How to optimise your PC’s cooling
Building a PC may be as easy as putting a child’s playset together, but optimisation is a dark art. One scientist recently estimated that there are as many variations of different settings in your computer as there are neurons in the human brain.
OK, we just made that up for the purposes of this article, but the point stands. Optimising your PC takes much time and patience, as well as a solid understanding of how it’s put together and how it works. And a screwdriver.
‘Optimisation’ itself is a bit of a blurry term, but we’re going to assume that you want to do one of two things to your PC: make it faster, or make it quieter. There is some middle ground between these two paradigms – a fast PC doesn’t have to be loud and, likewise, a quiet PC doesn’t have to be slow.
Optimising a gaming PC means that it should run faster and have more room for ludicrous overclocks. System stability is key here, and the focus of a gaming PC is on vast amounts of airflow at the cost of quietness. Of course, quieter fans will make a big difference, but gaming cases’ large fans tend to generate quite a lot of sound.
On the other hand, a quiet PC will tend to run warmer, but its silence makes it ideal for installation in a living room. Here underclocking, rather than overclocking, can prove useful as it means that the internal fans can be tuned lower, and make a little less noise as a result.
Bear in mind, too, that modern PCs are difficult to break, and most settings and components can be readily returned to their original state. With that in mind, prepare to unleash a faster and/or quieter PC.
Let’s get down to brass tacks here. Before you start fiddling with fan speeds and CPU voltages, you’ll need a computer. Otherwise you’ll be fiddling with fan speeds in mid-air.
Whether you’re buying an off-the-shelf PC or assembling your own, the most important thing to consider first is the case, or chassis. Cases generally come in two species: the quiet but warm and the ugly but cool. Quiet cases generally look sleeker, with no visible air intakes or giant glowing fans, but their silence comes at a cost: you’ll often find that due to lower airflow the temperatures within these particular beasties are higher than their more gamey counterparts.
The ugly but cool cases often consist of little more than a vaguely cubic steel mesh into which you hang your motherboard and components. These cases are designed with performance in mind, and the huge air intake and output they’re capable of means that all the innards stay nice and chilly.
There are some cases that straddle both the quiet and the cool. Thermaltake’s BMW-designed Level 10 cases separate each component into its own section in order to provide better cooling and less noise – but the less said about this £200 poorly-performing behemoth, the better.
Cooler Master’s more sensible Cosmos series includes both decent airflow and noise-dampening side panels, but the latest – the Cosmos II – will set you back a whopping £350.
Cheap chills
On the budget side, there are bargains to be had for around the £100 mark. Cooler Master’s HAF series includes an incredible amount of cooling, and we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen so far.
The HAF 932 – which has been around since 2008 – is still an amazing piece of kit, and it’s £109. Antec’s Performance One cases use as much noise dampening technology as possible, and you can pick them up for around £90.
There are other considerations when buying a case. Ever wondered what those strategically-positioned giant holes on the motherboard tray are for? They’re not to save manufacturers splashing out on precious metal, Polo-style – they’re for cable management.
Before you start putting components in your PC, it’s a good idea to thread your SATA and power cables through these holes and zip-tie them in place. This ensures your airflow isn’t akin to drying your hair through a pile of wet spaghetti.
Fans are – obviously – the things that deliver the airflow into and around your case. Quieter cases tend to have fewer, whereas gaming-oriented cases feature enough to drive a field of wind turbines. The majority of cases have extra spaces for fans, too, but it’s important that they’re facing in the right direction.
Prevailing wisdom is to (somewhat euphemistically) suck little and blow lots, so larger fans should be directed out of the case. It’s also a good idea to make the front fans suck and the top and rear fans blow – that way you’ve got a constant airflow in one direction.
This may be an obvious point, but if you’re installing case fans it’s important to know which way they’re going to blow. Generally speaking, air blows out of the side of the fan with the support arms and label, and air flows away from the curve of each blade.
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If you really want to see what’s happening to the air in your PC, it’s a good idea to invest in a packet of smoke matches (£1.22 for 25 from www.toolstation.com). These produce more smoke than a beer garden – light one and hold it in front of a powered-up case to see where the cooler air is going, and if there are any vortexes where cold air is getting trapped. Just make sure you turn off your smoke detectors first.
The majority of cases also come with hard drive fans seated at the front, but their effectiveness is debatable. Hard drives have been designed from the ground up to operate without cooling fans, and the majority of failures are likely to be due to floundering mechanics rather than overheating.
If you’ve got three or more hard drives, heat accumulation could be a problem, but moving a single hard drive to a non-cooled location could result in better airflow to the rest of your PC, with the added bonus that it’s not flowing over a lukewarm drive.
