Barebones Systems: Alternatives to Buying Discount Computers

by: Nicky Pilkington
Buying discount computers is something easy to do nowadays that computer prices have dropped. Despite the low prices, you may still find it difficult to settle on a single computer. Computers are built with so many varying features that finding exactly the right one for you may be difficult. Building your own system from a barebones system is an option to buying discount computers that will enable you to get what you want exactly and still enables you to save money.


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Barebones Systems: Alternatives to Buying Discount Computers
by: Nicky Pilkington
Buying discount computers is something easy to do nowadays that computer prices have dropped. Despite the low prices, you may still find it difficult to settle on a single computer. Computers are built with so many varying features that finding exactly the right one for you may be difficult. Building your own system from a barebones system is an option to buying discount computers that will enable you to get what you want exactly and still enables you to save money.

Don’t think you can build a computer system? It’s true that building a computer system takes some time and a bit of knowledge about how computers work. When you start the building process with barebones systems you deduct some of the complication associated with building a computer system. Barebones systems have the basic components that you need to get started with building a computer system. Most of these systems include a motherboard, CPU (computer processing unit), and power supply encased in a computer case. Choosing a barebones systems is similar to buying discount computers. You will need to determine your needs to find just the right system for you.

Barebones systems are typically classified according to what they offer. While they contain the same basic components, the components enable you to perform different levels of tasks. Low-level barebones systems, which range in price from $100 to $200, will have components that are not as advanced as those in high-end barebones systems. Of the components in a barebones system, the processor is your main concern. There are basically two types of processors: Pentium and Athlon.

There is much debate about which processor is the best. Pentium is probably the most popular name in processors. Its name is synonymous with speed and power. With the introduction of the Pentium 4 processor, Intel suggests that pure multi-tasking is possible. Athlon may not be as popular with general consumers, but those individuals who understand the components of processors, such as clock speed, know that Athlon is at the very least in step with what the Pentium processor offers. Athlon 64, the most current processor that AMD offers

Once you select the barebones system with the essentials you need, you basically upgrade the barebones system to include the additional parts you need to create your ideal computer. After the processor, you want to consider memory, a hard-drive, and CD/DVD writer. Essentially, just as with the processor, you will need to determine what tasks you intend to perform with the computer. As a rule of thumb when buying discount components, you don’t want to build a system with the most high-end components. For starters, you will end up spending a significant amount of money (negates the purpose of choosing an alternative to buying discount computers) and the components will more than likely soon be replaced with a more high-end component.

About the author:
Detailed information about each component is available at http://discountcomputers.us/.You can find also find recommendations of just about all the parts you need by visiting this website.

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Are you in search of the most up-to-date assistance pertaining to computer guide.

by: Tom
When you are looking for excellent information about computer guide, you will find it hard separating value packed information from unprofessional computer guide submissions and help so it is sensible to know ways of moderating the information you are given.

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About the author:
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Read about computer guide in the free online encyclopedia and dictionary. Over 600,000 articles on any topic and completely free access to the entire content.



An excellent piece of advice to follow when you are presented with information and advice about a computer guide web page would be to determine who owns the site. Doing this could reveal the owners computer guide integrity The easiest way to reveal who owns the computer guide web site is to look on the 'about' page or the sites 'contact' page.

All reputable sites providing information about computer guide, will almost always provide an 'about' or 'contact' page which will list the people behind the site. The details should tell you some key points regarding the owner's proficency and credentials. This enables you to make an assessment about the site owner's knowledge and skill, to offer guidance about computer guide.

About the author:
Tom Brown is the webmaster for http://www.stateside-info.com

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All About Computer Viruses

by: Kara Glover


Feel Free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: kara333@earthlink.net

Word Count = 1,500
Word Wrapped to 60 characters per line
URL: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
Author photo: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
Date of copyright: November 2004
All About Computer Viruses
by Kara Glover
kara333@earthlink.net

Your computer is as slow as molasses. Your mouse freezes every 15 minutes, and that Microsoft Word program just won’t seem to open.

You might have a virus.

Just what exactly is a virus? What kind is in your computer? How did it get there? How is it spreading and wreaking such havoc? And why is it bothering with your computer anyway?

Viruses are pieces of programming code that make copies of themselves, or replicate, inside your computer without asking your explicit written permission to do so. Forget getting your permission down on paper. Viruses don’t bother to seek your permission at all! Very invasive.

In comparison, there are pieces of code that might replicate inside your computer, say something your IT guy thinks you need. But the code spreads, perhaps throughout your office network, with your consent (or at least your IT guy’s consent). These types of replicating code are called agents, said Jimmy Kuo, a research fellow with McAfee AVERT, a research arm of anti-virus software-maker McAfee Inc.

In this article, though, we’re not talking about the good guys, or the agents. We’ll be talking about the bad guys, the viruses.

A long, long time ago in computer years, like five, most viruses were comprised of a similar breed. They entered your computer perhaps through an email attachment or a floppy disk (remember those?). Then they attached themselves to one of your files, say your Microsoft Word program.

