Session 2 - More on Hardware

Last week we did an exercise on looking at computer equipment within some defined categories. We then went on to explore what all of the numbers and technical information means when we are looking at the specifications or details of a computer.

This week we will continue to explore some Hardware basics and some of the things to consider when selecting hardware.

Motherboard or Mainboard

The Motherboard or Mainboard is the where everything connects to. It will have a socket for your processor as well as space for RAM and various other connectors for hard drive, USB, optical drive etc. The Motherboard will be specific to a range of processors and so the motherboard decision is guided by your processor decision (or vice versa). It will also be designed for a certain type of RAM.

What does the Motherboard do? This article describes the Function of the Motherboard:


https://www.techwalla.com/articles/what-is-the-function-of-the-computer-motherboard


The following article is a good summary of the items of hardware that relate to your motherboard


http://www.pcquest.com/essential-advice-before-buying-ram-motherboard-cpu-and-other-pc-components/


There are a number of ways to find information about your motherboard without opening up your computer.


http://ccm.net/faq/44026-how-to-identify-your-motherboard-in-windows-10


The following screen dumps are from my desktop computer at home

RAM - Does Size Matter?

The main question here is how much RAM (Random Access Memory) do you get. Today, I think that 4gb is basic and a lot of computer equipment will come with 8gb or more. RAM is installed straight onto the Motherboard and the motherboard will determine the type of RAM that will be use. My current desktop computer has 12gb of RAM. The following article explains the different types of RAM available.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ram3.htm

ACTIVITY 3

How much and which type of RAM does each of your selected computer items from Activity 1 (last week's activity) contain?

Hard Disks

With the Hard disk, it is about size and speed. Most hard disks today are SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), which is the way it connects to the motherboard. A hard disk’s seek time, or how fast it can locate the information, is usually in milliseconds. In this case the lower the seek time the better and faster the drive is. Most hard disk today spin at 7200rpm, which is the rotation speed of the platters.

The amount of storage that a hard drive has is given in Gigabytes (GB) or Terabytes (TB). A Terabyte is rounded to 1000 Gigabytes, but computers talk binary or power of 2 and so 1024 is the standard (2^10) 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2. Rounding to 1000 is definitely easier!

1024 bytes	=	1 KB
1024 KB	=	1 MB
1024 MB	=	1 GB
1024 GB	=	1 TB
1024 TB	=	1 PB

KB	=	Kilobyte
MB	=	Megabyte
GB	=	Gigabyte
TB	=	Terabyte
PB	=	Petabyte

As the price drops and the capacity increases, solid state memory will gradually replace traditional hard drives with moving parts.


Here are the details of the storage within my desktop computer.

ACTIVITY 4

What type of permanent storage or Hard disk is installed in your items from Activity 1. What is the capacity and speed of the Hard Disk(s) or permanent storage device.

Graphics Cards

The right Graphics card is an important decision if you need high-end graphics for gaming, Multimedia, 3D, Video and Digital Imaging. Many computers have graphics available straight from the Motherboard, but if you need more graphic processing grunt, you can add a graphics adapter.

AMD (ATI) Radeon and NVIDEA are the two main Graphics processors available. The number of GPUs, the speed, and the amount of memory on the graphics adapter are all things that need to be considered and compared with the specifications of the software you need to run.

Most graphics cards offer a selection of connector types that you can use to connect your monitor to your graphics card.

What does the graphics cad do?  http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm

Image from http://pixgood.com/video-card-ports.html

Graphics cards buyers guides:

http://www.pcgamer.com/best-gpu-2016/

http://www.144hzmonitors.com/best-graphics-card/

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

So you now know about motherboards, processors and RAM, and you know that the bigger the number, the faster it is, but which one do you purchase. This decision comes down to the types of software or games that you will be using as well as your budget. Big and fast costs bigger bucks.

For example, Here are the minimum hardware requirements for Microsoft Office 2013:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624351.aspx

ACTIVITY 5

What are the minimum and recommended specifications for Microsoft Office 2016?

What are the minimum and recommended specifications for Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 and Premiere Pro CC 2017?

What are the minimum and recommended specifications for Project Cars?

What are the minimum and recommended specifications for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

Would all of your selected computers run these programs?