Article Categories
» Arts & Entertainment
» Automotive
» Business
» Careers & Jobs
» Education & Reference
» Finance
» Food & Drink
» Health & Fitness
» Home & Family
» Internet & Online Businesses
» Miscellaneous
» Self Improvement
» Shopping
» Society & News
» Sports & Recreation
» Technology
» Travel & Leisure
» Writing & Speaking

  Listed Article

  Category: Articles » Technology » Computer Hardware » Article
 

How to Speed Up Your Computer. Part 4




By Nathan Segal

This week we're going to look at other options for speeding up your computer. As with our last installment, we're going to look at hardware options.

Chances are you're working with a lot of images, and over time those files start to eat up a lot of space on your hard drive. You may have noticed that if there are too many files on the drive that it begins to affect system performance. Defragging the hard drive will only do so much - now the issue becomes one of storage.

As I'm sure you've seen, there are many options, such as CD/DVD Writers, etc. In my experience, and especially now because I travel a lot, the single simplest solution is to have not one, but several external hard drives.

Why?

There are several reasons, but the most important aspect is that they allow relatively fast data transfer (much faster than writing a DVD - I've tried it and it's mindlessly tedious... even watching grass grow is more exciting). The other reason is size. If you're traveling, these little drives are really compact, easy to install and weigh almost nothing.

In my case, that takes the form of 80 GB 5400 RPM drives that one can install in a lightweight aluminum case. These connect to my computer by means of a USB 2 cable or Firewire connection. It's important the the drive have a fast cache as well. You can buy drives ready to go, but in my opinion, it's better (and more cost effective) to build one yourself. In addition, some drives have an AC connection, but in my experience, it's not necessary. Other options are the different types of Flash drives that are available. I have one of those. It's small, lightweight, is handy for Internet cafe's and takes up little room in the pocket.

In a home or business office sitution, you can go for much faster drives, such as 7200 RPM (a fast cache is always recommended - and you can make use of an AC adapter, as well. The other consideration is price. The dollar per GB value is much lower these days, making them an attractive alternative to CD/DVD burning. In addition, they're quite stable over time. A couple of drives to consider are Seagate or Western Digital with a capacity of 250 GB.

Future articles will explore computer graphics/photography and will show you how to maximize your productivity.


 
 
About the Author
Nathan Segal boosts your PHOTO-PAINT productivity with proven tips, tools and techniques to create better scans, images and prints in his book, The Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 Insider. Subscribe to his newsletter for free weekly graphics/photography tips.

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/41980.html
 
If you wish to add the above article to your website or newsletters then please include the "Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/41980.html" as shown above and make it hyperlinked.



  Some other articles by Nathan Segal
How to Speed Up Your Computer: Part 3
This week we're going to look at other options for speeding up your computer. We've covered many issues that ...

How to Speed Up Your Computer: Part 2
Q: My computer is running slowly. How do I speed it up? As I'd mentioned last time, a couple of quick fixes were to reduce the number of programs ...

What's the Fastest Way to Ruin a New Web Site?
I've been asked, "How do I design a successful Web site?" I often respond, "Do you know ...

  
  Recent Articles
Notebook Buying Tips
by Roberto Sedycias

Quality Printer Supplies Online
by Mike Nicholson

Decoding the DCF-77 Radio Time Signal
by Dave Evans

System Strategy and Motherboard
by Zahir Shah

How Do You Get The Latest Printer Cartridges Without Paying Outrageous Prices?
by Click2ink.com

When, Why, and How should I reformat my Hard Drive?
by Timothy Scheiman

High Capacity Data Storage Solutions for Organizations of all Sizes.
by Mike Nicholson

The Development of the Vital IBM PC in Spite of the Corporate Culture of IBM
by Max Rubin

Leading Computer Consumables Supplier in UK.
by Mike Nicholson

Designing and testing robust industrial computing solutions
by Leon Mengot

Business RFID Strategy
by Zhen Dong

The Indian Market and Copiers
by ram

Apple FireWire Effective bandwidth of the USB 2.0
by Nivea David

Apple's SCSI Cards
by Monica Craft

Apple's New Mac Book Pro with Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz
by Nivea David

Can't connect to database