How To Upgrade and Change A Computer Power Supply Unit PSU

When you upgrade hardware inside your computer more energy is needer to power the new parts. If the PSU cannot provide enough power to the computer parts then you get random crashes and instability. This can be solved by installing a higher wattage PSU from a reputable brand such as Corsair, OCZ, or Coolermaster. This is a shot instructional video showing how to change the PSU in your computer.

Thanks for watching, Jack-O-Bytes

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

Gigabyte M68M-S2P S-Series AM2+ Motherboard Review

Hello there and welcome to Jack-O-Bytes reviews. In this post I am going to be talking about the cheap but cheerful Gigabyte M68M-S2P AM2+ motherboard. The Gigabyte M68M-S2P is aimed mainly at the budget computer market and is very cheap and cheerful. It is based around the AM2+ motherboard socket. The M68M-S2P also has the ability to run some of the newest AMD Phenom 6 core CPU's.

I have used this board in 2 of my PC builds so far and I have found them very easy to install and setup. This board is designed for budget builds around the £200-£400 ($320-$640) area. Even though this board costs only £32 ($51) it comes with some very nice features that you would expect to find only on  more expensive boards. These include a 3+1 phase power design that uses solid capacitors and also AM3 CPU support for up the Phenom II x6 1055T CPU. This basically means that for £32 ($51) you can get a motherboard that is capable at supporting full 6 core CPU's.

This motherboard has the following output and inputs on the I/O panel;

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
• 1 x PS/2 mouse port
• 1 x parallel port
• 1 x serial port
• 1 x D-Sub port
• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 3 x audio jacks (Line In / Line Out / MIC In)

As you can see it still has the standard PS2 keyboard and mouse plugs which in my opinion are a good thing as not all people have moved onto USB peripherals. It also has one parallel port as well which I don't see much use of as many boards have done without these for quite a while and I don't really know any one that still uses one. It also has a serial port which also seems a little out of date. Of course some people still use these features so gigabyte have added them any way. The only video output on this board is a VGA D-Sub port which for some people may not be all that great. Many other boards now use DVI and/or HDMI plugs instead. Of course many people still use VGA instead of DVI so that is a fair move by Gigabyte considering they have also added serial and parallel ports. It seams as though this board is aimed at people that want the performance of a new computer but do not want the costs of replacing all their other peripherals as well. The Gigabyte M68M-S2P only has 4 USB ports on the back but for a £32 ($51) I don't see this as a bad amount. It has a gigabit Ethernet port which is easily fast enough for almost every ones Internet and home network systems as well. The main let down on this board is that even though it features 7.1 channel audio it only has 3 3.5mm jack sockets. This means that when you want either 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio you loose use of the microphone and line in plugs.

This motherboard has the following internal connectors;

• 1 x 24-pin ATX power connector
• 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 1 x floppy connector
• 1 x IDE connectors
• 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
• 1 x CPU fan connector
• 1 x system fan connector
• 1 x front panel connector
• 1 x front panel audio connector
• 1 x CD In connector
• 1 x SPDIF In/Out connector
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors for additional 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports by cables
• 1 x clearing CMOS jumper

This board uses the standard 24 pin motherboard power socket which is located next to the RAM slots. This is the ideal place to have the plug as it leads the thick power lead from the PSU away from the CPU area and thus avoiding the cable getting stuck in the CPU fan or getting in the way of mounting an aftermarket heatsink. This board also has a 4 pin power connector that is next to the CPU socket in the top left of the board. This is also in a good place as it allows you to route the cable over the PSU and down into the socket thus avoiding the CPU heatsink and fan again. I am happy to see that gigabyte have also included a floppy disk connector on the M68M-S2P board as this shows that it is again thinking about people that may still use legacy components and formats. The M68M-S2P also has 1 IDE port that is great for people that want to just upgrade their motherboard, RAM, and CPU without having to get a new SATA hard drive. This board has 4 SATA 3GB/s connectors great for if you want to setup a computer with multiple hard drives for backups or data storage. It also has support for RAID 0,1, 5,  and 10. This is great as you can create high performance drive setups.

The quality of this board feels very solid. It has solid capacitors around the CPU which shows quality as they cost more and are more reliable than regular electrolytic capacitors. The M68M-S2P also looks good quality as all the other capacitors are perfectly vertical and none are leaning over suggesting that the board has been put together well. The last small sign of higher quality is the colour scheme. Having components with matching colours shows that some thought and attention has gone into making this board look good as well as perform good. It also shows that they haven't just been sloppy and used whatever parts were available at the time of manufacture or whichever were offered cheapest.

