If you’ve had a look online or at your local computer store you will have noticed an overwhelming number of options. As a result one of the questions I get asked a lot is which virus protection I would recommend.

Personally I prefer AVG AntiVirus Free Edition. Initially I avoided using it under the common assumption that you get what you pay for… in this case nothing. Eventually I started hearing about it so much from other colleagues that I couldn’t avoid it any longer and decided to start out with some research and test it for myself.

The Results

After looking at the results of quite a number of tests I noticed that AVG AntiVirus Free Edition always ranked exceptionally well with other heavyweights like Norton and McAfee, if not actually rating above them overall.

In my personal experience since then I’ve found it much lighter on system resources (uses less Processor and Memory) meaning its safe to use on old computers as well as new - something that cannot be said for it’s expensive rivals.

More importantly, I have found on many occasions that it’s able to pick up viruses and other nasties that the competing applications don’t seem to. Time and time again I have people coming in with the latest version of their paid applications complaining of a slow computer and possible virus activity. I disable it temporarily and install AVG Free… within seconds I have a handful of trojans etc pop up and AVG asks me what I would like to do with them. So simple.

Not only does it do its job very well without slowing your system down too much, its also very easy to use for even the most novice PC user. If you have a broadband Internet connection it will automatically update daily and then minimize itself when it’s done to ensure you’re always protected against the latest viruses. When it does find a virus it tells you what it found, where and what type of virus it is, follow by very simple options for you to choose from like ‘Heal’. Again something not always so simple with similar applications.

Considering all of these positives and - so far - no real negatives, you really do have nothing lose in trying it. I always recommend it to my clients with total confidence and use it on my own computers as well.

The final compelling factor for AVG AntiVirus Free Edition? The price fits everyone’s budget.

If you look at the rear of your case you will see a big space right at the top, this is where the power supply sits and is held in by 4 screws. The power supply generally goes in with the power cable socket at the top.

Seeing as this is the only thing currently inside your case, move the cables towards the top of the case ready to install the motherboard.

Step 3 - Motherboard (Coming Soon)

Although every case is slightly different, they are all the same in concept. Firstly, remove your case from it’s box and start by taking off all the plastic and other packaging. Take both sides of the case off and lay it down flat.

If there are instruction booklets or CDs inside the case pull them out and shift all the cables to the side out of the way, ready to install the power supply.

Go to Step 2 - Power Supply

Over the next few weeks I will be developing a simple guide to building your own desktop computer. This guide will explain everything that you will need to get started on a modern computer from the tools required to the software you may find useful. Feel free to comment if you think something has been left out.

Also, if you need some help deciding between Windows XP and Windows Vista you may want to check out my other blog post “XP vs Vista”

The Essentials

Before you even pick up a price list you will need to make sure you have the necessary tools for the job. Thankfully this list becomes smaller as PC hardware becomes more streamlined and easy to install.

Phillips Head Screwdriver
Thermal Paste
Torch/Good Lighting
Anti-Static Wrist Strap

What Parts Do I Need?

The basic components of a modern PC are as listed below. Be sure to include all of these parts when it comes time to purchase.

Case
Motherboard
Processor (CPU)
Memory (RAM)
Power Supply
DVD Drive
Keyboard
Mouse
LCD Screen
Speakers

Hardware Selection

Now that you have everything you need to build your new computer, its time to find the right parts for you. This step can be the most daunting of all - deciding on suppliers, brands, models and quantities. In actual fact this decision is not nearly as complicated as it seems. Below are some basic recommendations according to your needs.

