Software utilities and How they can improve your performance (P3, D1)

There are many programs the claim to improve the performance of your system, speed it up or protect it from malicious attacks. The easiest way to improve the speed of your computer is to use clean up tools.

The different operating systems offer different levels of clean up tools. Microsoft Windows offers the most and many come free with the OS. They use these rather than having to do the clean up codes yourself. It is advised that you run these clean up tools every week to utilize your PC and leave it running fast.

The main clean up tool used is the disk defragmentation tool which connects all the lose file end and connects them up. It does this as when a computer saves to a hard drive the file is written on whatever point the actuator arm is on the disk. This means that when you are opening a file the hard drive has to search for the beginning of the file and the various other parts of the file, meaning it takes longer to open the file. By defragging the disk you sort all the lose file ends and so when you load the files they are all together and the hard drive does not have to search through itself to load the file. This also means that the write space of your hard drive is being properly utilized as the normal method can mean it does not have as much space as it would if the files are complete and in order. Through this the system is speeded up as it does not have to hunt for the files when loading them.

Window Disk Defragmentation Tool

Another clean up tool is conveniently titled, the Disk Cleanup Tool. This tool is used for cleaning the drive of all unused and unwanted programs freeing up space for saving files that will actually be used. It permanently deletes the files so they are no longer stored on your system and taking time to boot up during your operating system loading. This will speed up your system as it does not have to boot files that it does not need or want to. You can specify the area that you wish to be scanned and cleaned so if you only have a few minutes you can only chose to clean up the temporary internet files, or if you have hours then you can do a complete drive clean up. Along with determining the location of the files you wish to clean you can also determine the drive letter meaning you do not have to do all the drive in that one day if you do not have the time to do so. By being able to choose what drive you wish to clean the data up from it makes it very easy when dealing with multiple computers on a network or on a server, but it still permanently deletes the files so they are not still stored; meaning your system will be quicker as a result.

Windows Cleanup Tool

Speeding up you computer can be as simple as running the Disk Cleanup Tool, to the more complicated method of re-formatting your drives. Before formatting your drive you must first run Windows backup tool and back all of your system on either a second hard drive (internal or external) or to a disk. By doing this you can be sure that if anything goes wrong during the formatting you have not lost all of your data. Then run the format using the Windows Formatting Tool, and re-format the original drive to the default settings it recommends. Once the tool has finished re-formatting the drive simply put in the disk or hard drive and transfer everything you want back on the system as it will no longer be able to read the data. Any errors are bugs on your system will have been erased meaning that your computer will run faster as it does not have lots of errors and bugs slowing it down.

Windows Formatting Tool

Operating Systems (P2, M1)

The Operating System is the interface between user and hardware and so runs the applications on the computer. The OS is also co-ordinates and manages the processes that the computer needs to do along with the resources that need sharing. There are 3 main OS’s and they all offer a varied number of functions and features, these are listed as follows.

Windows 7 – It is the most recent in a line of Microsoft Windows operating systems which have far been the most popular OS’s throughout the computing world and has been since its introduction in 1985. Windows 7 is the most user friendly version of Microsoft Windows as it has many more customizable features that allow the user to access what they wish to more regularly with greater ease.  One reason people stick with Windows is that it is relatively cheap when compared against its main competitors and also has greater compatibility with many software manufactures. Windows 7 also has easier wireless connection software built in to it and many people now used wireless internet in their home and when they are out and about it means that many more people do not find it and issue anymore. Windows 7 contains greater ‘tweaking’ options so if the user wishes to do so they can ‘tweak’ the computer through the OS rather than only in the BIOS. Windows 7 also has a much greater ‘Help centre’ and so many people when they are stuck can find the answers they are looking for from within the OS; and if not than Microsoft also has the biggest customer support services on offer.

·         Windows 7 has greater connection to both WLAN and Wired connections from within the home or outside.

·         It has the greatest customer support of the 3 Operating Systems.

·         It comes with the greatest number of pre-installed software as standard so you do not need to splash out on un-necessary software straight away; or never if you are sensible.

·         Most hardware available is compatible with Windows 7 and if not it will be compatible with a driver update.

·         Has an easier layout than previous Windows Operating Systems so many people have upgraded or gone across to it.

Windows 7 desktop

Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) – Linux has never been the friend of the everyday, home computer user as it is complicated to understand where you are going. However, it has steadily got better and the latest version, 10.10, has a lot better interface to make it more available to people. The major advantage to Linux is the fact that it is free and so for many people when they are building their own computer Linux is the cheapest way to get it running. Another upside to this that it is what is known as ‘open source’. This means that you can get into the bowels of the system and change the code and play about with it. However, not everyone will want to do this, many will want to play games and watch movies; something Linux cannot do well. Linux is a very cheap but very specialist set of Operating Systems as they are highly customizable, to those who know how to do it, but lack many basic functions that Windows and Apple MAC can do.

·         It is highly customizable to the technically literate, but to the average user it is far to complicated.

