How to build your very own PC !!

Introduction

In this tutorial I will try an
teach you how to successfully build your own computer! There are many benefits
to building your own computer.

1. You get hand's on experience learning how a computer works
   
2. Its a hell of alot less expensive then buying one from a retailer
   
3. Its a hell of alot more reliable than buying one from a retailer being that
   you hand select QUALITY parts and put it togethor yourself.
   
4. You can do your own tech support no more relying on stupid Best Buy Tech's
   that don't know the difference between their ass and a hard disk jumper (don't
   worry I'll tell you what those are later)

Section #1 (What Your Going To Need)

Here we will discuss a list of the parts you need and the best place to
purchase them. If you want the best
prices on computer hardware you will
definitly want to look online. Unfortunatly (and for some of you very
fortunatly
if you know what I mean) this requires the use of a credit card.
Below is a general list of the devices you will
need...

1. A Computer Case (Something To Put All The Computer Parts Togethor In)
   
   
   • Should only run you about 50 dollars
     
   • Beware the cheap ones with cheap power supplies they will die in a year
     
   
   
2. A Mother Board (Everything Will Be Plugged Into The Mother Board)
   
3. A Floppy Drive and a CDROM (Should Be Obvious)
   
4. A Hard Disk (Come In Many Different Flavors and Quality Levels, Stores All
   The Information In Your Computer)
   
5. A Video Card (Cheap Stuff, Its What Your Monitor Plugs Into)
   
6. IDE Controller Ribbon
   
7. Miscellaneous Accessories

Next we'll take a look at many of the different options you have when buying
these pieces of equipment. Your choice
may vary depending on which Operating
Systems you plan on running.

Section #2 (Which Brand And Model Should I
Buy?)

We'll lets start with your computer case and move all the way down to
Miscellaneous Accessories..

1. Computer Case

You will most certainly need an ATX style case with a quality power supply.
How do you tell? Well if the case
is only 15-20 bucks theres a pretty good
chance its a crappy power supply.

2. A Mother Board

I suggest a quality ASUS (ATX style to match your computer case) mother board
its up to you ask your friends.
I've had bad experiences personally with
FIC
mother boards.

3. A Floppy Drive and CDROM

Pretty inexpensive stuff, i'd suggest a Sony Floppy drive and a generic
CDROM. Doesn't make too much a difference if your
concerned about getting the
best price.

4. Hard Disks

Gets alittle tricky. If you want reliability,
high speed transfers, and are willing to run Windows I suggest a Western
Digital
or a Seagate ULTRA DMA-66. If your not to concerned with speed and
want to run a server with Unix i'd go with a Fujitsu or
a Western Digital.
Their farely inexpensive but only transfer in 33 megabit bursts as apposed to
the DMA-66 which transfer
in 33 megabit bursts. I don't believe Unix
currently supports ULTRA DMA-66, but don't quote me on that. Now there's an even
faster
transfer rate available via SCSI Hard Disk Controllers, but i'm not
about to go into setting up SCSI controllers in this tutorial.
For now we
will stick with IDE Hard Disk controllers.

5. Video Cards

Video cards are cheap and if your not a gamer a plain ole gener Cirrus Logic
or STB video card will do fine.

6. IDE Controller Ribbon

You'll need 2 different kinds of IDE Ribbon 2 40 pins for your CDROM and Hard
Disk and Another with less pins for your floppy.
You can buy these at any
local computer store or order them off the web.

7. Miscellaneous Stuff

You may be interested in adding a sound card, ethernet card, and/or 3DFX card
to your system. These are relatively easy to do and
I will explain how to add
card's to your mother board later.

Section #3 (Where do I buy all this crap!?)

Well if your looking for the best prices online for computer hardware (and
this is my unbiast opinion) i'd suggest going to
http://www.pricewatch.com
again ask your friends maybe they know a better place. Pricewatch.com researchs
the best prices
on computer hardware.

Section #4 (Lets Assemble!)

This next part is very important so read carefully...

1. 
   

   First things first get yourself a clean desk to work on.

   
   
2. 
   

   Place your ATX stlye computer case on the desk and slide/lift the top off.
   Inside should be a bunch of wires coming out
   of the power supply in the back
   and a bunch of wires coming out near the face of the box.

   
   
3. 
   

   The next thing your going to want to do is place your mother board inside the
   case and fasten it in. Their might be
   metal coverings covering the holes in
   the computer case were the parralel ports and serial ports on the mother
   board
   should poke through, go ahead and poke those out with a screw drive so
   you can fit the mother board in snuggly. Every
   Case fastens mother boards in
   different ways. Some use plastic pegs, some use metal screws. It will hopefully
   be obvious
   which you have to use.
   

   
   
4. 
   

   #4 Once the mother board is mounted properly you will need to fasten the
   floppy drive, and cdrom into the computer case.
   All computer cases store
   floppy drives differently there maybe a slide out container that you screw them
   into. You'll
   have to make sure that the the floppy drive is right side up
   (duh!) and that the pins are facing towards the back of the
   computer.
   Installing the CDROM is pretty much the same in all computer cases. Some
   mounting rails should have come
   with your mother board. You need to fasten
   those to the sides of the CDROM and you should be able to slide it right
   in
   to one of the top bays.
   

   
   
5. 
   

