Computer Terminology explained from CPU speed to Hard drive size
When evaluating a new PC there are a host of speeds, capacities, and quantities to choose from. Some
of these have a vital impact upon what you will see from your PC and others will have no affect at all.
Let's start with the stats that will have a variable affect on your performance:
- CPU (Centra Processing Unit) Speed: The speed of the CPU affects its ability to perform math and logic choices,
the core of what your computer does. This is most important if you are interested in statistical, database, movie
editing or gaming applications. It's much less important when handling less computationally intense tasks like Word
Processing, E-Mail, and Messaging. When looking at processors you will want to consider at least 3GHz if you want to
pursue a demanding task.
- RAM (Random Access Memory): There are numerous types of storage in your PC, in fact there are numerous types
of RAM, but the modular RAM chips, which is what is referred to here offer the greatest flexibility both in terms of
the range of what can be installed, and the ability to modify it post purchase. RAM is vital if you wish to run
large programs and operating systems such as Vista, Windows Server, Video games, or if you wish to run a half dozen or
more programs simultaneously. If any of these are in your list you will want to consider at least 4 GB of RAM.
- Hard Drive Rotation Speed (RPM): The speed at which the platters in a hard drive rotate affect its performance
for all read and write applications to permanent storage. This is important for all applications. Don't settle
for less than 7200 RPM.
- Video RAM: Gaming applications and CAD applications can be very demanding graphically. Consider getting
at least 256 MB of RAM if doing either.
There are several specifications that are important, but impact you in a more sudden way. These are like gas in your
car. Having a little or a lot doesn't help, but when you run out it's disasterous:
- Hard Drive Size: Most users will be fine with the smallest hard drives out there (around 80GB), this is enough
to install a modest set of programs and store several thousand pictures, songs, or a dozens of feature length movies.
If you want to have tens of thousands of pictures, run several high-end games, or keep hundreds of family movies you'll
want to consider the largest of drives available. While this will seem excessive it is always better to overshoot if
you have plans of collecting.
- Hard Drive Type: There are two common types of hard drive interfaces available SCSI and IDE (the modern variant
called SATA). SCSI offers improved performance at a price. Most notable is the purchase difference, but getting
support in an emergency with SCSI drives introduces substantial time, and very high monetary costs. The performance
gains are not worth the nightmarish stress of being without any data in the innevitable event of down time.
- CD/DVD Burner: While quite standard on PCs they are becomming increasingly outdated. USB Memory sticks, also
called flash drives offer a much simpler method for transferring data between PCs. While you need to have a CD/DVD
reader, having the burning benefit is now of little or no benefit.
- Display: Of all the investments you can make this is truly the only one you can be guaranteed to see. Without
limit all computers uses benefit from a larger display. While hard to obtain standard aspect ratio (4:3) screens are
much better suited to editing and browsing than the new standard wide screen (16:9) screens. They offer not only a
greater area for their diagonal measure (a 19" is larger than a widescreen 19") but they also offer more
vertical height which is the critical measure when editing documents, writing e-mails, and viewing web pages.
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