Recently in Hadware Upgrades Category

The new ASUS EEE PC packs some great features into a small package and overall I'm impressed with what it can do so far. If you want better audio and video performance, for both multimedia playback and minor audio and video editing tasks, the ASUS EEE PC needs two things: More RAM and greater storage capacity. Storage capacity is reasonably unlimited because you can plug any USB drive into the EEE PC and get extra space, but I want self contained, silent storage, which means the biggest SD card you can afford in the SD slot. More RAM is a little tricky, because you have to be willing to void the warranty on your EEE PC in order to add it (the Warranty Void if removed sticker is conveniently blocking access to the panel on the back where the memory unit is housed. Because this is a budget priced computer, I want to double the RAM in the EEE PC and get the biggest SD card I can buy for under $100. Here's how to do it:

Double the EEE PC RAM

You can double the EEE PC RAM for under $30, by ordering a 1GB 200-Pin SODIMM DDR2 stick for $28 from Crucial. I've used Crucial memory exclusively for every upgrade I've ever done and never had a bad experience. They have great prices and their memory calculator makes it easy to figure out what you need.

Here's a video showing you how to upgrade the EEE PC RAM:

Note: Upgrading the RAM voids the EEE PC warranty.

Triple Your Storage with an 8GB SD Card

Solid state storage is one of the things that attracted me to the EEE PC. It's super quiet and no moving parts helps increase battery life. You can triple your storage by adding an 8GB SD card, which currently runs about $65 on Amazon and other online stores (you might find one cheaper through a rebate program). This gives me plenty of room for DVD quality movies, some music, and any files I need to get real work done. It also offers enough storage space for small video editing projects and any amount of podcasting work I might want to do. You may also want a 150GB pocket sized drive for serious storage, but for most tasks, that extra 8GB will get you what you need.

Cost of 1GB of RAM: $28
Cost of 8GB SD Card: $65
Total Upgrade Cost: $93

One of the biggest performance boosts you can give your laptop or notebook computer is adding more RAM. It's often far cheaper to do this yourself than pay the extra dollars laptop manufacturers want to charge for the upgrade when you puchase. Luckily, RAM upgrades in laptops happen to be one of the easiest upgrades you can do on any computer. I'll show you the steps to take here through a series of photos and a quick video tutorial.

First, you need to get a memory upgrade for your computer. The easiest way to find out what type and how much RAM your computer supports is to use something like the Crucial Memory Calculator, which walks through a quick series of questions to determine your system configuration.
After you have your memory upgrade in hand, it's time to do the install.

"I read somewhere that my computer will be faster if it has more RAM. How can I find out how much RAM my Windows computer already has to see if I need more?"

Adding more memory will speed up some aspects of your computer, but there's no guarantee that more RAM will translate to a blazing fast PC. Other factors, like how many open applications you continually run, whether you're doing memory intensive projects like video and photo editing, how fragmented your drive is, and how long ago your last reboot was contribute to overall performance. Having said that, most computers that ship from Dell, HP, Gateway and the other OEM PC makers are ship with far less RAM than I personally consider ideal.

Shashi writes, "I wanna know if there is any way I can increase the speed of my motherboard standard USB 1.1? Or can I use some software to boost the transfer rate on USB ports?"

If your motherboard only supports USB 1.1, then the best you can hope for is USB 1.1 transfer speeds from any of the USB ports connected to your motherboard. There isn't any way to boost the speed. This is kind of like hoping some magic will turn your bicycle into a performance motorcycle. What you can do is buy a USB 2.0 expansion card and install it in one of your computer's available PCI slots. USB 2.0 cards range in price from $15-80 depending on how much extra stuff is included on the card. In most cases, a cheaper one will perform just as well as the expensive ones. This will give you USB 2.0 ports in the computer where you need them. In most cases, you could leave things like your USB mouse on the older USB 1.1 ports and take advantage of faster data transfer on the ports in the USB 2.0 card.

For more on identifying which types of USB ports are in your computer, see my article on identifying USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports in your PC.

