Technology Toolkit

Computer cases used to be any colour you liked, as long as the colour you wanted was beige. There used to be virtually no way in which you could choose the appearance of your computer, and they weren’t really designed with appearance in mind. The keyword for most computer cases used to be functionality. As long as they were strong, held all the components securely in place and had enough slots for the various disk drives and sockets, then that was really all that mattered.

Fortunately this is no longer the case, and in fact you’ll find it quite hard to find a new computer made in beige. Today computers come in a variety of sizes, styles, colours and with a huge range of features. If you’re looking to build your own home computer, then one of the exciting parts of the design process will be choosing the type of computer case you will use.

There are a number of decisions which are likely to result in narrowing down the selection of boxes available. The first thing will be the type of motherboard which you intend to use. This will, in turn, be based upon your choice of processor. Once you have decided upon the kind of motherboard you wish to use, then you will know the size and shape of the space inside the box that will be required.

Another aspect will be the number of drives and external ports you need. You may well wish to have at least two or three drives – such as a DVD drive, a recordable DVD drive, and possibly one spare. You might want a floppy drive, although these aren’t usually considered useful much these days, since a floppy drive can’t store very much data at all.

If you want a number of external USB drives, or fire wire ports, then you may well need to think about choosing a box or computer case with enough spare room for these to be displayed externally. Whether you want these at the front of the back of your computer is a matter of choice, although the most useful arrangement is often considered to be having a few at the back and a couple at the front too.

These decisions will all have an impact on the choice of case, but you’ll still find a huge range of choice is still available. From different colours, to different materials, you’ll find computers that will suit your style, and even coordinate with your home!

There are even computer cases with transparent panels, and when combined with internal illumination, these can become very attractive and eye catching items in themselves. When the internal components have been fixed neatly in place, and especially if you’ve used liquid cooling rather than fans, the internal lighting can make any computer look very much a part of the space age.

Even if you are not considering building a computer from scratch, you may well find yourself considering buying a new computer case anyway. If you have a computer already which is starting to age, you may have found yourself wanting expand its capabilities. Maybe you could do with an extra hard drive, or another external drive bay. If this is the case, there’s a good reason to buy a new computer case, transfer your old components to it, and add in a couple of new items. This can result in a computer which looks modern and fantastic, which extra capabilities, and at a faction of the price of a new computer.

Many people are confused about the difference between a hard drive and a hard disk, and even what these are within a computer. Very simply, a hard disk is a physical disk which can be used to store a large amount of information using magnetic patterns, in a similar way to audio cassettes and video tapes, except that a hard disk is quite a lot smaller, and yet can store an incredible amount of information. In fact, hard disks tend to be a collection of several disks all stacked done above the other like a multi storey car park.

A hard drive, on the other hand, is the whole unit in which a hard disk is just one part. The hard disk, or the different layers or platters which make up a hard disk, requires turning. This means that there is a small motor built into the hard drive unit. A very small head needs to read the magnetic patterns on the disk, a little like the stylus from an old record player. The difference, however, apart from being in terms of scale, is that the head which reads a hard disk never actually touches the surface, but hovers a fraction of a millimetre above it.

If the head of a hard disk actually touched the disk surface itself whilst it was spinning, the result would be disastrous, almost certainly damaging the data irreparably, and possibly wrecking the hard disk completely.

A good analogy is to imagine the planet earth as the hard disk. On this sort of scale, the head reading the surface would be just one foot above the ground. You can easily see just how close the head must be to the hard disk when you consider how much smaller the disk is than the planet earth, and therefore how more miniscule the distance between the disk surface and the head must be.

Continuing this analogy, if it were the head which revolved, rather than the disk, then it would be travelling so quickly that it would circumnavigate the earth completely and be back to its starting position once every twelve seconds. Needless to say, the speeds are phenomenal, and when you consider how close it is to the ground, the danger inherent in the head touching the ground at that speed would be utterly disastrous.

A single speck of dust coming between the head and the hard disk would be like a mountain in the way of our analogous head, and clearly cause for complete failure. This is why the hard disk, the motors, the heads and the other components which make up the complete hard drive unit are all enclosed in a special case which is vacuum sealed. This makes sure that there is no possible way in which dust can enter this unit.

The hard disk is the main storage space on any computer, and usually contains all of the data and programmes needed for the computer to run, including the operating system itself, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS or Linux.

Once the preserve of the very rich, laptops have now become so affordable that for many people they represent better value for money than a standard computer. Laptops were considered essential only by those who needed to work whilst on the move, but so many people are on the move for one reason or another today that the mobility and flexibility of a laptop has become extremely popular.

Only a few years ago it would have been almost laughable to imagine students carrying laptops to school or college, yet today you are just as likely to see a college student carrying a laptop around than a normal pen and paper. The advantages in having a laptop are tremendous, and they provide far greater opportunities to aid learning and study than the pen and paper did.

Being able to use a laptop to record a lecture to an mp3 file for later reference, whilst typing up notes directly on computer, cross referring to other notes or previous essays, and even checking some points online at the same time is all perfectly possible, and tasks which are carried out by students every day. The laptop has quickly become a tool for learning and study that is popular, portable and affordable.

The one aspect that has deterred some people from purchasing a laptop rather than a computer has been the issue of versatility and upgrading. A standard computer can have the side removed, and almost anyone armed with basic knowledge and a screwdriver can whip out a hard disk and add a newer, faster and larger model, add in more memory, insert a new DVD drive or add a graphics card.