Aside from fans, hard drives are likely to be the loudest things in your PC. Many cases come with noise dampening mounts for your hard drives, which stop their annoying rattle reverberating around the whole PC. If your case lacks the requisite dampening, you can pick up a case of rubber grommets (£2.25 from www.toolstation.com) and wrap them around the hard drive mounts within your case.
Making your PC even quieter
For even more silence, acoustic dampening panels can stop your PC sounding like a tone deaf teen metal band practising in a steel shed. These increase the sound absorption surface area within your PC, so sticking them to your case’s side panels can make a huge difference. You can get these from www.quietpc.com (whodathunk?), along with foam blocks that can be inserted into drive bays to absorb even more unwanted noise.
At the core of your PC lie the graphics card and CPU, and these can generate enough heat to turn your PC into a rodent sauna. Stock cooling generally does the job, and often higher end graphics cards – such as Sapphire’s Vapor-X AMD series – include better coolers to handle the higher temperatures generated by overclocking.
However, sometimes stock cooling simply isn’t enough, and upgrading heatsinks can make a big difference to your machine’s operating temperatures and your system’s noise emissions – even if you haven’t overclocked the graphics or processor chips.
CPU coolers are generally compatible with all CPUs, and Enermax’s ETS-T40-TA did a brilliant job of reducing the heat, while looking fairly bling at the same time.
GPU coolers are a different kettle of floating points, though. Installation isn’t as easy as merely installing a CPU cooler, because graphics cards consist of numerous parts and screws. Each cooler has to be bespoke to the card itself, too.
If you’re experiencing overheating problems with your graphics card that haven’t been solved by simply optimising your case’s cooling, your first port of call should be to try to return it under warranty. If that fails, invest in a new cooling system for the card – but be warned that they can cost rather a lot of money, and may void your warranty.
Not to be overlooked, the PSU is an important part of your PC. Apologies if we overlooked you, PSU. You want one that’s going to give you a bit of leeway when it comes to upgrading, without delivering more power than you’re ever likely to need.
The incredibly handy PSU calculator analyses the power needs of all your components and suggests a suitable PSU wattage. PSUs are, in fact, fairly crude bits of kit, so go for one with 80+ certification to ensure it’s running with reasonable efficiency.
PSUs also tend to generate rather a lot of heat and noise, and their installation is something of an art form in itself. Some cases position the PSUs at the top, where heat can escape easily, but we’re not too keen on the idea of the heaviest computer component being perched above some of the weakest.
The bottom is a better option, and some cases give you the choice of placing it with the fan facing downwards. Just make sure you hoover your PC’s parking space thoroughly before you put it down, unless you fancy a PSU full of dead woodlice and stale Twiglets.
Tidy profits
While we’re on the subject, keeping your PC free of dust is pretty crucial. Gamier cases tend to suck up dirt like a Sunday tabloid, and it’s worth opening your case every now and then to see what’s going on inside.
A can of compressed air can work wonders on a dust-infested case, but failing this stick a sock over the end of a vacuum cleaner and suck away at its lowest setting – this will provide enough suction to remove fan-clogging, heat-inducing dirt without loose components ending up in your cyclone cylinder.
Now that we’ve sorted out the more practical elements of your PC, it’s time to get under the hood and see just how well your techbox is working. CPUID’s incredibly handy HWMonitor is completely free to download from www.cpuid.com. It’s a Format fave, and it shows temperatures and voltages for just about every element of your computer.
While your computer’s idle it’ll show low temperatures, so boot up a graphics-intensive game (that is, something other than Q*bert) with it running and see how high those temperatures get. You can expect your machine’s idle temperatures to hover around the 30-40°C mark, maxing out at 50°C under load.
Whether or not temperatures higher than this actually shorten the lifespan of components is contestable – anecdotal evidence suggests that it takes a monstrous amount of overclocking to blow a processor.
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The next step is to download SpeedFan from www.almico.com. This isn’t quite as user-friendly as HWMonitor, but it lets you adjust fan speeds from within Windows. The ‘Speed01′ to ‘Speed04′ settings correspond to the fans within your system, with ‘Speed04′ usually controlling the GPU fan. You can set percentages here – lower each one and observe the temperatures until you find the sweet spot between coolness and quietness.
Both AMD’s Catalyst and Nvidia’s System Tools let you control your machine’s fan speeds too, along with more advanced features like overclocking and underclocking. We won’t go into the specifics of over and underclocking here, but both techniques can make a significant difference to a PC’s performance.
Underclocking can be particularly useful on loud PCs, because lower temperatures mean you can tune your fans to lower speeds. Even the most ancient of computers can be given a new lease of life with the optimisation tips described here, and they apply to pretty much everything from a 386 right through to a Core i7. A properly optimised PC that runs smoothly is a heavenly thing, and you’ll feel an immense amount of satisfaction if you know your PC is running at its best.
