CoreTech Blog

There’s a considerable difference between turning off some appliance, like a television or a vacuum cleaner, and turning off your computer. Why does the computer take so long to power down, and is there any way to speed up the process? This tip will explore these subjects, and give you a few ideas as to how to speed up the shutdown process.

Cryptocurrencies are still one of the better known uses of blockchain technology, and though their values seem to have leveled off since the explosive growth they experienced a few months ago, that has not stopped people from seeking them out. Of course, where there’s money to be had, you’re sure to find cybercriminals.

A computer is a complicated device, so it needs something to help it “think.” Because of this weighty responsibility, the component that serves this purpose is arguably one of the most important of all a computer’s pieces. Known as a CPU, this little chip is truly essential to the computer’s function. For today’s Tech Term, we’ll examine it a little more closely.

Mere months after the firmware in their computer chips was found to be seriously flawed, Intel’s flagship product has once again brought some unpleasant attention to the company. While the issue now has a fix, there was the possibility that a solution could depreciate the functionality of the CPU.

Your business relies on mission-critical hardware that keeps its infrastructure running, including servers, workstations, and networking components. However, these pieces of technology require maintenance in order to function properly, and replacement every so often to keep the risk of downtime and hardware failure to a minimum. Thankfully, modern managed IT services have yielded a solution to this issue that can make managing your hardware infrastructure as easy as possible: Hardware as a Service.

Any business venture nowadays is apt to utilize a lot of data, and therefore will require plenty of digital storage space to accommodate its needs. As a result, selecting a storage device is an important decision to make - especially when one is trying to decide between a Solid State Drive (or SSD) or a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage solution. A quick comparison between the two will help you choose one over the other.

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First, a quick review of the two options:

• HDD: Hard disk drives have been around since IBM introduced the technology in 1956, and utilizes magnetism via a mechanical arm with a read/write head to store data on a spinning platter. This spin dictates the performance speed of the drive. Drivers today typically will achieve either 5,400 or 7,200 revolutions per minute.
• SSD: Solid state drives are a much more recent innovation, storing information in microchips controlled by an onboard, embedded processor. This processor is referred to as the controller, the quality of which ultimately controls the speed at which the drive operates. Since there are no moving parts, this is the preferable choice for laptops, as jostling will not affect performance, as it will in a HDD.

Of course, to a company, the how the drive operates is not nearly as important as the how well, or the how much. Weighing one option against the other will help to narrow down the proper solution for a particular business’ needs. To do so, a quick review of the stats will be helpful.

• Capacity: An incredibly important statistic to consider, as it is the entire point of utilizing a storage device. HDD can range in notebook devices from 500GB to 2TB, as far up as 6TB in desktops. SSD in notebook devices generally cap out at 1TB, and max out in desktops at the same.
• Speed: The copy/write speed of HDD can be anywhere from 50 to 120MB per second. This is dwarfed by a SDD’s typical speeds of at least 200 MB/s, sometimes up to 550 MB/s. Regarding how much time it takes to open files, HDD file opening speeds lag by about 30 percent behind SSDs.
• Cost: Being a long-established technology, HDDs typically cost about $0.06 for every gigabyte of storage space. While the price of SSDs has been dropping in recent years, the cost per gigabyte is still at $0.24 per GB, making SSD a considerably more expensive option.
• Power Draw/Battery Life: HDDs lose this bout, drawing an average of 6 or 7 watts compared to the SSD’s 2 or 3. This gives SSDs significantly superior battery life.

Depending on your business’s financial state and priorities, there are different paths to take when selecting a storage device. If capacity and price are larger concerns than speeds, a hard disk drive may just be the route to take. If there is a want for technology to function faster and there is some financial “wiggle room,” a SSD is certainly the preferable choice.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility to select a storage solution for your business’s IT needs. Our technicians can give them professional guidance into which solution fits their information storage needs the best. If interested, give them a call at (270) 282-4926 and set up a consultation to discuss the preferable IT solution your business needs.

Hackers have proven that they will do whatever it takes to get to your valuable assets, even if it means taking advantage of physical objects that work alongside a specific frequency. As it turns out, this is exactly how hacking a garage door works, and all it takes is a decade-old communications device to capture the frequency and unlock any garage door that utilizes it.

Computer monitors have become streamlined in appearance and design over the years. One of the biggest improvements was the addition of the LCD screen, which in comparison to the old CRT monitors is more pleasing to the eye. However, its brightness means that there are side effects that can lead to eye strain and headaches. You can lower your screen brightness to preserve both your eyesight and your sanity, in addition to saving precious battery life.

With as many resources as you’ve invested in your company’s technology, you should do everything you can to protect it. An IT infrastructure that doesn’t have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) safeguarding its data, is putting the entire operation at risk. Here’s what you need to know about this important device.

It’s a known fact that technology doesn’t last forever. In fact, technology grows at such an astounding rate that some users often feel the need to replace their devices the second a bigger and better tech is launched. What if this unprecedented growth and increase in reliability become a hindrance to the sales of PC manufacturers?

Technology solutions for small and medium-sized businesses can be complex, which is why simplification is at the top of a lot of executives’ priorities. To this end, virtualization is a key component, helping organizations make their IT easier to manage. What effect does this have on data security?

When searching for tech support for your organization, you might often wonder if what you’re paying for your current service provider is really worth the maintenance that you receive. At times, it might feel like you’re being charged an arm and a leg for a simple network audit, and you can forget about purchasing new hardware components in the event of a technology failure or disaster. Rather than pay for services that are extorting money from you, your budget might find that the price of managed IT services is just right.

If there’s one thing that our extremely technical society has evolved into, it’s one where technology is always striving to improve itself. This is especially important for businesses that are looking to maximize the return on investment they get from their hardware and software. Do you know where your organization concentrates its resources for tech upgrades?

Sometimes when your workstation feels bogged down, a relatively cheap and simply hardware update can make a huge difference in performance. Adding more RAM (Random Access Memory, often just referred to as memory) can be a game changer for your bogged down PC.