   Insert your Video Card. There are presently about 3 differnet forms of slots
   on your mother board. PCI, ISA, and AGP.
   Video Cards are presently made for
   all 3 of them. AGP stands for "Accelrated Graphics Port" Video Cards made for
   this
   slot are generally more high tech/performance. PCI's work and so do ISA
   (Althoug ISA is more Old School). Gee how
   do I tell the difference? Well AGP
   slots more than likely is the only small, brown, slot on your mother board.
   PCI
   you probably have the most of these their white and little longer than
   AGP. ISA, these are longggg and black, ugly.
   Insert your Video Card and snug
   it in there firmly. Don't force it (duh).
   

   
   
6. 
   

   Time for that evil Hard Disk installation. We'll Hit hooking up the power
   supplies and Installing the Hard Disk at the
   same time just for fun. Insert
   the Hard Disk In a very much similar way to the way you inserted the floppy
   disk. But
   Before you do make sure that the jumper settings are correct on the
   back of Har Disk. Most hard disks are shipped in
   single mode, but if you want
   to run multiple hard disks (which we won't discuss) you need to set the jumpers
   differently.
   Jumpers are little metal prongs connected with little jumpers
   that complete a connection. You figure it out. Anyway
   you got your hard disk
   in now its time to hook up the power supplies. The hard disk and the CDROM have
   similar power supp
   lies. 3 or 4 prong. Hook those funny looking cords coming
   out of the back of the power supply into your CDROM and Hard
   Disk. Theres a
   smaller one that hooks into your floppy it should be obvious. Theres a big power
   supply (the biggest one
   in the lot usually made of white plastic) It fits
   into a slot on your mother board, it is the main power supply to your
   mother
   board. Its kind of tricky to get in so be careful.
   

   
   
7. 
   

   Now that you have your Power Supplies hooked up you'll need to connect your
   Periphrials to your Mother Board. Use the IDE
   Controller Ribbon I know you
   all have. Hey one end goes to your CDROM (make sure the red line on the ribbon
   "pin 1" is
   matched up with the first pin on the back of your CDROM) and the
   other end goes to your mother board (same deal). The
   same goes for your hard
   disk and yoru floppy. Figure it out its not that difficult. You'll know you did
   something wrong
   when you get a floppy disk fail on boot.
   

   
   
8. 
   

   Finishing touches. Don't forget to connect those nasty wires coming out from
   behind the face of your computer case to
   your mother board. They control the
   on, off, reset, hard disk activity, and power switch. Every mother board is
   different
   so i hope you have a manual with your mother board. Most specify
   with 2 or 3 character paraphrases that make no sense.
   For Example "PWR SWT" =
   Power Switch "RST SWT" = Reset Switch. Or even more vague than that.
   

Section #5 (Testing 1, 2, 3)

Ok your ready to give it a whirl, you'll need to get in your system bios. The
"DEL" key should usually get you in.
Get it to autodetect your hard disk.
Accept the Setting and Save your Configurations. Install Your OS and your ready
to go.
That easy!! Ha! you'll prolly have lots of trouble theres a million
resources online to help you. Get to it.

CD-ROM/CD-Rewritable Installation Guide

Table of Contents:

Intro
I.Supplies needed and costs
II.Steps before installation and preparation
III.The Installation of the CD-ROM drive
Adding a CD-ROM drive(Burner,DVD, or any CD-ROM)
Upgrading a existing CD-ROM
IV.Conclusion
V.Tools and Utilities
Contact Info


Intro

So you want to upgrade your CD-ROM drive or put in a cd burner without having to pay $50 to install it? or just want to install it on a machine that does not have one? Well you came to the right place. In this tutorial I will provide you with information on installing a new CD-ROM drive. And for more hardware installation guides visit Blacksun Research Facility.

I.Supplies needed and costs

Supplies you need will be:

A CD-ROM drive ($40-$300 depending on if its a Burner or DVD)
Phillips Screwdriver (Should have)
Needlenose Pliers (Should have)
Anti-static wrist strap(optional)


II.Steps before installation and preparation

Before you start digging around in your computer...you are going to want to get everything you need at hand. Clear a space on a desk or table and unplug your computer and carry the case where it is well lighted. Remove the screws holding the out shell of your case, and remove out shell. Now you should be able to see the motherboard and all the insides. So you know, the box in the top left with red, yellow, and black cables coming out is the power supply. At the end of those wires is a connecter with 4 pin holes. Then the ribbons you see are what transfer the data from the drive to the motherboard. Look at your existing setup and look how they connect to the floppy drive etc.

III.The Installation of the CD-ROM drive (Section A, Section B)

Follow the following sections on what tasks you want to accomplish.

Section A: If you are adding a CD-ROM drive(Burner,DVD, or any CD-ROM)
Section B: If you are upgrading a existing CD-ROM
Section A:Adding a CD-ROM drive(Burner,DVD, or any CD-ROM)

Remove the face plate cover on your tower where your CD-ROM will be taking its place.
Set the jumper on the back of your new CD_ROM drive to slave if not already set. If there is no diagram refer to manufacturers website for settings.
Slide the drive in to the open slot in your case. But do not screw in the screws yet because you might need to slide it around.
Once your drive is in place look at the IDE ribbon connected to your hard drive and see if there are any free connectors to plug in to your CD-ROM. If there are not use the IDE ribbon that came with the drive and connect it to the CD-ROM (Note:That ribbon is how your CD-ROM drive communicates with your Motherboard.
Connect the audio cable(small cable almost like phone cord and jack) to your CD-ROM drive then connect the other to your Audio card. If you cantfind your audio card look for a small black jack which would fit the connector.(Note:This is only nessary if you want sound from your CD-ROM.
Now its time to connect your power supply connector to your CD-ROM drive. It is a cord that has yellow black and red wires with a connector on the end.
Once everything is connected, screw the drive into place and close up the case and reboot. If your running Windows 98 it should recognize it right away.
Test it out to make sure its working. Install Drivers for the CD-ROM if any came with it.


