Mackenzie Putnam

I suggest electrical tape or the amazing, adhering substance known as duct-tape, to fasten the material in place. Pretty much any adhesive will do. However, you will probably want to avoid using extremely powerful rare earth magnets as fasten

(For more cool articles on how to build home media servers, check out these articles by Damien on how to set up a Media Server [ Part 2 ] using Linux. Or if you are ready to invest some cash check out our guide on How To Build A Great Media Center P

Also, back up your data. This is a guide about installing a solid state hard drive. Even if nothing goes wrong, that new drive will be blank, and you’ll have to install a fresh version of your operating system on it or clone an existing drive to

Now, select the "Tun on Windows File and Printer Sharing" option and click "Next." Make sure the info is right and click "Next" again. On the following screen select "Just finished;" and then click "Next" and "Finish

Once I did all that, I installed Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 via Steam. I also separately installed Urban Terror, another popular game on Linux. The custom budget gaming rig performed very well with these games. The settings for Dota 2 and Urban Terror were set to their maximums and gameplay remained very smooth. Team Fortress 2 also ran without a hitch following the settings recommended by the game -- all of which were set to "High" if not the maximums. These results are all very impressive for a computer that costed less than $

I don't suggest greasing a laptop's fans as it requires a great deal of assembly in most models. However, lubrication has had tremendous impact on several of my laptops, you should consider some of these less invasive methods before popping your mobile computer o

Connect the SATA cable into one of these ports and connect the other end to the SSD. Note the L-shape design of the connection. This makes it impossible to install it in the wrong direction without a ridiculous amount of eff

Determining your fan’s compatibility requires only that you remove the sticker covering its back and, in some cases, wedge out the rubber plug. Look closely at the area that was behind the sticker. If you see a raised metal nub, and there’s already applied grease, then this method will work. If not, skip to the second p

To access your newly established home media server, simply go to Pcbuildinsight to "My Computer" and double-click on the drive you created and your in! You should now be able to copy and paste files to your hearts desire! (If Windows asks you for a username and password, enter your username and password for your home server accou

Almost all of us geeks have at least one or two old computers hanging around the house, in a corner, in a basement, attic, etc. Most of the time these, possibly, useful computers go to waste and eventually sit in that same corner, basement, or attic for years until being wastefully thrown away out of necessity. Fortunately, this does not have to be the case for all past acquaintan

You'll also notice that there's an impressive array of actions you can take when the camera senses motion. Playing a sound or FTP'ing captured images are standard with most of these motion detection applications - but the one feature that is very cool here is that if you want, the application will not only send you an email, but it can also send an SMS message to your cellphone. Now that's slick. Of course, in my case I want an email with snapshots of the intruder, so I select " Send Email " and then go into the email setti

On the other hand, the StarTech filters require fastening via screws. Fortunately, they have a removable plastic top, which holds the filter. These, like the magnetic variety, attach externally to the case, which allows for quick removal and clean

For those of us experiencing issues with dust or fan noise, fixing either of these issues doesn't require much effort or money at all. Using the two methods outlined in this article, adding a dust filter and lubricating a rattling fan, will improve long-term cooling, ease of maintenance and acoustic qualit

Fan screens don’t cost very much and can attach to your computer quite easily. My two favorite types are the SilverStone magnetic filters and the StarTech filters. Simply measure your case’s intake vents horizontally or vertically and buy a matching size. For example, you will want to match a 120mm opening with a 120mm dust fil

However, for those completely sick of constantly cleaning the dust out of their PC, you might want to check out water cooling , which is an entirely silent and efficient means of keeping your computer running c

Video cards have slowly but surely become less necessary for the average PC. A few decades ago it wasn’t even possible to enjoy graphics without one. Today, the integrated graphics in an AMD or Intel processor can handle multimedia use and 2D games without is