After you have successfully installed your Windows Operating System such as Windows XP, most settings are placed on default. Normally included in this would be the auto shut off options for your hard disk and your video card. Depending on your preference, they can be good power savers and can help a lot in reducing the stress of computer parts concerned when you happen to leave your desktop or laptop idle for some time.

But overall, they are meant to help safeguard you computer as far as leaving it open for quite some time. The computer parts such as your video card and your hard drive are taking heat when they are operational. Unless you are the type that needs the computer to be operational most of the time due to instances such as long hour downloading of large files like videos, it would be wise to save on the wear and tear as well as the energy you are consuming. Energy in the sense that we are all aware of the fast dilapidating of our energy sources and each small help counts a lot.

For the techie freaks these days, many would turn these options off for their own reason. One is that they don’t want to go through the trouble of having to tap a key on their keyboards which may take some time to refresh and function as well. Besides, for these people, if one of the two, the hard disk or the video card, conks out, getting a new one of higher specs can be pretty much rewarding.

When I was buying a new network card for my busted one, I couldn’t help overhear the new specs of current computer buyers today. One thing that struck me the most was the presence of a 500 Gigabyte hard drive. I sort of like told myself, “Whoa! Now that is STORAGE”. It takes me back in time where I was wondering how many 60 to 80 gigabyte hard disks a plain computer could handle but 500 gigabyte? That is like time 6 of previous storages of hard disks in the market.

Immediately you would think, what files you would place with such a big storage capacity. Never mind if it is a Seagate or a Maxtor, the point is you have more than enough data storage capacity to work on. In fact, it made me wonder, would people still need multiple hard disks where one is programmed to be assigned as the master hard disk while the other is a slave?

Unless of course if you are a crazy downloader of audio, video or even software files, having one 500 gigabyte hard disk is sufficient. But that is quite a lot of storage space and if you ask me, it would be best to partition it to avoid disk problems such as when the time comes you have to use tools such as Scan Disk or Defragmentation. Imagine the time you have to wait for if the whole 500 gigabyte were to be used? You are lucky if it doesn’t take days!

Each year we see new programs being introduced in the market. Games and graphics lead the pack of new software in the market and you have to wonder which part of your PC hardware would have to be upgraded. Memory modules? Hard disk space requirements? New dual processors?

We often hear of new hardware upgrades available in the market. They come often and you have to wonder why computer peripheral manufacturers develop them ever so often. In fact, you have to wonder if there is a link with the software developers and them. For sure there will be some and also a business development aspect to which current IT trends and development help manufacturers devise new hardware for the future.

That is why you will notice, whenever a new program comes out, chances are you will need the minimum PC requirements. There are times when you have the minimum requirements but would have issues as far as optimized performance. With that said, what would a computer owner resort to? What else but to buy new hardware of a higher capacity in the market.

If you look at it, it is like a merry-go-round. You have to adhere towards current demands of the market based on the common PC user. A PC is always open for improvement. That is why computer peripherals are offered individually and compatible with various motherboards and sockets these days. Technology will always offer you something new. It has been common for us to check them out and if satisfied, buy them. New programs need higher specs on peripherals. Users need to be a step ahead to be assured of optimized performance.

For some, the larger the storage, the better it is for them. This means more files and the luxury of storing large files like audio and video files can be accommodated. One thing that people have noticed these days is that the usual 40 to 160 gigabyte hard disks don’t last long. Attribute this to the fact that people have gone crazy placing or downloading videos into their computer, not wanting to burn them for fear that they may be damaged once they are transferred to the usual optical drives.

With that said, Verbatim has introduced a 640 gigabyte hard disk into the market. Wow! That is times 4 of the last maximum hard disk of 160 gigabyte and it makes you wonder on what to put in it. Imagine the number of videos you can place there. Indeed it does sound like a good development but do remember, maintenance may be an issue later on.

One thing about large storage is that if you don’t take care of them, they may crash and leave you weeping in tears with all the files you have in them. 160 gigabyte hard disks are hard enough so what the more if you use this 640 gigabyte hard disk? It will take longer to defragment (assuming you are the type who optimizes hard disk with disk defragmenter), and perhaps be harder to backup due to the large size.

With that said, is it good or bad? Depending on your use, you just have to consider if it is indeed still feasible to purchase.

Source

Too much Windows Vista cache, a bad ting? Well, apparently yes, through Excessive Cached Write I/O and Excessive Cached Read I/O. As you probably know by now, cache is connected with boosting the performance of data accessing processes that target sluggish storage media. In an ideal scenario, the data or the code pages would be completely located within the system memory. The speed at which data is accessed, in the physical RAM, exceeds by far that of similar processes that involve a hard disk, by approximately 1 million times. But, because of the usually limited amount of RAM, the operating system will have to deal with system cache. (more…)

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