Custom Computer Building Part 1 of 5

14-Jan-07
In my experience I've found that building your own thing or doing something that you could easily pay for has more benefits than just a sense of accomplishment. In most cases by building yourself you can save money in the hundreds of dollars especially when it comes to building computers. In this 5 part loosely put together manual I am going to create we'll try to endeavor to not only build but de-mystify some of the fears that come with computers in general. So what do you say we just get right down to it?

Step 1:Picking a case

Cases are the most aesthetic piece of your computer and it should be a mirror of your personality. In many cases people find websites with pretty cases and then see things like "ATX Format" and start to get worried. In a better world people would just put, "this case will fit almost all motherboards, but in the computer world filled with people who have nothing better to do than create more headaches to make themselves feel important, they instead make code-words as I call them. So lets start picking cases and keeping up with our prices. We'll build what I call the more pleasing to look at system and the more practical system for all of you penny pinchers. So here goes nothing.

With our high end system we will be going with the Xoxide Xtreme 2 Black case at a cost of $69.99. Our low end price watching case we will be going with a Power Up 2525 White case at a whooping $19.97.


Xoxide Extreme 2 Black
$69.99
Powerup 2525 White
$19.97


So we have our cases and for you buying the higher end case you'll be happy to know it comes with some neat things, such as pre-installed blue LED lights on the front and on the fans. You will need to buy cathodes and more fans eventually, but we'll get to that later. So you pay your money and a couple days later UPS arrives and you get your case, now what?

Although looking at your shiny case is fun, it really won't do a whole lot YET, so we need to get some power going to this bad boy. Time to find a power supply.

With power you can never have enough. Awhile back a power supply wasn't so very important, but later as graphics cards became larger and required more and more power the need for those extra watts increased, along with everyone putting all kinds of attachments on their cases. So depending on which graphics card you get, you'll need a power supply that can run it. For our high end system we will obviously go with a higher power supply that will be able to get enough juice to the latest and greatest graphics cards. Our modest system on the otherhand we'll go with a mid-range power supply that can handle most cards except the very newest, this limitation is what you pay for when you buy any type of electronics cheap. With the high end system we will be going with the Ultra 700W Power supply at $79.99 and with our low end system we will be going with the Coolmax 400W power supply coming in at $19.99.


Ultra 700W Power Supply
$79.99
Coolmax-V 400W Power Supply
$19.99


Now once you get your power supply in, consult the diagram that came with your computer case. It shows you exactly where to place the power supply in your case. Its relatively simple, you usually have a couple of screws that you unscrew from the back of the power supply. Then you have a grate looking section on the back of your computer case, you hold your power supply and screw the screws back into their holes through the grate in the back of your case.



Well that was easy enough. Now plug the cord that came with the power supply into the wall and flick the switch if your power supply has one on the back. You'll find all kinds of connectors hanging out from the power supply, what you need to do is connect those to the other end "receptors" inside your case. Depending on how fancy your case is will depend on how many, but usually there is at least two. Once you've done that hit the power button on your computer just to make sure it is getting power. If you have the high end computer, you'll be able to tell when all of the LED's light up and your like WOW. If you have the low end computer you might see the activity light on the front of your case, but trust me its working.

We'll continue next time with Part 2 of our custom build here, hope you enjoyed this so far. The next part will include Motherboards, Processors (makes and models), and hard drives.



  DVD Copying

04-Jan-07
In the following section I will explain how to make backup copies of DVD's you own including ones with copyright protection using a few simple and super easy to use programs, I will also provide links to download these programs on this page as well as on the downloads page.

First you will need to get a few programs and install them.

Download and Install the following:
RipIt4Me
DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter
ImgBurn

Insert the DVD you want to copy into your DVD Drive and run the RipIt4Me program. You have two choice here, the Wizard Mode or the 1-Click Mode button. The 1 Click Mode button does everything for you right up to the point of burning the disc, but you have less control, so I always choose the Wizard Option.

You should see a screen like this come up.

Make Sure you always select the Full DVD option or you may have problems

Now make sure all of the boxes under the FIXVTS Settings are checked and press the "NEXT" button.

The next box will pop up and you should click the Create PSL button. Then you will click the RIP DVD button.

DVD Decrypter will load and after a few minutes you will see a box pop up that says, "Protected Sectors List Loaded". Click OK, and then click at the bottom left where a picture looks like a Disc with a Green Arrow going to a Hard drive. Click that and DVD Decrypter will begin.

DVD Decrypter Working

I'm not sure why but occasionally DVD Decrypter will get to the very last file and say that RipIt4Me had to abort. If it does this, simply repeat the whole process from the start, it's never happened twice in a row.

After DVD Decrypter has finished it will make a weird little sound and pop up the IFO Cleanup box, make sure every box is checked and click the "DO IT" button.

