Understanding Removable Media

The options in a PC for removeable media are pretty straight forward.  The common media types to take data with you are as follows:

• 3.5” Floppy
• CD
• DVD
• Blu-Ray
• USB Drive
• Micro Flash Cards

3.5” Floppy

This has gone obsolete several years ago, and the media is no longer made, however, it is still prevalent in a lot of government agencies still such as a lot of Education Departments that I thought it important enough to list.  The 3.5” floppy is a a hard cased 3.5” media platter that can hold 1.44MB of data.  This was the gold standard of its time.  Cheap, reliable, and easy to transport.  This is now concidered legacy and even external USB connected 3.5” floppy drives are hard to come by to read these.  No manufacture makes these anymore.  Drive support stopped in 2010 for this type of media and for home based computers this technology is effectively dead.

CD (Compact Disc)

The CD replaced the 3.5 inch floppy and is still in limited use today.  The CD comes in a variety of types.  Below is a general list of CD types:

CD	Read Only Disc, Typically Software came on
CD-R / CD+R	CD that could be recorded up to the capacity of the CD.
CD RW	CD that could be Rewritten several times up to the capacity of the CD
The “-” denoted single session burning, meaning after the CD was burned it could not be written to anymore.  The “+” denoted multiple session burning up to the capacity of the CD.  meaning you could write to it several times.

The CD capacity was up to roughly 600MB which was a great improvement over the 3.5 floppy.  And the media lasted a lot longer than the floppy, it could actually be used for archival purposes.

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)

The DVD format came out and it quickly replaced the CD as the go to media as the price came down.  The DVD followed the same naming convention at the CD, so you had DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD RW.  Storage Capacity goes up to 4.7GB on a single disc and a dual layer format came out that nearly doubled that to 8.5GB.  These just like the CD have become the go to media for archival of data for long term storage.  

Blu-Ray

This is the latest of the Disc based media formats to come out, these discs can hold a huge amount of data for archival purposes.  Blu-rays hold up to 50GB of data and as price comes down they are becoming the standard in long term data archiving.

USB Drives

These drives are becoming the standard method to hold, and carry files for day to day use.  Form factors range from  external drives that can hold up to 2TB of data and fit in your back pocket to drives that are the size of your thumb, (“Thumb” Drives) to drives the size of your thumbnail, just slightly bigger than the USB plug itself.  Overall you can find drives typically from 2GB up to over 100GB easily.  They are fast, easy to use, require no special software to write to them and are ultra portable for the amount of data they can hold.  The only downside to these is as far as archival purposes these have lifespans that are short and have a much higher failure rate than the disc based media for archiving but for quick transport and to have files with you when needed the USB Drive excels.

Micro Flash Cards

These similar to the USB drives however they require a special reader/adaptor to be able to have the work on a computer.  These have different configurations such as SD, MicroSD, Compact Flash, MS Pro and others not so popular.  The sizes range from 16MB to 100+GB of data as far as their capacities go. These are for portable devices such as phones, cameras and the like.  The main purpose for these is to either give or expand storage space for those devices.  But make they are removable to ease the transfer of the data from device to device when you have the adaptor.  Typically a multi card reader can be had for cheap and covers the gambit of these types of cards.

I hope this helps explain the various types of removable media that can be used on PC today, and gives you enough detail to choose the appropriate media for your task.

Understanding Processors

Processors are the brains of your computer system and can vary greatly in price from similar speed units.  This is to better help you understand the general specs of a processor and understanding those specs that aren’t so well described.  There are two major manufacturers for consumer PC processors, those being Intel and AMD.  This will not be an article regarding superiority of one over the other but a general overview of processors and their specs as a whole.

Socket Configuration

This is important for processors since the processor must mate to the system board (motherboard) properly.  Typically a system board only has one type of socket configuration, and your processor must match that socket.  Here are a list of the common socket types for each manufacturer:

Intel Sockets	AMD Sockets
LGA 1150 LGA 1155 LGA 2011 LGA 2011-v3 LGA 775	Socket AM1 Socket AM2 Socket AM3 Socket AM3+ Socket FM2 Socket FM2+

These are not all of them, these are just the common ones in use today.  AMD and Intel sockets are not interchangable, and typical not compatible within their own brand group as well.  