Processor (CPU)

Basic home computer running Windows XP - AMD AM2 X2 5200+ (Dual Core)

Advanced home computer running Windows XP - AMD AM2 X2 6400+ (Dual Core)

Gaming computer running Windows XP - Intel Q6600 (2.4GHz Quad Core)

Basic home computer running Windows Vista - AMD AM2 X2 6400+ (Dual Core)

Advanced home computer running Windows Vista - Intel Q6600 (2.4GHz Quad Core)

Gaming computer running Windows Vista - Intel Q9450 (2.66GHz Quad Core)

Memory (RAM)
Basic home computer running Windows XP - 1GB DDR2

Advanced home computer running Windows XP - 2GB DDR2

Gaming computer running Windows XP - 3 - 4GB DDR2

Basic home computer running Windows Vista - 2GB DDR2

Advanced home computer running Windows Vista - 3GB DDR2

Gaming computer running Windows Vista - 4GB DDR2

Video Card
Basic home computer running Windows XP - 256MB 8400GS

Advanced home computer running Windows XP - 512MB 8600GT

Gaming computer running Windows XP -512MB 8800GT/512MB 9800GTX

Basic home computer running Windows Vista - 512MB 8600GT

Advanced home computer running Windows Vista - 512MB 9600GT

Gaming computer running Windows Vista - 512MB 8800GT/512MB 9800GTX

Power Supply
Basic Computer - 430W

Advanced - 600W

Gaming - 750W+

For most users these parts are going to be the only ones which contribute to the overall performance of your computer (gaming PCs aside). For the other components its basically a case of you get what you pay for. If you have the budget to go with a high end case for example you are generally going to get less noise, better cooling and a much easier installation.

Where Do I Get My Parts?
All PC stores will be able to supply you with the basic parts you’ll need to get you going so if you have a local supplier nearby then this may be a great place to start, just be aware that no supplier stocks every possible part so brands and models may differ from store to store. If you are like me and don’t have time to stand in line at a computer store to get your parts then an online shop may be much more useful to you. I personally prefer to use IT Megastore (www.itmegastore.com.au) where you can find your parts, pay for them online and have them delivered to your door.

Time To Build
Once you have all of your parts and tools its time to get started. Firstly find a clean dry place where you can put your parts withing losing or damaging them.

Important: Before you do anything it is essential to understand that static electricity can be very harmful to the parts in your computer. It is highly recommended that you have an anti-static wrist strap to help reduce amounts of ESD (Electrostatic Discharge). Most computer stores will have these in stock.

Go to Step 1 - Case

As broadband Internet becomes more accessible throughout Australia, an increasing number of people are looking to make the upgrade. The trouble is they don’t know what it is exactly they need to get them started.

For those who prefer the DIY approach a simple, single computer setup is generally quite easy to do. Your ISP (Internet Services Provider) generally supplies you with a modem, network cable, USB cable, phone cable, splitter - everything you need. From there it is just a case of following the instructions provided.

While this is perfect for some, others require a much more complicated setup and one that is not so easy without a solid understanding of networking. If your network understanding is not so great, it may be wise to seek some professional advice before you start outlaying money.

The First Step

The first step to getting your broadband connection underway is to do some research on the best ISP for you. Telstra Bigpond, OptusNet and iiNet are generally some of the better providers to choose from however it is up to you at the end of the day. Almost all Service Providers offer different connection speeds, monthly download caps and various other incentives.

Availability

Once you have selected your ISP its time to check with them to see if they offer the connection you are looking for. Virtually anyone can have dial-up Internet because all you need is an ordinary phone line to connect, broadband connections are a little different. As a result Cable, ADSL, Wireless and even satellite broadband are not always available to everyone.

Components

Now that you have decided on an ISP and package and checked for availability, its time to start planning how you want it to be setup. There are a lot of options to consider in this step like how many computers you want connected, whether or not you want them all to have printer access, if you want a wireless connection for any laptops that you may have and so on.

For most home networks a 4 port router will cost around $100 and do the job quite well. Of course if you would like wireless capabilities from your network then you will need to spend a little more.

I need some help… how much?

Contrary to popular belief a professional network setup for the average home can be done in under one hour. This can include a wireless network and several computers. Going by Precision PC onsite prices, this should cost you no more than $90. The important thing to remember as far as budget goes is that if you do attempt it yourself and mess something it may end up costing you more money as the tech tries to find this mistake.

