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humorist-workshop
Advicenators discussion: Computer components: What they mean
theymos wrote Sunday April 6 2008, 9:19 pm:
Inside of your computer there are a number of components. These include:
-Motherboard
-CPU
-Power supply
-RAM
-Graphics card
-Sound card
-Optical drive
-Network card
-Hard drive
In this document I will explain what these components do. I will first use a helpful analogy, and then I will go into detail.
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Your computer is like an office. The case is the room, it does nothing but enclose the other stuff and provide ventilation.
The motherboard is the floor, everything else is built upon it. A bad floor can cause trouble, a good floor will make life easier, but it won't do much else.
The speed (and other factors) of your CPU and the speed (but not size) of your RAM is like the speed at which you can write and how fast you can process information.
Your power supply is like wall outlets, if it stops working or malfunctions there will be major trouble.
Your hard drive is like a filing cabinet. It only affects your speed when you're taking stuff out of it. The bigger the filing cabinet, the more stuff you can store in it.
The size of your RAM is like the size of your desk. The bigger the desk, the more projects you can work on at once. The more RAM, the more programs you can have running without slowdown. When you put a project into the filing cabinet (close a program), it is removed from your desk; you get the space back. If you run out of space on your desk (RAM), you have to put some of your projects in the filing cabinet (hard drive). The filing cabinet is slower, so you don't want to do that.
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Your hard drive space does not affect the speed of your computer. Defragmenting, which only affects your hard drive, does not affect the speed of your computer (it makes read/write operations faster). Deleting stuff does not affect the speed of your computer.
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Details:
:Motherboard:
-All components of a computer are connected to the motherboard(aka system board, mainboard).
-When buying, look to make sure your components are compatible with it.
-The chipset and onboard components also matter, but they are not a big concern for normal users.
:CPU:
-CPU greatly affects the speed of your computer.
-Your CPU is usually the single most expensive component in the computer. Because you won't want to get a new one, it's best to buy a fast one to start out.
-When buying, look for its clock rate, in gigahertz(GHz). Higher is better.
-Dual-core processors are good for office and general work. Single-core processors are better for gaming. The difference is not huge.
-Dual-core processors have two CPU cores in one. The clock rate(GHz) is for each processor, not the entire thing.
-I recommend a minimum of 1.8GHz dual-core or 3.2GHz single-core. Even this minimum might be uncomfortable, though.
:Power supply:
-The power supply splits the electricity from the wall into separate connections with specific voltages.
-Power supplies almost always come with the case.
-When there are a lot of different problems with your computer and you are sure you don't have a virus, it's usually the power supply.
:RAM:
-RAM(aka memory) temporarily stores information, and it can transfer that information at great speed. Programs that you are running are stored in RAM. Programs you are not running are stored in your hard drive.
-The most important value with RAM is its size, in GBs or MBs. More is better. 1024MB=1GB.
-Bandwidth/speed and latency also matters, but less than size. Latency should be low, speed high.
-For 32-bit(normal) systems, 3GB of RAM is the max. You'd need a 64-bit system for more to actually do anything. To get a 64-bit system you need an x64 CPU and an x64 operating system, like Windows XP Pro x64, Windows Vista x64, or many versions of Linux. x64 operating systems are often not compatible with 32-bit systems.
-I recommend 1-2GB RAM for XP, 2-3GB for Vista, and 1GB for any flavor of Linux.
:Graphics card:
-The graphics card(aka video card) tells your monitor what to display. The better the video card, the smoother the video.
-Everyone should have a video card, even if it's a cheap one. Otherwise everything will be choppy.
-Gamers need very good video cards.
-Graphics cards are the second most expensive single component in a computer.
-When buying, look for video RAM in MBs and GPU clock speed in GHz or MHz. Higher is better for both. 1000MHz=1GHz
:Sound card:
-The sound card tells your speakers what to do.
-Not having a sound card *does not* meant that your computer will not be able to play sounds. You will.
-You only need a sound card if you are using more than stereo speakers. Any type of surround sound or subwoofer system will benefit from a sound card.
-You really *need* a sound card for speakers systems of 5.1 or greater.
-Don't use Creative sound cards. Their drivers are horrible.
:Optical drive:
-Optical drives process disks. Like CDs, DVDs, and Bluray disks.
-CD drives can only play CDs. Not DVDs.
-DVD drives can always play CDs in addition to DVDs.
-Not all drives can write to disks, but most can. Look for "burner" and "RW" in the specifications.
-LightScribe puts labels on disks, right from the drive.
-Look for speed in #x. 16x dvd/48x cd is average. Higher is better.
:Network card:
-Network cards(aka ethernet card) are what you plug your ethernet cables into. The connector looks like a large phone connector.
-Network cards have a maximum connection speed. They can't handle traffic higher than this speed. Usually the speed is very high, and you will never even approach the maximum.
-Network cards don't make your Internet faster, unless your old network card had a low limit.
:Hard drive:
-The hard drive(aka storage) stores stuff. All your programs and data is stored in the hard drive.
-When buying, look for the space, in GB. 1GB can hold 1 compressed movie. 5GB can hold 1 uncompressed movie.
-200GB will be enough for most people
-300GB will be enough for most heavy computer users
-500GB will be enough for people who download a lot of movies and music.
-1000GB(1TB) is enough for anyone, at least for the next few decades.
-Hard drives fail somewhat frequently. You can expect your drives to fail every 3-5 years. Back your stuff up!
-The speed of the drive is in xGB/s. Every second it is able to transfer x GBs of data.
TheAnnie wrote Thursday April 10 2008, 12:27 pm:
hmm, good to know
theymos wrote Sunday July 27 2008, 7:07 pm:
Not all programs, especially games, are able to use both cores in a dual-core CPU. If you have a 1.8GHz dual-core CPU and use such a program, it will only be able to effectively use 1.8GHz, not 3.6GHz.
If you have two programs, both using 1.8GHz, both unable to use dual-cores, then you don't have a problem. They will both use a different core and the system will work better than a 3.6GHz single-core system.
So if you are planning to use your computer for general work, multiple cores are best because you can more efficiently run multiple applications. For a computer where gaming is the only concern, you should either have a single-core system or a dual-core system with a high clock speed(at least 3.4GHz per core).
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