Clock Speed

The clock speed is a measure of how fast a processor core can complete a task.  This is how “fast” a processor is and where the majority of the cost comes from when purchasing a processor.  Intel processors commonly run in speeds of up to 4GHz and AMD processors running up to 4.7Ghz.  So a task that takes a 2Ghz processor to complete in 1 second, and 4Ghz processor would complete the same task in a half of a second.  The higher the processor typically the better the processor.

Number of Cores

The number of cores is really how many processors are in a CPU.  A single core processor can only complete one task at a time, a dual core can operated 2 instructions and so on.  So this obviously is a more cores the better type scenario.  Common core counts on today’s processors as of this writing are 2-8 cores.  This improves the overall efficiency of your processor by being able to perform multiple tasks at once.

Hyper-Threading

This is an Intel proprietary technology that in short makes a computer think there are twice the number of cores as what there actually are in the processor.  The downside to this is software that is used must be written to take advantage of this, otherwise the system just uses the processors as normal.

L2 Cache

This is the on board memory for the processors to use while handling instructions.  This is the second fastest memory available to the processor, typically a larger L2 cache to a certain point is better for the average user because L2 cache is much faster than the memory installed on the system board.  So processors of equal speed, the processor with a faster L2 cache will perform slightly faster than a processor with lower L2 Cache size.  Also L2 cache is per core, so if an 8 Core processor has a 1MB cache that’s acutally 8MB of L2 cache, 1 for each core.  

L3 Cache

This is also on board memory for the processor to access while handling instructions this is larger although slower than the L2 cache.  This is described for all the cores on the processor to share.  Even though this is slower than the L2 cache, it is still much faster than the system memory installed on the system board.  A larger L3 cache is prefered for the general user as well.

So I hope this helps you understand why the processors can vary in price as they do even when they are the same speed, and you can understand the basics of how to marry a CPU to a system board when buying a new CPU or building your first computer.

Understanding Storage Drives

Storage Drives are the long term storage devices for computers, and there are lots of options meaning a wide range of price points to meet a wide range of budgets and applications.  This blog will break down the specs of a current hard drive technology to make you a more informed shopper for your PC or hard drive purchase.

Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

Hard disk drives are platter based drives which are the old reliable hard drive type. They consist of a stack of storage platters with arms that read the data off the platters as needed.  These drives are have several different specs to consider.

Form Factor

The Form Factory or physical dimensions of the hard drive.  There are a few form factor standards.  They come in 1.8, 2.5, 3.5, 5.25 inches.  The most common for Desktop PCs is 3.5 inch, and 2.5 inch for Laptops.  The 1.8 can still be found for very ultra portable devices but are quite pricey, and the 5.25” is considered obsolete and replaced by the 3.5” size.  

Data and Power Connection Types

There are a couple of standards for Desktop Hard Drives and Laptop Hard Drives for their power and data connections.  The desktops have an IDE/ATA type data and power connection, and a newer SATA Power and Data connection.  The SATA type connection provides for much faster data transfer rates than the IDE/ATA connections.  The SATA Generations are SATA I, II, and III, and can handle throughput rates at 1.5, 3 and 6Gb/s respectively.  This is much faster than the IDE/ATA throughput speeds of up to only 133Mb/s.  SATA is the way to go when it comes to platter based HDD.

Seek Time

This is determined in large part by how fast the drive platters spin.  The faster the spin rate the faster the data on the hard drive can be read.  Speeds are typically as follows 4800, 5400, 7200, 10000, and 15000 rpms.  Which correlates to seeks times of 6 - 2 ms of latency on the drive, lower the seek time the fast the hard drive performs.

Capacity

This is the spec most people look at, and rightfully so, this is where the majority of your price point differences here.  Looking at SATA drives since they are the most current capacities range from 100GB to 4TB of storage space.  

