As the holidays approach, you may be thinking about getting a new computer for yourself or your family. Of course, choosing a computer that gives you the most "bang for the buck" is always the tricky part, especially with all of the technical terms that are being used today.
So, just for fun and education, let's take a look at the terminology, explained in "non-geek" terms for you. I have gone to a popular computer retailer and selected a system, and will now break down each piece and explain what it is and does.
Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L2 Cache, 2.66 GhZ)
It’s hard to keep track of all the processors out there today. The i7 is the codename for Intel’s 7th installment of the Intel Pentium processor. All of the i7’s are “Quad-Core” processors (as compared to dual-core processors). This means that there are 4 whole Pentium 4 processors on a single chip, running at 2.66 GhZ (Giga-Hertz). A GhZ is 1 billion cycles per second… so 2.66 GhZ would be 2.66 Billion cycles per second. The cycles per second refers to how fast the internal clock on the CPU is running. The more cycles per second, the faster the processor. Or, in this case, the faster the four processors on the chip. The 8M of L2 (Layer 2) cache is high-speed RAM that is on the processor chip itself. This “stores” results of its calculations until the rest of the computer is ready to use them. This frees up the processor to do the next calculation. (The processor is always going to be the fastest part of the computer, so a cache on the processor makes the total throughput faster)
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
Windows Vista is Microsoft’s latest operating system. Although it did have some issues when it first came out, since Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1), it has stabilized considerably. While vista does have some initial annoyances (like constantly popping up a window to ask you if you want to install something), that same popup will also stop you from accidentally installing software that you DON’T want, such as toolbars and adware. Of course, it won’t prevent you from installing things, but at least it will make sure first.
The difference between 64-bit and 32-bit Vista is essentially how much memory, or RAM, it can address. 32-bit vista is not going to handle more than 3GB (Gigabytes) of ram. We’ll discuss RAM shortly.
6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz – 6 DIMMs
Wow… is that even English? Let’s break it down. 6GB is the amount of ram… in this case, 6 Giga-Bytes, or 6000 MegaBytes. Tri-Channel DDR3 means that the physical memory sticks are grouped, so that the information can be spanned across multiple physical memory modules, then read back faster. Kind of like having 3 runners in 3 tracks, running side by side; they all get to the destination at the same time, instead of having 3 runners in a single track, so they have to run single-file. The 1066MHz refers to the BUS SPEED of the memory. The bus speed should be as fast as the motherboard of the computer can handle. This is also referred to as FSB, or Front-Side bus. If the RAM speed is slower than the FSB speed of the motherboard, it becomes a bottleneck and you’re not getting all of the performance that your computer can give you.
640GB – 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
This refers to the hard drive. 640GB total storage capacity. 7200 RPM is the speed at which the hard drive spins. The faster it spins, the more often the data that the computer is looking for will be in position to be read. SATA 3.0Gb/s means that it is a SATA-2 drive. SATA stands for “Serial Advanced Technology Attachment”, and what it means is this. Hard drives used to be PATA, or Parallel, meaning that the information came over a couple of bytes at a time. Well, the data gets read by the hard drive one bit at a time, and the hard drive’s internal circuitry (IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics) had to store those bits, then send them all across at once (either 8, 16, or 24 at a time). This caused a lag for that processing. Someone said “Hey, we could get the data to the computer FASTER if we didn’t have that processing going on”, so along comes SATA, or Serial ATA. This allows for faster data transfer from the hard drive to the computer, because the step of turning it from serial data to parallel data is eliminated. You would think that parallel data would be faster, just like with the RAM (and people running on multiple tracks), but the overhead of converting it slowed the process down. PATA drives could only do a maximum of 300MB/s (Megabytes per second), whereas SATA-2 (the drive listed) can transfer up to 3Gb/s (Gigabytes per second).
