Category: Hardware
Avoiding Heat Buildup in the Server Room

Avoiding Heat Buildup in the Server Room

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Servers generate a lot of heat. In fact, without a cooling system in place, closed server rooms can exceed 90F in temperature, which can damage the servers’ sensitive components and reduce their expected lifespan, according to experts. Many server rooms, when examined, are found to be between 78F and 82F, which can have negative long-term impact.

Ideally, server rooms should be between 60F and 70F for best performance and outcomes. Some models may have a broader range of tolerable temperatures; however, this range is considered standard for many modern servers.

Maintaining this cool environment can be challenging, especially in buildings with poorly functioning cooling systems or those that lack appropriately zoned HVAC. Afterall, keeping an office at 60F would be uncomfortable for many workers and quite expensive during the summer.

Fans are not always enough in warmer climates and can be loud and disruptive. They can also promote the growth of mold and the spread of particulate and allergens, creating an environment that is unhealthy for servers and humans alike.

A more practical solution is using a portable air conditioning unit to cool the server room. This maintains the necessary temperatures in a targeted, cost-effective way without impacting the environment outside the room. Spot cooling in this way can also help prevent mold, which can grow easily in a warm environment.

Maintaining proper temperatures in the server room is an important part of managing technology, but too frequently neglected. It is important to find a cooling solution that works for your server room and to have a back-up plan in case of failure.
How Clean are Your Computers?

How Clean are Your Computers?

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Article written by Best Businesses

Would you consider grabbing a sandwich after you touch a toilet seat? Would you consider eating a sandwich after touching your keyboard? Out of the two scenarios above, the cleaner option is the one that involves the toilet seat. Surprising, right?

Studies have found that toilet seats contain 80% less bacteria than keyboards. This is because restrooms are cleaned regularly and hygiene is a priority in offices. The keyboard and mouse are not even considered for a complimentary wipe down. This is a matter for concern and must be taken seriously. The cleanliness of computer equipment that you constantly use is very important. Humans with their quirks such as nail biting, nose digging, rubbing the eyes, etc. transmit bacteria when at the workstation.

Proper care must be taken by administrators in an office to make sure that these items are cleaned as well. This not only ensures better health for the employees, it also results in more productivity and less downtime for the office. The cleaning company must also be carefully selected, and the chemicals that they use for cleaning must be reviewed thoroughly before being given the green light. Improper methods can lead to a variety of incidents that range from letters being erased from keyboards to chemical fumes affecting employees.

These concerns are not limited to the office only. Even in your home, you should make an effort to keep your computer equipment clean. After all, good hygiene is good living.
Hiring an IT person

Hiring an IT person

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For most people, learning technology is just as tough as learning Greek or Latin while most companies also think that their technology requirements are uniquely complicated and the computer support orange county needs to take a similar approach. Even though one part of it is indeed true, the core technology used is the same for every organization except for a few tweaks here and there that can be easily taken care, so that the business can begin to function smoothly as soon as possible.

IT companies offer computer and customer support to their clients who require professionals with technical expertise in these areas. Even though it does cost a lot to maintain a large in-house team, the IT solutions provided by these companies also ensure that the costs are not too much either.

Interestingly, if one had to look for an organization that can provide technical assistance, one should review their previous track record and the kind of clients they have had to find out whether this organization is suited to your needs.

Whether you are just starting up or intend to switch from a previous IT solutions provider, it is important that you find IT support that fully understands the specifics of the business while also providing support that would turn out to be economical in the long run.
And in leaving technical support to the experts, you can then focus on areas of your business that need your attention.
Buying an External Hard Drive

Buying an External Hard Drive

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An External Hard Disk is a worthwhile investment for any computer user. If you are an avid downloader of content (legally, of course) then storing movies and mp3s on your computer is going to take up a lot of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) space. This is fine until you encounter the day when the HDD crashes. Backing up your data can save you the frustration and anger when that happens and this is where an external HDD really comes into play.

When looking to buy an external drive, you have to consider the two types available -Solid State Drives (SSD) and HDD’s. SSDs have no moving parts in them, so vibrations and small impacts will not do any harm to them. However, as long as you treat your HDD carefully there is very little chance of anything happening to it either. Of the two, HDDs are easier on your wallet.

You should decide on the size of the external drive, depending on how much data you want to backup or transfer out of your computer. If these are mainly documents that will be stored, then even a 100GB drive is enough. Otherwise, if you do need more space, 1TB and 2TB drives have recently become more affordable.