Solid State Drives (SSD)

Offer storage with no moving parts.  In a lot of ways they are superior to Hard Disk Drives, however, they have some special considerations that you must be mindful of.  Solid state drives are typically instantaneous regarding seek time, they instantly become available on activation, and operate for the most part with a SATA interface.  However, they do have drawbacks.  The cost is prohibitive for very large solid state drives when you compare them to hard disk drives.  As of this article you can purchase a 4TB hard disk drive easily for about $150, where a SSD of only 1TB in capacity will be more than double the cost, around $400-$500.  They are also very vulnerable to electrical surges and don’t do well with handling multiple power surges compared to a hard disk drive.

I hope this article has helped you become a more informed Storage Drive consumer, in understanding where the price comes from for drives, and the basic benefits that each drive type can provide.

802.11 What???

Understanding Wifi Standards is important, so that you purchase the most compatible wifi card for the scenario you are using.  There are over a dozen 802.11 standards, however this article will discuss only those standards that are in common use with home computer equipment..

The Standards:

• 802.11A
• 802.11B
• 802.11G
• 802.11N
• 802.11AC

If you connect your computer through your wifi card to connect to the internet one of these standards are used to get you connected to the internet.

What is 802.11? Well its IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)  set of Physical and Media Access Control specs to cover WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) connections.  What’s the letters?  Well those are the amendments to the original standard.  

Now that you know how they came up with the name, now lets dive into the capabilities of each.

802.11A

This came out with 802.11B standard in 1999. It operates in the 5ghz spectrum and allows for connections up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) up to a distance of about 115ft in an indoor environment up to 390ft in an outdoor environment.  The great thing about this standard was that it operated in the 5GHz range where there aren’t as many common “cordless” devices that operate in that spectrum; cordless phones being the most common.

802.11B

The sister standard to 802.11A.  The big difference was it operated in the 2.4GHz spectrum and only allowed connection up to 11Mbps from distances up to 115ft indoors and 460ft outdoors.  This was the first wifi standard that swept the world, due to its cheaper cost and increased range.  The problem however was it operated in the same spectrum as phones and other house hold devices.

802.11G

Finalized in 2003 this standard was to keep the the cost low, but attain the connection speeds of 802.11A in the 2.4GHz spectrum.  This quickly replaced A & B because it was the best compromise between the two, with the range of B.  The plus of this standard was that G was backwards compatible with B.  The problem still lingered that it was on the 2.4 GHz band and still had interference issues.

802.11N

This was finalized in 2009, and was the first to use Mulitple Input and Output antennas or MIMO for short, this allowed greater throughput and operated in 2.4GHz but it also can use the 5GHz spectrum which allowed for some flexibility.  It also allowed for connection speeds up to 600Mbps.  This quickly replaced 802.11B/G and pretty much rendered A obsolete.  This standard also increased range to 230ft indoors and 860ft outdoors.  

802.11AC

The latest standard to be finalized at the end of 2013.  This standard provides connection speeds up to 78Mbps to 3.2Gbps speeds.and covers a range of 115ft.  The only real drawback of the standard. The range compared to N.  But the connectivity speeds more than makes up for the disadvantage.  It also operates only in the 5Ghz range to stay out of the way of the already over crowded 2.4Ghz spectrum.  Most modern flagship phones from manufacturers support this standard, and the cost of AC spec’d wireless adapters/cards/devices is not that much more over their N counterparts.

So with all that said what connectivity should you make sure you have, to be the most compatible with whatever type of wifi you may find out there.  The best card to get is one that covers them all to be honest.  With the exception of A, the others are still in pretty prevalent use.  Make sure your card is a B/G,N,AC card and you will pretty much have everything covered.  If you are setting up your own wireless network, be sure to take into account all your devices you want on your network.  It would be a shame to setup a G,N,AC network and have an older B only device that can’t get connected, especially if you still need that device.

I hope this helps with getting an understanding of what the wifi standards are, how they got their name, and what they are capable of providing.

Understanding Memory Specs

With today’s modern PCs, the memory or RAM options are vast and to a lot of people confusing.  I’m hoping with this to explain RAM in such a way to make it easier for a person getting a memory upgrade to be better informed about their product choices.  This is going to assume that this is for a desktop personal computer for a Small Office / Home Office.

