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Ancestry Daily News
7/17/2002 - Archive
RootsWorks: Computer Hardware Upgrades
I grew up in a small town near Houston. In sharp contrast to the
urban life we have today, where no one knows anyone, I could tell who was at
the school or the church by looking at the cars outside. This may come as a
surprise to those of you who think that we didn't have pavement back then. Okay,
some roads were paved with crushed shell and we had to drive very slowly on
them, and our cars would throw up a great cloud of white dust as we drove on
them. We never passed a car on the road without recognizing the car, well in
advance, and exchanging passing waves with the driver. When someone got a new
car, which for some people was once a year, we would have to see it a few times
to learn it, but after that, the totally different car was called, "Tommy's
new car" or simply, "Tommy's car."
Computers are becoming a great deal like that. No, I don't mean that we recognize
people by glancing at their computers. I mean that we can change the computer
and still think of what's inside it as being the same - same documents, same
programs, same work processes. The PC is barely twenty years old, and many of
us are still on our second or third one. There is great pressure on us to upgrade,
to get caught up with newer hardware, software, and peripherals. We're going
to discuss upgrades in the next few articles, and today we'll start with hardware
upgrades.
What Is It?
Before we talk about computer upgrades, we should get some agreements on what
we're talking about. What are the parts of a computer? If you see any terms
below that you don't recognize, please see the glossary on my website - a link
is provided below.
I think of it as a "layered" organization, with the following layers.
Data. Data is the information that you are using. Examples are spreadsheets,
images, databases, GEDCOM files, e-mail, and word processing documents. Imagine
this as the top layer of a five-layer Computer Cake.
Programs (also called application programs or applications). Examples
are the components of an office (word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail), graphics
programs, genealogy programs, webbrowsers, and fax programs. This is the second
layer of this Computer Cake.
Operating System. This is a set of programs that communicates between
the Program Layer and the Drivers Layer. Examples would be Mac OS X or Windows
XP Home, or Linux.
Drivers. Drivers are computer programs that help the hardware components
such as the Central Processing Unit communicate with other components, such
as the monitor or the printer. Generally, there is a unique driver for each
Component / Operating System combination.
HW. There are many kinds of hardware, but we're going to focus on
two types:
- The Basic Computer -- CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Video Card,
Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, and other Motherboard Components. Computers are made
of integrated circuits and circuit boards. The mother of all circuit boards
is called the "motherboard." They also have "daughterboards" but no fatherboards
and no sonboards. No cousinboards and no halfsisterboards. That should make
you think that the relationships between people are more complicated than the
ones between computer components. Not true, but an understandable assumption.
- The Peripheral devices -- Modems, Cameras, Scanners, Network Cards,
PDA Cradles, Speakers.
There is a "granularity" to each layer. By that, I mean that you can separate
almost every layer into more detailed components, and then separate those components
in even more detailed components, just as if you were looking at different-sized
grains with successive sieves.
An upgrade refers to changing a component, as opposed to replacing the entire
system. Buying a new car is really not an upgrade - it's a replacement. Buying
new shocks or a new battery, that might be an upgrade. You can quickly see that
what we call "upgrades" in the computer world is what everyone else calls "routine
maintenance." Perhaps we'd be well off to think of computation the same way
- and replace the system every three to five years.
Name Two of Them
One of the most common upgrades is the hard drive upgrade. Under the best conditions,
this requires the user to:
Open the case (see note below for the reasonable delay this causes).
Move some tiny little plastic plugs called "jumpers" (and expect to drop
them in a hard-to-reach place, too). Get this wrong and your system will not
boot until you correct it.
Attach the power connections (be sure that the computer is off before you
even start something like this). I used to say that you couldn't connect these
incorrectly, but that was before a friend did it, and smoked a nice tape drive
in the process.
Attach the data cable (yes, there are several kinds and I've seen some of
them connected improperly)
Under the worst conditions, you can arrive home with your new 100-gigabyte drive
and then learn that your 1998 computer can't recognize it without an upgrade
to the mysterious "BIOS" chip or to the motherboard.
