Top 5 Things to Include on Your Home Theater PC

You have the big,flat panel HDTV and the home theater sound system. Have you connected your computer to that incredible home theater display and sound? If not, it may be time to fuse your computer with your home theater system. Here are the top five essential pieces of computer hardware to include in any home theater's computer system.

The Top 5: Large hard drive.It will take a lot of hard-drive space on your computer to store all the music, movies and TV shows you enjoy. If you are using digital video recording software, you will be able to record and store TV shows and movies for playback later on. Plus, high-definition programming will take up more memory than standard-definition recordings. You may want to install one or more hard drives, 500GB or larger. Data storage is essential for a home theater computer. Video graphics card.Having a good video graphics card will ensure that you don't get any skipping or blurring when your computer runs a video game or a movie on your home theater system. The graphics card processes all the image information so that your computer's CPU can focus on other tasks. Look for a graphics card with a fast processor speed and memory of 512MB or higher. Sound card.. A sound card is similar to a graphics card in that it takes the load of processing data off of your computer's CPU; only it processes sound information. You'll want at least a 5.1 surround-sound speaker system to take advantage of your computer's new sound processing power. You may also need to consider a sound card that supports high-definition sound transmission through HDMI cables. There's no point in having high-quality sound on your home theater computer if the sound quality is lost through a standard-definition transmission cable. Blu-ray disc drive.Blu-ray is the industry standard for high-definition video. It is quickly becoming the center of serious home theater systems. Make sure your home theater computer can at least play Blu-ray discs. You can install an internal Blu-ray drive or connect an external one. If you feel creative, get a Blu-ray drive that can burn Blu-ray discs. You can make compilations of your favorite high-definition video clips and even burn and watch your own home movies onto Blu-ray. Wireless keyboard and mouse.Very few keyboards and mice have a cord long enough to reach from your home theater center to your couch. Look for a wireless keyboard and mouse that can sit on a side table or coffee table, enabling you to browse the Internet and control your home theater computer from across the room. Some keyboards and mice have multimedia buttons that act as shortcuts to your media player, web browser and other frequently used programs. If your home theater is dark, especially during movies, you may need a backlit keyboard and mouse for use when the lights are off.

Tips on Increasing Your Computer Speed

If you're computer is sluggish or slow or if you just want to make sure you maintain your investment, you may want to know some basic tips on computer maintenance. You can take several simple steps you to avoid common computer problems that can affect your computer speed. Keep your system healthy and running smoothly with these basic tips on increasing computer speed.

What You Need to Know: Upgrade your Internet connection.Your computer speed may not be the problem; it may be your Internet connection or networking devices that are slowing things down. Slow Internet response isn't always related to slow computer speed. Check your connection speed using an online Internet connection speed tester. You should not need to download any software to do this. Also, check that your router, modem or other networking devices are up to date. Clean up your registry. The registry contains information about all the files on your computer, even ones you have removed. Clearing the registry of old files can help enhance your computer speed. You may need to read up on how your computer's registry works before you alter anything. You can also download a registry cleaning tool from a trusted Website. Protect against spyware and viruses. Installing antivirus and anti-spyware software is one of the best things you can do for your computer. This software will identify and remove known viruses and spyware as well as help you identify safe Websites and screen your downloads. Spyware and malware can affect computer speed by using your computer resources for unauthorized tasks or even ruining other programs. Make sure your software is up to date and scan your computer often. Defragment your hard drive. Data is stored on your hard drive wherever there is free space. Sometimes, files for one program can be spread out in different places. Defragmenting your computer's hard drive moves files to make them easier to access. Your computer speed will increase and more space will open up on the hard drive. Clean up unwanted files and folders. If you have old files or folders that you don't need, you may want to delete them from your computer's hard drive. You can improve your computer speed by cleaning up these files. Turn off some startup programs. Many programs run simultaneously on your computer, and not all of them are necessary. Programs that start up automatically when you turn on your computer can reduce computer speed. Read your help file or user manual to learn how to remove unnecessary programs from your system startup. Increase your speed by reducing the number of programs running automatically. Install additional RAM.Computer speed is limited to what your computer hardware can support. Random access memory (RAM) is where your computer temporarily stores data for calculations. The more RAM your computer has, the bigger its capacity to do multiple tasks. Adding additional RAM can significantly increase your computer speed. Retire your old computer.If you computer has faithfully served you for several years yet computer speed has become a progressive problem, it may be time to replace it. Computer components degrade over time, and system requirements for new software require more memory and computing power. As time goes by, computer speed will naturally decrease. If you can't upgrade your memory or hard drive, it may be time to replace your system entirely. This is a big step that every computer owner encounters sooner or later, and it may be the only option for increasing computer speed.