PC Mag, computing now, and about 99.9% of the techs out will tell you the lucky 7 things

#1 keep BACKUPs at all times your computer will not tell you when it's going to die

#2 don't go cheep on anti-virus?(live one care , norton and so on)

#3 Don't use myspace if some one has a virus and use it you will to if you don't have live anti-virus on (even the best active anti-virus will only stop 90% that other 10 will get on the system even vista or windows 7 is not safe

#4 Don't use anything from AOL(it's only ads anyways aol is owned by a ad corp)

#5 stay away from bit torrent and that alike

#6 All computers have info that comes with them just like a car reg service is a must or it will cross a line where it can't go back, with out the loss of all your stuff

#7 BACK UP ALL DATA WEEKLY ! i don't believe CD or DVD have to space to do it anymore with how things have got. i think a 500+gb ext hard drive is a must for any person that owns a ipod with more then 1gb
of mp3's (side note iTunes WILL NOT LET YOU RE DOWNLOAD Lost music anymore if you crash you have to buy it all over)

In all the years(about 14 now) i have been a tech i have seen it all
1 of the things i see a lot is people keep computers for 3-5+ years have a ton of files and the HDD die's wont even spin anymore and they ask how much to get data off it (yes i know how and have a shop in home to do this)
the avg time to get all your stuff off a drive that has died is 1 week to 3 months, some times you only get 1-2% back, some times all, the point to this is most shops have to get the same parts on that drive to get data off it then clean the platters in a cleaning tank / room and install them in a new drive running the same firmware as the old controller what makes this hard is most of the hp and dell system use discontinued hardware
making the drive parts hard to find as the parts are 2-3 years old by the time you got the computer most of the time they like to use refurbs to
so they come with a drive that was bad fixed it as best they can then sold it to you as new

i personally replace all the drives in my house every 1.5-2 years
to be safe (my servers run raid it's live back up 2 drives run the same stuff all the time so if one dies the other has all your stuff the good part is as soon as you replace the bad drive and reboot it will copy all the data to the new drive in case the other one die's)

the AVG COST OF DATA RECOVERY IS $1,500$ starts at about $400 and tops out at about $5,000 so BACKUP ALL YOUR STUFF
my house has 13 computers and 9 rack servers to feed all my TVs
every screen in my house is a computer now.
if you do work from home or accounting or stuff that you must not ever ever put in risk i think you need to look in to a custom computer with raid 1

things i think needed to be added to the list on high powered system of today's top end computers

#1 they run hot really hot if you don't keep the inside clean they can and have burst in to flames it's cool to look at but in side a house it will take more then just the PC with it....
SO KEEP ALL THE FANS CLEAN use a room air filter so you and your PC will sleep nicely ( i have to clean the systems in my living room out every 2-3 weeks)

#2 think green use a UPS backup they clean the power going in to the PC this helps it run smother and in the long run uses less power
and if you leave town unplug the system it uses about 5-10 watts
even when off my gaming system uses about 1400watts when on
with a game running about the same as a window A/C system
but puts out almost 3500BTU of Heat

#3 replace all the Fans in the computer every 2 years they will slow down over time and draw more power at this time replace the power supply as the Caps in the power supply get old they don't clean the AC ripple out of the DC voltage as well and this can make random blue screens and random shutdowns that you cant seam to fix. when ever you open big files or run apps the put a heave load on the CPU and or GPU (videocard)in systems with big video cards and lots fans and fast cpu's you may need to replace the PSU even more or get one with 25% over head
so add up the stuff in the system and get the next highest psu it will save you money in the long run

#4 read up on computers not just from me but all over most of the 100-200$ fixes are things the user can do them self if they just try
if you mess up well i hope you did lucky #1 and #7 and if you need help
most techs will teach you how if not find a 16-20 year old and ask them.
(damn kids know way to-much now days)
well that is most of it
if you have a ?
email me at
techmasterjoe@gmail.com
and i will do my best to help
i will post in blog and email you back