When you opened your Microsoft Word program, the virus replicated and attached itself to other files. These could be other random files on your hard drive, the files furthest away from your Microsoft Word program, or other files, depending on how the virus writer wanted the virus to behave.

This virus code could contain hundreds or thousands of instructions. When it replicates it inserts those instructions, into the files it infects, said Carey Nachenberg, Chief Architect at Symantec Research Labs, an arm of anti-virus software-maker Symantec. Corp.

Because so many other types of viruses exist now, the kind just described is called a classic virus. Classic viruses still exist but they’re not quite as prevalent as they used to be. (Perhaps we could put classic viruses on the shelf with Hemingway and Dickens.)

These days, in the modern era, viruses are known to spread through vulnerabilities in web browsers, files shared over the internet, emails themselves, and computer networks.

As far as web browsers are concerned, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer takes most of the heat for spreading viruses because it’s used by more people for web surfing than any other browser.

Nevertheless, “Any web browser potentially has vulnerabilities,” Nachenberg said.

For instance, let’s say you go to a website in IE you have every reason to think is safe, Nachenberg said.

But unfortunately it isn’t. It has virus code hidden in its background that IE isn’t protecting you from. While you’re looking at the site, the virus is downloaded onto your computer, he said. That’s one way of catching a nasty virus.

During the past two years, another prevalent way to catch a virus has been through downloads computer users share with one another, mostly on music sharing sites, Kuo said. On Limewire or Kazaa, for instance, teenagers or other music enthusiasts might think they’re downloading that latest Justin Timberlake song, when in reality they’re downloading a virus straight into their computer. It’s easy for a virus writer to put a download with a virus on one of these sites because everyone’s sharing with everyone else anyway.

Here’s one you might not have thought of. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express to send and receive email, do you have a preview pane below your list of emails that shows the contents of the email you have highlighted? If so, you may be putting yourself at risk.

Some viruses, though a small percentage according to Nachenberg, are inserted straight into emails themselves.

Forget opening the attachment. All you have to do is view the email to potentially get a virus, Kuo added. For instance, have you ever opened or viewed an email that states it’s “loading”? Well, once everything is “loaded,” a virus in the email might just load onto your computer.

So if I were you, I’d click on View on the toolbar in your Outlook or Outlook Express and close the preview pane. (You have to click on View and then Layout in Outlook Express.)

On a network at work? You could get a virus that way. Worms are viruses that come into your computer via networks, Kuo said. They travel from machine to machine and, unlike, the classic viruses, they attack the machine itself rather than individual files.

Worms sit in your working memory, or RAM, Nachenberg said.

OK, so we’ve talked about how the viruses get into a computer. How do they cause so much damage once they’re there?

Let’s say you’ve caught a classic virus, one that replicates and attacks various files on your computer. Let’s go back to the example of the virus that initially infects your Microsoft Word program.

Well, it might eventually cause that program to crash, Nachenberg said. It also might cause damage to your computer as it looks for new targets to infect.
This process of infecting targets and looking for new ones could eventually use up your computer’s ability to function, he said.

Often the destruction a virus causes is pegged to a certain event or date and time, called a trigger. For instance, a virus could be programmed to lay dormant until January 28. When that date rolls around, though, it may be programmed to do something as innocuous but annoying as splash popups on your screen, or something as severe as reformat your computer’s hard drive, Nachenberg said.

There are other potential reasons, though, for a virus to cause your computer to be acting slow or in weird ways. And that leads us to a new segment – the reason virus writers would want to waste their time creating viruses in the first place.

The majority of viruses are still written by teenagers looking for some notoriety, Nachenberg said. But a growing segment of the virus-writing population has other intentions in mind.

For these other intentions, we first need to explain the “backdoor” concept.

The sole purpose of some viruses is to create a vulnerability in your computer. Once it creates this hole of sorts, or backdoor, it signals home to mama or dada virus writer (kind of like in E.T.). Once the virus writer receives the signal, they can use and abuse your computer to their own likings.

Trojans are sometimes used to open backdoors. In fact that is usually their sole purpose, Kuo said.

Trojans are pieces of code you might download onto your computer, say, from a newsgroup. As in the Trojan War they are named after, they are usually disguised as innocuous pieces of code. But Trojans aren’t considered viruses because they don’t replicate.

Now back to the real viruses. Let’s say we have Joe Shmo virus writer. He sends out a virus that ends up infecting a thousand machines. But he doesn’t want the feds on his case. So he instructs the viruses on the various machines to send their signals, not of course to his computer, but to a place that can’t be traced. Hotmail email happens to be an example of one such place, Kuo said.

OK, so the virus writers now control these computers. What will they use them for?
One use is to send spam. Once that backdoor is open, they bounce spam off of those computers and send it to other machines, Nachenberg said.

That’s right. Some spam you have in your email right now may have been originally sent to other innocent computers before it came to yours so that it could remain in disguise. If the authorities could track down the original senders of spam, they could crack down on spam itself. Spam senders don’t want that.