Section B:Upgrading a existing CD-ROM

Remove the existing hard drive by disconnecting all the cables and power supply.
Set the jumper on the back of your new CD_ROM drive to the same settings on your old CD-ROM drive.
Slide the drive in to the open slot in your case. But do not screw in the screws yet because you might need to slide it around.
Once your drive is in place look at the IDE ribbon connected to your hard drive and see if there are any free connectors to plug in to your CD-ROM. If there are not use the IDE ribbon that came with the drive and connect it to the CD-ROM (Note : That ribbon is how your CD-ROM drive communicates with your Motherboard.
Connect the audio cable(small cable almost like phone cord and jack) to your CD-ROM drive then connect the other to your Audio card. If you cant find your audio card look for a small black jack which would fit the connector.(Note:This is only nessary if you want sound from your CD-ROM.
Now its time to connect your power supply connector to your CD-ROM drive. It is a cord that has yellow black and red wires with a connector on the end.
Once everything is connected, screw the drive into place and close up the case and reboot. If your running Windows 98 it should recognize it right away.
Test it out to make sure its working. Install Drivers for the CD-ROM if any came with it.
IV.Conclusion

Now you will be saving money by installing hardware by yourself without having to pay $60 a hour labor cost at a computing store. As you learn more about computers you will soon realize that you will save lots of money on repairs if you can do them yourself. So I hope you enjoyed this and I hope it was helpful. Feel free to email me your questions/comments/anger. Visit Blacksun.box.sk for more of my hardware tutorials.

V.Tools and Utilities

CD Burning Utilities, Drivers, and more
--(http://www.download.com)

Installing a Hard Drive

Table of Contents:

Intro
I.Supplies needed and costs
II.Steps before installation and preparation
III.The Installation of the HD
IV.CMOS Check
V.Tools and Utilities
VI.Conclusion
VII.Contact Info

Intro

So your old hard drive is acting up? or just too small? Well you came to the right place. In this tutorial I will provide you with information on installing a new hard drive in addition to your old hard drive, and tell you how to upgrade and existing hard drive. Please follow the tutorial step by step and read it all carefully or you could end up loosing all your existing data. So enjoy this tutorial from Blacksun.box.sk. And for more hardware installation guides visit Blacksun Research Facility.

I.Supplies needed and costs

Supplies you need will be:

A Hard drive ($50-$250 depending on size)
Phillips Screwdriver (Should have)
Needlenose Pliers (Should have)
Anti-static wrist strap(optional)
II.Steps before installation and preparation

Before you start digging around in your computer...you are going to want to get everything you need at hand. If you are starting clean and reinstalling a new version of windows you will want to have a formatted drive and a DOS boot disk. You can create a boot disk by getting a blank floppy and open My Computer then right click on (A:) and select format. Then select option "Copy System files" which then will create a disk for booting up in DOS prompt once you have fomatted your hard drive for Windows installation. If you have a existing drive that you want transfer your data to your new hard drive, you will want to get a DiskCopy utility from (www.powerquest.com). Also note that DISKCOPY and XCOPY will not copy hidden and system files. Once you have all disk backed up and ready to move, clear a space on a desk or table and unplug your computer and carry the case where it is well lighted. Remove the screws holding the out shell of your case, and remove out shell. Now you should be able to see the motherboard and all the insides. So you know, the box in the top left with red, yellow, and black cables coming out is the power supply. At the end of those wires is a connecter with 4 pin holes. Then the ribbons you see are what transfer the data from the drive to the motherboard. Look at your existing setup and look how they connect to the floppy drive etc.

III.The Installation of the HD

Ok. Now your ready to install the hard drive. If your replacing a existing drive look at the jumper settings on the back of your hard drive. Jumpers are what tell your computer what its purpose is. They are pins in sets of 2. They look like this :::[:]:: with ( :=pins and []=the jumper which slids on the pins. ) Once you find out what your existing drive's jumper settings are you then can set your new hard drives jumper settings to the same as the existing. Most drives have listed what the settings are but if they are not listed on the actual hard drive you should refer to the manufacturers website. Your new hard drive should be set on Master and if your just adding an additional hard drive set your old one to slave and new one to master. Now when putting in your new drive you are going to want to slide it in ussually below floppy drive or anywhere you have room. Once you have it slid in connect the power connector to the drive and the wide EIDE ribbon with the pink line on the right near the power connector. Once installation is complete of your hard drive, re-connect the cables and moniter and turn on the power.

IV.CMOS Check

On boot enter your PC's setup program(On boot it ussually shows you what key to press for system setup) and check the BIOS for drives 1 and 2 if you added an additional hard drive. Make sure both drives are set on AUTO so it can detect and set up correctly. Save and reboot.

V.Conclusion

Once windows is booted up check out the new drive and make sure it is working properly. If you added a drive reformat the old one so now you can prepare it for more data. I hope this helped you in the steps of installing or upgrading a new hard drive. If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to email me. More tutorials to come and soon a HTML version with picture references.

