How to Build a Gaming PC

How to build the best gaming PC for the buck! This detailed and easy-to-follow 3 1/2 hour marathon instructional video contains all three previously released segments. Starting with what hardware is selected and why it was chosen as the best value for the dollar as of November 2012, when the video was created. Then the proper assemble of that parts to create the PC. Finally, the installation of Windows 7, including the latest updates, installing the drivers and optimizing for best performance.

Video Tutorial On Computer Basics: How To Build a Computer

There's a rush that you get when you press the power button for the first time on a new computer. The quiet whir of the fans, the reassuring beeps, and the glow of a monitor all signal the completion of another successful build. That feeling of unknown and anticipation is one of the driving forces for computer enthusiasts, and building your own computer is the perfect entry point. Everything from a simple office PC, to media centers, to high-end gaming rigs are all cheaper and more exciting to build for yourself. Follow this guide to learn how.

Video Tutorial On Computer Basics: How To Build a Computer.

 

Video Tutorial On Computer Basics: Hardware

Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that constitutes a computer system. Computer hardware refers to the physical parts or components of a computer such as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard drive disk (HDD), system unit (graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard and chips), etc. all of which are physical objects that can be touched. In contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware.

Software is any set of machine-readable instructions that directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations. A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system.

Video Tutorial On Computer Basics: Hardware

How To Repair Computer

Video Tutorial On How To Repair Your Computer. Ultimate PC Repair provides detailed, up to date Video.Take careful note of these important computer repair safety tips before you start working inside your computer.

Portable Software For USB, Portable and Cloud Drivers.

PortableApps.com is the world's most popular portable software solution allowing you to take your favorite software with you. A fully open source and free platform, it works on any portable storage device (USB flash drive, iPod, memory card, portable hard drive, etc). With millions of users all over the world and a full collection of open source software (as well as freeware and commercial software), PortableApps.com is the most complete solution for life on the go.

Features

Flexible

•     Make every PC feel like your own

•     Use your favorite software everywhere

•     Carry your bookmarks and settings                               

•     Edit your documents, photos and more

Free

•     Free. No time limits. No catch.

•     No registration required. Never was.

•     No adware. No spyware. No malware.

•     OSI Certified Open Source Software.

Free Communication Software

Mumble is a Low-latency, high-quality voice communication for gamers. Includes game linking, so voice from other players comes from the direction of their characters, and has echo cancellation so the sound from your loudspeakers won't be audible to other players.

This video gives a demonstration of the difference in latency between Ventrilo and Mumble, from a pure codec/protocol standpoint. Both servers are running on the exact same physical server, meaning that they have the same hardware and internet environment - the only difference is the software being used.

 Features

•     High quality, low latency Voice communication                      

•     Multi-platform

•     Efficient server software

•     Free and Open Source - no hassle before or after setting up

•     Powerful API through Ice middleware - for numerous programming languages

•     Positional Audio in games - hear your teammates from the direction they stand in

•     In-Application Overlay - see who is listening and talking in-game

 

Free Download Video Converter

HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. including unprotected DVD or BluRay sources to a handful of modern output file formats.

Reasons you’ll love HandBrake:                  

•     Convert video from nearly any format                                       

•     Free and Open Source

•     Multi-Platform (Windows, Mac and Linux)

Features

 Built-in Device Presets

Get started with HandBrake in seconds by choosing a profile optimised for your device, or choose a universal profile for standard or high quality conversions. Simple, easy, fast. For those that want more choice, tweak many basic and advanced options to improve your encodes.        


Supported Input Sources: 

Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.                                                   
 


Outputs:

•     File Containers: .MP4(.M4V) and .MKV

•     Video Encoders: H.264(x264), MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 (libav), and Theora(libtheora)

•     Audio Encoders: AAC, CoreAudio AAC/HE-AAC (OS X Only), MP3, Flac, AC3, or Vorbis

•     Audio Pass-thru: AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC and MP3 tracks

Free Media Player Classic - Home Cinema

MPC-HC is an extremely light-weight, open source media player for Windows®. It supports all common video and audio file formats available for playback. They  are 100% spyware free, there are no advertisements or toolbars.