Optical Drive – 16x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW – DL)
This is your DVD Drive. A couple of important things to look at here; this is a burner, which allows you to record DVD’s and CD’s. You don’t need both; a DVD burner will record CDs as well. However, the DVD+/-RW DL is important. The +/- means that it will burn BOTH DVD Plus and DVD Minus DVD’s. There are two different formats out there, as you have probably noticed if you have shopped for blank DVD’s. This drive will record either of them. The DL means “Dual Layer”, meaning that you can record Dual-Layer (8.5 GB) DVDs as well as regular 4.7GB DVDs. The RW means that it will also record to ReWritable media (CD or DVD).
Video Card – 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450
If you are a gamer, 256MB of video memory is going to be the bare minimum that you want for your video card. Also, avoid systems that say “Integrated Video” or “Shared Video Memory”. ATI and NVidia are two very popular brands of video card manufacturers. Your better video cards will have additional processor(s) on them for doing just graphics processing. This will make a huge difference if you play games, because the graphics information can be sent to the video card for processing. 3-D games today use “Rendering” (much like the movie “Shrek”), and information is sent in the form of polygons (triangles) to the video card, then a texture is applied to the polygons, wrapping the shape in the “skin”. This takes a lot of processing power. It’s always a good idea to research the video card that will come with your system to see what it does, and if it will be sufficient for what you want to do. If you’re just doing spreadsheets and word processing, the 3-D engine won’t be used much. However, Vista does do a lot of graphics processing if you have all of the effects (Like Vista Aero) turned on.
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
7.1 means “Dolby® Surround Sound”. It essentially means that the computer will support up to 7 speakers and 1 sub-woofer (for that rumbling bass). You don’t have to use 8 speakers; you can still use 2 (Stereo), 2.1 (Stereo plus subwoofer), 3.1 (Left, center, right, and subwoofer), or 5.1 (Left, center, right, left rear, right rear, and subwoofer). This system will, however, support up to 7.1 (Left, center, right, left side, right side, left rear, right rear, and subwoofer) for fully immersive audio for games that support it.
Integrated 10/1000 Ethernet
This is the network adapter. This allows for connection to your high-speed Internet connection (DSL, Cable, Satellite Internet). The 10/1000 means that it will talk to the network at 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s, or 1000Mb/s (also known as Gigabit Ethernet). If your home network supports Gigabit (mine does), then this will give you the maximum available throughput to your other network devices, including other computers, servers, printers, and Internet.
Software
Many computers are coming with “Trial” versions of software. This one included Acrobat Reader (a free download), McAfee Security Center with Anti-Virus, anti-spyware, firewall for 15 months (Personally, I use AVG, SpyBot Search and Destroy, Malware-Bytes Anti-Malware, and Windows Firewall, all available free).
I guess what I’m saying about software is…. “It’s nice if they throw it in, but if they don’t, I can get free or very inexpensive software to do the same thing.”
Even Microsoft Office can be “Replaced” by a product called “OpenOffice”. And guess what? It’s free.
The Easy Explanation
When I was teaching computer classes over at the Mesabi Community College, I would explain the parts of the computer like this:
The Processor is what does the work; it sits in the middle of everything else, sorting traffic, making requests, and giving results. It’s the “Brain”
The Hard Drive is like a library. The bigger the library, the more books it can hold.
The RAM is like a chalkboard. When you work on a document, the entire document is copied from the library (hard drive) to the chalkboard. Then you make your changes on the chalkboard, and when you save your work, it’s copied from the chalkboard back into the library. The bigger the chalkboard, the bigger the documents you can work on. Or, you can “split up” the chalkboard and have multiple documents on it at the same time.
Input and Output Input is anything that takes information from the physical world into the computer. Input includes the keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, joystick, touchpad, etc. Output is anything that gives information TO the physical world from the computer. Examples include the monitor, speakers, printer, plotter, etc.
The Bottom Line
This system, with a 23” flat panel monitor, and a 2-year in-home warranty showed up for $1299. I just picked a “higher end” system at random, knowing that there would be a lot to explain. Hopefully you have found this informational.
Greg Baughman is a consultant with nearly 30 years of computer experience. He does everything with computers from hardware and software to programming in several languages. His web site is www.gregbaughman.com