VI.Tools and Utilities

Disk Copy Utility
--(http://www.powerquest.com)

Title: Installing a Hard Drive

Table of Contents:

Intro
I.Supplies needed and costs
II.Steps before installation and preparation
III.The Installation of the HD
IV.CMOS Check
V.Tools and Utilities
VI.Conclusion
VII.Contact Info

Intro

So your old hard drive is acting up? or just too small? Well you came to the right place. In this tutorial I will provide you with information on installing a new hard drive in addition to your old hard drive, and tell you how to upgrade and existing hard drive. Please follow the tutorial step by step and read it all carefully or you could end up loosing all your existing data. So enjoy this tutorial from Blacksun.box.sk. And for more hardware installation guides visit Blacksun Research Facility.

I.Supplies needed and costs

Supplies you need will be:

A Hard drive ($50-$250 depending on size)
Phillips Screwdriver (Should have)
Needlenose Pliers (Should have)
Anti-static wrist strap(optional)
II.Steps before installation and preparation

Before you start digging around in your computer...you are going to want to get everything you need at hand. If you are starting clean and reinstalling a new version of windows you will want to have a formatted drive and a DOS boot disk. You can create a boot disk by getting a blank floppy and open My Computer then right click on (A:) and select format. Then select option "Copy System files" which then will create a disk for booting up in DOS prompt once you have fomatted your hard drive for Windows installation. If you have a existing drive that you want transfer your data to your new hard drive, you will want to get a DiskCopy utility from (www.powerquest.com). Also note that DISKCOPY and XCOPY will not copy hidden and system files. Once you have all disk backed up and ready to move, clear a space on a desk or table and unplug your computer and carry the case where it is well lighted. Remove the screws holding the out shell of your case, and remove out shell. Now you should be able to see the motherboard and all the insides. So you know, the box in the top left with red, yellow, and black cables coming out is the power supply. At the end of those wires is a connecter with 4 pin holes. Then the ribbons you see are what transfer the data from the drive to the motherboard. Look at your existing setup and look how they connect to the floppy drive etc.

III.The Installation of the HD

Ok. Now your ready to install the hard drive. If your replacing a existing drive look at the jumper settings on the back of your hard drive. Jumpers are what tell your computer what its purpose is. They are pins in sets of 2. They look like this :::[:]:: with ( :=pins and []=the jumper which slids on the pins. ) Once you find out what your existing drive's jumper settings are you then can set your new hard drives jumper settings to the same as the existing. Most drives have listed what the settings are but if they are not listed on the actual hard drive you should refer to the manufacturers website. Your new hard drive should be set on Master and if your just adding an additional hard drive set your old one to slave and new one to master. Now when putting in your new drive you are going to want to slide it in ussually below floppy drive or anywhere you have room. Once you have it slid in connect the power connector to the drive and the wide EIDE ribbon with the pink line on the right near the power connector. Once installation is complete of your hard drive, re-connect the cables and moniter and turn on the power.

IV.CMOS Check

On boot enter your PC's setup program(On boot it ussually shows you what key to press for system setup) and check the BIOS for drives 1 and 2 if you added an additional hard drive. Make sure both drives are set on AUTO so it can detect and set up correctly. Save and reboot.

V.Conclusion

Once windows is booted up check out the new drive and make sure it is working properly. If you added a drive reformat the old one so now you can prepare it for more data. I hope this helped you in the steps of installing or upgrading a new hard drive. If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to email me. More tutorials to come and soon a HTML version with picture references.

VI.Tools and Utilities

Disk Copy Utility
--(http://www.powerquest.com)

Memory Upgrade Guide

Table of Contents:

Intro
I.Supplies needed and costs
II.Steps before installation and preparation
III.The Installation of the Memory
IV.CMOS Check
V.Conclusion
VI.Tools and Utilities
VII.Contact Info

Intro

Is your PC running slow? Well memory upgrades are about the cheapest upgrade that you can do to improve your computers performance drastically. This will be a easy tutorial to understand so you can pop in your memory and determine from now
on out what you have inside your computer. This will be a step by step guide to install Simms and Dimm memmory. Simms memory slots are small and a whiteish color. Dimm memory slots are longer in length and are black. So please when following this tutorial please do not skip read, read carefully or it could end up costing you money. So enjoy this tutorial from Blacksun.box.sk. And for more hardware installation guides visit Blacksun Research Facility.

I.Supplies needed and costs

Supplies you need will be:

Memory ($50(32MB)-$200(128MB)) - www.kingston.com - www.crucial.com
Phillips Screwdriver (Should have)
Anti-static wrist strap(optional)
II.Steps before installation and preparation

Before we start getting into the installation you should have already looked inside your computer for what type of memory your computer support. If you have 2 or more white slots open means you need 72 pin SIMMS memory. SIMMS must be put
in pairs. DIMM on the other hand can go in by itself, so it doesnt need a pair. Clear a space on a desk or table and unplug your computer and carry the case where it is well lighted. Remove the screws holding the out shell of your case, and remove out shell. Now you should be able to see the motherboard and all the insides. Now look for your memory slots on your mother board, If you can not see them then you might have to move or take some stuff out to be able to move around inside but you probly wont have to. So you know, the box in the top left with red, yellow, and black cables coming out is the power supply.

III.The Installation of the Memory

Ok. Now your ready to install the memory.

If you are installing SIMMs memory then...
Grab one of the sticks of memory and slide it into slot from the top at a 60 degree angle(Ex.\.). Once you have it slid all the way in,push it to a upright position until you hear it click. Now put in its pair. Then re-connect the cables and moniter and turn on the power. On the boot up screen look at the memory count will be like 32838k(32MB) of memory. Make sure its reading the memory. If that number varies significantly from what you were expecting contact manufacturer or dealer you bought your memory from.