Barry writes, I just purchased your guide regarding Converting VHS and Hi8 tapes to DVD and have a couple of questions. I can't figure out if I have a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 installed--the info in the My Computer section under Universal Serial Bus doesn't specify. It looks like the USB hardware was installed in 2001. Is there an easy way to determine which I have?

The reason I recommend USB 2.0 over USB 1.1 is because of the significantly faster data transfer speed achieved in using USB 2.0. USB 1.1 transfers data around at 12mbps, with each new device added to your system taking up progressively more of the available transfer pipe until you hit a point where your USB gets overloaded. USB 2.0 is a massive speed increase to 480mbps, which leaves plenty of room for most device operations. Knowing which one you have on your system is a little more complicated because some motherboards don't accurately identify your device as USB 2.0.

Project: DIY External Hard Drive

Tools Required:
Screwdriver and four hard drive mounting screws

Large capacity external hard drives are great for quickly switching between multiple PCs or taking data with you. Based on the best online prices, pre-built external drives with both USB 2.0 and FireWire connections are available at the following prices (a few with USB only were cheaper):

With some careful shopping and about 15 minutes assembly time, a DIY External Hard Drive will cost less. The assembly is so minimal; a computer novice should have no problem completing the steps required. After shopping online for an affordable 250-300GB drive, I ultimately went with a 200GB Maxtor drive at the local CompUSA for $99.99 ($0.50/GB is too cheap to pass up), combined with a CompUSA brand External case for $54.99, which totals $164.28 with tax in Iowa (or about $55 dollars less than buying a Maxtor External drive).

Online comparison shopping results in External drive cases ranging in price from $35-$100. Staying within the lower end of that range results in the biggest savings over buying a preassembled external drive. Whenever possible, buy a case with the Oxford 911 FireWire chipset; anything else creates the potential for write errors. With some comparison shopping

External Cases:

Internal Drives:

Using the case and drive combination I purchased a DIY 200GB drive doesn't look nearly as attractive at non-sale prices. I'm lazy enough to pay the $5.03 to let someone else do the assembly. However, plenty of specials on 200GB drives are available. Plenty of 200GB drives for under $115, making the total savings closer to the $55 I saved. The 250GB drives save you a minimum of $12, more with rebates and comparison-shopping. It's harder to directly compare external 300GB drives, because locating a 7200 RPM drive with a standard ATA connection is almost impossible for the average consumer. Retailers are selling SATA drives, which offer a faster performance bus and are generally incompatible with most external drive cases. Slower 5400 RPM drives are available at attractive prices (although not as attractive as the $0.50/GB prices of the 200GB drives). For the time being, 200GB seems to be the sweet spot for maximizing drive size for price when building your own external drive.

To get your drive ready to connect to a PC or Mac, you need to follow these simple steps:

1. Change the jumper on the back of the hard drive to match the settings for the Master drive. In most cases, this is labeled with a diagram on the drive, if not consult the manual.

2. Open the empty drive case.

3. Connect the parallel ATA cable to the drive by matching up the solid plastic center square with the empty pin slot on the back of the drive.

4. Connect the power cable to the power connectors on the back of the drive (there's only one way this cable will fit in the connection.

5. Set the drive in the bottom of the external casing. And secure it using the drive mounting screws.

6. Snap the top of the case on to close the external casing.

At this point, all the hard work is done. It's time to format the drive for use with your computer. Connect the drive to your computer using either the USB or Firewire connections. Connect the power supply and turn the switch on the external drive case to the on position. Open the Windows XP Disk Management utility by navigating to Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management.

1. Click on Disk Management and locate the new drive.

2. Right click the drive and select Initialize from the list of options.

3. Right click the unpartitioned space and select New Partition to launch the new drive formatting wizard.

4. Choose Primary Partition and click next.

5. Unless you have some need to divide the drive into multiple sections, stick with the default partition, which converts all available space into one big drive.

6. Choose your favorite drive letter and click Next.

7. Label the drive with something easy to identify, especially if you have lots of drives (like my system, which recognizes all the media slots as individual drives). Check the box next to perform a quick format.

At this point Windows performs a quick format on the drive.

When the process is finished it should read Healthy. The new drive is ready to load with more audio and video files (or whatever else you choose to store on the drive).