·         Has some basic programs already installed so you can use it out of the box before you go to the application website through Linux to get other software.

·         It has advanced security software and because it is so rare there are virtually no known viruses for Linux.

·         The wireless connection is not great but you can use a remote log on.

Linux Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop

Snow Leopard X (Apple MAC) – It is the most user friendly and appealing Operating System that is available to buy, but it is a double-edged sword. It is very good at user customizability and the desktop is very nice but it is the most expensive software by a country mile. You can only get the Operating System with Apple products which start at £600 but that is without a monitor so is ‘bare bones’. Snow Leopard X is very popular with people and companies that are in the media industry and so work with photos and video. Although Snow Leopard X is very expensive many people buy them as Apple products are “cool” so many people buy them just because people like the look of them. This means that Snow Leopard has not been made purely for functionality, it has also been made to look good. Snow Leopard X does have good features and comes with ample software pre-installed onto it. Apple also offer a range of there higher priced software at a marked down price if when you buy your computer you choose to pre-install it so the customizability is high before you even turn it on. Microsoft Office is also now available on Snow Leopard X so many people will finally go over to Apple because their company will use Office and they can now take their work at home into work.

·         Great customizability and looks

·         Easy to connect to WLAN or Wired LANs.

·         Very expensive but very fashionable.

·         Comes with a range of high-end software that you are able to buy with the computer or later on.

Snow Leopard X desktop

Motherboards (P1, P2)

Motherboards are arguably the most important piece of equipment within your computer as everything is connected to it or is built on it. The motherboard a PCB, Printed Circuit Board, and so transfers the electrical signals everywhere. There are different form factors of motherboards, these are:

·         ATX – The most commonly used form factor.

·         EATX – This is Extended ATX and so will only fit in certain cases that have been built to accommodate the larger board but it allows greater expansion.

·         Mini or Micro ATX – These are smaller sized boards that are used in Media PC’s and other PCs that need to be smaller than usual.

·         Baby ATX – This is no longer available but was used in legacy IBM machines

Various sizes of motherboard

The reason the motherboard is so important because of all the components it accommodates, these are:

·         CPU slot

o   Holds the CPU and heatsink with fan in place

·         Chipset

o   North and South bridge

o   BIOS chip

·         Memory Slots

o   RAM

§   DDR2 or DDR3

§  The speed of the slot (1000MHz, 1333MHz etc)

o   ROM

·         Voltage Regulator Module

o   This provides the microprocessors with right voltage supply

·         Expansion Slots

o   AGP

o   PCI

o   PCI Express

·         CMOS battery

·         IDE slots

·         SATA slots

·         Power connectors

o   20-24 pin 12V motherboard power connector

o   12VATX connector for the CPU

o   The CPU heatsink fan connector

o   Internal audio

o   Chassis fan connectors

·         Headers

o   USB 2.0

o   Front panel connectors

o   LED light connectors

o   eSATA connectors

o   Case speaker connector

A motherboard

Input and Output Ports (P1, P2)

Input and output ports are found on the back of any computer. These ports are part of the motherboard and have a variety of uses and a variety of ports. The picture below depicts the location and look of many of the ports.

Labeled rear side of a computer

·         The power input is a three pronged plug that is often referred to as the “kettle plug” and connects directly into the PSU. It carries 12V and supplies power to the computer.

·         The PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports are used by the mouse and keyboard to relay what they are doing to the motherboard for the computer to interpret.

·         USB ports are the most widely used form of connection by external devices as it is quick, powered and universal so it can be used in any USB port.

·         The Integrated Serial Port is an old fashioned connection used to dial-up a connection through the modem.

·         The audio ports are the three connections used to connect a speaker or 5.1 surround sound speaker system to the motherboard which will allow music played on the computer to be played through the speakers.

·         S-Video ports are used to produce graphics on a monitor; however it does not produce very good graphics as this connection does not allow high resolution images.

·         DVI ports are a modern video connection used to generate images on a screen and it can produce the highest resolution graphics so it is one of the best connectors around.

·         The Ethernet port on the PCI modem card is used to connect the modem card to the internet and the modem card allows the Ethernet port to connect.

·         PCI USB card is simply a PCI card that allows you to connect more USB devices to your computer than simply the ones on the back of the motherboard.

·         PCI sound card allows you to connect a better specification of speakers to your PC via a faster transfer rate.

·         The VGA port allows the computer to connect to a monitor but as it only sends an analogue signal it is not able to perform as well as the DVI port.

·         Parallel ports allow you to connect external devices, such as printers, to your computer and use them through your PC.

Storage Media (P1, P2)

There are many types of storage media and all of them are used to store data long after the computer has been turned off or if it has been removed from the computer all together. The most common of these storage mediums is the hard drive. The hard drive is a disk that has all the data written to the surface of the disk and is then read by a head that is on a moveable arm; although hard drives nowadays often have more than one platter and more than one head. The hard drive will hold all the information stored to it, such as the operating system, software and any other data, until you either tell it to delete something or until a magnet is passed over the disk; causing the tracks saved on the disk to be erased.