First things first you have to know what form factor your desktop pc is compatible with.  You have currently 4 standards of memory that are in use:  DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4 (DDR stands for Double Data Rate, it superseded SDR or Single Data Rate).  With DDR being the oldest and DDR4 being the newest standard.  Pretty much any desktop PC system/motherboard is setup to accept one of these types of RAM.  It is important to know since these are not interchangeable.  Should you be in any doubt as to what kind of memory it is (buying it used) here’s a quick little chart to help determine the types. Again these are for desktop PC

DDR	184-Pins
DDR2	240-Pins
DDR3	240-Pins
DDR4	288-Pins

The other factor that makes them not compatible between them is there is notch between the pins that physically makes them unable to be inserted into the wrong type memory slot.

Now that we’ve determined the type of desktop memory, we need to look at the speed.  This is where we can mix and match a little bit.  However be aware that all the memory will operate at the speed of the slowest memory module in use or the speed the system/motherboard operates.  So memory speed can be displayed in a couple different ways.

The first is just in megahertz.  You can see on the product the following hertz rates (DDR is listed here): 100,133,150,166,183,200,216,240  The faster the better and the more premium the price point you will pay for that memory.

You will also see them displayed like the following (again DDR is used here): PC1600, PC2100, PC2400, PC2700, PC3000, PC3200, PC3500, PC3700.  This actually tells you the transfer rate.  So PC1600 can run at 1600 MB/Sec.  Generally again the higher the number the better, and again the higher the pricepoint for the higher the transfer rate.

A little trick to determine the megahertz of the memory and then vice versa would be to multiply or divide by 16.  It’s not exact but it gets you close if you are mixing memory (not advised) and the memory is each labeled a different way.

Now we know our Type, our Speed, now we need to figure out why one memory module of the same capacity is more expensive than the other, (Brand name cost excluded).  And that’s a spec in memory known as Latency.   It’s the delay the actual chips that make up your memory take before acting on the operation.  It is measured in clock cycles.   So even though the memory is the same type, speed, the chips used change the cost and efficiency of the module.  Typically Lower numbers are better, and again the lower latency values, the more premium the pricepoint will be to get that memory.  Typically the the latency values are displayed in this format.  However for the sake of thoroughness

7-7-7-8(-1)

I will give a quick breakdown of what the numbers are for.  This will be a high level explanation just know the lower the values the better performance you can expect from the memory module.

• The first number is your CAS Latency, which as lot of people feel is the most important value.  This is the number of clock cycles from the time an instruction is sent to the module and information is returned.  In this example it would be 7 clock cycles.

• The second number is the RAS to CAS Delay.  This is the delay between Row and the Column where the instruction is trying to get.

• The third number is the RAS Precharge. this is the delay between disabling and accessing the next line of data.

• The fourth is the Active to Precharge Delay.  This is the delay time from access initiations to that memory.

• There is sometimes a 5th number (which is why it is in parenthesis above) This is the delay from the time the module is able to receive a command after it has been activated.  This Value is a 1 or a 2.

Then the final piece that adds to your price point doesn’t have anything to do with the module itself per se.  Its the brand.  A lot of times to a point, the brand you choose will determine the quality of build and the level or QA that goes into the chips.  I will not go into brands, because to a certain degree it is preference and experience that leans a potential buyer of a product to one over the other, and that’s not what this entry is about.

Too Much Power Supply?

When building or buying a Custom PC, the power supply is a critical component that needs proper consideration, Too often people purchase a PC or build a PC with the thought of "I want to get the biggest power supply that I can buy..."  but that's a big component that can be over bought and money that could be put towards other components ends up generating power that never gets utilized.

What does the wattage actually mean on a Power Supply unit?  The wattage is the amount of power made available to the system.  However, there is an extra factor you must take into account, and that's the fact that what the power supply does is convert from AC to DC.  When this happens you have a loss of energy in the way of heat, and the process itself.  Most power supplies are at least 80%+ efficient (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum are just how much more than 80% it will be).  That means for a power supply that generates 500 watts for the system it powers it actually is using roughly 625 watts from the wall.  So keep that in mind when you are pricing the power supply.

