Guide to Creating and Maintaining a Healthy PC

Alright, this is not a how to for Linux however I must honor the operating system and its many distros as one of the best things thats ever happened and I will be covering a lot of it in this document. This is a set of tips, tricks, and general know-how that will help you compute more effectively.

My first chapter will cover HARDWARE

My second chapter will cover OPERATING SYSTEMS

My third chapter will cover SOFTWARE

My fourth and final chapter will cover PROGRAMMING AND AUTOMATION

Hardware {

Hardware has become somewhat of a split issue these days, at one time it was all about how fast you can get it to go and how much storage space you can get. There was a defined line between a server, a business computer, and a home computer. These days there is not much of a gap between the user computer and the server computer.

NOTE: The AMD64 has brought a surprising amount of power to the home user, which is what I am writing this on so you may assume I am biased toward AMD, however next to my computer sits my Debian box, a pentium4 ht extreme edition 3.4ghz so I have tried AMD and Intel alike, even on their latest models.

As always the CPU market is a rat race. I mean that in the sense that between every few processors each company introduces a new processor that is better than its competitor in some way. At the time you read this the tables may have turned but AMD has just been on a winning streak lately with lower heat lower power, however, more work done.

The first thing I ask my friends or clients before buying computer parts to build a computer with them is "What do you do with your computer". So many people are obsessed with having the "best" of everything that they don't know what is "best" for them. Pragmatic as I am I like to classify things for simplification thus is true for computers too. I have devised a system that allows me to rate the hardware needs, and future growth of this need, in the form of a checklist.

___ DVD/MULTIMEDIA/BURNING M

___ GAMING G

___ SERVER (10 computers or more LAN) S

___ Advanced Server (Web/Apache/GameServer) A

___ Programming and Development D

___ Web/Net/Email I

___ Emulation E

___ Other O

Please check off what you need in a computer and write them down

M - Ok Video Card, DVD16x Burner, Audigy++ or good on board sound, 10/100 or better LAN, 512+ MB ram, 160+G hd, Sempron

G - Top of the line video card (I got a ATI PCIE x800 256M for example, its awesome), Surround Sound Speaker/Card, AMD64, DVD Reader, 1GB-2GB ram (usually 512 chips cas2 or cas2.5, 1gb chips read slower), 73+GB HD (HighSpeed 10kRPM)

S - Small raid of hard drives (SCSI if you can afford it), DVD16x Burner and or Tape Archive Drive, 64bit AMD64 or better On board Graphics/sound/etc Dual Gigabit Lan, 4GB DDR cas2.5 (more stability vs cas2) 4x 1gb chips.

A - Large raid of hard drives, at least a terabyte of SCSI for data/server apps. Separate hard drive for swap/paging file, Fiber Optic Networking, Dual Gigabit Lan Dual or Quad Opteron or Xeon. High speed controllers.

D - AMD64 3700+ or better, Top Video Card for graphical apps, 500G - 1TB RAID fo

r data security and storing archives of old version and large programs. Swap on separate drive.

I - Sempron, 256M ram, 10/100 , modem (optional), on board video/sound/etc, 40G+ Hard Drive

E - AMD64 3500+ 200G+ Hard Drive, separate HD for swap file, 4GB cas2 ram, compatible 10/100 or better.

O - Special Requests such as video editing etc. can be made by combining say G and D, be creative.

Most people want the largest hard drive they can get, IE Joe Noname's Grandmother buys a 500GB hard drive for checking her email, overkill in this area is actually robbing her of power. She would be faster on a a 7200RPM 30G Hard drive as it takes less time to seek out and store her data. Note that in windows your hard drive degrades, and we will get to defragging and such in the operating systems chapter. Buying "the best" on the market might be the worst idea and most costly idea especially when you have to spend more time defragging a larger drive.

My computer is a MGDE so I get both beer and wine =) (lame joke i know, MDG is miller and wine is a emulator)

My config is ATIx800 PCI-E16x 256MB, AMD64 3700+, 200GB Home, 74GB 10kRPM system drive, 20G 7200RPM Swap (note that hard drives are hotter than CPUs, at least in my computer, AMD tends to run a lot cooler than Intel.) Dual 10/100/1000 LAN, DVD Burner 8x. My computer will let me do whatever I want.

