Some General PC Questions

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Shafra

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Hello All, I just have some general PC questions, if anyone could answer some or all of them I would be greatly appreciative.

1. Is it better to leave a PC on constantly or turn it off? Let's assume I have perfect cooling so that won't be an issue :)

2. Also, I'm new to LCD panels. How can I preserve the life of the panels, should I use power saving features on them, screen savers, or just turn them off when not in use?

3. How good is Windows Restore feature in XP Pro? I have some motherboard drivers I want to install but really afraid to put them on. If I set a restore point will it really be able to bail me out?

4. With RAM, if you have 4 slots for ram, do you have to fill up each bank 1 at a time, or could you put a ram stick in bank 1 and bank 3 and still be ok?

All silly noobie questions, but any help would be great.
 
answears i know to questions :
1- if u leave ur computer on all the time then theres a chance that ur memory will get full and u have to restart to free some rams up .. so i think that u should shut down the computer at late night when u go to sleep !

3-restore point is good in win xp pro .. but if u want the drivers use a program called " driver magician" it better than the restore points !

4-u could fill it the way u want ,, if u put them in slots 1 and 3 i think that u will be over clocking ( as the over clockers about this )
 
JinkX said:
answears i know to questions :
1- if u leave ur computer on all the time then theres a chance that ur memory will get full and u have to restart to free some rams up .. so i think that u should shut down the computer at late night when u go to sleep !

3-restore point is good in win xp pro .. but if u want the drivers use a program called " driver magician" it better than the restore points !

4-u could fill it the way u want ,, if u put them in slots 1 and 3 i think that u will be over clocking ( as the over clockers about this )

that was nuts :D

1.leave your comp on if you want too mines on 24/7 and Iv never had any ram issues unless you have like 256mb. Its better than turning it off and on as metal expands and contracts with temperature changes so the less you turn it off and on a lot then it doesnt matter to much. Although whoever pays your electricity bill should also know if you plan to leave it on ;).

2.Just leave the power saving on I normally put my screen saver on none and just let power saving turn my monitor off after 20 mins.

3.I don't use restore points as there's always a chance a virus could infect it. Just install the drivers and if it goes wrong you can do a windows repair which will remove all the drivers or do a system restore to before you installed them, when I have used it things went smoothly.

4.where the ram goes has nothing to do with overclocking, if your motherboard supports dual channel then you put the ram in the corresponding slots normally colour coded. You will need at minimum 2 sticks of ram to run in dual channel.
 
every1 gets into a flame war over leaving your computer on or not... i am pro-turning off for several reasons. (numbering the reasons, not responding to your questions)
1. social responsiblity. dont consume power unless you need it
2. leaving your computer on all day will result in higher bills
3. you will get worse performance the longer you leave your computer on. your ram will get 'clogged' for lack of a better word. if you dont notice it, whatever, but i am extremely particular about my computer's performance. if i notice any drop in performance there is heck to pay... the way i see it, i paid for the speed, it better be there.
4. dust. if you leave your case fans running 24/7, you get unnessicary dust build up.
5. fan life expectancy. you are burning thru hours of life for the moving parts in your computer (fans, hdds, roms, etc.)

im sure there are more reasons to turn off your comp...
 
1. It's up to you, it won't hurt anything either way.

2. Again up to you.

3. When dealing with drivers, System Restore has always given me more problems than its worth. If you install bad drivers, just boot in Safe mode and delete them.

4. It depends if you have dual-channel RAM or not. If you don't have dual-channel, it doesn't matter at all where you place your RAM. If you do have dual-channel, you will only be able to use dual-channel mode in the matched slots. Usually there are two colors, IE: yellow and purple, you'd want to place your dual-channel RAM in both yellow slots for example.
 
CrazeD said:

4. It depends if you have dual-channel RAM or not. If you don't have dual-channel, it doesn't matter at all where you place your RAM. If you do have dual-channel, you will only be able to use dual-channel mode in the matched slots. Usually there are two colors, IE: yellow and purple, you'd want to place your dual-channel RAM in both yellow slots for example.

I think thats a little confusing for some people, the RAM it self isn't dual channel its whether the motherboard supports it. You sort of mix between both in that statement :).
 
Shafra said:
1. Is it better to leave a PC on constantly or turn it off? Let's assume I have perfect cooling so that won't be an issue :)

2. Also, I'm new to LCD panels. How can I preserve the life of the panels, should I use power saving features on them, screen savers, or just turn them off when not in use?

3. How good is Windows Restore feature in XP Pro? I have some motherboard drivers I want to install but really afraid to put them on. If I set a restore point will it really be able to bail me out?

4. With RAM, if you have 4 slots for ram, do you have to fill up each bank 1 at a time, or could you put a ram stick in bank 1 and bank 3 and still be ok?

Here's some General answers... :cool::p

1. Doesn't matter, my computer has been on for weeks. A computer won't overheat for being on too long ... It can only get so hot...

2. Turn it off when it's not in use. That will relieve strain on the backlight.

3. Not very good, but then again, Windows isn't very good.

4. You should use the word "slot" instead of "bank" because bank means something else. 1 stick will do, if your computer isn't from the 80's and early 90's.
 
baronvongogo said:
I think thats a little confusing for some people, the RAM it self isn't dual channel its whether the motherboard supports it. You sort of mix between both in that statement :).

Well, I meant like matched pairs and such. :)
 
About the RAM, I was told when I built my computer to match the slots up. When I first got my computer, I had 1 gig of RAM in it. Two sticks of 512mb. I have 4 slots, we'll call them A B C D.

A and C are black.
B and D are blue.

I was told to use A and C, matching the colors together.

I upgraded with a 2nd pair of 512 sticks. So now I have 2 gb total, 4 sticks of 512mb.

Now all 4 slots are used up.




Is the above true? I don't know. It's just what was suggested to me on these very boards nearly a year ago when I built my computer.
 
Jayce said:
Is the above true? I don't know. It's just what was suggested to me on these very boards nearly a year ago when I built my computer.

Yes. To run the RAM as dual-channel you match the colors usually, but it would work either way.
 
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