If you are installing DIMM memory then...
Grab one of the sticks of DIMM memory and line it up to the DIMM Socket so the grooves in the memory stick are the same on the motherboard. Once lined up push the white arms on the top and bottom of the DIMM socket to a outward position so they are not in the way of the memory. Now press firmly on the top and bottom until the white arms come in locking the memory in place.Then re-connect the cables and moniter and turn on the power. On the boot up screen look at the memory count will be like 32838k(32MB) of memory. Make sure its reading the memory. If that number varies significantly from what you were expecting contact manufacturer or dealer you bought your memory from.

IV.CMOS Check

On boot enter your PC should recognize the memory. Not many systems require you but if its required you will get a error message. Then enter your systems setup.

V.Conclusion

Once windows is booted up check out the new memory and make sure it is working properly. I hope this helped you in the steps of installing or upgrading your new memory. If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to email me. More tutorials to come and soon a HTML version with picture references.

VI.Tools and Utilities

Disk Copy Utility
--(http://www.powerquest.com)

Hardware Tutorial

This isn't so much a tutorial, as it doesn't actually teach you much.. It's more a text on hardware for those of you sick of newbie tutorials, and looking for something interesting and non-dangerous. This is mainly about motherboard stuff, but I stuck something about HDs, mice and Gfx cards at the end. Hey, if people like it and tell me, I might even stretch and do al the other computer bits and bobs. ;)


Content
The Bios
(I) Functions
(II) Static + Passwords
Processors
(I) Fetch-Execute
(II) Clock Ticks
(III) Funky Athlon fridge chip.
The Clock
(I) What does it look like?
(II) Waves
(III) Some ASCII Art. ;)
(IV) What is Digital? (unrelated to Microns, but hey.)
(V) Howcome Digital can't be conceived in real life?
(VI) What does digital represent?
(VII) What is Binary?
(VIII) How do I translate between number systems?
(IX) sums?
(X) Use Wincalc.
Chipset
(I) A what?
(II) Assembler and Machine Code
(III) Intel ones.
Microns
(I) Moore's Law
(II) Predictions / Intel. V. AMD. (Go, AMD!)
Hard Drives
(I) Origin
(II) How they work
(III) FIrst computer
Mice
(I) Rollers
(II) Cleaning
(III) Keyboard crud
Gfx Cards
(I) Built in v. NOT
(II) Components
(III) Stay away from S3s! warning
(IV) 3D and 2D cards
The BIOS.
This contains instructions which are specific for that particular motherboard. Those programs and instructions will remain in the PC throughout its life; usually they are not altered. However, it is possible to get replacement / upgrade BIOS's. Primarily the ROM code holds start-up instructions. In fact there are several different programs inside the start-up instructions, but for most users, they are all woven together. You can differentiate between:
* POST (Power On Self Test)

* The Setup instructions, which connect with the CMOS instructions

* BIOS instructions, which connect with the various hardware peripherals

* The Boot instructions, which call the operating system (DOS, OS/2, or Windows)

Note: Only very old or different OS's are stored on ROM, such as OS/2. This is actually a much more efficient system.
BIOS's are static sensitive, so take care when handling them. They can also be PWord protected... if you ever get round to doing this, don't forget the password. As you don't use the BIOS PWord often, this is easy to do. Don't. it's bloody hard getting the PWord back.

Processors
Processors work on a fetch-execute cycle. each tick of the clock, in theory, they get a bit of data... and by tick of the clock here, we don't mean a second, we mean the tick of a computer clock. Depending on the speed of your processor, this is anywhere from 233 million ticks per second for a 233, to 800 for an overclocked 600MHz Athlon chip.
So, you can get, on your average computer, 400 - 500 bits of data per second. Well, wrong actually... because not every clock tick is taken up by getting the data. Every _fourth_ is. Well, what about every other 3? you ask.. they are taken up with _finding_ the data, _getting_ it, and putting it back. So, you say, your processor runs at a quarter of the speed that in theory it should be able to do? Well, yes. And there's no way around this, unfortunately. But, we can make the clock speed a little faster, and it is the clock speed that dictates the speed of the processor... (within reason).
Therefore, you can set the clock ticks on your 233 to 266, and it'll run at 166 MHz. Yes. Unfortunately, the more clock ticks there are in relation to what your chip is _supposed_ to run at, the hotter it Gets. Therefore, you need to install heatsyncs/fans. In fact, the AMD Athlon 600MHz overclocked to 800MHz, the fastest PC at the time of writing has a minature fridge that cools the chip, which is its own special metal box. The tower-sized case also has a box the size of a mini-tower underneath for the cooling system. ;)
For this increase in temperature of 200MHz, the chip is cooled to -37 degrees centigrade. that's cold. ;) (Note: AMD chips generally run a lot hotter than Intel ones). ((Not a problem unless u have no heatsync)) - see the micron section, below...


The Clock
Now, this fabled clock looks like, in most cases, a small black box on your motherboard. The clock ticks it emitts are in the form of a wave , but a different wave: one that is sqare, and it looks like a castle ramparts. the speed of this is dictated by the MHx setting you set with the Jumpers on your motherboard. The waves look like so: (except slightly more square)
__ _ ____ _ _ ___

_¦ ¦___¦ ¦__¦ ¦_¦ ¦_¦ ¦__¦ ¦__ and etc.





