte and 1 byte = 8 bits.

Parameters Defining a Memory Module

Capacity - Each memory module is designed to hold a specific number of bytes. The capacity of a memory module is the number of bytes it can store.

      

Width - This one is a bit technical. Memory modules are also assigned a width - which determines the number of bits the memory can access at one time.

      

Access time - It takes time for the memory to read its 'number' and get it ready for the CPU to use. This is known as the access time. But do remember that a faster access time doesn't mean your PC will run faster. The speed is still controlled very much by the speed of your CPU.

      

Cycle time - The cycle time defines the minimum time from one memory operation to the next. If you add the access time to the time the module needs to recover and start the next operation, you will get the cycle time of the memory module.

Now, the bandwidth of the memory - the amount of data it can read and write per second - depends on its width, access time, and cycle time.

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PC Case

How to Choose a Good PC Case ?

One of the most important but overlooked components in your PC is the PC case. Selecting a good PC case is an important step in building your computer, since it determines several things.

It determines the number of PC components you can have, as well as how well your system's temperature. Also it determines how good your PC looks.

External Space

The first factor to consider is how much space your PC case is going to take up. If you have the space, tower PC cases are a good choice. If you're short of space, you may wish to consider smaller mini PC cases which are getting more popular these days.

Internal Space

Another factor to consider is how many components you wish to fit in your PC case. If you're a computer nut and want to fit in a good motherboard, CPU, a couple of hard drives, video card, LAN card, cooling fans, a CD-ROM drive and a DVD writer. That's a lot of components to be cramming into a PC case! Again, a good choice would be a tower PC case. However, with so many components, you have to watch out for overheating problems - make sure you deck out the system with a couple of good fans.

Motherboard Support

One thing you must absolutely remember - check that your motherboard can fit into the case! Some cases are flexible enough to support AT, ATX and Baby-AT boards, but others only support one of these sizes. Even then, you need to be careful - some cheaper 'ATX' cases don't really fit ATX motherboards.

Power Supply

Most PC cases come with power supplies. With more and more components being fitted into a PC, you will certainly need enough juice to power them. Best advice is to go for at least a 400W power supply. Also make sure the unit is ATX 2.01 compliant to avoid motherboard compatibility issues.

Cooling

If you're a overclocker or have many system components, you'll need to ensure you've got enough fans in the case to cool the system. Good PC cases allow multiple (4 or more) cooling fans to be installed, ensuring good ventilation.

 

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