Conant Computer Club: 09-10 - Recently Updated Pages

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asinger93 — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:34:36 CDT

Welcome!

Conant High School's Computer Club meets every Tuesday after school from 3:30-4:30 in the AV lab (behind the library).

New members are always welcome, and we encourage you to come join.

We are currently building a media PC.

Our current goal with this new Conant Computer Club website is to compile our computer/technology knowledge and share it with our peers.

We will begin by creating a navigable website with a most basic (but necessary) foundation for future students to expand upon.

The site is always under construction!
If you're here looking for specific computer help or have any questions,
feel free to message one of the admins and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thanks for visiting!

News

asinger93 — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:22:04 CST

-On Tuesday, January 12, we will be working on a server that uses Linux.

2009-2010 Members

asinger93 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:23:35 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Microsoft office 2010 beta testing

asinger93 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:14:14 CST

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx
Download is free (must have an account. signup is free)

Motherboards

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:58:00 CST

When deciding on a motherboard there are several important factors that need to be taken into consideration. The ones that are listed below are important, but this list is by no means comprehensive.

Socket Type - On every motherboard there will be a socket where the CPU is placed. There are several types of the sockets such as LGA 775, AM2, AM2+, etc. This MUST match up with your processor otherwise the pins on the bottom of the processor will not match up wit the slots on the motherboard and hence, you can not use them together. The type of socket will always be listed in the product name or in its specs.

Memory (RAM)

1. Number of Slots - Self-explanitory, RAM comes in "sticks" and each slot can hold one stick.
2. Memory Standard - In other words, the type of memory that must be used. The types of RAM vary (see RAM section) and must be matched to the motherboard.
3. Maximum Memory - The sum of the memory on each stick of RAM can not exceed this size.

Expansion Slots - Expansion slots are where the video card, sound card, and other such extensions are placed. In current motherboard you will most likely see either PCI, PCI-e, or PCI-e 2.0. PCI-e slots are also followed by x1 or x16 which represents how many pins long it is, x1 being shorter and x16 being longer. As with every other piece of hardware for your computer the video card, sound card, and other similar expansions must be able to fit into one of the slots your motherboard's specs list.

Miscellaneous

1. Check for compatibility with your Operating System (OS). This is typically a problem if someone is moving from XP to Vista.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:57:50 CST

RAM is a key part of a computer and can greatly affect your computer's ability to multi-task as well as loading speeds to a certain degree.
A few key features when looking at buying RAM for a computer are:

The type of RAM (ie. SDRAM, DDR2, DDR3, etc.)
The Voltage at which it operates
The timings on the RAM (ie. 5-5-5-15, 4-4-4-12, etc.)

Each of these needs to be considered when looking at RAM and here are some short descriptions on what each means and what it does for you:

Type - When building your own computer it is very important that you ensure your motherboard supports the type of RAM you use, this is typically listed on the specs of a motherboard from whatever site you happen to be buying from. If it does not support DDR3 for example, then buying DDR3 type RAM is useless. The type of RAM is almost always listed in the product name on a website or in the specs.
Voltage - Voltage of RAM determines how much power each stick can put out however higher voltages also mean higher temperatures. Typically somewhere around the 2.0V range is a good area for stock RAM.
Timings - These 4 numbers are how much latency there is when the RAM is active. Latency is also called lag or ping which all refer to the time it takes for information to be processed. The first 3 timings are different numbers of latency while the fourth is the cumulative which can be the sum of the previous 3 or higher. The more latency you have the longer it will take the RAM to do its job.

