Chapter 3

Now what?

OK, so your new computer is currently sat in its box in your lounge. Now what do you do with it?
Simple right? Plug in the leads and away you go. Well, yes. But there are a few things you should do and be aware of first. 

1. Location: Where will the computer live? And I mean live. You should not assemble and re-assemble a computer every time you want to use it. It can cause bugs and mechanical failure. What you need to do is set aside a space where the computer can be set up and left to sit. I recommend a dedicated desk, although I actually use an oak table. 
2. Power sockets. (sad but true. I once went around a friends house after they got all set up, and when it came to plugging in the nearest socket was other side of the room.) 
3. Windows: Having a window behind you will create loads of glare on the screen and create eye strain. 
4. Phone Socket: Think about how you are going to connect to the router. Yes there is always wireless, and for many things this is fine. But for a desktop that will rarely move a wired connection to the router is always better. 
5. Radiators: Keep the computer away from these. The computer generates a lot of heat as it is, and often works hard to keep cool. Heat is a bad thing for computers. Very bad. Dedicated server farms often have huge and expensive air conditioned rooms for the servers for this purpose.

When setting up the computer, try and keep the tower off the floor. At least by a good 12 inches or more. Dust is another enemy of the computer, and having it sit on the floor is asking for dust, pet hair and dirt to be sucked in. If the computer is to be sat in a corner of a room, try and put the case into the corner. This will help cut down on dust a little and also prevents accidental knocks and bumps.

Make sure that the surface is flat, level and hard. Cases tend to be top heavy. Having it at even a slight list could be enough to cause it to unbalance suddenly.  Soft surfaces like those leather bound desks, or even a table cloth will restrict airflow under the computer. A lot of computers don't have vents on the bottom any more, but better safe than sorry.

Try and keep the top of the monitor at eye level. This will reduce neck and eye strain. And try and give your elbows and arms support by keeping the keyboard as far away from you as possible and allowing you to rest your arms on the desk.

Computers generally come with a lot of cables. (Bertha has 52 individual leads) It will look a mess when its all connected up. Get some cable tidy stuff by all means. It will stop you getting your feet caught in the cable and pulling everything off the desk when you get up. But in some cases, some cables can interfere with others. The main power lead should be kept separate from the LAN lead and the speaker leads.

Other personal recommendations at this point would be to get a powered USB hub. When buying, do not be fooled by one claiming to be USB 1 and another being USB 2. Internally, it does not matter. The speed is handled by the computer, not the hub. Get one, plug it in the back of oyur computer, and have it handy on the desktop. You will use it often in the future. Bertha has a 7 port hub, and all but one socket is full.

• USB note. This doesn't happen much on newer machines with newer windows installed nowadays, but some computers running windows up to XP has this little bug regarding USB and it is worth noting for future reference.
  Say the computer has 4 USB sokets in the back, and you plug in say a webcam in the top right socket and an external hard drive in bottom left. If for some reason you swapped these around there is a bug where they wouldn't work until you put them back. 
• Technical reason. Feel free to skip to next paragraph:
  The reason being is that when an item was plugged in, it would be given a memory address. When you unplug, this address would still be reserved. When you plugged in something else into that socket, Windows would still look for what was there. The way to fix this was to reboot the computer with the new item plugged in. Thankfully Windows resets the memory address when you unplug something now so this is rarely an issue nowadays

OK the computer is all set up, now lets look at the Modem.
The modem is the part of the equipment that converts the phone signal into an Ethernet signal.
Simple eh? Unfortunately, most ISP's use different terms for the modem supplied. You will often hear them refereed to as hub, router or switch as well. Most ISP supplied equipment is basically all three into one. But all three are different. If you have cable of fibre optic then the chances are you have a Modem and a router. But most ADSL broadband users will only have one box.

Technical bit/ Feel free to skip to next paragraph:

• Modem: (modulator-demodulator) Is the device that converts the incoming signal into n Ethernet signal.
• Hub: A device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together.
• Router: A device that connects networks together:
• Switch: A more intelligent version of the HUB. Usually more server based.
• From the ADSL (phone) line to the computer, they would normally be used in this order:
  Modem/Router/Hub or Switch/computer.

Because a lot of houses have more than one piece of equipment that uses the internet, the ISP's supply a Modem/hub combo. Which is quite handy really. And eventually, you will have more than one device if you don't already do so.
When installing the Modem, it is important to know where to put it. Ideally it should be plugged into the master phone socket. Signal loss is huge along phone extensions. As my master socket is in a stupid place I can't leave the Modem plugged into it, but when I have had it connected to it, I have noticed a significant increase in speed. Unfortunately, my Modem is on the end of a 40 foot extension and as such I only get 9.4Mbit connection. Plugged into master I get 11Mbit.

