IT self care

A-DATA®, the worldwide leader in DRAM memory and Flash application products, introduced its USB 3.0-ready product solutions with ASUS®, a long-term strategic partner of A-DATA®, jointly at the technical seminar held by ASUS®. A live demo on its newly released N002, the combo drive with SATA II and USB 3.0 port embedded, and NH01, the USB 3.0 compliant portable hard disk drive, were also performed to demonstrate its recent achievement on USB 3.0 and overwhelm the participants with its super fast performance. The strong co-op partnership between A-DATA and ASUS, each possess its own special expertise in their own field, surely will expedite the transition to USB 3.0.

“ASUS’s commitment to grade-A product quality and enriching consumers’ digital life with function-rich products match perfectly with A-DATA’s” said Simon Chen, CEO and Chairman of A-DATA Technology, “We work closely with our supply chain, both upstream and downstream, to make sure our products meet customers’ expectation. And we fully understand our products must satisfy the crave for space and speed.”

Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUS, says “The anticipation for USB 3.0 continues to build as the file size grows larger and larger where transporting ports of USB 2.0 can no longer keep up with the need for speed. Yet, the adaptation of a new technology relies mainly on suppliers’ roadmap. Knowing that, ASUS® team up with tier-one suppliers such as A-DATA, the leader in memory products, to make sure we stay ahead of the game.”

Installing a processor can be tricky and frustrating, specially if it’s your first time doing it and many things can go wrong if you don’t know what are you doing. First of all you need a motherboard on the same socket as your processor. DO NOT attempt to mount a socket 478 processor on a socket 775 motherboard or a socket 775 processor on a socket AM2 motherboard! For this video, we used Asus P5Q motherboard and a Core 2 Quad 8200 processor from Intel. The correct steps to successfully install your Intel processor are as follows (Note: AMD processors are different and they will be covered on future videos!):

1. Remove the motherboard from its box and place it on a flat surface.
2. Remove any paper cover that may exist on your motherboard.
3. Notice the metal lever and press it down and away from the socket to release the load plate.
4. Remove the plastic cover on the load plate.
5. Remove the processor from its box and plastic cover.
6. Notice on the left side of the processor two notches that will fit into the plastic extensions of the socket on the motherboard.
7. Notice on the left-down corner of your processor a triangle that will fit on the left-down corner of you motherboard and it should point towards the metal lever.
8. Now that you know how the CPU wil fit in, hold it by its sides and lower it into the socket making sure it fits perfectly.
9. Close the load plate and press down the metal lever until it snaps back into its original position.
10. Remove the heatsink from its plastic case and notice on the motherboard four holes around the socket.
11. If your heatsink is new, it should be covered and the bottom with thermal compound so you don’t have to worry about that.
12. Lower the heatsink vertically over the socket so that each of its legs line up with the four holes.
13. With the heatsink over the processor, press each of its legs into the holes. You should hear a “click” each time it snaps into position.
14. Attach the power cable to the corresponding connector on the motherboard.
15. You’re done!

First of all you need to determine which type of video card you need for your desktop PC. There are two types of video cards, depending on the slot: AGP and PCI Express. Under any circumstances a AGP video card will never fit into a PCI Express slot and vice-versa. After you correctly determined which type of video card you need and bought it, you are ready to mount it. For this video we used an XFX 250 GTS video graphic card on a Asus P5Q motherboard.Video card install

1. Remove the cover of the chassis if it’s not already.
2. Pick the video card, place it over the PCI Express slot and notice the metal plate(s) that cover the back panel.
3. Put aside the video card and remove those metal plate(s). Usually there’s just one plate to remove, but for bigger and better video cards there’s two plates.
4. Pick the video card again and gently, but firmly insert it into the slot.
5. Screw the video card into it’s place on the back panel. Again, most of the times there’s just one screw, but for bigger video cards there are two screws needed.
6. You’re done!

First of all make sure you have all the right tools and all the pieces at hand. For this demonstration we’re installing a P5QL-E motherboard from ASUS and a OCZ MODXSTREAM PRO 700 W power supply on a THERMALTAKE SOPRANO DX case.

Rule no. 1 is that no matter what, you MUST install the power supply first, otherwise you may have big troubles trying to fit it in its designated place. As shown in the video, it’s an easy process, the biggest problem you may encounter is your ability to move it into its place. If you find yourself unable to make it fit into place, you may wanna check if it’s not upside down. Once you got it right, it’s a matter of screwing 4 screws on the outside of the case and it’s all done.

Before you can install your motherboard you must install the I/O shield that comes with every motherboard. The I/O shield is a thin sheet of aluminum that fits the I/O options of the motherboard, that’s why all motherboards come with its own shield. You have to remove the shield already in place on the case (if that exists) and snap the new shield in the place. It’s only a matter of aligning the shield and press it from the inside of the case until it snaps in.

Now you’re ready to install the motherboard. Check the mounting holes on the case. Usually the cases have mounting points to fit all motherboards, which means that not all the holes will be used. You can grab your motherboard, align it with the I/O shield and notice which mounting holes you will be using. You should use all those spacers into the mounting points to avoid motherboard touching the PC case. Just screw them by hand, because they will tighten up when you screw the actual screws on the motherboard.

Aligning the motherboard can be tricky and frustrating, specially if it’s your first time. Try to align it with the I/O shield and the center mounting point of the case. Screw all screws on a zig-zag pattern and don’t tighten them until they all are in place. The trickiest thing is to connect the pins of the front panel of your case. These are: USB ports, power switch, reset switch, hard drive activity LED, power LED and internal speaker. The pins are clearly marked as which one is which so you won’t have any problem to identify them. The motherboard connectors are also marked, but you may have troubles reading that fine writing. To clearly identify them you should check the motherboard manual.

Attaching the power connectors to the motherboard is as simple as aligning the connector’s locking tab with the latching key and push it straight down. Don’t forget the 4 pin connector which connects in the same way. That’s all the connector will be using so far, more will be attached to the hard drives, DVD writer, card readers, etc. and they will be covered on future tutorials.

ASUS comes from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology that represents the inspiration of art and learning. ASUS embodies the strength, creative spirit and purity symbolized by this regal and agile mythical creature, soaring to new heights of quality and innovation with each product it introduces to the market.

ASUS

The No. 1 Motherboard Manufacturer in the World

ASUS is the number one manufacturer of motherboards in the world, commanding almost a 40% market share of the motherboard business. Today, one in every three computers houses an ASUS motherboard. Over 24 million motherboards were sold in 2008—the combined length of which equals 10,000 Taipei 101 skyscrapers and 600 Himalaya Ranges.

Voted the “Best Motherboard Brand” for Six Consecutive Years

ASUS has been voted the world’s “Best Motherboard Brand” for six consecutive years by readers of Tom’s Hardware Guide (THG), a widely-read and respected hardware review website. In many of these polls, which routinely draw tens of thousands of voters, ASUS received more than half of the ballots. The THG Best of Readers’ Choice Awards recognize hardware products that exhibit the highest quality design and companies that have provided the best service to users. The awards are considered a hallmark of good product design, performance, quality and value.

The Undisputed Leader in Motherboard Innovation

ASUS is blessed with one of the world’s best Research and Development teams. Through their indefatigable efforts in pushing the boundaries of innovation, ASUS’ engineers have conceived features and technologies that have revolutionized the motherboard industry in terms of overclockability, stability and power efficiency.