Computer Building

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:57:42 CST

Hardware List Format:

Part (ex. Graphics Card)

Model and type (GeForce, Radeon)
Link (www.newegg.com/xxxxxxxx)

Basic Computer Parts:

CPU

Graphics Card

Hard Disk Drive

Motherboard

Power Supply

RAM

Case

Optical Drive

Sound Card

2008-2009 Members

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:57:01 CST

	Alex Rose
	Description: Grammar Nazi
	Stats: -- Tauren Nazi
	Pros: -- 6,000,000 people corrected	Cons: -- Bobella still lives
	Level: -- I'm up there
	Fan review: --

	Adam Singer
	Description: -- 4.3 GHz Quad core.
	Stats: -- 35 dexterity with an 86 mana burn
	Pros: -- Baby got back	Cons: -- You can't touch this.
	Level: -- 100
	Fan review: -- 01001100011010010110101101100101001011000010000001001111010011010100011100100001001000010010000101

	Alex Strybel
	Description: -- Pro Status Secretary
	Stats: -- 76 Charisma with a +5 Mace
	Pros: -- Everything	Cons: -- Nonexistant
	Level: -- 18
	Fan review: -- "A truly astonishing renaissance man" - The New York Times

	Tyler Bobella
	Description: -- The wild card
	Stat(u)s: -- Texas oil tycoon
	Pros: -- Can spam Vent.	Cons: -- MINUS 50 DKP
	Level: -- over nine thousand!
	Fan review: -- "God, he is so dreamy..." -Local school girl

	Joshua Sikat
	Description: -- President of Conant's most successful year of computer club.
	Stats: -- 7
	Pros: -- The bee's knees	Cons: -- The cat's pajamas
	Level: -- 3
	Fan review: -- I've been called the songbird of my generation.

Basic Computer Skills

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:56:21 CST

In this section of the website you will be able to find:

How To Setup an Email Account (Click Here to see how)
How To Put Pictures on the Internet (For registering click here, For Using Photobucket click here)

Last Update: 4/28/09

Power Supplies

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:55:49 CST

As is obvious from the name of the device, a power supply is needed to power your computer. Some things to look out for when choosing a power supply are:

Wattage - Most power supplies are listed primarily by wattage and you need to make sure the part you choose has enough watts to power your entire computer. As of this writing (4/15/09) typically a 600W supply will power a low or low-mid computer an 800W will power most machines and 1000+ W will power every practical machine that one would build. In fact, 800W would be plenty to power a computer built on a sub $1000 budget most likely.

Rails - Each power supply is made up of several rails which carry current through them. This is fairly technical, but the gist of it is that some power supplies are built with even rails, ~12 Amperes each, or some are made to have a "super rail" that can carry very large amounts of current such as 40 Amperes or so. If you are just starting out your best bet is to probably stay safe and buy a power supply with even rails if the specs go into detail that far. Power supplies with a single 12 volt rail are capable of delivering the most power with the best efficiency.

Form Factor - Each type of motherboard (atx, Btx, Itx...) has its own type of power supply that it needs. So, you can't use a btx power supply with an atx motherboard.

Useful Links

asinger93 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:53:56 CST

Basically, add links to sites you think are useful to the computer club or just to our computer nerdiness in general. Make sure to add all links in list form because my OCD will go crazy if something like that isn't done. Make categories for whatever you think your websites are for and then we can consolidate the list into well organized lists.

Also, maybe we could create little blurbs about what the site deals with instead of having a thousand sites in "News and Reviews" or something like that? Just to consolidate if someone needs to look something up.

And make sure every link is actually hyperlinked to a web page.
--

Stores:

News & Reviews:

Hardware Manufacturers:

http://www.xfxforce.com
http://www.intel.com
http://www.nvidia.com
http://www.evga.com

These all relate to a Wiki article: The Wiki article has hundreds of links pertaining to Hardware Manufacturers by category.

Why custom build a computer?

jsikat — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:59:23 CDT

Custom Build

Pro

-A $700 custom PC is usually "faster" than a $700 pre-built computer.
-Better performance to price

-You are not limited to what a company says you can put in your computer.

-Warranties are usually lifetime.

Cons

-Can be confusing if you are not well informed.

-You may need to test out every part if something goes wrong.

-You have to buy your own keyboard, mouse and monitor.

-You have to remember to buy everythingyou need for a computer to work.

-Choosing which brand to buy can be confusing.

-Harder to chose parts for low-end computers.