Overall I would say that this motherboard is medium quality using high quality solid capacitors in the most importand area and then high quality electrolytic capacitors elsewhere to help keep the price down a little. CPU support is great and the RAM support of up to 1066Mhz speed is OK but not as good as the newer DDR3 motherboards that have been released. What more can you want though from a great budget board other than stability, ease of setup, performance, and high support for old and some newer technologies.

Thanks for reading, Jack-O-Bytes

Related Articles;

• Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drive Review
• Foxconn A6VMX AM2+ Motherboard Review

Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drive Review

I purchased the Western Digital Caviar Black as an upgrade over an older IDE drive. I chose the Caviar Black as it has better performance than the Caviar Green and Caviar Blue. I installed the drive with a Foxconn A6VMX motherboard and an Athlon 64 x2 5600.

Specs

Storage Ammount: 500, 640, 750, 1000, 2000

High Speed Cache: 32mb (64mb on only 2tb model)

Processor: Dual Processor (Allows for more data to be transfered quicker)

Quality

This hard drive seems to be very well built. It is heavy and has a very strong metal top and strong metal sides. This is a very positive thing for a hard drive as sometimes people knock them when trying to install them. It is built well and feels very sturdy.

Performance

I have had this hard drive for about 2 months now and in the time I have had it I have seens a very good increase in performance over an older Samsung F1 IDE drive. I did a few performance tests and these are the results;

• Random Access: 12.3ms
• Average Read: 78mb/s
• Burst Speed: 220.4mb

As you can see from those results this hard drive has very good performance. These are the performance figures on the well known Samsung Spinpoint F3

• Random Access: 13.8
• Average Read: 124.8
• Burst Speed: 258.9

As you can see. The Western Digital Caviar Black struggles to keep up with the F3 drive. I do however think that me having it partitioned into 3 peices and have a full XP install and loads of programs probably lowered it chances against the F3 so I would add a little performance to each of the Caviar Blacks results.

Noise and Temperature

This hard drive is very quiet for a performance drive. It isn't audiable at all over the noise of my fans in my computer. It does also stays very cool with temperatures ranging in my setup from 29c-34c. This is easily cool enough to help it continue working correctly for a long time.

That is all for this review,

Jack-O-Bytes

Related Articles;

• Foxconn A6VMX AM2+ Motherboard Review
• Gigabyte M68M-S2P AM2+ Motherboard Review

How to speed up your computer using free available programs

This is a short guide one how to speed up your computer/laptop using free available tools that you can download and install quickly and easily.

• Firstly download and install the following free programs. CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag, and Auslogics Registry Defrag. CCleaner and Auslogics disk defrag are free but auslogics registry defrag is only a 30 day free trial which is fine for a one time use.

• Once you have done that close as many programs as possible. This will mean that CCleaner can work more efficiently and quicker as well. You will most likely have to close your Internet browser so it may be a good idea to bookmark this page so you can open it again.

• Firstly open CCleaner and click the "Run Cleaner" button in the bottom right of the program. This will then clean out all of the temporary files and unused folders that build up on your computer over time. Once that has completed click on the "registry" tab on the left of the program and then click scan for issues at the bottom middle of the program. Once it has scanned it will have a list of broken/unneeded registry entries that will be slowing your computer down. Click fix selected issues in the bottom right of the program and then it will ask if you want to back up your registry. Click yes and save the file somewhere that you can access easily such as your documents. Another box will then come up. Click fix selected issues and then you are done with that program.

• Next close CCleaner and open up Auslogics Registry defrag. Click on analyze in the bottom right of the program. It will then scan the registry for fragmented areas which will be slowing the computer down. Once it has done that click on the little "Defrag Now" button that comes up once scanning is complete. The computer will restart and automatically defrag the registry for you. Make sure that you do not switch of the computer during this process. Log back into the computer and then the registry defrag program will come back up. Click finish or just close the program.

• Once you have closed Registry Defrag you now need to open Auslogics Disk Defrag. Once the program is open click on the down arrow that is next to the "defrag" button that is located near the top left of the program and then click "Defrag and Optimize" This part of the process may take a while but it will be well worth it at the end. Little blocks will start to apear on the program that are coloured either green or red. Red is the fragmented parts and green is the non fragmented parts. As the program runs the red will turn to blue which means Defragmented. Once the program has finished you are now ready to enjoy a speedy computer.

• Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your new speedy computer, Jack-O-Bytes

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

How to Re-aply thermal paste to keep your graphics card cool

This is a short video that will walk you through what you have to do to re-aply thermal paste onto your graphics card to help keep it running cool and quiet.