HEAT KILLS!

Its true, heat is the number one issue in keeping a computer's longevity and speed . Most people feel that they must upgrade their computer because it has gotten slow when in fact they just have a overheating computer.

Heat may cause your system to clock down your CPU speed, Memory speed, or just lower it by Thermo-Electrical Expansion (TEE).

Most of my service calls I have gone to with "My computer is acting like a snail" problems had never dusted the inside of their computer, nor did they think it was possible. Of course you don't just dust it like any household item. The inside of a computer is Electro Static Discharge (ESD) sensitive and so you do not want to get the cloth or the feather duster near it, especially when its on.

The way to remove dust is simple. Get a anti-static cloth to wipe off hard drives, case panels, and the bottom of the case. Get a "can of air" at your own risk as this can actually damage your computer if you hold it upside down as many of my clients have done.

These "cans of air" contain co2 and other gases that are propelled out after activating a trigger, these gases blow away the dust and usually the container comes with a "straw thingy" to direct the air with. It is important to note that there is a lot more dust in the computer than you can just see. In the fins of the cpu cooler, inside the power supply, and many other places including chipsets, fans themselves, and behind the motherboard.

Many people such as myself install filters on their home computers to help filter out the dust but many times you must clean them daily or weekly depending on your surroundings or they may actually inhibit the airflow. Think about using a air-compressor, instead of the cans, it will save you money and the environment.

Still on the subject of heat many computers come with insufficient thermal compound or other computers have worn theirs out with age. Thermal compounds come in tubes of many types, sheets of 2 sided adhesive compound, and many other ways. Note that MORE IS NOT BETTER, the idea is to have a THIN amount of compound between the heatsink and the chipset/CPU/etc just enough to transfer the heat to the die of the heatsink/fan. Too much can cripple your system or act like a blanket, plus its messy. I personally do not use the 2 sided adhesive compounds as I do not believe they do a good enough job, however they have been improved upon through the years... Please read your motherboard or CPU manual about this issue as well.

Another issue is Airflow. I know there are some one in a billion exceptions but 99.99999 percent of the time computers airflow is in the direction of front to back, most computers pull air from the bottom front of the computer if you look you will probably see a hole there, thats why you do not want to set your computer directly on a carpet as it may block that hole. Many times you can help your computer out a lot by adding fans but make sure they all blow FRONT TO BACK. Most fans have arrows telling you what way the blades spin and what direction the air goes, look for them or read a manual.

Better CPU coolers can also decrease heat, I love heatpipe coolers as it is like water cooling in a way yet it takes no energy and is silent. My cpu runs COLD usually at room temp or slightly above, body temp when its doing gaming. Research before you upgrade!!!

Hardware Security!

Security in hardware? yes that is a huge issue. There are hardware such as routers, nics, and many others that can offer you greater security. Weather its a simple lock to your panel and drive bays or a vulnerable wi-fi card it is always an issue...

Since I'm too lazy to write about it lets just assume WIFI connections are INSECURE as most people do not encrypt them and if they do it can be easily cracked.

Lets assume a home PC is secure without a lock however a server is not secure without a lock on its case. (who wants Joe the janitor to turn off your PC at night thinking hes saving power when its serving your plate room and you just missed mission critical emails and data as well as a rsync of the latest image files..)

These are some things to keep in mind.

PROTECT YOUR ASSETS!

Who knows this better than I? I live near a co-generation plant and every few days we get electrical surges of varied sizes during "kicks". One was bad enough to fry a computer I let my friend use. Friends don't let friends compute unprotected. I honestly think a SURGE PROTECTOR of 780JOULS or above and a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) are more important than anti-virus software. Too much energy going into your system can blow not only the power supply but every device connected to it. Think of them as condoms in a way, it blocks the bad energy just like condoms block STDs.

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OPERATING SYSTEMS {

Choosing a Operating System is hard. An Operating System is a collection of programs and support surrounding a Kernel.

