Monday, December 21, 2009

A Short Guide To The Insides Of Desktop Pcs

By Andrew Johnson

Desktop PCs are wonderful things. We love them when they work and we hate them when they don't such is our dependence on them. They are so technically complex that most people are baffled by the insides of them, hence the need for an interface that makes them user friendly, This is where the operating system comes in. At the moment the two main operating systems are Microsoft and Macintosh.

Many components make up modern PCS and each one is as important as the other to ensure a fully functioning system. Also any number of them can be easily replaced to improve overall performance.

The processor is the brains of the PC and the most expensive to replace. This is the component that processes the tasks requested by the operating system and the user. The quicker the processor can run the more tasks it can complete and as such the quicker your PC will perform.

The motherboard connects the processor to all the other components of the PC. You can think of it as the switchboard of the PC connecting calls between the different parts. The differences between motherboards is the number of connections it has i. E. How many things you can connect to it and the speed and number of calls it can transfer and connect.

The RAM is like the to-do list for the processor. The tasks are sent from the operating system and placed in the RAM until the processor gets to them. The more RAM you have the greater number of tasks the Processor can be asked to do at the same time.

The hard drive stores all the data that the PC needs. The data is referenced by the operating system so that is can easily access it when required. The cost of hard drives relies mostly on size but the speed at which the data can be retrieved from them is also a factor.

DVD drives are common place now in desktop PCs. They can be used to play music CDs, movies or play games. Currently the fastest speed at which they run is 16x this means that for example it can read 16 seconds of a song in one second.

The PC is a user friendly device and as such has many connections that improve its user functionality. USB connections can be used for a wide variety of devices these days such as connecting mobile phones or pen drives. There are the standard keyboard and mouse connections for connecting wired keyboards and mice. A handy thing about desktop PCs these days is that most of the connections are color coded so they are easy to set-up by ones-self.

Desktop PCs have come down in price dramatically and now it is possible to pick one up for around $350 or even less. Whilst it is easy to pick up a cheap computer now there is still the scope to spend upwards of $5000 on a single system such is the scope for improvement. - 22787

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