Next a box pops up that says "Step 4 Cleanup with FixVTS". Click the "Process with FixVTS button and after that is finished click the open with "DVD SHRINK" button.

It will show the dvd going warp speed and say analysing and then DVD SHRINK will open and will automatically set itself to shrink your DVD if its a dual layer to fit onto one dvd and if its already just a standard DVD it will just show the movie wasn't compressed at all and is at 100%

Click the BACKUP Button

Here is the only part you have to type something

Under where it says "Select Folder For Temporary Files", click the browse button, and go to the folder where the DVD has already been backed up, click ONCE on that folder just to highlight it, then click on the Make new folder button. It doesn't matter what you name the folder, you can even leave it as New Folder, just create it and then click "OK".

Now click ok, and it will begin the compression process of taking your movie and compressing it to fit onto a DVD and then placing it in the folder you just created. This can take anywhere from 10 - 30 minutes depending on how fast your computer is.

After this process is complete it will go to a new pop-up box and normally it will open your DVD drive to let you know its time to put in a burnable DVD (THE DVD CAN ONLY BE A DVD+R or a DVD-R, it CANNOT be a DVD+RW or DVD-RW because these two are ReWritable and will not work in a standard DVD player). So the popup box will show the message, checking discs or checking for discs. This means insert your DVD+R or DVD-R (whichever your dvd burner supports). Don't hit ok or anything, just wait, the program will detect the disk on its on and begin burning the disc.

Once this is done click ok and exit. Take your newly burned DVD and put it in your home dvd player and see if it works, it always should unless you messed up somewhere. If it does, then go to the directory where your DVD was stored, the C:Name_OF_MOVIE directory and delete it and everything in it. You no longer need it and its taking up between 4 and 10 GiG's of space on your hard drive which is a massive amount.

Now simply enjoy your DVD.

  Xbox 360 Modchip

03-Jan-07
Already there are a couple modchips out for the 360 but which is the best. Although I've not had the chance to test them all out yet as the Fractal version is pre-order only at the moment, I believe the Fractal 360 will be the best choice for modders. The chip boasts a number of advancements over its previous predecessors including on the fly patching, smart capability to turn itself on or off, and its only 12 wires to solder. For all of you none modchip enthusiasts I'll explain a little about what I mean. A modchip of course is a chip that allows you to play backups of your games and movies, because usually a movie or a game comes with come type of protection that stops people from illegally copying dvd's and games wildly. Whenever you do make a backup copy of your dvd or game, the protection gets lost in the mix, usually because the protection is just a bit of "broken" or bad code that the cd burner reads as messed up and won't copy. Well know you sit there and think, "Ok, but what if I own the DVD or Game and I want to make a backup which is completely legal?" Well my friend that there is the problem today between the consumer and the corporations. Its legal to make a backup copy of things you legally own, but you end up not being able to back it up because of all the protections they put on their stuff to stop illegal backups. So the world of modchips was born, because a modchip will essentially tell your xbox (or whatever game system) to ignore the fact that there is not encrypted protection even though there should be and allows your backups to boot up without fail.

What Fractal has done though is create a chip that is so simple that unlike the old xbox modchips, once you install it... your pretty much done. The chip does on the fly patching which means that whenever you insert a game it will read the game/movie and automatically send the code to the dvd reader to tell it to allow the backup and it will also disable your xbox-live capability when you have a backup version of the game in. If you put in your legal copy you bought from the store the chip has no purpose so it will turn itself off and re-enable your xbox-live capability, and by enabling and disabling your ability it protects you from accidentally putting in your backup copy and logging into xbox live and having your account banned.

Fractal 360 specs : Only 12 wires to solder for BOTH Hitachi-LG and Toshiba-Samsung DVD drives On the fly patching! Your onboard firmware stays untouched. The F360 intelligently monitors the operation of the original firmware until it detects a disc has been inserted. If the game is an original, the F360 switches off and your behaves like an untouched reader as no patches are applied what so ever in the event of this scenario. No need to convert disc images, the F360 is fully compatible with actual security sectors. Media Fix for Hitachi drives which optimizes media compatibility - a software applied bitsetting. When a backup disc is inserted, the bitsetting is forced to that of an original disc thus optimizing media compatibility. Security sectors and game ripping on both Hitachi and Samsung drives Optional installation of a dual coloured LED, a green light signals the current set up has been authenticated to safely go online, whereas a red light indicates a backup is inserted and not safe to go online. Fully automatic F360 disable feature for original games. If the drive is able to read a security sector from the original location then the chip detects this and automatically turns it off, achieving maximum user security. One universal unit only to work with Toshiba and Samsung drives, the F360 doesn't require two revisions.
-www.fractalteam.com


This is the fractal chip. Later we will go into how to open and install your xbox 360 chip and I'll have a review up in the next couple of days on how to setup, install, and program an original xbox modchip.
Quote of the Week: "When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'
-Theodore Roosevelt