That is pretty much all I can think of for now, so I will leave it here. Next chapter will be about what you should do when you first turn on your computer.

Oh and Happy Summer Solstice.

Chapter 2

Box of Shineys

First off I would like to highlight that there are 3 different type of personal computers (PC's).

• Netbook: Small things. Look like laptops. Usually with a screen size of 8 to 12 inches. Pretty much useless for anything more than checking emails or browsing the web. Keys (for me, anyway) tend to be too small to do any sustained type of typing. I find that I tend to miss type often on them. And often end up with cramp.
• Notebook/laptop: OK for occasional use for a home user. Tucks away when not in use, just like a normal computer in use. The name is misleading though. Laptop suggests you can sit it on your knee and use it all day. Don't. You will hurt after a while. Having the laptop so low down is an unnatural way to type. Your neck will hurt from looking down at it, and the heat it gives off will make it very uncomfortable to use on your lap. If you insist on getting a laptop, use it on a tray, laptop stand or table, and I highly recommend getting a USB mouse to go with it. Track pads can be awkward to use after a while, especially if playing games or trying to edit photos. They can be quite powerful machines, but their life expectancy is very short. And apart from memory upgrades, they are often hard to upgrade and repair.
• Desktop: This is pretty much any computer that is designed to be on a desk. In this category, we have towers, shuttles and, er, desktops. These are always the best value for money, the most customisable, and the best for prolonged use. Always get a dedicated desk for it, and set it up so the keyboard is at elbow height and your eyes are level with the top of the monitor.
  Generally it is understood that a PC is out of date once it gets to 18 months old. I will let you into a little secret here. My computer, which I call Bertha, is 16 years old. How I hear you ask? She started life as a computer bought in 1996. Back then she was a 200mmx Intel CPU, 32 Meg of ram with a 4 gig hard drive in a white case, with a 12 inch VGA monitor, and a web cam for £1,999. Since then, she has never been replaced as a whole. She just kept getting upgraded. In that 16 years, her upgrades have come to a total of around £1,600. That is £100 per year since new to keep her up to date. This is easily the cheapest and best way to go with computers.

OK, so you decide which type of computer you want. Now how do you go about getting one?

Most people, for arguments sake we will call them lemmings, will go to the large high street outlets. This is fine. And to be honest, I expect someone without a computer to do this. Just remember this though. No matter the spec of the personal computer you have just bought, you can find it up to 50% cheaper on line. Note I say up to. The internet has companies that rely on name to up their profits. Cough dell cough.

Now I have said it before, and I will say it again. I have a personal dislike to Dell computers. I am not saying that they are crap, but I do not like them. So I better explain why.

1. ten years ago or more, if you wanted to upgrade a dell computer, you had to buy dell parts. They would manufacture the internals so you could not use generic parts.
2. Drivers. I once had to fix a dell computer. Getting dell drivers at the time was a pain in the arse. You had to have Win OEM number, serial number, and other such info that was long gone.
3. Out of the 186 computers I have fixed so far, I have injured myself 6 times. Each of these times was on a dell.
4. Peoples attitudes. The amount of times I have heard 'It shouldn't break because its a Dell.' Seriously, in my experience, if it's a dell its harder to fix. In fact one computer repair guy I once knew charged a £20 surcharge on the repair of dell computers, regardless of faults. Partly to put people off using him to repair them as he hated doing so.
5. A friend once ordered a dell computer. The cost was £1,300. I told her I could build a computer for a similar spec for at least 25% less. She told me if I could she would give me 50% of the difference. So I did. Including monitor, windows Vista and peripherals, my computer came in at £815. that earned me £240. (2007 prices)

So there you have it. My reasons for not liking dell. Please understand though that Dell have millions of happy customers. And I respect that. But I will never be one of those customers.

Anyway, high street retailers are OK for your first computer, but do not go for the expensive option. As I said in chapter 1, get a basic machine for your first computer. A standard desktop will be fine.

But what if you want to upgrade?

Lets assume you have a standard desktop. You find it gathering dust. You use it maybe 2 or three times a week. In this instance I would recommend you get a laptop. Used properly, it will be issue free.

But what if you find your desktop lacking? You want to play games, but the computer isn't man enough? Then upgrade it. For £80 you can get more RAM and a GFX card. Your £400 desktop has just become a games rig.