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Laptop tips and tweaks
One of the drawbacks of Windows’ most compelling feature – its versatility – is that it’s set up to cater for as wide an audience as possible. You can start using it straight away, but as you become more familiar with how your laptop works, you might start to experience frustration at the way things are done.
Here’s the good news: that compelling, versatile feature also allows you to use Windows in a variety of different ways. Instead of adapting the way you work, you can actually customise and tweak your laptop’s settings to suit you. And in this feature we’ll show you exactly how to do that.
You’ll discover how to set up Windows to work the way you want it to, from configuring the desktop so your favourite programs and frequently accessed files are just a click or two away to creating your own customised shortcuts. You’ll even be able to remap certain keys so they perform the functions you want them to rather than what your laptop manufacturer envisaged.
We’ll also reveal a selection of free programs that are designed to be simpler to use, plus look at what hardware add-ons can help make your laptop both more productive and comfortable to use.
Whether you’re a first-time laptop user or an old hand, you’ll find something in this feature to help you get more from your computer. And you don’t necessarily have to be a laptop owner to benefit either – many of the tweaks and tips offered here will work perfectly with desktop PCs too.
Let’s start making your laptop more productive by taking advantage of its touchpad. It’s tempting to see the touchpad as little more than a basic substitute for your mouse, but you’re missing a trick if you do.
Most touchpads are touch sensitive, meaning you can do more than simply move the cursor around your screen and click to select. To see if your laptop has a touchpad that supports gestures, click ‘Start’, type mouse into the Search box and click ‘Mouse’ when prompted to open the Mouse Control Panel.
Look for a ‘Device Settings’ tab – select this and you should see a reference to your touchpad. Click the ‘Settings’ button beneath it and expand the Application Gestures section to see what gestures are available for your laptop model.
If your touchpad doesn’t support gestures – or supported gestures are thin on the ground – you can purchase a standalone touchpad, such as Logitech’s Wireless Touchpad (around £45, www.logitech.com). The box overleaf reveals some of the more common gestures available to you.
Alternatively, why buy new equipment when you can add simple gesture support for free? StrokeIt Home, which is free for personal use, adds support for gestures using your mouse or touchpad in conjunction with the right mouse button.
What’s more, you’ll soon be spending less time pointing and clicking – and more time doing the things you love.
Set up your desktop
The Windows desktop is a user-friendly, approachable way to use your computer, but as always there are tips and tweaks to make it even more useful, efficient and better optimised for your way of working.
First, make better use of the Taskbar. It’s always visible at the bottom of the screen, so you never need to clear away other windows to get to it, and if you’re using Windows 7 you can take advantage of another time-saving feature in the form of Jump Lists as well.
Adding programs to the Taskbar is simple. Windows Vista and Windows XP users can simply drag program shortcuts on to the Taskbar. People with Windows 7 can right-click an existing shortcut on the desktop or Start menu and then choose ‘Pin to Taskbar’.
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When you right-click on certain Taskbar shortcuts in Windows 7 you’ll see a jump list of recently accessed documents in that program appear, allowing you to open them and the program with a single click (click the pin icon next to an entry to place it permanently at the top of the jump list).
Windows 7 users can also customise the Taskbar’s Notification area to choose exactly which icons are always visible. Click the arrow to its left to reveal all Notification area icons – drag one on to the Notification area to permanently pin it in place for easy access (icons can also be dragged the other way to hide them from view).
Windows 7 users can maximise windows by dragging them to the top of the screen, or place two windows side-by-side by dragging each to opposite sides of the screen. You can also select a window and quickly resize it by holding down the [Windows] key as you press an arrow key.
When browsing your computer’s hard drive for files, Windows 7 and Vista users should make use of the Favourites section in the left-hand pane – drag a folder into this list to place a shortcut there for easy access.
Windows 7 users can also use the Library feature to group related folders into one easily accessible location – click ‘Libraries’ to get started.
Use gestures with your mouse
1. Basic orientation
Download and install StrokeIt Home. Once installed, launch the program, which will appear in the Taskbar Notification area as a small white cursor, indicating it’s active and ready to use (right-clicking this disables StrokeIt – the cursor will turn red). Gestures are performed by holding the right mouse button as you perform the gesture, which appears on-screen.
2. Practice existing gestures
Try the following basic gestures by moving the mouse to create the desired gesture or letter: C closes the current window, while O opens the File Open dialog box. Select some text and then gesture the mouse upwards to copy it to the clipboard. To paste it elsewhere in your document, position the cursor where the text is to go and gesture downwards.