There is no denying the fact that sometimes you will just have to upgrade if you want more performance - This is not always the case. Just like a car, with regular servicing your computer will run almost like new for much longer. These 10 simple steps will help even the most novice of users keep their computer running well.

The below steps are assuming that you are using Windows XP. If you are using another version of windows the steps are likely very similar. Pressing the F1 key while at the desktop will open Windows Help and Support Center which may assist you further. Failing that feel free to contact us and we can give you some more specific information for your computer.

Step One - Remove Unused Programs

If you’ve had your computer for a long time now it’s likely that you have a handful of programs installed that just never get used. The first step to good computer maintenance is simply removing these programs.

Doing this will clear up precious hard drive space and in some cases also remove some background applications which take up much needed memory.

Doing this is much easier than you may think. Just click on the Start Menu and open up the Control Panel. From here, select Add or Remove Programs. This will open the Add or Remove Programs window which lists all the programs you currently have installed along with the amount of disk space they are taking up. Just go through this list and remove the ones you no long use.

Step Two - Disk Cleanup

Another simple way to clear disk space is to run the Disk Cleanup wizard provided with Windows. As the name would suggest, this application checks your hard drive for Temporary Internet Files, items stored in your Recyle Bin and a range of other unnecessary ones which will be building up on your computer.

To open this wizard go to the Start Menu and under All Programs select the Accessories menu. From here go down to System Tools and click Disk Cleanup.

After doing this it will display a box asking which drive you would like to clean up. Make your selection and it will immediately begin searching your computer for files it can safely delete for you. After a few minutes you will be shown a box listing all the different components you can remove and how much disk space each of these is taking up.

Once you have selected the files you are happy to remove click OK at the bottom of the window and the process will begin. After it has finished removing these files the wizard will close and you can carry on using your computer as normal.

Step Three - Adware Removal

Another very common cause of a slow computer is Adware. Virtually anyone who has used the Internet on their computer for a reasonable amount of time is going to have some form of it on their computer. Just because you cant notice these processes running doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.

The purpose and activity of Adware can vary greatly and can often be confused with a virus. Whilst it is not a particularly good idea to have loads of them on your computer, they are generally not as dangerous as a virus. Their main goal is to give you those annoying pop-ups advertising different websites and products.

Aside from the obvious frustration these pop-ups cause, the Adware also takes up some of the space on both your memory and processor which results in less performance. Over the years I have seen astounding changes in performance simply by removing these items from a client’s computer.

Unfortunately Windows doesn’t supply us with an answer to this problem so finding the solution is up to you. There are many free applications available online which will help you to remove them quite well and this is often the best way to do it. My personal choice is Ad-Aware FREE by Lavasoft.

Step Four - Disk Defragmenter

After completing the above three steps you should be seeing a notable difference in your computer’s performance. What we have done so far is free up hard drive and memory space and take some of the load off your processor. We are now going to organise your files better on the hard drive so Windows can read them faster.

Quick Explanation: Hard drives are split into small blocks known as sectors. When a file is written to the hard drive it is spread across as many sectors as it requires. Windows will generally try to write to the first free sector it can find and then continue on systematically to the next free sector. Over time files can become jumbled - or fragmented - amongst these sectors and Windows has to move around all over the drive to piece together the information and show you the end result.

Obviously as Windows has to piece together a fragmented file it is going to take a longer period of time to open, save etc. Running Windows’ Disk Defragmenter aligns these files as best it can so that the majority of the file is written to the one area of the disk. The more you run this the better your computer will perform and the shorter the defragmentation process will be. Having said this there is no need to do it any more than once a week at the most - Usually once a month is fine.

To run the Windows Disk Defragmenter go to the Start Menu and go to All Programs. Select Accessories and go down to the System Tools menu. Click on Disk Defragmenter and the application will begin. You will be shown all hard drives, removable drives and partitions on your computer. Select the drive you would like to defragment, C drive being of highest importance, and click Defragment at the bottom.

If this is the first time you have done this on your computer it may take quite a while to complete. After a few seconds you will be given a basic graph representing the fragmentation of your files.

