Datasheet

Book VIII
Chapter 1
Finding and
Installing the
Hardware You Need
785
Upgrading the Basic Stuff
✦ Superfast and superexpensive video cards don’t do squat for most
people. Unless you’re a fanatic gamer, look for video cards in the
$100-and-under range.
✦ If your monitor has a Digital Visual Interface, get a video card with a DVI
port. It’s worth paying extra. Trust me. (For more on DVI, check out the
“Eliminating the video card middleman” section, earlier in this chapter.)
✦ Buy a card with a good fan. Video cards generate a lot of heat.
Dissipate, dissipate, dissipate.
Heat has become a major problem with video cards: hot cards get reli-
ability problems. The generated heat can swirl around inside your PC
and mess up other components. Some cards produce as much heat as
the main computer chip on your motherboard. Most Windows 7–class
video cards come with a built-in fan and heat sink, which draws away
heat from the processing unit and video memory and dumps it into your
computer’s main case. If your computer is having heat problems —
random screen freezes for no apparent reason or spontaneous reboots,
for example — consider buying a dual-slot video card, with an oversize
fan that forces air from the case, by way of openings in the second slot’s
mounting bracket.
If you’re feeling handy, you can also buy and install a video card cooler,
complete with its own heat sink, fan, and exhaust mounting bracket. For
an example, see driverheaven.net/guides/videocooling.
In my experience, the single greatest source of frustration with Windows
since its inception has been lousy video drivers. I’ve seen it happen year in
and year out, in every version of Windows, with every video card manufac-
turer. Windows 7 is no exception. Video card manufacturers take a long time
to produce decent drivers for their wares — and when they have stable driv-
ers, the pressure to incorporate new features frequently leads to unstable
newer versions. If you buy a new video card, make sure that you check the
manufacturer’s Web site for the latest Windows 7 driver before installing the
card. And, always keep your old video card, just in case the new one simply
doesn’t work.
You can take solace in the fact that video drivers these days are as big and
complex as Windows 98. Hard to believe, but true.
Upgrading keyboards
Face it: The keyboard that came with your computer wouldn’t even make a
decent boat anchor. Don’t get me wrong. Those mushy, squishy, Tinkertoy
keyboards would make fine Cracker Jack prizes, and casual computer users
can get by with them for years. I wouldn’t look down my nose at your flimsy,
somnambulant, ludicrous excuse for a keyboard. Sniff.