3. Learn new gestures
A number of gestures are already set up – to see these, click the StrokeIt Taskbar Notification area icon. Expand the [Global Actions] section to view what gestures are available for all applications and Windows itself. You’ll also see sections relating to specific programs – the gestures contained here will only work in the application in question. Visit the StrokeIt Site for additional help with gestures.
4. Create your own
If you don’t like the gesture assigned to a particular action, you can change it. Select the offending gesture, then click the drop-down arrow above the Remove Gesture button to choose another to replace it. Alternatively, create your own gesture from scratch – when the Unrecognized Gesture window appears, click ‘New Gesture’, give it a name and click ‘OK’.
Make Windows more accessible
You might be forgiven for thinking the Ease of Access Centre (Accessibility Options in Windows XP) is solely for those with sight, sound or motor-related disabilities, but in actual fact you’ll find lots of useful tweaks here that can make things easier for all users.
Access these options via the ‘Start > All Programs > Accessories’ menu. The simplest thing to do here is work your way through the options on offer – use the wizard to answer a few questions that will help Windows determine what settings to offer you, or manually go through all the available tweaks.
It’s always worth looking at mouse and keyboard-related options to see if any of the tweaks offered sit more comfortably with the way you like to work. You can, for example, change the focus of a window simply by moving the mouse over it instead of pointing and clicking (select ‘Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse’).
If you don’t like the way that Windows automatically rearranges your program windows when they’re dragged to the sides of the screen, then you’ll find an option to switch that off here too.
If you have a headset or microphone, you might also like to experiment with using speech recognition to control certain aspects of your computer. Both Windows 7 and Vista have speech recognition built in and you can switch it on and set it up following the simple wizard that’s accessible from the section about using your computer without a mouse or keyboard.
Touchpad gestures, keyboard tweaks and more
Common gestures for your touchpad
1. One-finger control
Using your touchpad with just one finger allows you to operate it exactly the same way you would your mouse. Two-finger rotate Some Synaptics devices allow you to both twist and pivot objects by using two fi ngers together in a twisting movement to rotate things left and right.
2. Three-finger swipe
Use this horizontally to move back and forth between pictures in a slideshow or picture viewer, or to move backwards and forwards through your web browsing history. Synaptic touchpads can also use it vertically to enter or exit slideshow mode.
3. Four-finger swipe (horizontal)
This gesture is used by Logitech wireless touchpads to move between open applications. Just swipe your fingers to switch from one program to the next.
Create your own shortcuts
You can create convenient desktop shortcuts to any part of your system. To create a shortcut to a program, file, folder or even web address, right-click on the desktop and choose ‘New > Shortcut’, then follow the prompts to either select the folder or file (click ‘Browse’) or type the web address.
You can also create shortcuts to frequently accessed Control Panels: click ‘Start > Control Panel’ and opt to view by large or small icons. Then simply right-click the Control Panel in question and choose ‘Create Shortcut’ to place a shortcut on the desktop.
You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to new and existing shortcuts. Just right-click the shortcut in question and choose ‘Properties’ (if the shortcut is on the Windows 7 Taskbar, right-click it, then right-click the program name that pops up and choose ‘Properties’ to access it). Place the cursor in the Shortcut key box and press your desired key – note it’ll be assigned [Ctrl] + [Alt], but you can also hold down other keys such as [Windows], [Ctrl] + [Shift] or [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Shift] too.
It’s also worth exploring keyboard shortcuts within programs – these are displayed next to menu entries, or check the Help file for more details. Some applications, including Microsoft Office, also allow you to specify your own custom keyboard shortcuts – again, consult the Help file for details.
People running Office 2010 should open the Options dialog box, select ‘Customize Ribbon’ and click ‘Customize’ next to Keyboard shortcuts to get started, for example. It’s also possible to remap certain keyboard functions, so pressing [Caps Lock] does something different, for example. The step-by-step guide below reveals how to do this using a free program called SharpKeys.
Change how your keyboard functions
1. Install SharpKeys
Before installing SharpKeys, open the ‘Programs and Features Control Panel’ (‘Add or Remove Programs’ in Windows XP) and check if the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile is installed. If not, open Windows Update and look for it under Important Updates (Custom in Windows XP).
2. Pick key to change
Launch ‘SharpKeys’ from the Start menu or desktop, clicking ‘Yes’ or ‘Continue’ if prompted, then read the warning message and click ‘OK’. When the main screen appears, click the ‘Add’ button. You’ll be prompted to select the key you wish to change from the left-hand menu – click the ‘Type Key’ button and press the key you wish to change.
3. Choose new function
Verify the key is the correct one and click ‘OK’. Now click the right-hand ‘Type Key’ button. Press the key you wish to remap your old key to. Click ‘OK’ when done.