Step Five - Virus Scan

As with Adware, viruses can also run as a background process on your computer taking up valuable resources and possibly doing more permanent damage at the same time.

You can run a virus scan on your computer as often as you like. The downside to running these scans is that they will make your computer extremely sluggish until the scan has finished. For this reason I generally recommend a monthly scan of clients’ computers.

As with Adware removal tools, finding the software is up to you. Again there are plenty of free programs available which do the trick for the average home user. My personal preference is AVG Anti Virus Free Edition by Grisoft.

This is a very simple program to install and use and automatically updates daily if you have a broadband connection so you know you always have protection against the latest viruses.

Step Six - Remove Startup Programs

Many of the computers that I see have far too many programs loading at startup. These are programs such as Messenger and other online chat applications, email clients and any other programs which automatically load when you turn your computer on. You may not see these programs working but if you have a look at the icons near your clock on the taskbar (bottom right) you will see some of them.

There are a few different ways to remove these programs from your startup list. By doing this we eliminate a lot of the wait time involved in turning your computer on. It also reduces the number of processes your computer has to run while idling.

The easiest way to do this is to remove applications from the startup list via the System Configuration Utility. To open this go to the Start Menu and click Run. In this box type msconfig and click OK.

This will open the System Configuration Utility and show you some configuration options for your computer. What we are interested in at the moment is the Startup tab on the right. Click this tab and you will see a list of most of the processes that run when you turn your computer on. Any items you see in this list that you don’t feel you need to start when your computer does, simply remove it’s tick. When you are done, click OK. If you are unsure what something may be its best to leave it turned on and seek advice.

Note that some programs cannot be stopped in this manor. qttask (Quick Time) and msnmsgr (MSN Messenger) for example have to be configured manually.

Step Seven - Windows Updates

Keeping your copy of Windows up to date is very important for a number of reasons. Mainly for security and stability purposes. Thankfully this is one area that Windows does help us out with. You can configure the updates to download and install automatically via the Automatic Updates window in Control Panel.

Making sure Windows is up to date is one of the easiest ways to avoid some of those annoying error messages and have your computer running consistently. You will notice that for a lot of companies offering support for their software the first question they will ask is whether or not you have done all of your Windows Updates.

Step Eight - Backups

Unfortunately no amount of maintenance is going to eliminate the possibility of a hard drive error. If you’ve ever had your hard drive crash you will know just how catastrophic that can be. The solution? Backups!

Although many are overwhelmed by the concept of backing up their data, the process can be made as simple as clicking a shortcut or running an application. Windows provides it’s own backup application -  aptly named Backup - found in the System Tools menu. This can take maybe 10 or 15 minutes for the average user to set up but is very intuitive (not to mention free).

If this application doesn’t suit your needs there are countless other options available online for you to try.

Step Nine - Hard Drive Error Checking

Checking for errors on your Hard Drive can prevent many major problems later down the track. Doing this will show you any disk errors you may have and can be an indicator of your disk’s health, allowing you to replace it before it dies. Error Checking also attempts to repair any damaged files it finds along the way.

This is yet another feature offered by Windows XP but is more difficult to find that the rest. Open My Computer, right click the drive you want to check and click Properties. Under the Tools tab select error checking and choose your options. Note that the process requires exclusive access to the disk you select. This means that you cannot check your C Drive without restarting your computer.

Step Ten - Keep Some Free Space

The most common misconception amongst my clients is that Hard Drive space effects computer’s performance. Of course if you have a lot of data on your disk and don’t defragment it will slow down somewhat, however having 20 GB of free space wont necessarily make your computer any faster than having only 10 GB.

The one time that disk space will effect performance is when you are getting down to your last few hundred megabytes. When your computer starts to run out of memory (RAM) it will start moving this information to the pagefile on your Hard Drive. If your disk has no space either then you can imagine the problem this will cause.

All you need to do is ensure that you have a decent amount of disk space left. I generally recommend keeping 1 GB free however you could get away with as little as 300MB.

