The Hard Drive Buyers Guide by Steve Jones
As home computers become more advanced, and our uses for them become more complex, the need for higher performance and capacity hard drives increases. It is now possible to choose hard drives with vastly different capacities and rotational speeds, making things more confusing for the consumer. ... Thankfully for consumers the hard drive market is extremely competitive and the price at which a high capacity hard drive can be bought is quite astounding. ... Lets consider the following hard drive specifications: 1)Capacity 2)Rotational speed 3)Buffer size and transfer rates In terms of...

Upgrading Your PC for Non-experts by Tim Wakeling
Intro One of the big advantages of PCs over earlier types of computers is that they’re upgradable. If you get to the point where you need a faster computer, more storage space or whatever, you don’t have to buy a new PC. You can upgrade it by buying just the extra part you need. ... Hard Drive Another upgrade that can be worthwhile is a bigger hard drive. ... The more memory you’ve got, the less often your PC will need to store things on the hard drive as it works. ... When your hard drive is nearly full your PC has to scamper around it trying to find empty space every time it wants to...

Mounting the Hard Drive(s) - Step 12 in Building Your Own PC by Chuck Lunsford
Before we get started consider where in the case you want the hard drive. Keep in mind that hard drives generate heat simply by operating normally. Something spinning at 7200 RPM is going to get warm. It is better to place them away from other hardware components as much as the physical... In some older cases, tightening down screws on the far side of the hard drive can be a problem, because the screws are not highly visible and thus it is hard to get to them with a screwdriver. ... With that in mind let us proceed: Slide the hard drive into an available drive rail of the case.

How To Upgrade Your Own Laptop For Under $175 by Erick Charles
Do you have an old laptop lying around just collecting dust that for whatever reason, you no longer use? It just seems so antiquated, and slow. All you want to do is get rid of it. The hard drive is too small, and the memory sucks, plus you're already planning on getting a sweet newer laptop. ... Once I had the hard drive and the memory installed, I re-loaded the operating system, and all the drivers. ... The main 2 are the hard drive, and the memory. ... I found an 80GB Western Digital Scorpio hard drive at http://newegg.com , and for only 80.

How To Buy Cheap Computer Hardware Parts by M Johnson
At some point and time something on your personal computer is going to fail! It happens everyday to perfectly good people. Technology is great, but it does have a lifespan. What do you do now? The answer is really simple. Replace those worn out hardware parts with new ones. ... Simply add a new internal hard drive, or an external hard drive and plug into a USB port and that is it! ... To gain speed add system memory, to store more music and photos add a bigger hard drive, for a total upgrade center adding a motherboard will boost performance instantly.

When to Upgrade by Stephen Chapman
It seems that you have no sooner purchased your new computer software or hardware than a new faster, more powerful version with more features either hits the market or is announced. It just isn't possible to keep up with the high speed changes that are occurring in the computer industry. ... You might not upgrade your spreadsheet program because for the little use that you have made of it the really old version you've got is quite sufficient (of course if you get a really good deal on an office suite you might find it cheaper to upgrade the whole lot rather than just one or two programs).

3 Things You Need To Know Before Installing Windows Vista by Aaron Smith
The new generation of Microsoft Windows known as Vista was released earlier this year. Most new computers bought since the end of January will come preloaded with Windows Vista, but there are many people with older computers that will want to upgrade from Windows XP. ... This is when you format your hard drive, wiping everything clean that's on there now and installing Windows from scratch. ... This upgrade checking tool comes with Windows Vista upgrade packages, but you can also download it from the internet so you can check your computer before spending any money on Vista.

How Do I Speed Up My Computer by Michael Baker
Speeding up a computer can be done in two different methods: software or hardware. When I say hardware, this would be a physical component, such as your hard drive or your memory. Software refers to some program, which is installed onto your computer. ... The hard drive turns at revolutions per minute (rpm), and depending on how fast the hard drive turns, will determine how fast your program gets started and remains running. ... If you can afford it, you can always upgrade to a 7200 rpm hard drive.

External Hard Drives by Kent Pinkerton
The trend with technology seems to be going small and mobile. You would probably think that is where the manufacturers got the idea of making external hard drives. These are hard disk drives (HDD) that are literally placed outside of the computer case. ... As an alternative to these external HDD, manufacturers have developed an HDD casing that allows you to convert your internal HDD, whether it is a 3.5” drive or a 2.5” drive, to external HDD. ... What differentiates an external 3.5” drive from a 2.5” drive is that normally, the larger device would need an extra power source, while the...

6 Simple Steps To Add an Hard Drive To Your PC by Ford Fairline
The most popular and probably the easiest upgrade project for PC enthusiasts is still installation of a new hard drive. It's just a matter of time before terabyte-eating applications demands an upgrade to a bigger and faster hard drive. And don't forget video, audio and graphic files. ... All major drive makers pack software with their upgrade kits that prepares the drive for partitioning and formatting and can also copy what's on your current drive to the new one, helping to make the upgrade a breeze.