4. Apply changes
Now click ‘Add’ to remap another key or key combination. When done, click ‘Write to Registry’ and restart your computer to remap your keys.
Six free tools to make your PC faster and easier to use
1. LastPass
Once installed, all you need to remember is a single username and master password, and this tool will automatically fill in details and forms securely for you in your web browser. Now you can have separate passwords for all your accounts without having to remember or type anything!
2. Soluto
Speed up your laptop by slashing the startup times for both Windows and your web browser. The program reveals which items are starting with your laptop or browser, and lets you safely disable non-essential items to free up resources.
3. BatteryCare
Windows 7 does a perfectly adequate job of providing you with information about how much juice is left in your battery, but if you want to go one step further and monitor its health, plus tweak settings, install this.
4. Virtual CloneDrive
www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
Use ISO Recorder to convert your physical CDs and DVDs into virtual ISO files, and you can access them directly from your hard drive using Virtual CloneDrive, which basically emulates a DVD drive. It saves on battery life and makes the perfect travelling companion.
5. Finestra Virtual Desktops
Too many windows open at the same time for comfort? Windows 7 does an excellent job of managing multiple windows via the Taskbar and Aero Peek, but if your desktop’s still too crowded, run this and you can have four virtual desktops working side-by-side.
6. Pop Peeper
Keep an eye on your email direct from the Notification area of the Taskbar. POP Peeper imports your email accounts, then gives you early warning as to what’s waiting. It’s a good way to filter out spam and other unwanted email without downloading it too.
More Windows tweaks
Press [Windows] + [R] and the Run dialog box will appear. This powerful tool lets you quickly access programs, system tools and more. Click ‘Browse’ to select a file on your hard drive, or type the name of the program (such as services.msc to open the Services console).
For a comprehensive list of shortcuts you can type into the Run dialog box, visit this page.
Finally, you may find that double-clicking a file opens it in the wrong program. To change which program automatically opens a file when it’s double-clicked, right-click the offending file and choose ‘Open with > Choose Default Program’. Pick your desired program from the list, or click ‘Browse’ if it’s not present, make sure ‘Always use the selected program to open this type of file’ is ticked and click ‘OK’. Job done.
Hardware improvements
You can also make your laptop easier and more comfortable to use with the help of some hardware add-ons.
If you find your laptop’s trackpad too awkward to use, just plug in any USB mouse and use that instead. Similarly, if you like listening to music, but your laptop’s speakers aren’t up to the task, plug in another set via the headphones socket.
If you frequently work with your laptop on your lap, you’ll know how hot it can get. Purchase a laptop cooling stand to act as a barrier between you and your notebook – a beneficial side-effect of the cooler is that it’ll extend the life of your laptop’s components by cooling them down.
If you frequently use your laptop away from home, you may rely heavily on its battery. If this fails to give you enough juice between charges, consider purchasing an add-on battery such as the PowerGorilla (£150, www.powertraveller.com), which can double or even triple the amount of time you stay away from the mains socket.
Finally, if your notebook has an ExpressCard slot, you can expand its functionality by adding extra ports such as Firewire or eSATA, which aren’t commonly included on laptops. Perfect if you want to transfer footage from a non-USB camcorder to your laptop…
The complete guide to multiple monitors
While you may already be running two displays (every graphics card provides at least two outputs, with most motherboards also providing display output and cheap access to a second graphics card), it’s now easy for everyone to enjoy three, four, six or even 10 displays.
While many people might think it’s simply unnecessary to have this many screens, triple-panel gaming and a host of demanding jobs require an amount of digital desktop space only a multi-monitor setup can provide.
You might be surprised how low the entry requirements for multi-monitor setups are these days. Even the panels aren’t that expensive if you opt for the cheaper TN-based displays, with 22-inch 1080p panels available for under £100 and the larger 24-inch 1080p versions costing just a little more. This means it’s a great time to think about maxing out your monitors.
Before contemplating additional monitors, the first step is to consider where they’re going to go. Three 24-inch widescreen displays are going to take up around 68 inches or 170cm of desk space – enough to consume even a substantial desk. It’s also advisable to consider what each display will be used for as specific types of jobs require different layouts.
19-inch 4:3 displays as extended displays can work well for browsing and reading, and they tend to match 24-inch widescreen displays for height. Three monitors can usually sit on a large desk, but moving beyond this number requires more planning.
It’s less usual, but laptops can also do the multi-monitor tango. They’re usually limited to a single monitor output, but there’s nothing stopping you from running the laptop display and external monitor in tandem. You can create a suitable workstation with nothing more than a cheap laptop stand to raise the display.
If you’re aiming for three screens then look for USB to DVI adaptors, which are available for under £50. These will enable your laptop to generate a third video output, but will have an inherently low response time and are only suitable for more static content – not video.