If you are thinking of upgrading your computer then it’s possible that you are considering buying a copy of Vista as part of that upgrade. There are quite a few things which you need to consider before doing this.

Can my computer run Vista?

Firstly, you need to make sure that your computer is capable of running Vista comfortably. The last thing you want to be doing is spending money on your computer only to have it run slower than before! You may have checked Windows ‘Minimum Requirements’ to run this new Operating System. The problem with the specifications they list is that they are minimum requirements. As in, if you computer has these specs it will eventually make it to the desktop. As for opening programs however that may be a different story.

As a technician I personally don’t like to build a new computer with less than 2GB of RAM if it is going to be running Windows Vista - 3GB or more is preferred. As far as processors go, basically any Dual Core CPU is going to do the job just fine. Of course the more money you are willing to spend the better it will perform.

If you don’t have a dual core processor then you may still be ok to upgrade. You might want to get a professional opinion on your exact parts before you upgrade however. In any case a second opinion is always a good idea before spending money.

Another common issue people come across when making the switch to Vista is that they cannot find drivers for some of their components. For example you may have purchased a second hand printer a couple of years before Vista was released. Chances are that the manufacturer of this printer simply does not supply Windows Vista drivers for that printer. In simple terms, if you upgrade to Vista and this is the case, you will not be able to print.

These same issues can also apply to other important components such as your Video Card, Sound Card, Network Card, Chipset (Motherboard) etc.

Thankfully Windows is well aware of the poor driver support for older components in particular and have released their Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to help us out.

What this tool does is check each and every component that it can find on, in or attached to your computer and see whether or not these items are going to work with Vista. Of course given the millions of different parts available it is not uncommon for it to tell you that no data was available for a certain device.

The Upgrade Advisor is just a 6.6MB download from the above link and is very intuitive. You simply download the file, double click the installer and follow the very basic installation wizard. It will then quickly check for updates and a minute or so later the application will begin, all you have to do is click ‘Start Scan’ and wait for the results. Depending on your computer, this scan may take quite some time and may effect your computer’s performance too.

To get the most out of this scan make sure that all of your USB, Firewire and otherwise connected devices are turned on and ready as it will attempt to check these for compatibility as well.

What version suits me?

Assuming that you have checked the above and are happy to go ahead with your Vista upgrade, it is now time to choose your version. Gone are the days of having either Windows XP Home or Professional. You now have to choose between Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.

Again, Microsoft lends a hand in this department by laying out all the features available for each different version. Just check their version comparison page to decide whats right for you.

Maybe XP is best for me

Although Vista does have quite a few advantages over XP some people may be far better off staying with the tried and tested XP. Even though it is now quite outdated, XP is much more stable than Vista at this point and offers driver support for virtually any component. It also means that a small upgrade and some maintenance might have your computer performing the way you would like rather than the several hundred dollars likely needed to achieve Vista’s power requirements.

Is Vista stable?

When WIndows Vista was first put on the shelves it had a lot of problems. So much so that a vast number of people who went out and bought Vista on the very first day went home and installed it only to resort back to XP hours later.

There were massive issues with driver support and general instability, not to mention the fact that a lot of software would not even install due to incompatibility.

For this reason a lot of people chose to stay with XP and have never really looked at the upgrade since. Often you will still hear of people discussing the issue as though it were the same now as it was on the day it was released.

What people often forget is that every version of Windows that has been released in the past has had similar problems. Granted they were not on the same scale but they were there. As always, Microsoft has since spent a lot of time fixing these issues and I am pleased to report a massive improvement. Especially since their recently released Service Pack.

You will still find some driver support issues on old components and there are some minor issues still being sorted out but as a whole Windows Vista is now quite stable. My personal opinion? If you need the highest level of stability you can get from a Microsoft OS, stay with XP. For the average user however Vista runs well enough for myself and virtually all of the major computer manufacturers to recommend.

The decision is never easy when it comes to upgrade versus update but hopefully this information can make the decision easier. If you have any queries or suggestions feel free to leave your comments or send us an email at info@precision-pc.com.au.

Chris Ashton

Director

Precision PC