atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories A Couple of Computer Questions to be answered...

1. When my computer is on and I click on Mozilla or Explorer why does it take forever for the browser to open..

2. I am lookiing for a few USB flash drives to carry around, looking for suggestions...

3. What is the most popular Motherboard available on the market, also what about some popular add-on cards.


Thank you, Mitch Taylor

Mitch, depending on your computers speed, amount of available RAM, and the applications you have running, your browser can take awhile to open. Why don't you tell us your configuration first.

As far as USB flash drives, there are tons of good ones out there. I have had good luck with Sandisk.

Asking which is the most popular motherboard on the market is like asking which is the most popular car. Depends on what you are looking for. Right now, unless you like to tinker and are planning to upgrade components alot, there is no reason to build your own. Companies like Dell are offering systems with 17" LCD monitors for $420, and these are P4s with Hyper theading and DDR2 RAM. So if you want to upgrade, go that route. I don't have the link to the special deal that Dell was having, but I have it on my other machine and I can post it if you like.

https://www.dell.com/content/topics..._jump5?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

here is the Dell link in case you want it.

You can't beat those prices for a computer that will be outdated shortly.

1) Lots of possibilities. Do you have any extra toolbars or internet accelerators runnings? If yes, remove them to start with. Run two different spyware sweepers. You should also run a defrag if you haven't in quite some time.

2) I've seen the expensive drives fail as often as the cheap ones. If you can, get one that has a flip top lid that you can't lose.

3) Asrock and MSI both make good budget boards. There are way too many options and features to get into here...it really all depends on what you want.

Dell does have some good deals, but don't bother with anything that has less than 512MB of RAM, and consider 1GB. I don't know how they can sell machines that only have 256MB, and part of that is shared with Video. That's pretty well bare minimum just to run XP.

Lots of places sell barebones packages which are great for doing upgrades. Be aware that if you buy a new motherboard, you will likely need a new power supply as well. The new motherboards have 4 more pins for the power connection.

I just picked up a couple ECS MB with P4 chips and fan, 3G of DDR2, 2-power supplies, 2 160G HD all for about $600 the wife and I a happy with them.


FYI it takes about 3 sec. for explorer and 4 sec. for firefox to start up (how long is forever?)

For motherboards, I prefer Intel. Rock-solid, decent performance for the typical user, and they keep documentation around on their web site forever. You can even find docs on the boards they OEM to the PC manufacturers.

That said, there is little reason for the typical user to build a system, unless you enjoy that sort of thing. (A lot of us do, apparently!) There are so many bargains out there. Yeah, the $300 systems might be a bit underpowered, but for the average emailer/surfer, why pay more?

1 gig USB flash drive $25.

www.surpluscomputers.com

1 - as was mentioned, toolbars can do it (I only run Google toolbar) and disk fragmentation. As a Windows installation gets older and more applications are installed and removed, everything seems to slow down a bit. Also, try setting the browser start page to about:blank. If the start page is on the internet, it first has to load that page before turning full control over to the user.

2 - there are many keychain style units available at all price levels. One thing I would look into is units that use a replaceable memory slot - Infinitely expandable.

3 - Many motherboards today don't need add-on cards. I prefer Asus and Gigabyte primarily. But there are other good brands. Unless you need a gaming rig, motherboards include video, sound and network. Sheck on Newegg, and sort their selection by most popular... or best rated.

Sometimes, I'll agree that getting a Dell is much better than building your own. At least for a basic home computer. But as soon as you want something more, you have to go with your own, because Dell charges extreme premiums for better systems.

You also might look at the auction site Dell has, there are a few good deals from time to time.
https://www.dellauction.com/