You card
Now you know where the monitors will go, how will you connect them? Once upon a time, graphics cards could only drive a single display. Those were happy days – a RAMDAC generated the analogue VGA output, and multiple monitors could be supported by adding more.
These days life is easier, as the DAC element can be dumped and replaced with TMDS, which handles the job of encoding the digital display data into a robust digital serial signal fit for shooting along cheap DVI and HDMI cables.
Despite the size of DVI connectors, the switch from analogue to digital has enabled card manufacturers to gradually increase the number of video outputs on a single card from two up to six. The majority of cards still provide three, usually via DVI and either a DisplayPort or HDMI output. The latest high-end Nvidia 500 series and AMD 7/6000 range can drive four physical connections.
Interestingly AMD also offers the rather rarer Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6, which has six physical DisplayPort outputs. All of this is on top of PCI Express’s ability to support multiple graphics cards, even from a 1x lane connector.
Don’t become obsessed with add-in cards though – integrated graphics on recent motherboard chipsets will happily work alongside these.
Back in 2007, the AMD 690/780 chipsets that offered SurroundView often had to be enabled within the BIOS. The integrated GPU was disabled automatically, but let a system support up to four displays once activated.
Choose a driver
The problem with multiple monitors is that often you’re asking applications to work in an environment they were never designed for, and aren’t expecting. That’s besides trying to physically align multiple bulky displays next to each other.
Nvidia and AMD provide tools within their display drivers to help correct for the displays’ bezels, which helps reduce the jarring effect of moving between displays. Part of the drive here is that both manufacturers are pushing triple-screen gaming as a key use for their high-end gaming cards.
With a total screen resolution of 5,760 x 1,080, you can imagine why you’ll need a high-end card to make the most of those IMAX-like displays. The support of Nvidia and AMD is vital, and provides reassurance that multi-monitor setups can be made to work well.
Going beyond three screens, the AMD Eyefinity system helps make multiple displays ‘invisible’ to applications by enabling you to group multiple monitors into a seemingly single display. These features are on top of what Windows offers already, and do a fine job of handling as many monitors as you can throw at them.
Porting it about
Looking to the future, we’re hoping it will become even easier to give systems multi-monitor capabilities. It might have taken many years to shift the PC world from analogue VGA outputs to digital DVI – despite its limitations on resolution and single connection – but things are looking brighter.
DisplayPort and Thunderbolt can provide daisy-chained multi-monitor capabilities, along with interoperability between the two, Thunderbolt, DisplayPort and PCIe are all interrelated in a natural, evolutionary way.
PCI Express is an excellent high-speed serial bus, so it makes sense to use that as the basis for everything in the communication layer of the PC. DisplayPort does just that, extending PCIe to the display.
Thunderbolt takes this standard and extends it to all external devices. With 20Gbps throughput, it’s more than able to support two 2,560 x 1,600 displays at 60Hz. It will even have 4Gbps free, making future expansion easier than ever. Look out for it coming to a PC near you soon.
Desktop control
Use the tools provided for a better life
1. Windows controls
Windows provides some useful controls for your many displays. At their most basic, they enable you to mimic how the displays line up physically. The idea is that the cursor lines up as you move it from one display to another. The orientation controls enable you to deal with displays that are rotated or upside down, but that’s as far as it goes.
2. ATI HydraVision
ATI has always tried to provide ways to control multiple desktops, multiple screens and applications via HydraVision. This started life as a separate tool, but now lives inside the driver itself alongside the Desktop Management. It shouldn’t be overlooked, as it provides some powerful tools. It supports multiple desktops, and will remember application positions to snap windows to its grid and provide better controls.
3. Nvidia controls
The driver for Geforce cards seems to be the weakest in multi-monitor setups, and tends to ignore others on the system. Perhaps the developers saw no need for such controls when they’re already built into Windows. To enable Surround Gaming you’ll need to follow the Configure Displays guide within the 3D settings on the Nvidia driver. This will explain which outputs can be used depending on the attached cards.
Tricked out Windows
Tools to make your monitors more beautiful
1. Actual Multiple Monitor
This application from www.actualtools.com comes in free and paid-for versions, and fixes all the shortcomings of Windows in a multiple-display environment. It includes continuous wallpaper, a screensaver and a taskbar. It also enhances mouse control, locking it to a screen or application, and enabling quick switching between displays.
2. Big wallpaper
You’ll want your displays to look pretty, and that means extra-wide wallpapers measuring 5,760 x 1,080 or more. Your first stop for all wallpapers should be www.digitalblasphemy.com, which has backgrounds for single panels, dual-screen setups and beyond. More specific resource www.multimonitorgroup.com does exactly what its name suggests, and has groups of wallpapers for dual, triple and quad monitors.