The wave, which never changes, and is always the same, is broadcast throughout your motherboard, and it synchronises all of the things that go on there. For example, when you press the left button in your game of quake, the processor assigns different bits of your computer to do whatever is neccacery to redraw what's on the screen, and tells it to have it done in 3 ticks' time. The same process occurs on the gfx card itself, where the main processor assigns a polygon to each other chip, or whatever. Infact, if you have an old enough computer, you can see it being redrawn on the screen... try it... run a gfx-intensive game on a 486... If the task isn't done in time, then it all falls apart, and the computer crashes. This is why you don't want to buy a dodgy CPU. :) (Get an AMD Athlon!).
The signals sent run around your motherboard, through all of those copper bits, and into the chips, ISA slots, or whatever, and the task gets accomplished.

This signal is sent around the motherboard in that most wonderful of things we all love, Binary. Now, Binary is what Computers communicate with, and it is a DIGITAL thing. Digital. A Much used term.
COmputers are electronic, and therefore, all the signals in them are tiny pulses of electricity. Now, electricity can be one of two things. On... or off. And this is what makes it digital. If it could be half on as well, it would be analogue... But no. It's digital. However, the representation of it in the form of signals down wires is analogue, as a sound in a modem wire can be any of a hundred million different pitches, can't it. Yes. This digital signal is, then, a series of 0's and 1's. Binary. The counting system that we use (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11... etc... ) is Denary. It's Base ten... Binary is Base 2 (and Hexadecimal, which is used, amongst other things, is base 16). Therefore it is perfect for being what these signals are coded in. so each charactor on your screen is represented in your computers RAM by a series of Binary digits. Probably 8. if you go into Windows Calculator, and switch to scientific mode (View>Scientific) you can decode this. For example, 1 in Binary is 00000001. 2 is 00000010. The way this can be decoded is thus:

Each digit in binary represents a quantity of a certain number, just as denary does. In denary, there is a column for 1's, a column for 10's, and a column for 100's. And in Binary, there is a column for 1's, 2's, 4's, 8's, etc. Let me show you:

Denary:
100s 10s 1s
1 0 0

Here, there is a one in the hundreds column, and therefore, 100 + 0 + 0 (0 and 0 are the other 2 columns) makes 100. SO 1 0 0 in Denary represents 100. (of course, translating 100 --> 100 doesn't work, as denary is used in both cases). In Binary, this works this:

Binary (8-bit -- 8 digits)
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0

SO... 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 250.
So the Binary number 11111010 = 250. Simple, eh?

It is possible to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, in fact, EVEYTHING that is possible with denary (1--> 10)... I'm not going to explain it because it is simply too complicated. ;) Use Windows Calculator... the radio buttons at the top left switch between number systems.

Chipset
We all know what assembly language is, do we not? It is the programming language that is most native to a computer. The instructions go directly to the chip (more or less). (Assembly actually lays on top of Machine code, which is the real native: Assembler is a more human-friendly version)... Each chip has their own different version of assembler/machine code, called its _chipset_. Each new type of chip comes with an upgraded chipset: for example, the Intel MMX chip incorporated the...wait for it... MMX chipset! There are also chipsets such as 3D!Now. THe most basic of commands between, say, Intel and AMD are the same: they have to be in order for the two to be compatible, but more advanced things are different. This is why Alpha chips are incompatible with windows: The chipset is completely different.
Intel has hitherto been the leader in supplying chip sets to the Pentium motherboard. Therefore, let us just mention their chip sets, which have astronomical names. The Neptune chip set (82434NX) was introduced in June 1994. It replaced the Mercury set (82434LX). In both chip sets, there were problems with the PCI bus. In January 1995 Intel introduced the first Triton, where everything worked. This chip set supports some new features: it supports EDO RAM, and it offers bus master integrated EIDE control and NSP (Native Signal Processing - one of the many new creations, which was soon forgotten).
The sorts of things that new chipsets are used for are varied... for example, The Intel TX Chipset, for example, supports SDRam and UltraDMA (But the TX-set cannot cache above 64 MB RAM, and that is a problem.), while AMD chips have their own special Graphics chipset, which is better for that task.

Microns
The CPUs have doubled their calculating capacity every 18 months. This is called "Moore's Law" and was predicted in 1965 by Gordon Moore. He was right for more than 30 years. The latest CPUs use internal wiring only 0.25 microns wide (1/400 of a human hair). But if Moore's Law has to be valid into the next century, more transistors have to be squeezed onto silicon layers. And now there is a new hope. IBM has for the first time succeeded in making copper conductors instead of aluminum. Copper is cheaper and faster, but the problem was to isolate it from the silicon. The problem has been solved with a new type of coating, and now chips can be designed with 0.13 micron technology. The technology is expected later to work with just 0.05 micron wiring! Texas Instruments announced on August 27th 1998 that they expect 0.07 micron CMOS processing in the year 2001. At the time of writing, AMD chips run at .27 microns (?) and Intel at .33. This explains why AMD chips are hotter, as there is less wire, and therefore more probability of the electrons that the electricity is comprised of hitting the side of the wires, and creating heat.