Laptops generally have no such capability for development, since the components are usually so tightly packed together than they cannot be serviced by anyone other than a qualified expert. However, the technology which is used to make a laptop is usually first rate, and easily equivalent to anything that a standard computer can offer.

Although there is the issue of adaptability, many people don’t bother to upgrade a computer, replacing it completely instead. A few years ago a new computer may have cost several thousand pounds, but today, buying a new computer is often not much difference in terms of price than buying all of the upgrade components you might wish to buy.

Since laptops have come down so incredibly in price recently, for many people it makes more sense to replace the whole laptop after a few years than to worry about upgrading a computer. A new processor can easily cost five hundred dollars, yet a laptop can often come in at very little different.

Then there is always the mobility to attract people. Whilst the problem of upgrading may be considered, laptops will always be popular as far as mobility and portability is concerned. A home computer tends to sit in one place. A laptop can be popped in a bag and carried on your shoulder as easily as a shopping bag or handbag. The advantage of being able to work or play anywhere, anytime is often more attractive than the issue of upgrading internal components.

Modern computers can carry out a fantastic number of calculations and processes every fraction of a second, but this incredible computing power generates a very significant quantity if heat. As software becomes ever more complex and demanding, such as video editing and high end 3D graphics, computer games and audio editing, computers are constantly kept busy. The sound you hear whilst your computer is running is largely due to the high speed fans which are helping to dissipate the heat generated by the processor.

To make matters even worse as far as heat generation is concerned, some computers not only have multiple processors, but have separate processors for high end graphics cards. These processors also need cooling, and so having multiple fans can be necessary in order to help keep the components cool.

Naturally, all of this processing requires a great deal of power, and the PSU or power supply unit generates yet more heat. This is why it is often the case that computers can have two or three cooling fans. This all adds up to a great deal of noise, and if your computer sounds quite loud, it may be the fans which are causing most of that background hum.

Another issue is the dissipation of heat away from the computer. No matter how many fans are at work inside the computer, if the vents in the side of the computer are next to a wall, or in a poorly ventilated small office or room, then the heat will simply end up being circulated within the room and back to the computer.

If a computer heats up too much, then the processors may well reach temperatures above the recommended. When this happens, it is likely that poor processing takes place, with mistakes, crashes and even unpredictable shutting down of the computer. If you are finding that your computer does feel quite hot, and crashes a great deal, and shuts down spontaneously sometimes, it could well be a problem caused by overheating.

There are a number of possible solutions to this. It is likely that the cooling fans in your computer have become clogged with dust, and if this is the case then not only will the dust be acting as an extra insulation layer, trapping the heat inside, but will also slow down the fan, or even stop it turning altogether. Cleaning this dust away using compressed air is the best way of keeping your fans working properly.

Another thing to consider is replacing the fans in your computer with proper, purpose built cooling units. With high powered, highly efficient fans built on top of cooling pipes and fins which aid the dissipation of heat, you may find that not only does your computer work more efficiently, but is also able to work more quietly. Good quality,. Modern fans can work much better, and more quietly.

If you are really in to keeping your computer cool, working effectively, and quietly, then the best possible solution is to use a liquid cooling system. These systems don’t use fans, and so are much more quiet. They work by pumping a special liquid through pipes that run across the hotter parts of your computer, drawing the heat away very efficiently.

A monitor is one of the most essential peripherals of a computer system, since we always need to receive output from a computer, and seeing visually what the results of any calculation or process are is the easiest. Some older computers used paper output only, with the results of calculations printed on paper or punched into cards. Today, these methods are simply not enough, and certainly computer games would never have survived without a visual medium.

In the early days of home computing the monitor was simply the television, and the standard way of working on a home computer was to plug it is to the main television screen, in a similar way to games consoles today.

However, since television screens had relatively low resolutions, and were often rather large and not terribly convenient, separate monitors were developed to cope with the difference in quality required. A television was fine for seeing pictures, but when you needed to read small, typed text clearly, and for long periods at a time, televisions were simply not appropriate any longer.

Early monitors were known as cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, and worked in exactly the same way as a television screen. A phosphor covered glass screen was fired upon by a series of three guns at the back which fired particles which caused the phosphor to glow. Whilst these monitors have been used for many years, and in some places are still being used, they have largely been superseded by more modern LCD or TFT screens instead.

CRT monitors were relatively cheap, and second hand monitors today can be picked up for just a few dollars, but they do have a few problems. The first is simply space. They are very large and extremely heavy, taking up valuable room on a desk. Their resolution s normally not as good as a TFT screen, and there are problems in terms of distortion. Because the CRT screen is the bottom of a glass bell, it is slightly curved. This curvature causes a little distortion which can be a problem for some people, particular those in graphics.

There is also the health issue to consider. CT monitors have an enormous electromagnet built in to them, which is how the guns at the back are moved about. Being too close to this powerful magnet for too long at a time can cause a number of health problems, and it has been advised that pregnant women, those with heart problems or blood pressure issues should not sit too close to a CRT for very long at a time.

Flat screen monitors, including LCD and TFT monitors have managed to solve all of these problems, and the price is now so affordable that most people are able to choose these monitors over the older format. Flat screen TFT monitors provide very fast and very accurate picture qualities, with no ghosting or image echoes likely to be found in CRT monitors.

TFT monitors have no magnets inside, and so are perfectly safe to use,. They tend not to reflect as much as CRT monitors, and so people report fewer headaches or eye strain problems when using these monitors for long periods.