3. Eye candy
Any good Nvidia 3D Vision game will be triple-display friendly. You can browse 3D Vision titles here, or download a list from here. AMD maintains a list of Eyefinity-compatible games here.
For screensavers, visit www.reallyslick.com for classic OpenGL designs, or www.stronggames.com for an excellent imitation of The Matrix‘s cascading code for multi-monitor setups.
Set up multiple monitors
Go crazy and build a stack of displays for working and gaming
1. On the cheap
First we need to sort out the hardware to produce the video signals. The cheapest solution is to use an add-in card and the motherboard’s integrated graphics output. For modern Sandy Bridge boards this should provide two active outputs from the DVI and VGA/HDMI ports, alongside at least two from the add-in graphics card for a total of four.
2. Working together
Using two Nvidia or AMD add-in cards lets you fire up SLI or CrossFire, which is ideal for high resolution triple-display gaming. In SLI gaming, the number of displays available depends on the GPUs and their configuration, while CrossFire enables up to six displays. If you just want extra monitors, you can mix and match Nvidia and AMD cards.
3. Input overload
Despite the possibility of a PC having VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and even ThunderBolt ports alongside TV outputs, there’s no need to worry about finding the right connection. Most monitors will support two or three of these inputs, so you should be able to find something that works without too much trouble. There are also adaptors available for all the digital options – check www.maplin.co.uk.
4. Watching Windows
Access the Display Control Panel by right-clicking a blank area of the desktop and selecting ‘Screen resolution’. This shows the displays that are active and connected to your PC. Click any that are inactive and select ‘Extend these displays’ from the menu to spread your desktop across them. Click ‘Identify’ to see an associated number. You can adjust these to represent the monitors’ physical layout.
5. Eyefinity
The AMD Eyefinity system attempts to make multiple displays ‘invisible’ to applications, grouping multiple monitors into a seemingly single display. It works well for the most part, but there are a few limitations – if your displays aren’t identical, the lowest native resolution will be duplicated across all the others, and if the physical size varies by more than 5 per cent then bezel correction is forced off.
6. Little things
With this much desktop space, it’s easy to end up with a mess of icons. We suggest downloading Fences from StarDock to keep things tidy. You should now have three screens working in harmony. It’s not just a luxury – how else could we write while watching Trisha and commenting on the BBC News page?
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Get more from your Mac’s battery
Fully charged, your Mac notebook can feel like it will last forever, such is the quality of the battery supplied with it. However, we’ve all experienced that moment of annoyance when the battery indicator drops into the red and we desperately need to use the machine for longer.
That’s why we’re going to show you two things: firstly, how to look after the battery in your Mac, which will help it hold its charge better as it gets older. Secondly, we’ll show you some simple ways to squeeze vital extra minutes out of your battery as it runs low – you may well be surprised what a difference these tips will make.
Looking after your battery is important because all modern Apple notebooks have them built in. Gone are the days you could carry a spare in your bag and pop it in when one ran out: now, all you’ve got is what’s in your Mac. Having said that, the modern lithium-ion polymer batteries are much better than the nickel-based ones of yesteryear.
First and foremost, you can safely recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery at any time, regardless of how much charge it’s got left in it. Recharging a half-full battery won’t harm it or reduce its life.
Let’s now introduce the concept of a charge cycle. A cycle is completed when you use up the full capacity of your battery and then recharge it. Importantly though, this need not be in one go. If you run your battery down to 50% and then recharge it, you have completed half a charge cycle. Do so again, and you have completed a full cycle. The effect is cumulative.
Lithium-ion polymer batteries do degrade as they rack up cycles, but this process is very slow. Officially, Apple says that the batteries in the latest models should be able to go through 1,000 full cycles and still hold 80% of their original full capacity.
To keep your battery healthy, it’s important to run it through a full charge cycle at least once a month. If you use your Mac notebook at a desk and always leave it plugged in, it can be easy to forget to do this, so it’s best to set yourself a recurring monthly reminder in iCal to unplug your Mac and run down its battery, before giving it a full charge.
How to squeeze vital extra minutes out of your battery
1. Dim the screen
One of the most power-hungry parts of your Mac is the screen. To save power, turn down the brightness by pressing F1. You can also adjust the brightness in the Displays pane in System Preferences. Just drag the slider as far to the left as you can comfortably work with.
2. Faster display sleep
If you’re looking away from your Mac for any period, save yourself power by setting the display to switch off after a short time. Go into System Preferences > Energy Saver > Battery and drag the lower slider to the far left. Make sure the top three checkboxes are ticked, too.
3. Turn off Wi-Fi
It’s easy to forget that you can switch off your wireless connection when you’re not using it. Click the Wi-Fi menu and choose Turn Wi-Fi Off to disable it temporarily. When you need it again, you’ll find the option to switch it back on in the same menu.
