Friday 22 April 2011

What Is a CPU And What Your Computer CPU Does?

What Is a CPU
And What Your
Computer CPU Does?

Central Processing Unit, Computer CPU, is the component installed in your motherboard socket. The CPU executes and interprets programs, and processes data.
AMD Computer CPU
AMD Processor
Like a calculator It reads the information you give, interprets it, executes the equation, then writes back the result. This gives you the big picture.
CPU comes in 2 brands, AMD and Intel. Both build equally good CPUs, with their own features.
I think, Intel tend to be more stable and AMD faster for games. But it is just my 2 cents; nothing precise here, only a personnel observation.
Here some CPUs with their features from AMD and Intel:
  • 32-bit AMD Athlon, Athlon XP with SSE2, SSE3
  • 32-bit Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D with Hyper-Threading
  • 32-bit Intel Pentium M with Low Power
  • 32-bit Intel Dual with Dual-Core
  • 64-bit AMD Athlon 64, Turion 64 with Dual-Core
  • 64-bit Intel Dual Core 2 with Dual Core
For those who are seeking more advanced information you will find links throughout the content and at the bottom page as how to install CPU.

Computer CPU Forms

CPUs come in several forms, and each one has his reason to be that I discuss in more details in the CPU socket type page. For the introduction's purpose I will only give a general idea of the 2 most used forms as the LGA and PGA.
The Pin Grid Array (PGA). The PGA CPU has pins on its front to be fixed in the motherboard socket. As you can imagine, the socket grid has holes to receive the CPU pins.
The Land Grid Array (LGA). The LGA CPU does not have pins like the PGA and it is landed on a socket grid that contains pins. In some way, it is the opposite of the PGA form.

What Is The Computer CPU Speed And/Or CPU Clock Rate?

The CPU speed is the clock rate frequency in hertz ( circles per second) at which the CPU executes standard operations like doing equations, processing simple data and so on.
In the old days, computers had clock frequencies as low as 4.77 MHz (4,770,000 cycles/second), but nowdays the standard is around 3 GHz (three billion cycles/second).
For now on, CPU's fabricants are working on the CPU core to enhance the speed. As they are stuck with a frequency cap, building CPUs with a clock rate frequency over 3.6 GHz start to be a hard task. I guess it is due of circuits overheating too much.

The FSB Architecture And Motherboard Chipset

The Front Side Bus (FSB), is the data bus between the CPU and the motherboard's northbridge chip. The chipset (northbridge and southbridge) allow the communication among all buses (memory, PCI, AGP, PCIe).
Imagine the FSB as a booster for the CPU for managing programs faster. Before the FSB architecture, CPUs were just fine. But today's programs demand too much power from the CPU to be able to execute fast enough. Higher is the FSB, faster the CPU can execute.
Having a low FSB frequency, is like putting your CPU on standby, waiting for the information to come.

CPU Overclocking, Good Or Bad?

It is possible to boost your CPU's overall performances by setting the clock multiplier and FSB higher than it has been built for. From the motherboard's bios or from a software, this is achievable.
Why overclocking?
Overclocking can be interesting if you feel your computer is a bit slow. It may help the computer performances with a small overclocking.
In the other hand, overcloking may cause erratic behavior such as, regular errors from the operating system, premature failures or the CPU that overheats or die sooner than it should. In some case with a very high overcloking, the CPU may die under a week.
I strongly disapprove the idea of overclocking. Why taking risks if at the origin the CPU has been build for a certain power and not higher. Unless you plan to buy a new CPU do not overclock.

How To Install A Motherboard?

How To Install A Motherboard?

I am going to show you how to install a motherboard in no time and effortlessly. By following this guide, the precautions and suggestions, you will laugh to the end seeing how easy it is.
Did You Know?
By installing a
motherboard yourself
you will save up to 40$.
Before we start to install a motherboard, I want you to go at the end of this page to read the disclaimer, so you are familiar with the terms.