Hard Drives
Hard drives work in much the same way as a floppy disk does. They can, however, store a much larger capacity of data, and therefore are much more fragile, and compact . For this reason, they are hermetically sealed. NEVER OPEN ONE IF YOU WANT TO USE IT AGAIN. There is, inside, 3 or 4 goldy-brown circular plates on which the data is stored. These are much the same as the ones inside a floppy disk, except that they are not 'floppy' but hard, or stiff. The data is stored on the platters magnetically, which explains why floppy disks have a "keep magnets away from me" warning on boxes u buy them in.
IBM introduced the first hard disk in 1957, when data usually was stored on tapes. The first 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) consisted of 50 platters, 24 inch diameter, with a total capacity of 5 MB, a huge storage medium for its time. It cost $35,000 annually in leasing fees (IBM would not sell it outright) and was twice the size of a refrigerator.
In the early 80s, HD's became the preferred storage medium as opposed to floppy drives (these were previously used due to increased reliability). IBM's PS/2 (one of which I have - yay) was one of the first PCs to be equipped with a Hard drive. I think.

Mice
Mice are, as we all know, Input devices, and as we also know, they tell where you are on the mousemat by moving a ball in the bottom. Which you can see. But how does it read how the ball is moving? Well, inside the mouse are 2 rollers, at 90 degrees to each other. When you move the mouse, u move the ball, and thus the rollers. THe rollers have some little discs on the end of them with slits in, and either side of the disc are light-readers, so that when you move tha ball, the mouse can tell because light flasles on and off in its light reader. There is also a 3rd non-functional roller to keep the ball rolling smoothly. Note: It is perfectly safe to turn your mouse upside down ,. take the ball out and look inside, as long as you don't prod anything too hard (twiddle the rollers by all means, just don't stick bits of paper in there). It is also a good idea to get a blunt knife or screw driver and clean the crud off the rollers every few weeks... it solidifies into little rings around the rollers, and works to the detriment of the mouse. If it isn't cleaned off, it can also, fallinto the mouse, and reak havok with the insides. :) The same sort of crud builds up in keyboards, but is harder to remove. ;)

GFX Cards
A video card is typically an adapter, a removable expansion card in the PC. Thus, it can be replaced! The video card can also be an integral part of the system board...This is the case in certain brands of PCs and is always the case in lap tops. This is not nice, as it is hard to upgrade to a better card. On a OC with a non-removable gfx or sound card, the normal procedure if you _do_ want to replace it is to disable the built-in graphics card using jumpers or dip switches... consult your motherboard manual. ;) Regardless of whether it is replaceable or integrated, it consists of three components:

* A video chip of some brand (ATI, Matrox, S3, Cirrus Logic, or Tseng, to name some of the better known). The video chip creates the signals, which the screen must receive to form an image.
* Some kind of RAM (EDO, SGRAM, or VRAM, which are all variations of the regular RAM). Memory is necessary, since the video card must be able to remember a complete screen image at any time.
* A RAMDAC - a chip converting digital/analog signals.

NOTE: Never buy an S3. Never. Ever. I've had lots, they're all useless. Remember that.

All ordinary graphics cards can show 3D games. That is really no special trick. The problem is to present them smoothly and fast. If the PC’s video card is made for 2D execution only, the CPU must do the entire workload of geometric transformations etc.! And that task can cause even the fastest CPU to walk with a limp. In recent years there has been an enormous development in 3D graphics cards. Let me briefly describe those here.

There are two types of graphics cards, which can be used for 3D acceleration:

Combination 2D/3D cards. These are ordinary graphics cards, which have been equipped with extra 3D power.
The pure 3D cards, which only work as accelerators. These cards require that there also is an ordinary (2D) graphics card in the PC.
Of course the pure 3D card yields the best acceleration, but there are also good combination cards on the market.

OVERCLOCKING

Content

What is
Overclocking?
• What is the Meaning of the Word Overclocking?
  
  
• How Can I Benefit From Overclocking My Hardware?
  
  
• How Can I Overclock My CPU(1)/Video Card/Other?
  
  
• How Dangerous is This Whole Thing?
  
  
• Can Overclocking Fry Up My Computer?
  
  
• Safety Warnings?
  
  
• Possible Side Effects and How to Avoid them?
  
  
• Advanced Tips and Tricks?
  
  
• Advanced Tips and Tricks for Making Your Overclocking More Efficient?
  
  
• More Information on Speeding Up Your Computer?
  
  
• Where to Find More Information on Speeding Up Your Computer?
  
  Notes About 3D
  Accelerators
  
• How do I Overclock My 3D Accelerator?
  
  Newbies
  corner
  
• What is a CPU?
  
  
• What is a BUS?
  
  
• What is a MHZ?
  
  
• What are Jumpers?
  
  
• What is the CMOS Chip?
  
  
• What is the Cache Chip?
  
  
• What is the RAM Chip?
  
  
• What is a URL?
  
  
• What is flaming?
  
  Other
  Tutorials
  Networking and it's
  security-related issues
  
  
• FTP Tutorial
  
  
• RM Networks Tutorial
  
  
• Ad Blocking Tutorial
  
  
• Sendmail Tutorial
  
  
• Anonymity Tutorial
  
  
• Proxy/WinGate/SOCKS
  Tutorial
  
  
• Info Gathering
  Tutorial
  
  
• ICQ Security
  
  
• Exploits Explained:
  JavaCript hole in Hotmail
  
  
• Mailing Lists Security (coming soon)
  
  
• The POP Protocol (coming soon)
  
  
• DoS Attacks Tutorial (coming soon)
  
  IRC-related
  issues
  
  
• IRC Warfare
  Tutorial
  
  
• Eggdrop Bots
  Tutorial
  
  Local Stuff
  
  
• Windows Registry
  Tutorial
  
  
• Standalone Security
  (this tutorials wasn't written by a BSRF member. Read about what exactly
  happened here).
  