By replacing the thermal paste on your graphics card you create a new good thermal link between the GPU chip and the heatsink that cools it. The better this link the more heat can be transfered to the heatsink and the cooler the chip runs. I recomend that you use a good quality thermal paste such as Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Ceramique.

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

Foxconn A6VMX AM2+ Motherboard Review

I recently purchased a relitivly cheap Socket AM2 motherboard produced by Foxconn. It is the Foxconn A6VMX. This review is based upon using the motherboard for about 3 months getting to know it's features.
Firstly I would like to start of with the price. It is a fairly cheap motherboard priced around £31 ($47). At this price I was expecting a flimsy low feature motherboard with relitivly low quality capacitors and barely any external ports but I was wrong.

The motherboard has the following rear I/O connectors;

• 1 set 5.1 channel Audio jacks (3 jacks)
• 1x Parallel port
• 1x PS/2 keyboard port
• 1x PS/2 mouse port
• 1x VGA port
• 4x USB 2.0 ports
• 1x RJ45 LAN port

1x Serial port
This is enough for many people although lacking DVI and HDMI this is to be expected with a motherboard that costs this ammount. I am glad to see that this board comes with both PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse which many motherboards are now leaving out to save space on the I/O plate. It also includes 5.1 audio which I have been very pleased with when playing music through my X-540 speakers. The sound quality is very good.
On the inside this motherboard offers plenty of connections for the PC builder to work with. The motherboard has the following ports for internal uses;

• 1x CD-in connector
  1x Front Audio header
  1x S/PDIF Out header
  1x IRDA
  1x TV Out header
  1x Floppy connector
  1x Front Panel connector
  2x USB 2.0 connectors support additional 4 ports
  1x Speaker
  4x SATA II connectors
  2x USB Power header
  1x IDE

I was amazed to see so many SATA ports on a motherboard of this price but it is very nice they have included so many. It also features a floppy connector and an IDE connector. These are great if you have either an old hard drive or old floppy disk that you would like to save the data from. IDE performance seems ok with it being able to run both of the disk drives at the same time. I am also sure that many people would be glad to see that they have included S/PDIF and TV out headers for use in a media computer setup.

The board has the following expansion slots;

• 1 x PCIe x16
• 1 x PCIe x1
• 2 x PCI

The small ammount of expansion slots is mainly down to the fact that this is a Micro ATX board. I have installed an Nvidia 9400GT 1GB edition with a double slot cooler which unfortunatly renders on of the PCI slots unusable and with only 2 on the board this could be a problem for some people. Another problem is that when you install a long graphics card such as a Radeon HD5770 you will loose 2 of the SATA ports behind the graphics card as they are not mounted horizonatly. Another small issue with the layout of this board is where the 24 Pin power plug is mounted. It is half way down the board on the right hand side which means you have the giant 24 wire cable running across the top of the RAM slots and CPU fan plug. This isn't too much of a problem but it does create a bad look and could impede cooling.

This board is relitivly cool running when paired with a Athlon 64 x2 and 2GB of RAM. The northbridge heatsink is slightly warm to the touch the same as the southbridge. When I turned the PC off after long use I found that the Capacitors and the VRM (Voltage Regulating modules) where also very cool. The board also seems to be build quite solid with the cpu heatsink mount being firmly attached and the heatsinks for the northbridge and southbridge being aligned and perfectly secure. On the other hand this board doesn't feature many solid capacitors which many people would want these days but I haven't had any issue with this as all the capacitors are good japanese brands on this motherboard.

With the Athlon 5600 installed I managed to overclock it from 2.9Ghz to a stable 3.15Ghz which is a fair improvement.

I do however have some very small issues with the software that was supplied. 

Included with the motherboard was;

• Motherboard Drivers
• Fox one overclocking utility
• Fox Logo
• Fox Live Update

I found that the programs were all a little glitchy apart from the overclocking utility. They do not seem to be fully matured just yet and may need to be updated to improve stability and features. The Overclocking utulity is great and I did managed to get a stable overclock. It also monitors temperatures and voltages which seem to be more reliable than other hardware monitoring tools. The fox logo on the other hand didn't seem to work and to me it is a little risky using it as it messes with theBIOS to change the boot photo. After an atempt to change mine it didn't do anything at all so I didn't touch it again. The Fox Update tool is OK but does have a few minor glitches. It does make updating the BIOS and Drivers easier but I wouldn't recomend updating the BIOS with it as it doesn't seem all that stable and messing with the bios is risky enough as it is.

Overall I have found this board to be stable, reliable, and fairly fast with a lot of features. I do however find that the software supplied isn't great. Maybe Foxconn will release a few updates to improve them but until now I have decided not to mess with them. (apart from a little bit of overclocking using Fox One)

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com