Ever heard of phishing emails? Those are the ones that purport to be from your internet service provider or bank. They typically request some information from you, like your credit card number. The problem is, they’re NOT from your internet service provider or your bank. They’re from evil people after your credit card number! Well, these emails are often sent the same way spam is sent, by sending them via innocent computers.

Of course makers of anti-virus software use a variety of methods to combat the onslaught of viruses. Norton, for instance, uses signature scanning, Nachenberg said.

Signature scanning is similar to the process of looking for DNA fingerprints, he said. Norton examines programming code to find what viruses are made of. It adds those bad instructions it finds to its large database of other bad code. Then it uses this vast database to seek out and match the code in it with similar code in your computer. When it finds such virus code, it lets you know!

©2004 by Kara Glover














About the author:
Kara Glover is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter.
You can find her articles and tutorials on topics such as
Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® on her website: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
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A Guide To Basic Computer Terminology

by: Bonnie Archer
Ram? Mouse? One is an animal and one is a rodent right? Ram...that is the zodiac sign for Aries... If this is what these words mean to you than you can surely use this quick glossary of computer terminology. It would be a good idea to read through them before purchasing a computer because these are things you should know about first. If you already have a computer then these computer terms can help you know what to do if your new computer equipment is unfamiliar. Also, this computer terminology can help you if you have to call in for technical help Okay lets go!

Cache: Cache is another type of memory kindred to RAM. The computer uses cache to quickly move data between the RAM and the CPU.

CD-ROM Drive: Most new computers now come with a CD-ROM drive as standard equipment. A CD-ROM drive reads data from a disc. These CDs look like a music CD, but hold data instead of music. CD-ROMs also contain games, dictionaries, recipe files, and lots of other things that you can load onto your computer.

CPU: The CPU, or central processing unit, is the brains of the computer. Most new Windows based programs use a Pentium processor or a AMD Athlon XP. New Macs use a different type of CPU called Power PC.

Disk Drive:Virtually all computers come with a disk drive that can read and save information on portable diskettes, also called floppy disks. You can use floppy disks to save information or to load new software onto your computer.

Hard Drive: The hard drive is also called the hard disk. You'll probably never see it because it is nestled inside your computer. It's the computer's electronic filling cabinet, and it stores the computer's operating system, files, programs and documents.

Keyboard: Just like a typewriter keyboard, this device is the primary way of inputting data into the computer programs.

Megahertz (MHz): This is the clock speed of the microprocessor. The higher the number, the quicker the information is processed. MHz relates to how many millions of instructions can be processed per second.

Memory:This is the circuitry or device that holds information in an electrical or magnetic form. There is read-only memory (ROM), which is information primarily stored on a disk, and random-access memory (RAM), which is chip-based storage inside the computer. Memory is typically measured in megabytes (MBs).

Modem:This mechanism connects a computer to a phone line so information can be sent from one computer to another or the user can access an on-line service or the Internet. In view of the popularity of the Internet, a modem is now considered basic equipment and comes on practically all-new computers. Most modems come with fax capabilities.

Monitor: An output device that allows you to see what you are doing (it is what you are looking into right now to see this). Most computers come with 14 or 15-inch monitors. This size is good for most people's needs. Larger 17 or 21-inch monitors also are available, but may cost more. Myself, I prefer the 17-inch.

Motherboard:The motherboard is the circuit board that everything in the computer plugs into. The CPU, RAM and cache all plug into the motherboard.

Mouse: The mouse is another input device that makes getting around in your computer easier. It is a handheld object that is good for doing tasks such as moving and pointing to objects on the screen, and can replace the function and control keys of the keyboard. (If you need a lesson on how the mouse works and how to use it click here for a tutorial.)

Printer: A printer is an essential part of the computer if you want a hard copy of your work. There are four types of printers on the market: dot matrix, inkjet, bubble jet and laser. The dot matrix is the most basic. Most inkjets and bubble jets can print color and graphics, and a laser printer offers the best resolution at the highest speed.

RAM:Computers save data in two ways: on the hard drive and in random access memory or internal memory. New computer buyers should look for models with at least 16 MBs of RAM (or more, depending on what types of programs you'll be running). Make sure that the computer can be upgraded.

Scanner:A scanner is a useful accessory to have if you are working with lots of artwork or photos. This device can copy written documents, pictures or photographs directly into your computer. There are three types of scanners: handheld, hopper-feed and flatbed.

Sound Card: This device allows your computer to reproduce music, sounds and voices. Make sure you have a sound card if you're planning to play multimedia games.

Video Card: The video card is the part of the computer that sends the images to the monitor.

Well there you have it, a quick course on computer terms. I hope it has helped to guide you in your purchase of a new computer; or to help you with the one you have.
About the author:

About The Author
B. Archer is a successful author and publisher of
http://www.A1-computers.net- A great source of
information about computers and computer accessories.

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http://a1-computers.blogspot.com
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After the best sourced advice relating to computer securityrisk model computer securit

by: Tom Brown
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