Your Kernel is like the "brain of your computer" and has a set of modules around it to help it interact between devices and applications.

Some Operating Systems are better than others. Windows98 is better than Windows95, Windows XP is better than windows 2000 and so on. Linux on the other hand has many distros (AKA distributions or flavors) to choose from.

Many people fear Linux as they think it is not as user friendly but actually it is way easier to install than windows initially, it may be a pain getting everything to work the way you want it to or it may not. One interesting aspect though is that once you have a stable nice Linux OS you have one for good!

Linux is far more stable and multimedia able, and is even gaining in the gaming category. Doom3, UTk4, RTCW, ET, and other games run SWEET on Linux, better than they would in windows given the same hardware (tested Linux is only about 56% better at gaming with those apps).

The main disadvantage to Linux is that many people were "born into Microsoft and live in a Microsoft world" however that is changing rapidly. It is possible to run your windows apps in Linux, even with better results and quality than in windows via transgaming.com or winehq.org software but I am not going to get into that in this manual. With Linux there are free apps to do just about anything so its great for the dollar minded user.

WINDOWS IS NEEDY! Windows needs you to use the disk cleanup utility and defragment it all the time, Its code is closed source and has a tendency to be flawed over and over again. Service pack 2 crashed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of machines when installed at schools, homes, and offices all over the world. Search the wall street journal about that. The problem with windows is often if there is a problem you can not fix it or the fix is hidden inside some undocumented program or file. Who honestly knows what MMC or msconfig is here? If you do you are a step ahead of the game. So although windows is used by more people (home users, not servers) and has a prominent place in offices (workstations) It might prove harder than Linux to use. Many times when windows crashes its so hard (or impossible) to fix that many people have to use Linux live cds to repair their windows install or backup their data. The advantage of windows, however, is most every game and program big companies sell is available on windows natively.

Portability! Ok so you go on a trip. You want to bring your data and operating environment with you but you don't have a laptop. With windows you must go through the painstaking task to find apps that are compatible with running straight from a burned cdrom and ways to burn your data to cd and hope you come along a secure Windows PC to use.

With Linux you can just pick up a livecd and append your personal data onto that cd. With Linux you can also boot off other media easily such as pen drives, portable usb hard drives, DVDs, and hundreds of other solutions.

With a Linux livecd you can ensure data security in on-line transfers as it is virtually impossible to get a virus off of static data. You can take your documents with you and use them on the road.

Me and my friends Dual-Boot Win XP and Mandriva or Debian or DamSmallLiux or Knoppix or other Linux distros. Yes Linux allows you the best of both worlds, it allows you to install a boot loader and create separate partitions so that you can have windows and Linux on the same hard drive and choose at boot which one to boot into.

Since Linux is free and XP comes with most new computers dual booting might be a smart idea for you! Read about Grub or LILO for more info! If your PC comes without windows I strongly recommend tring Linux, as it is free for download, first and see if Linux is for you. After that you may consider buying a copy of another operating system.

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SOFTWARE {

Software is a big issue, without it a computer has no function.

Be careful in the windows world and most of the software out there is 1) Not free 2) Heavily Licenced 3) Spyware/Virusware/Malware 4) Buggy.

There are open source projects such as Filezilla on sourceforge.net and other locations on the net but not as much software is available for free or affordable prices in the windows world.

Be careful in the Linux world, Not all software is meant for your distro, Many windows apps wont work in Linux even with wine or other API/Emulation software, etc.

With windows there are a few things considered critical. One of them is a Anti-Virus. As the net grows MS is the target of many attacks and tools like clamwin on sf.net can help you. Another critical software is a web browser, its long been known that IE2,3,4,5,6 and on have been very vulnerable to attack so you must try to install firefox or mozilla if you can. mozilla.org has many tools including a replacement browser, email app (great spam control), and many other apps. Another issue is Spyware. It is recommended to get MS Windows anti-spyware beta from microsoft.com or other anti-spyware software. Warning: Most anti-spyware software is in fact spyware itself in disguise. No antivirus/antispyware software is perfect either. These programs not only invade your privacy but cripple your computers speed and use your computer for things such as child pornography serving, dos attacks on government and big business, marketing, mass mailing, etc. You should choose one anti-spyware and stick to it as having multiple copies of spyware removal, virus removal, or security software can cause conflicts and hurt your system.

