This is whre i post things that are related to computers.
Computer Related Stuff
How Computers Work
Today, I shall explain how computers work. There are 8 main parts in a computer and these are: Case, PSU, Ram, Hard drive, motherboard, optical drives, CPU and cooling.
The case: The case is where the motherboard, hard disks some fans, optical drives and PSU go. The Motherboard is held in with 6-8 screws (6 for m-ATX and 8 for ATX). The case has to be strong otherwise it leaves the components open to damage.
The PSU: The PSU or Power Supply Unit also mounts in the case and is held in by four screws. All PSU’s are different. They differ from wattage, CPU Power pins, and motherboard power pins. For the CPU power there are 4 or 8 pins. (8 for extreme editions or K series and 4 for standard). And there is 20 and 24-pin Motherboard connector. Most modern motherboards use 24-pin so that isn’t really a problem.
Ram: Ram or Random Access Memory is fitted onto the motherboard. There are 3 types of Ram, These are: DDR, DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 is the most modern, is the fastest and also is the cheapest to buy. A Motherboard only supports one of these though. The more Ram you have the faster your computer will be.
Hard Drive: The hard drive is where the computer saves all of the downloads, Operating system, your personal files and anything else you save. The more Gigabytes or GB you have the more data you can save. There are two different types of hard drive, SSD or solid state drive and HDD or hard disk drive. (Will be explained in a future post) Your hard drive uses a connection called SATA or Serial ATA. SSD’s have no moving parts so are faster in data access than HDD’s.
Motherboard: The motherboard is where all of the devices connect to one way or another, either by a cable or by being sat on the motherboard i.e. Ram. There are many brands of motherboard like ASUS, Gigabyte and ASrock etc… Without it, your PC wont even POST as it can’t do anything.
Optical Drives: Optical drives are for reading/burning data to a type of optical media i.e. CD. The drives are quite cheap to pick up so if your needing one it wound set you back more that £30.
CPU: The CPU or processor is what the computer uses to process your commands. The faster your CPU runs at, the quicker your PC will be. CPU speed is measured in GHZ. Another ting with processors it the amount of cores it has. For example a dual fore CPU has 2 processors on 1 chip.
Intel has thing called ‘Hyper Threading’. What it does is make a PC think the CPU has x2 as many cores as it has, making it run faster.
IDE or SATA?
There are two types of connecting a Hard disk and optical drives. These different connections do the same job but at a different speed. IDE is the old way of connecting these devices. IDE has a transfer rate of up-to 150MBP/s which sounds fast butt isn’t that fast. SATA however, has a DATA rate of up-to 6GBP/s, which is very fast indeed. SATA is found on all modern SSD’s, HDD’s and optical drives. Because SATA is so fast, It has made IDE extinct in modern Computers (2007 and onwards). There is also the type of hard drive SSD or HDD. SSD’s have no moving parts, instead they sore data like a USB stick, Making them very strong. The downside to SSD’s is that the have a small Read/write cycles, it has 100,000 which is a very small amount. So, SATA is the better interface to go for.
SSD Or HDD
The main difference between and SSD or solid-state drive is the layout. SSD’s store their data on memory chips, like a USB stick and standard hard drives store data an a magnetic platter which has to spin up to speed for it to access it.
SSD’s are much faster than Hard drives because they have no moving parts. Hard drives have a spinning platter so it is slower to find the bits of data. But because of the speed they are very expensive. A 128GB one will cost you £167! So if I were you I would but a cheap SSD and use it fore your Operating system and programs only, and use a HDD for your data.
Thats all for now, check back soon for more Content!
USB2 or USB3?
Hello again, today I am going to explain the difference between USB 3 And USb 2.
So, to start, what is USB and what does it mean?
USB stands for ‘’Universal Serial Bus’’. USB is the standard method for connecting removable Storage devises and things like printers, mice and keyboards.
The U in USB means universal as all computers have USB, so buy a Mouse, plug it in, wait for drivers to load and it works.
Now we know what USB is, what do we use it for?
We can use USB for connecting a multitude of devices. LOTS of things use USB, Memory Sticks, External Hard Drives, you name it. The way we use it is pretty much limitless. Just connect one device and then connect the other end of the cable theh computer.
What about USB 3 and USB 2?
Right, so the difference between USB 2 and USB 3 is Data Transfer Speed.
The Transfer speed of USB 2 is 480Mbps (Megabits Per Second) It sounds fast but is really, pretty slow when compared to USB 3. There are a few things USB 2 has in its favor, Not all devices like mice and keyboards require it, its cheaper than USB 3, and not all computers come fitted with USB 3, making USB 2 more universal. Now we shall talk about USB 3. USB 3 is a lot more expensive than USB 2, but has a much higher Transfer speed of up to a large 10GBps (Gigabits per Second). Now that is fast, a hell of a lot faster than USB 2, The only real downside is price and compatibility. But if you can afford it, and your computer can support it, then go ahead and use USB 3 :D