If you can afford to wait a while, USB 3.0 drives will be out in the near future offering staggering transfer rates. But in the meantime, external drives come in USB 2.0, Firewire and eSATA flavors. You should choose one of these depending on the connectivity you have on your computer and the availability of external power as some of these devices require that.

Just remember that the cost of an external drive is peanuts compared to the cost you will encounter at a data retrieval service should your HDD crash.
Buying a PC Case

Buying a PC Case

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As you become more familiar with the hardware components in your computer, you will want to assemble the next computer you buy. This is because it allows you greater freedom in customizing the configuration and getting it “exactly right”. At this point, you should pay some attention to the type of casing that will house your computer.

The first decision is to choose between a Desktop and a Tower casing. The only real advantage of a Desktop casing is that it does not consume a lot of space. It allows you to place the monitor over it and there ends its usefulness. For serious hardware enthusiast, the Tower casing is the way to go.

Tower casings come in a variety of sizes and you should pick the biggest one you can which won’t eat up too much of space in your room. There are many advantages in doing this, the main one being the cooling factor. A large case will allow you to fixe multiple fans inside the casing, at strategic locations, so that your computer can be cooled efficiently. Inefficient cooling can lead to quick hardware deaths. A large casing laterally will also accommodate the large heat sink towers that are now available for CPU’s. In addition to this, it can also accommodate any future hard disk and DVD drive expansion plans.

Usually, casing come with a pre-installed power supply. In most cases this is enough to drive basic to moderately advanced hardware. But if you are going to plug in multiple hard drives and run a high end graphics card, you should probably ask the store to swap the existing power supply with one that has a higher Wattage. This will ensure that there is enough “juice” to keep all your hardware running smoothly. A word of warning though, the more devices you run on the machine the more your electricity costs will go up.
Finding Cheap Toner Cartridges

Finding Cheap Toner Cartridges

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So where is the best place to find cheap toner cartridges? The answer is Ebay and Amazon. However if you are looking for the original OEM cartridges, these are usually more expensive and sometimes the best place is to buy in major retailers when they have sales, such as Costco, BestBuy and Target.  The cartridges on Ebay and Amazon are cheap when you buy 3rd party compatible or refilled or re-manufactured cartridges which most often work just as good, but sometimes they may be defective.

Your best bet is to buy in lots of 3 or more, so just in case one is defective, you would not be without a cartridge and usually these retailers will refund your money on defective ones without you having to send it back, because its just not worth that much to them to do that.

Where does one look for product parts and accessories in case something goes wrong or in the case of the Samsung TV stand that you absolutely cannot do without. While sales and service is an important strategy of any top notch multinational company, sometimes the latter is not necessarily a situation that a customer finds difficult to navigate through.

And then there are essential components such as the Toner Cartridges without which organizations can lose hours of productivity to that might not sit well with investors, senior management and the like, when the reports indicating unaccounted time are sent to them.

A common issue with entertainment products such as a television is with needing a replacement for a component known as the Samsung DLP Color Wheel. Quick fixes are not advisable but a thorough inspection of your set by a professional with an authentic replacement of the part that is not working. Finally, you can also get an extra Samsung Camcorder Battery or as a replacement for your camcorder within days especially if ‘shooting’ is just more than a hobby.

Even though products protect the customer’s rights by issuing warranties, one never knows when ‘disaster’ strikes (to put it dramatically), and so to prepare for the situation such as this, one can find plenty of online stores where they can find parts and accessories that will help them use the product to the best of its potential.

 
35mm Slide Scanners

35mm Slide Scanners

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Imagine yourself purchasing a direct-to-home television package that is digital but using a television from the eighties (provided they’re still around that is) to view your favorite programs with. Sounds kind of odd… doesn’t it?

It’s really the same thing if one uses a professional camera with film to take photos but cannot save them for those moments of nostalgia much later on in life that can be so easily solved by purchasing a photo slide scanner.

Even though a lot of people use digital cameras today, still photography still has a soft corner for photography with the good old film as it tends to add a more realistic touch to the photographs taken. Many professional and budding amateur photographers seem to think this way, and while they do have ‘film stock’ in the truer sense of the word, it does not mean that storing them digitally isn’t a priority and tor this, 35mm slide scanners are available so that one can do just that.

In another scenario, when it comes to converting photographs taken on film digitally, most professional photographers use the services of a professional digital film scanner owned by an organization that convert these photographs to their digital equivalent for exorbitant fees.

Truth be told, this works out to be expensive, so it only bodes well for photographers to get their machine that will work out to be inexpensive in the long run.