Find other people within the household fighting over the computer? Your next option is to buy a second computer. You only need one printer, router, scanner. The second one could even be a laptop.

You find out about watching films on-line for less than a SKY TV subscription. Then what? Easy. Connect the PC to the TV. Or get a dedicated computer for the TV. This is where shuttle PC's come in handy.

Your options are endless. I hope to cover them all in future subjects.

Chapter one.

Choosing your computer.

Many years ago I was asked to leave a well known computer retailer. Why? Because I stopped them ripping off a customer.

Whilst browsing the wares within the aforementioned computer retailer within their Worcestershire branch, I happened upon a conversation between a middle aged lady and a store assistant. The conversation went thus:

(Note: This happened about 2001. Before most, if not all, video chat software we take for granted nowadays)

Assistant: 'Can I help you madam?'

Lady: 'Yes, my daughter has recently moved to Australia, and I would like a computer so I can email her.'

A: 'And what sort of computer were you thinking of?'

L: 'I have no idea, I know nothing about computers.'

A: 'Follow me madam'

The assistant walks past most of the computers and goes to the second most expensive computer in the shop. It was labelled at £3,500 ish. (It was 2001 remember)

A: 'May I suggest this computer madam. It has (Reels of tech spec)'

L: 'Will it email Australia?'

A: 'Yes.'

L: 'It's very expensive'

A: 'Well it does have to email Australia.'

I laughed out loud at this point, and asked if I could intervene. I informed the woman that the assistant was ripping her off, and I gave her the address of an independent computer store in a neighbouring town that did computers starting at £300. She thanked me and left the store. 5 minutes later, a store manager asked me to leave and refrain from entering the store again.

I did and I haven't.

And back to today. And still I find that people have, buy or use computers that do not fit in with the way they use them.

One example are people that have spent out on a top end machine, and all they do is email and facebook. For this sort of user, a netbook would surely be better.

Another example are some laptop users. Yes I can understand the need for a small uncluttered computer. But when the laptop is sat on the desk, permanently plugged into the mains, and connected via a cable to the router rather than the wireless, I can't help think 'what is the point of that?'. Especially when shuttle pc's can be bought or build for a less than a laptop, and gives you the option for cheaper upgrades in the future. A medium use laptop would last about 5 years before it needs replacing. A mid to low range laptop would cost about £400. For less than half that, you could upgrade a shuttle PC to last another 5 years. Yes you wont have the portability, but when the laptop sits on the same computer desk in the corner for 5 years, where is the issue?

And finally, we have the over eager netbook users. Those that got one with a mobile phone contract. They push that little box to its limits. Trying to watch a youtube video, while playing a facebook game, all on a tiny 10 inch screen. These people really want to get a laptop.

So why aren't there any guides out there for what you want, need and is best for your uses?

I would suggest that people looking at buying a computer and are pretty clueless on their best option to contact me and I will suggest them something. But that would be pretty pointless as 90% of people that read blogs are seasoned computer users so would know what they want/need.

Another option for replacing a computer is upgrading them. I have been doing this for years. I have never had a top end PC, but a capable one. It still meets the minimum requirement for a lot of new games. It has 2 screens so I can multi task with ease. In fact, as I write this on the main screen, my 7 year old daughter is sat beside me, watching 'Charlie and Lola' on the other screen.

As it currently stands it has a E7700 Dual core CPU, 3 gig of ram, a BFG Tech GTX280, and 2 hard drives totalling 860 gig. And due to me upgrading it has cost less than £100 a year to get it to this spec. Most of the old parts I have kept to make into another computer for the kids. My next set of upgrades will be expensive though, I need to change the motherboard, CPU and RAM in one hit. So that will be at least £200.

Finally, a lot of people say to me 'My computer is old and slow, I need a new one.' When they do, I say to them 'give me 24 hours with the computer and £20* and I can make it work as new. They are usually surprised at how much faster a computer can be just by basic maintenance. Basic stuff that anyone can do. No matter how computer illiterate they think they are. I hope to be doing a few guides on this in future blogs.

For a rough guide of what sort of PC suits your needs, then there is only really one option. If you don't know what you need, get a cheap desktop computer. Why? If you don't know anything about computers, it is the best starting place to learn. If you want more from your computer, a desktop is cheapest to upgrade. If you find that you don't use the resources to their limit, then trust me, in 5 years you will. Then it would still be cheaper to upgrade.

Coming next: Before you switch on. 

*I never used to charge. I used to do it for free. But I kept getting people taking the piss. So I decided to charge. It worked. The people who took the piss don't ask for help any more.