What does the form factor mean when it comes to power supplies.  Simply put the form factor for the power supply must be compatible with not only the system case that you are putting all your components in, but the system board must also be compatible.  So if your Case is AT/ATX/MicroATX compatible, your power supply must match to fit the case, and match the system board so that the cable harness would have the appropriate connections.  That is important to remember as well.

So we now are sure that the system board, the system case, and the power supply will fit.  Now how do I know which wattage is right for the system being built.  Let's now look at how to calculate system needs.  It all boils down to a fully thinking out your system, what components you need.  Let's look at a bare bones PC next to a more advanced system.

Basic System

Componenet	Description	Wattage
CPU	Basic Dual Core	65
System Board	Basic Board	40
Video Card	Basic Add-on Card	35
Memory	Basic 4GB	5
Optical Drive	DVD-ROM	6
Hard Drive	5400RPM HDD	10
Fans	Basic Case Fan	4
	Total	165 Watts

Advanced System

Componenet	Description	Wattage
CPU	Advanced Hexcore	150
System Board	Advanced Feature Set	55
Video Card	Advanced Graphics (Dual Card)	350
Memory	Advanced 8GB	10
Optical Drive	Blu-Ray	12
Hard Drive	7400RPM HDD (Raid 1)	20
Fans	Basic Case Fan	4
	Total	600 Watts

So as you can see the more complicated the system the more power you need to make sure everything functions correctly.  So the basic setup will do fine with a 200 watt power supply, and the advance will need a 650-700 watt power supply.  These numbers are based at max power draw per component.  That is what you need to calculate at.  The most common mistake you find is people calculate on the idle voltage draw, As soon as your system is taxed, you will suffer from power issues.  If you plan to increase storage, plan accordingly for your end product not with what you currently have.
Now that you have an understanding of how to better choose the proper power supply, I hope this will help you with your next build, and also to not get sold something that is not what you need.

Documentation is Key

Documentation in today’s work environment is just as important, if not more than the actual work done.  Documentation not only explains to the customer what was completed but it also provides a historical look back at problems and possible solutions.  In this way your team is not continually reinventing the wheel and wasting that time.

The most important reason for documentation is to record steps taken to solve the issue that is being worked on.  This is the most important reason for documentation, should you need to revisit the customer should the issue not fully be resolved or, should a solution not provide the expected results, the documentation provides a change log to know what to change back to original state should you need to revert back to the original condition.

Another important reason to have good documentation is to have reference material for not only yourself but your team that you work with, also known as a Knowledge base.  By developing site specific documentation you can create a very robust knowledge base for not only yourself but the remaining members of your team, as well as team members to come after you.  This will drastically cut down on problem solve time, as well as provide a standard solution to ensure that further modifications to equipment at your site will be uniform and consistently implemented.  Not only the customer, but the support team will have a less stressful work day.

Another reason but just as important type of documentation is for security incidents that may involve violations of facility policy, local, state, or federal laws.  As a lone desktop tech, you will need to be very familiar with documentation for this, but as a desktop tech in a team, you normally also have a security group that should definitely be brought in to run point on any incidences that may have breached local, state or federal laws.  The key to this documentation is to preserve the equipment in question not changing, clearing, modifying anything to the system, but taking screenshots, data captures, and to track any and all steps done on the equipment while investigating the incident.  It is also very important to have a chain of custody when dealing with this type of documentation.  This tracks who has had their hands on the equipment should any question come up to the preservation of the evidence of the incident.

Documentation of what you do on a call is important and should not be overlooked.  A method I’ve developed over the years is to take notes for myself, and transcribe them at the end of the day into universally understandable documentation so that anyone in the group can understand, and repeat or undo the steps taken.  This will allow the tech on the next shift, to know what happened should they get called back to the same system, or should they need to replicate what you have done because another system is showing similar symptoms.

I hope this helps you understand why documentation is important in your daily life as a desktop technician.  It’s not just something to do because your manager or supervisor tells you to do so, it really is a tool that can make your overall career easier.  Not only is it an excellent tool and skill to have in your own ability set, but it also helps your whole team in the long term as well.