Under the Hood, again?

I never thought that this assignment would be as much fun as it was. I have never taken pictures of my computer before. Seeing some of the slide shows and watching some of the videos on building computers, installing memory, etc, really inspires me to do more. The videos we had to watch were, let's say, a little dry.

I realize that it's just a machine, now how sexy can that be? But I really do have fun working with the computer and it's components. Wow, you'd think I would actually know how to build one then too, right?!? WRONG! I can't build one...yet. :)

The research that we're working on now will definitely help me understand the computer components much better. Knowing what a processor does and what it looks like will help us all know how a computer works and how to possibly replace a part if it goes bad. Just think, if our hard disk drive all of sudden stops working, won't it be more cost effective to know how to replace it yourself? Taking the computer into a repair store may cost hundreds of dollars, in addition to the cost of a new hard drive. Now, it can be without taking it in and it will cost you less. Maybe you can use that little extra you'll save and put it towards a better quality or higher storage capacity hard drive.

What I know about Computers

I would say that I know enough about computers to always get me into trouble. That said, you can imagine when I need to fix something or update something, things may not always go as planned. It seems as though the more we learn about the technology, the more difficult it becomes to fix them because what we may know about how to fix may be already outdated.

I have two computers at home, one desktop named Bertha, and one laptop (sorry no name was given). Bertha was built from scratch by a friend and is getting pretty old. About a month after it was built, the dual processors were released. :( Sad for me but that's what happens sometimes. Since then we've had some problems but now that we installed Windows 7, those problems are only speed related - probably relating to the non-dual core processor.

I already know how to access the BIOS and boot sequences to make me dangerous. I would like to learn more about them so when changes are made, it doesn't mess up everything on the computer.

The other thing I would like to start learning is how to build or update my current system to an updated system that runs faster and more efficient. This would force my wife and I to use that computer more than our laptop. Right now we use the laptop primarily, probably because that computer is much faster than Bertha.

With the second class starting, I'm excited to get going on it after a little break. Let's Roll!