AVOID AOL AT ALL COSTS, programs such as AOL and Norton are long known to have issues with thousands of unhappy users who are over-charged and end up with crippled or destroyed computers. I know most computers I fix with Norton system works are in fact fixed by removing Norton system works. AOL is a horrible ISP and robs you of computer memory, as well as connection speed as YOU PAY TO BE ADVERTISED TO. Back in the day when I had AOL they always had ads when you signed on and throughout their service, they were unreliable, and rude as far as tech support, but back then i was only 13 or 14 and did not have a choice in ISPs. AOL is not compatible with Linux.

A general rule of thumb for software and services is get them DIRECTLY FROM THE COMPANY not a proxy, IE get sbc dsl don't go through earthlink that has to interface with SBC because its just another teir of bullshit to deal with in tech support. Another rule of thumb as far as software goes is DON'T PAY IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO. There are many Freeware or open source softwares for both windows and Linux.

Software management: Each Linux distro chooses its own package managing system such as RPM, Deb, tar.gz and tools to help administer software such as apt-get or urpmi or smartpm. Windows software management is just retarded and buggy.

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Programming and Automation {

Well I myself am a programmer, you don't need to be a programmer to use windows or Linux but it helps. Weather its programming a batch file to automate windows tasks (note that windows scripting is very limited) or programming in either Perl or bash in Linux (very flexible, can even make graphic programs and fully control your system via these languages) you must memorize a bit of code and learn how its logic works.

If you are not the math type person, neither am I, actually I was a special ed kid my whole life and "sucked at math". I could not do my times tables or many other simple things then however programming has actually opened up my mind to math. I have been good at algebra but my teachers always failed me because I didn't do it "the right way" even though I yielded correct answers faster I figured out that my logic was more prone to lending itself to programming than the so called "practical math" they teach us in high school and never use again the rest of our lives.

Even though I "suck at math", as my teacher oh so gently put it, I am actually great at computer logic. Do not scare yourself off, at least try it for a day or two here and there you might like it. It helped me understand other maths as well.

I recommend starting with RUBY or BASH if you wish to start learning code. They are very easy. Its also worth wile to learn Perl and C++ (check for Bruce Eckle's free books on-line and other resources, ruby-lang.org has a online-book as well)

Scripting in windows is not as friendly as you must install VBScripting and do it as admin (ITS A MESS) or use the standard .bat cmd terminal scripting that is very limited. (like a gimped version of dos)

If you still want to script in windows I would recommend Cygwin. Cygwin is created by the makers of Redhat and other open source developers that lets you run Unix/Linux like software on a windows machine. You can script your tasks in windows using the cygwin terminal.

A few pros and cons of windows is the .net studio environment is expensive and not exactly compliant with the programming standards and methods we are used to in most other environments however GCC is avaliable in the form of MiniGW and a front end can be gotten from bloodshed software (devC++) both for free and that uses Unix-like programming.

You can do a lot with windows programming I was a lead project developer/manager for years in the .net and other environments however a lot can go wrong and it is not as easy as Linux programming is. I now convert windows code or functionality into Unix/Linux code in my spare time. Linux code tends to be more stable and fast.

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Well that was the Quick and Unedited how-to on choosing and maintaining your computer, I know it leaves a lot to be desired but I do plan to fix it up soon, spell check it, and add new content.

Please Email me at mqphazor@gmail.com or /msg XI-Phazor in irc.freenode.net if you have any comments or questions.

Greetz go out to: #Debian and the developers, #Mandriva and the developers, #LFD (Linux for dummies), #cedega, #hardware, and #overclock, Thanks you guys for years of tech support, friendship, software, and of course thank you freenode.net for a great service that brought us all together, this tips and tricks guide to maintaining your computer would not have been made without you.

Please consider donating to these projects or buying their products on cd as it helps keep software free and keeps the servers we use every day fast and updated.