Lightweight

Watch movies on any SSE CPU, even on your old computer back from '99

Customizable

With its wide array of options, MPC-HC can be customized to fit almost any needs. Among other things we added custom toolbars.

All around player

MPC-HC can also be used as DVB player.

 

Cam Studio - Free Streaming Video Software

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

•     You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program

•     Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?

•     You can create video tutorials for school or college class

•     You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical         support  people

•     You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell

•     You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software 

    program,   before you forget them.

Don't like the sound of your voice? No problem.

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased (no jagged edges) screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the unique Video Annotation feature you can even personalise your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself "picture-in-picture" over your desktop.  

And if all that wasn't enough, CamStudio also comes with its own Lossless Codec that produces crystal clear results with a much smaller filesize compared with other more popular codecs, like Microsoft Video 1.

You have total control over the output of your video: you can choose to use custom cursors, to record the whole screen or just a section of it and can reduce or increase the quality of the recording depending on if you want smaller videos (for emailing to people, for instance) or you can have "best quality" ones for burning onto CD/DVD.

But all of these features would be worthless if CamStudio wasn't easy to use ... fortunately that's not the case. CamStudio can be learned in a matter of minutes and comes with a comprehensive built-in helpfile, so if you do manage to get stuck, you can simply hit "Help" and get the answers you need.

Free Photoshop Alternatives

Adobe Photoshop is a given in any designer’s wish list, and it comes with a host of features that allow for excellent and professional photo editing. The biggest obstacle to any designer who wants Photoshop is the price, which can be prohibitive. Fortunately there are a number of open source (and completely free) programs out there that do much of what Photoshop can, and sometimes more.

In this collection, you will find 5 excellent examples of open source and free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop.

1- GIMP & GIMPShop

     Gimpshop is a FREE, downloadable photo and image editing software program built to rival Adobe Photoshop.

This latest build - Gimpshop 2.8.0 - represents over 17 years of development and collaboration. The GNU Image Manipulation Program (or G.I.M.P) is an Open Source program designed, maintained and supported by a team of international volunteers.

This lastest version of Gimpshop incorporates support of 16 & 32-bit color, a highly intuitive user-interface, a huge array of filters & dynamic brushes and leading-edge advanced tools that power users and professionals demand in high-end, high-priced photo and image manipulation programs like Adobe Photoshop.

Why Choose Gimp?

With millions of users worldwide, Gimp has a huge community available for support, new free tools & plugins, and full support available across dozens of languages.

A comprehensive help library and full tutorial section has been built-in to the Gimpshop 2.8 workspace, so you are always just a couple of clicks away from step-by-step guidance on hundreds of photo and image editing techniques.

Invited to participate in Google's "Summer of Code 2012", Gimp has joined the ranks of other highly popular, bleeding-edge Open-Source development projects and has confirmed it's status as a world-wide leader in photo editing software.

And as an Open-Source program, Gimp is 100% FREE. 

2- Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.

3-CinePaint

CinePaint is a deep paint image retouching tool that supports higher color fidelity than ordinary painting tools. CinePaint opens high fidelity image file formats such as DPX, 16-bit TIFF, and OpenEXR, and conventional formats like JPEG and PNG.

4-Pixia

Pixia was originally designed in Japanese but English versions now exist for this rich editor. Although the original focus was on anime/manga, it is a very capable editor in general. Some of the features are a little counter intuitive, but there are plenty of English tutorials available now if you want to give it a shot. The website seems to have changed recently, so be sure to use our link if you don’t want a Japanese error message. Pixia works for Windows.

5-PhotoPlus

PhotoPlus (starter edition) is a photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance digital photos, create stunning bitmap graphics and even web animations. Far from being as powerful as Photoshop but if you only have basic needs this is perfect.