Pre-Built Computer

Pro

-If something goes wrong, you only have to talk to one company.

-Customizing can be as easy as clicking a button.

-It is easier to decide which brand to chose from.

Cons

-most companies only give around 5 year warranties.

-With dell, HP, VooDoo and other computer companies, most of the money you spend is used for the computer case. Because of this, even though a computer maylookflashy, it could be a very weak computer.

-Also in regards to Dell, since Dell computer can only use Dell parts, many usually cheap upgrades for a computer can become very expensive.

How To Setup an Email Account

Vexed — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:24:51 CDT

1. To start, type in www.gmail.com in the adress bar on the top of the screen.

2. Click on the "Create an account" which you see circled in red in the picture.

3. You should see a page like this one, fill out the information as required (Make sure you pick a login name and password you will remember). Then at the bottom of the page (not shown) click the "I accept. Create my Account" button and that's it, your account is created!

How To Use Photobucket

Vexed — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:25:17 CDT

1. **If you are reading this after just registering you can SKIP this step.** After navigating to www.photobucket.com you will see near the top right of the screen are two boxes, one for “email or username” and one for “password”. In the respective boxes type in your username and password then click log in. If you are reading this after just registering you can SKIP this step.

2. Once logged in you will see this page, click on the choose files button, circled in red in the picture, to begin the process of putting a picture on photobucket.

3. A little box will appear, this is your computer’s hard drive where all the information on it is stored. By clicking on the black triangle, in the green circle on the picture, list of file locations will drop down.

4. You will have to choose the correct location based on where the picture you want to put on photobucket is located. In this example, the picture I’m hosting is on the desktop, so that is the location that is highlighted with the arrow pointing at it and then you click to go there.

5. Once you are in the correct location, find the picture you are looking for. In this example the name is fruits21 (though you are unable to see it here) however that is in the red circle. After clicking on the picture name it will become highlighted. Once this is highlighted click on open, in the green circle.

6. There will be some more text boxes after clicking open labeled Title, Description, Tags, and some icons following Share. All of these are optional are used mainly for archiving purposes, I suggest you skip them by clicking “Return to Album” circled in the green box above.

7. You should now be at a page that looks like this, you can see the picture I just uploaded circled in red. The newest picture you upload will always appear in this area.

8. By moving your cursor over the picture some icons and boxes will appear below the picture. Move your cursor over the second box from the top labeled direct link and click on it, a yellow box should appear to the left of the box you clicked in that says copied. Now, whenever you are sending an e-mail and want to put that link in something you are sending to someone you can right click on your mouse and select “Paste” and it will put that link in text like so: http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss114/FV_Practice/fruits21.jpg

Registering For Photobucket

Vexed — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:16:26 CDT

1. To save pictures online, first you can go to www.photobucket.com by typing that in the address bar.

2. Then, to be able to use the site you must first click “Join Now” button at www.photobucket.com

3. In the green circle you will see a box, this is where you type in the username you would like to use. In this example I made the name FV_Practice. It is essentially the name of your account, make sure it’s something easy to remember and write it down to be sure you don’t forget!

4. In the blue box you see the area you type your password it is VERY important you pick something you can remember easily. Write down what you type in the box as each letter will show up as a dot so that others cannot see it, in this example you can see the dots but the password is: password1. Type the password you put in the first box labeled “choose password” in the box labeled “Re-Type Password”, this allows the website to verify what you want the password to be. When you finish here the page should look similar to the pictures. When you finish click Next Step (just below the blue box)

5. Now, fill in the information asked for here (cell phone is optional and I recommend you leave it blank) there is also a yellow box to the right with some info on why/what is done with the information you give. The box with m566bt in it just needs you to re-type it in the box below for verification purposes. When you finish here click sign me up.

6. After registering you will be brought to a survey page in which you will want to just click skip. There will be subsequent pages where you can just continue to scroll down and click skip.

7. When you reach a page looking like this you have finished registering!

Putting Pictures on The Web

Vexed — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:05:03 CDT