When one looks into buying a new computer, there’s a flurry of foreign words and phrases that are strewn about. In order to get the best value for your dollar and a new computer that suits your needs, you should know what everything means.
RAM/Memory RAM or Memory is the hardware a computer uses to manage the programs you are currently running, the files you are currently using and so on. The capacity of a computer’s memory is currently measured in megabytes and gigabytes; the more the better.
CPU/Processor The CPU/processor is the programmable logic device that performs all the instruction, logic, and mathematical processing in a computer [Google Web Definitions]. Increasing the speed of a processor decreases the amount of time it takes for a computer to complete its tasks. CPU speed is currently measured in GHz, which stands for gigahertz. If you shop around different models and different manufacturers, you will notice that similar model PCs usually all have speeds that fall into the same ballpark.
Hard Drive A hard drive is the storage volume that is home to all of your files. Anything that you save to your computer gets stored on the hard drive – documents, movies, music, e-mail and more. Hard drive capacity is currently measured in gigabytes.
USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a type of port used for connecting external devices to a computer. Examples of devices that use USB ports are digital cameras, printers, portable hard drives and thumb/keychain drives. Lately, many computer manufacturers are switching keyboards and mice to USB ports as well. If you plan on using peripheral devices frequently, get a computer that has USB ports in the front as well as the back for easy access.
Network Card Network cards allow a computer to connect to the Internet (or any other network) through a standard networking cable.
WiFi Short for wireless fidelity, a WiFi-enabled computer can take advantage of wireless Internet access.
Modem A modem allows a computer to connect to the Internet (or any other network) by dialing up an access provider over traditional phone lines.
Optical Drives Optical drives are CD and DVD drives. In addition to reading these discs, some drives can also record and rewrite (record more than once) them.
Tip: pay careful attention to how an optical drive is labeled. At first glance, you may think that a DVD/CD-RW drive can read and record by CDs and DVDs; not true. Such a drive will record and rewrite CDs, but will only read DVDs. A DVD-R/CD-RW drive on the other hand will read and write both DVD and CDs, as well as rewrite CDs.
Dual Layer DVD Dual Layer DVD writers are able to record dual layer DVD discs that hold nearly twice the amount of data that traditional recordable DVDs are able to store.
SuperDrive SuperDrive is Apple’s term for an optical drive that can read and record both CDs and DVDs.
Video/Graphics Cards and Sound Cards This is hardware that, obviously, control a computer’s audio and video output. Most manufacturers pre-package an adequate audio and video card with each model system they sell. If you intend to do some intenstive gaming or audio/video editing you are going to want more power in this area. In this case you’d need to do more research into different cards, which is beyond the scope of this article.
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a wireless technology that enables your computer to pair up with any other bluetooth device. If a computer supports bluetooth, it can be used with a wireless (bluetooth-enabled) mouse and keyboard. Examples of other devices that support bluetooth are headsets, PDAs and certain cell phones.
Optical Mouse Optical mice work in the same manner as traditional mice, the difference being that an optical mouse has an infrared sensor in place of the traditional mouse ball. We consider optical mice superior because their pointing is much more accurate and they don’t have any moving parts that collect dust. There are also cordless mice, which require batteries unless they come with a charger.
DVI DVI stands for Digital Video Interface and is type of connection used to maximize the quality of flat-panel LCD displays.
CRT CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube and is the context of a computer, usually refers to older-style desktop monitors (non flat-screen).
LCD LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and is the technology that most flat-screen computer monitors operate on.
Units of Measurement
Computers operate on the binary number system, with the bit being the atomic unit of measurement. A bit is binary in the sense that it has two possible values: 0 or 1, on or off, true or false, and so on.
- 1 byte = 8 bits
- 1 kilobyte (kb) = 1024 bytes (210)
- 1 megabyte (mb) = 1024 kilobytes (220)
- 1 gigabyte (gb) = 1024 megabytes (230)
- 1 terabyte (tb) = 1024 gigabytes (240)
- 1 petabyte (pb) = 1024 terabytes (250)
- And the list goes on …
Examples of storage capacity
| 1 Kilobyte | 1 Megabyte | 1 Gigabyte | 1 Terabyte | |
| MP3 file (5 mb) | 0 | 0 | 204 | 209,715 |
| Word Doc (50 kb) | 0 | 20 | 20,971 | 21,474,836 |
| Digital Photo (2 mb) | 0 | 0 | 512 | 524,288 |
* Examples based on hypothetical file sizes. Actual capacity will vary.
[tags]technology,vocabulary[/tags]