4. Disable Bluetooth
Using a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse? If you’re low on power, we suggest you switch to your Mac’s built-in keyboard and trackpad, and switch off Bluetooth. Do this in the Bluetooth menu or its System Preferences pane. Simply switch it back on when you next want to use it.
5. Kill the keyboard light
Being able to light up your Mac’s keyboard is great when working in the dark. But it does place added strain on the battery. Switch it off by holding down %. If you find you really need it to be able to work, turn the brightness to the lowest level you can.
6. Unplug external drives
A USB drive plugged into your Mac also sucks up power. If your work is on such a drive, copy it to your Mac’s hard drive and then eject and remove the USB drive by right-clicking it and choosing Eject. Disconnect anything else you don’t need, including your iPod or iPhone.
7. Quit unused apps
Running apps require processing power, even if they don’t appear to be doing anything. Look for any in your Dock that have light symbols under them, but that you’re not using. Right-click them and choose Quit, or click them once, then press Command+Q to close them.
8. Reconsider usage
Some work requires a lot of processing power – video editing, for example. The less demand you put on your processor, the less power your Mac needs, and the longer you’ll be able to use it for. Bear this in mind when working on a Mac with a dwindling battery.
How to use Google Cloud Print
With Google Cloud Print, you can connect your printer to the web and print from anywhere. You can use an internet-connected computer, smartphone or tablet to send documents directly to your Google Cloud-enabled printer.
Printing from the cloud is incredibly useful. You could, for example, print a text document while on a train or from a hotel, and have it ready for you as soon as you get home.
You can also use Google Cloud Printing to print a web page directly from the Chrome browser, or save websites and documents as PDFs in Google Docs. You can even share your printer with others on the network, allowing them to print from their own Google accounts.
If you have a printer that’s Google Cloud Print-ready out of the box, such as Kodak’s Hero range, certain Kodak ESP models, HP’s ePrint-capable printers and some recent Epsons, setting up is easy. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for more details.
But it’s perfectly possible to set up and use a printer that isn’t Cloud-ready with Google Cloud Print. It even works with a non-networked printer connected to your Mac through USB. That’s what we’re looking at here.
Following this tutorial installs the Google Cloud Print connector on your Mac, after which your ‘classic’, non-Google-enabled printer can be used for Google Cloud Printing. The initial setup has to be done using Google’s Chrome browser. But after that, you can print from a wide range of web applications, and can manage your cloud printing in Safari or Firefox if you wish.
Printing from the cloud can be slow, so don’t panic if your Google Cloud Print doesn’t instantly appear. And before you start, make sure you have a printer connected to your Mac that’s correctly installed and switched on.
How to set up your printer for cloud printing
1. Your Google Account
If you don’t already have one, create a Google account. Go to www.google.com/accounts and click the Sign up for a new Google Account link in the top-right corner. Follow the instructions to create your Google Account. If you already have one, sign in.
2. Google Cloud Print
For this step, we need to use Google’s Chrome browser. If you don’t have it, download at www.google.com/chrome. Launch Chrome, click on the spanner in the top-right corner and select Preferences. Select the Under the Hood tab, found in the list on the left-hand side.
3. Signing in
Scroll down to the foot of the Under the Hood section, and look for Google Cloud Print – it’s right at the bottom. Press the Sign in to Google Cloud Print button. You’re taken to a screen that invites you to finish registering your printer with Google Cloud Print. Do so.
4. Managing Printers
Your printer is now registered with Google Cloud Print. Click on the Manage your Printers link to be taken to your cloud print page. Here you can see current print jobs, add further cloud printers, share your printers and more. It might be wise to bookmark this page.
5. Print from Chrome
To cloud-print a website from your Chrome browser, select Print from the spanner button, or press Ctrl+P. In the Print column on the left, select Print with Google Cloud Print from the Destination pull-down and press Print. Select the required printer and press Print.
6. Save to Google Docs
To save a Chrome web page to Google Docs as a PDF instead of printing it, follow Step 5, but instead of selecting a printer in the popup window, click on Save to Google Docs before pressing Print. It can then be accessed, printed or downloaded from www.docs.google.com.
7. Upload and Print
To print a document from your hard drive, from the Cloud Print page (www.google.com/cloudprint), press the orange Print button in the top-left corner. From the pop-up menu, select Upload File to Print. Navigate to and open the document, select a printer and press Print.
8. Print Queue
If your Mac or Google Cloud printer is switched off, or your Mac is signed into a different account, you can still submit a print job. It’s queued and printed when you next log in. The printer-connected Mac doesn’t have to be logged into your Google Account to print.
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