Some people buy new flat panel monitors -- they have fallen in cost, are pretty
to look at, and give you back a lot of desk space.
In some cases, you can replace the Motherboard and CPU. For as little as $200,
you can buy these components and replace your old ones with fast new ones. This
usually takes me about two weeks.
One of the easiest upgrades is the RAM upgrade. You just plug in more RAM and
turn the PC back on, right? Except that the RAM you install has to be the same
speed as the RAM you take out, and there are different kinds of RAM chips, and
all motherboards have a capacity for some fixed amount of RAM - it might be
less than you just bought.
What's the Down Side?
First of all, if you're going to open the case, expect to be down for three
days. Seriously, I've built dozens of computers, and something unexpected ALWAYS
happens. For example, there are different kinds of adapter slots in computer
motherboards, with cryptic names like PCI, ISA, and AGP. In short, you might
not be able to re-use your old components with your new motherboard. Raise your
hand if you remember the short-lived "VESA Local Bus" cards.
Another down side is that professional computer upgraders are a great deal like
auto mechanics and plumbers - the work that they do is a mystery, they're expensive,
and there are lots of bad professionals. If you find a trustworthy computer
technician, I suggest that you offer to pay for her college after she graduates.
They're hard to find, and you should hold on to one if you are lucky enough
to meet one.
We will talk more about operating system updates in another article, but you
would probably not be surprised to learn that there are XP and BIOS update problems.
A BIOS update is a very delicate procedure - if anything goes wrong the computer
might not work again. I recently ruined a computer, because just as I was burning
an update into the BIOS, the computer locked up. "Looks like it's time for a
new motherboard."
In general, my advice for upgrades is not to do one. Buy a new computer like
you would buy a new car. You probably have lots of things you need to clean
up anyway, and a fresh start is good for the soul. If you want to copy your
old hard drive to the new computer, there are a number of possibilities for
that, but there is a lot of variation in what you might really want to copy
-- just your documents, or your programs and drivers, too?
What's the Genealogy Connection?
Given the associated costs, genealogists may be more likely to choose to upgrade
instead of buying new so that their genealogy dollars can be spent on other
toys.
Link Me Up (more stars is better)
Beau Sharbrough's Website ****
www.sharbrough.net/genealogy/genart14.htm
Contains some pages of basic information that expand on this article.
Zen and the Art of PC Maintenance **
exn.ca/Nerds/19971104-55.cfm
A Real Video lecture at the University of Toronto about PC maintenance.
Guru ***
www.newertech.com/software/guru/index.html
Mac RAM upgrades.
Home Computer Upgrades ***
www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5649/upgcomp.htm
The answers are dated, but the basics are the same, and the questions are the
right ones.
What Else?
CPU speeds are over-rated, in my opinion. Every CPU in every store is fast enough
to run any program that a genealogist will want. The bottlenecks in your system
are the Internet connection speed, the video card, and the clutter on the hard
drive. In future articles, we'll talk about ways to speed up those system components.
Most computer supply stores will install any hardware item you buy, at no extra
charge. Carry your system unit to the store, and ask them if they'll install
that upgrade for you. Be warned, there are exceptions. I've seen cases where
the store technicians told the customer that they would need a new motherboard
in order to install the upgrade - and they quoted $600! A phone call to the
computer manufacturer solved the problem for free.
Every three years, it's time for a new computer. You might keep your monitor
or keyboard longer, if you really like it. Look at it as if you were maintaining
your car. You can buy a system unit, with hard drive and RAM, for about $600,
that will run anything you want to run. The important point is that there are
many components in a computer system, and lots of ways to put them together
wrong. Let someone else work that out, and buy things that you know work together.
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you at rootsworks@sharbrough.net,
but due to the volume of e- mail received, he is unable to answer every e-mail
message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual
computer problems, as he is generally busy in the summer following the woes
of the Texas Rangers. Visit Beau's website (www.sharbrough.net)
for links to previous articles and updates on the season in progress.
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