  
• Interesting Things You
  Didn't Know About Your Computer's Hardware
  
  Phreaking
  
  
• Phreaking Tutorial
  
  
• Advanced Phreaking
  Tutorial
  
  
• The Ultimate
  Phreaking Tutorial II
  
  Cracking
  
  
• Cracking, Part I
  
  
• Cracking, Part II (coming soon)
  
  
• Cracking, Part III (coming soon)
  
  Programming
  
  
• HTML
  Tutorial
  
  Encryption
  
  
• PGP Tutorial (coming soon)
  
  Upcoming
  Tutorials
  
  
• DoS Attacks Tutorial
  
  
• PGP Tutorial
  
  
• The POP Protocol
  
  
• Cracking, Part II + III
  
  
• Mailing Lists Security
  
  Bibliography
  
  
• Plus what is disk cache on browsers and on several operating systems
  

What is
Overclocking?
Overclocking is a cool way of making your CPU,
video card (monitor card), 3D accelerator and some other kinds of hardware run
faster and give better performance for free! (Intel's worst nightmare!
MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!)
During this tutorial I will teach you how to overclock your
CPU, but you can use this information to overclock other kinds of hardware on
your PC.
Now, your CPU speed is based on two factors - your BUS(2) speed and
your clock speed (mine is 1 second per second... just kidding. I don't mean a
standard clock, like one you can tell time out of. Read on and you'll
understand).
Example: The BUS speed on older computers (let's take a Pentium
I 166MHZ(3) as an example) is about 66MHZ. 166, the CPU speed, divided by 66,
the BUS speed, gives you about 2.5, meaning your clock speed is about
2.5.
Simple, huh? BUS speed X clock speed = CPU speed.

Now,
what exactly is overclocking and how do I do it?


Materials

1. The little booklet you were supposed to received together with your CPU.
   
   
2. A screwdriver (better be a Philips screwdriver).
   
   
3. A metal plier with a rubber/plastic handle or a bunch of fingers (better be
   your fingers... oh, and when I said a bunch of fingers, I've meant at least 5,
   all of them attached to a living hand (better be yours). Undeads are also
   welcome).
   
   
4. A calculator / a brain.
   

A) Open your computer using your trusty
screwdriver.
B) Look at the little booklet you have and find the part about
the jumpers(4) board and read.
C) Use the plier or the fingers to change the
jumpers array so you will receive the clock speed you are interested in. Oh
yeah, and try not to step on your CMOS chip(5) or on your Cache chip(6).


Note: newer CPUs are "Clock Locked", meaning you cannot change their
clock speed, but you can still change their BUS speed... ;)
Changing the BUS
speed is similar to changing the clock speed (read the part on your booklet
about the jumpers).

How Dangerous is This Whole
Thing?
Well, you CAN fry your modem, but it all depends on you.
If
you screw up and step on things, spill coffee over your computer or overclock
your CPU too much (see Advanced Tips), don't come back crying to me.


Possible Side Effects:

1. Your computer won't start: this probably means you have overclocked your
   computer too much. Lower your CPU speed a bit and then try again.
   
2. Your OS won't start (or crash very frequently) or your computer will reboot
   itself randomly etc': open your computer, find the jumper that changes the CPU
   Voltage (the CPU Voltage is usually something that fits into this pattern: 2.x,
   when x can be any number) and increase the voltage a bit on every
   time.
   Remember to increase your CPU Voltage as little as you can. The maximum
   is "VOLT 2.30". If your computer still gives you problems then do a little less
   overclocking and it should be fine.
   
   
3. Overclocking your CPU might increase it's temperature and decrease it's life
   span. Don't worry about that, experts claim that during the year 2,000 we will
   replace our CPU once every 6 months and this will become more frequent during
   the years so you've got nothing to worry about.

How to Avoid
these Side Effects:

1. Attach another fan or a "Heat Sink" to your CPU. It shouldn't cost much (a
   couple of bucks, maybe) and the outcomes would amaze you (For example: using a
   device that cools your CPU to -20 Celsius degrees you can turn a Celeron 300A
   into a 633MHZ CPU)
   
   
2. Place your computer where you won't block it's air ways.
   
   
3. There are programs like CPUIdle (URL(7) to download: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/6990/cpuidle.zip)
   that can shut down your CPU while it's not in use. These actions can decrease
   the temperature of your CPU, and it can even increase your CPU's life span.
   Note: CPUIdle only works on Windows, since it is "Built-In" on other OSs (see
   CPUIdle's documentations).

Statistically Speaking, How Safe
is this?
Very safe. Out of tens of thousands of overclockers in the
world, only a very few got some of their hardware fried up (and who says it's
because of the overclocking anyway?), and those guys didn't listen to the safety
warnings (they overclocked their CPU too much, increased the CPU Voltage too
much etc').

Is it Worth the Trouble?
DUH!!! Of course
it is! Do the math yourself.

More Info on Speeding Up Your
Computer
Try the "Modem Speedup" section at blacksun.box.sk

How do I Overclock My 3D
Accelerator?
Overclocking 3D accelerators is pretty much like
overclocking CPUs, only you have to take one factor into consideration... your
CPU speed.
You see, the speed your 3D accelerator works depends on your CPU.
The 3D accelerator cannot work faster than the CPU, since some vital 3D
calculations are done by it, hence the accelerator cannot continue without these
calculations.
If your CPU's speed is lower than 400MHZ, I advise you not to
overclock your 3D accelerator. Go overclock your CPU and then overclock your 3D
card!! HAHAHA!!