I’m sure that most of you have heard of partitions on your hard drive, but may not be totally aware of what they are or why you would want to use partitions on your hard drive. A partition is simply a portion of your hard drive that has been specially prepared with a File System so that it can store your program and data files on the drive. Each partition you create on your hard drive is given a drive letter to make it easier to find and retrieve the files later. You can have a single partition on a hard drive or there can be many partitions on the drive. Most users have a single c: partition on their hard drive and perhaps one or two other hidden partitions put there by the computer manufacturer.
At the April 2009 SPAUG meeting, member Larry Templeton described how he built his own Home Theater PC.
Bill Young really laid the groundwork for tonight's talk a couple of month's ago when he made a presentation to the group about how to build a standard desktop for the PC so I'm not going to go into the nuts and bolts of it, but I do want to talk how they work, how they fit into a home entertainment system and the parts that you might want to procure if you are going to build one.
What can an HTPC provide?
Record /store/ replay off-air/cable TV shows, DVDs, CDs, ipod, MP3s, etc.
From the internet, download /store /play YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, TV shows, movies (amazing amount of content now available)
Edit video, burn DVDs, CDs, load iPod, etc.
Any other PC function such as surf the internet, play games, etc.
SVCS has established a new Build It Yourself SIG for those members interested in building their own PC systems. The new SIG will meet at MicroCenter in Santa Clara on the first Monday night of each month. The Multimedia SIG which previously met on this night will now be combined with the Digital Imaging SIG on the third Monday nights.
We all do dumb things now and then, and computer users are no exception. Inadvertently pressing the wrong key combination or innocently clicking OK in the wrong dialog box can change important settings that alter a computer's behavior or even crash the system.
In February 2009 SPAUG member Bill Young described how he designed and built a "general purpose" desktop computer, including:
Choosing whether to buy or build your new computer
The ease of building your own computer
Deciding on the objectives for your computer
Selection of hardware components to meet your objectives
Choosing your operating system
The advantages of building your own system include custom components wth better reliability and longer life, lower power consumption and cooler, quieter operation compared to purchased computers.
Kevin will be showing off the AMD Quad-core Phenom 9550 Windows Live Multimedia desktop system that both he & Don Heinsen built at the ASI (distributor) show last month. The system is set it up dual boot, XP & Vista Ultimate.
We all do dumb things now and then, and computer users are no exception. Inadvertently pressing the wrong key combination or innocently clicking OK in the wrong dialog box can change important settings that alter a computer's behavior or even crash the system. 
Kevin will be showing off the AMD Quad-core Phenom 9550 Windows Live Multimedia desktop system that both he & Don Heinsen built at the ASI (distributor) show last month. The system is set it up dual boot, XP & Vista Ultimate.