Step 1

What do we Need?
The only tool we need is a Phillips screwdriver. Be sure it is not a magnetic screwdriver.
Computer Screws
Standoff And Regular Screws
Nowdays the hardware is not so fragile, but it does not mean it is entirely safe even today to do a motherboard installation with bad tools.
After all, you just bought a new motherboard and you want to install it, not take the risk to destroy it. Are you?
We also need some standoff and regular screws to fix the whole thing together.

Step 2

Dirty Works First
Open the computer case by removing the left panel and find a suitable and clean area where you can work.

Step 3

Clean up
Wash your hands and be sure they are perfectly dry at the end. If you ask why, then take a look at this little story that badly ended.
Long time ago a friend wanted to upgrade his computer and bought a new motherboard for that purpose. My friend had not much experiences at that time, but he had enough knowledges to install a motherboard by himself.
Everything was going right until his little dog comes to bother him. At the same moment, he was manipulating the new motherboard.
For a second he lost the grip with his left hand. He managed to retake the grip by holding the bottom left side of the motherboard putting his fingers on circuits.
"Everything is fine I took the control back" he thought.
As you can imagine, he did not wash his hands first, result? A nice fingerprint showed up on the circuit he touched.
When he finally finished mounting the new motherboard, he booted up the computer. At the start of the booting process he heard a little noise coming from inside the case, then total silence. "Something is wrong" he thought.
He reopened the computer case to find out where the fingerprint was; now a broken circuit is.
Impossible you think? Well, I would have agreed before this incident, but now I wash my hands before any computer hardware manipulations.
Moral of the story, do not take any risks if you do not like wasting moneys like me.
Today's circuits are not so fragile, but still, taking precautions have never hurt anyone.

Step 4

Scouting time
Holes, lots of holes, which one to choose hmm?
Look carefully on your motherboard and the case's right panel; you should see several holes that can be used to install the motherboard, around 9 to 12 usually.
Spot the right holes where the motherboard will fit on the right panel, then fix the standoff screws in those holes. We will use them to fix the motherboard as shown on the image below.
 
Example to install a motherboard
Where To Fix The Motherboard

Step 5

Fixing time

Back panel from a computer case
Computer Case Back Panel
We will now fix the motherboard on the standoff screws. You will find out that the motherboard will not fit perfectly blocked by the case back panel. Do not worry, it is perfectly normal.
Take your time and gently push to continue the motherboard installation until it fit perfectly in the panel holes.
Now your motherboard should be in perfect position. Fix it with the regular screws.
Congratulation you just installed your motherboard by yourself.

[I hope you appreciated the install a motherboard guide
and I invite you to take a look at the other guides.]

WHAT IS MOTHERBOARD

WHAT IS MOTHERBOARD
This motherboard parts introduction explains the main goal of your motherboard in your computer. The most important parts are explained with only a brief introduction to the technologies behind them not to bore the newcomer who may be confused.
For those who are seeking more advanced information you will find links throughout the content and at the bottom as how to install a motherboard.

What Is The Motherboard Main Goal?

The main goal is to connect all the hardware together like hard drives, memory modules, CPU, etc...
A computer mother board is made of several parts, and each one has a hardware that can be connected to it. On the right, the image is showing a modern motherboard with all its parts.
If you click on the link under the image, you will find a larger image with the motherboard parts name.
Learning about your motherboard parts help to understand how upgrade able it is.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Empty HTML Elements


Empty HTML Elements
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.
<br> is an empty element without a closing tag (the <br> tag defines a line break).

Tip: In XHTML, all elements must be closed. Adding a slash inside the start tag, like <br />, is the proper way of closing empty elements in XHTML (and XML).

HTML Citations, Quotations, and Definition Tags


HTML Citations, Quotations, and Definition Tags

Tag
 Description
<abbr>
 Defines an abbreviation
<acronym>
Defines an acronym
<address>
Defines contact information for the author/owner of a document
<bdo>
 Defines the text direction
<blockquote>
Defines a long quotation
<q>
 Defines a short quotation
<cite>
 Defines a citation
<dfn>
 Defines a definition term

HTML Headings


HTML headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>

HTML Paragraphs
HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.
Example
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>

HTML Links


HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag.
Example
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>

HTML Images
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.
Example
<img src="w3schools.jpg" width="104" height="142" />