Hard Drive

The hard drives are connected to the motherboard through a cable that is often made of many wires formed into a ribbon. This ribbon is known as an IDE ribbon, Integrated Drive Electronics ribbon. The IDE ribbon is a 40-pin, 80-conductor data cable that connect into the back of the hard drive. The ribbon has two female ends that connect to devices, a master and a slave. The master gets all the information passed to and through it whereas the slave only sees what the master wants it to see. The IDE ribbon connects directly into the motherboard, via a bus, meaning that it is a quick as it can be without the hard drive slotting into the motherboard itself. The newest form of hard drive connection is a Serial ATA, or SATA, connection and is nowhere near as big or flat. It connects to the motherboard, via a bus, like the IDE ribbon, although it is much faster at transferring data as the cable is a high speed cable and the cable is over two pairs of conductors. This is becoming an more popular choice of hard drive connection as it does not have a master and slave so everything is just independent.

SATA Cable

The other types of storage media are:

·         CD – Compact disks (Optical)

·         USB pen drives

·         USB external hard drives – Powered and non-powered

·         SD cards

·         Floppy disks – Legacy (both 3.5” and 5” disks)

External USB hard drive

The USB pens and hard drives are mainly used for portable storage devices as they are smaller than a normal hard drive and you do not need to re-install the hard drive inside the computer every time you change computer. SD cards are often used in cameras as they are the smallest types of storage media but can store enough photos. Floppy disks are rarely found anymore as CDs and DVDs have taken over that corner of the market for saving data to an external disk you can take places and use in other devices.

Memory (P1, P2)

Memory is the most common feature in a computer as it occurs in almost every part. The graphics card has memory, the BIOS is saved on a memory chip but it memory is often over-looked. Memory is found within the CPU in the form of Cache memory which is used for frequently used data and so is used within the CPU as the CPU is constantly obtaining, processing and transporting memory. Cache memory can be both internal, in the CPU, which means it’s primary or external where it is situated on the motherboard, which is known as secondary. Cache is found in levels within the CPU as L1 is situated in the CPU but L2 could be either internal or external. Cache is used in the CPU because it acts as a buffer because it holds the data for the CPU to use. L2 puts the data in the order that the cache guesses the CPU will ask for it due to the previous requests. L1 will guess what the RAM wishes to send to the CPU next.

Cache Memory

There are many different types of memory and they are separated as follows:

·         Volatile

o   DRAM – Dynamic RAM

o   SRAM – Static RAM

·         Non-Volatile

o   ROM

§  PROM

§  EPROM

§  EEPROM

o   Flash

Volatile is the most common used as RAM, Random Access Memory, and it is defined as volatile as when you turn the computer off it is all lost unless you have saved it into a non-volatile form. RAM is commonly found in the form of sticks of memory that are inserted directly onto the motherboard so the interface is much quicker. You can both write to it and read from it so RAM is often used for swapping pieces of information in and out of it; therefore the more RAM you have the less time is spent swapping the information in and out of it. DRAM is the most common form of RAM and is made from capacitors compare to SRAM which uses transistors. SRAM is more expensive and so is often used as cache memory instead as you do not need so much of it.

A stick of RAM

Non-Volatile is ROM, Read Only Memory, and is non-volatile as when the computer is turned off it does not lose the data saved to it. You can sometimes write to it but it is often used for things like storing the BIOS or CMOS. However, because RAM is quicker the BIOS may be copied onto the RAM when booting; this is called shadowing.

BIOS (P1, P2)

The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is defined as a, “collection of software utilities that forms part of the operating system”. The BIOS is found in a chip that is attached to the motherboard and is used to configure the hardware that the computer is using and the settings of the various pieces of hardware. The BIOS is also used to:

·         Start up the computer and load the operating system.

·         Check the hardware setting on start up to make sure there are no changes that are problematic.

·         To make sure that all of the components are working together.

·         Check the input and outputs and configure anything if it needs configuring.

BIOS chip on the motherboard

The BIOS also does a POST (Power-On-Self-Test) on all of the hardware components within the system and make sure they are functioning correctly. It also powers on the other BIOS chips that are within the system, on such devices as the graphics cards, as some devices have their own.

During boot up it also checks the CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) which is a small battery that is located on the motherboard. It has a tiny 64 byte chip in which it stores all the tome and date and settings for you computer. As mentioned previously, the POST also displays when something is wrong. It normal portrays this through the tiny case speaker being connected to the motherboard and beeps on boot up to show that there is either a missing piece of hardware or one that it suspects to be faulty. It my also show a fault through a flashing LED either on the case or motherboard.

CMOS battery on the motherboard

Finally, you can enter the BIOS on boot up and alter the hardware settings within your computer. You can alter the voltage going to your various devices, the timing of your RAM, speed of your CPU and many other alterations. However, these types of alterations are tampering with the product and so would void any warranty and may also cause your piece of equipment to break due to the added stress.