Mouse and keyboard
Like monitors, these two PC peripherals haven't changed that much. The keyboard is used much like your grandfather's typewriter, to send text, whether to be written as a document or as an order to the CPU telling it to do something. The mouse functions as a pointer, so you can select things and manipulate them. If you're new to PCs, be sure to check the tutorial and manual that came with your PC and copy of Windows. They will show you what functions you can call and use with the mouse and keyboard.The significant changes concerning the mouse are the use of optical sensors (instead of the old ball tracking sensors) and cordless (radio) communications. With optical sensors, you don't need to clean the sensors of your mouse periodically, although you still have to clean the underside of your mouse and the surface you use the mouse on. As for cordless mouse (and keyboard), I personally don't like them that much. Sure, you won't get those cables tangled up and you'll be able to keep your desk clean and tidy. But you still have to change batteries every now and then, and the mouse will be a little heavier because of the batteries. In the end, if you really want that cordless freedom, you can have it - it's just not free.
Almost all mouse now comes with a scroll button. While they're not an essential feature, they do make your life easier. Instead of moving the slider on the right or pressing the arrow buttons, you could scroll the mouse wheel. There are even some that provides horizontal scrolling as well. In general, use an optical cordless mouse with at least a vertical scroll wheel since they don't need much maintenance, easy to use and is very easy on your hands.
Several keyboards come with additional buttons, allowing you to set the volume level, call up applications or even turn off the computer. But the most important thing for a keyboard is ergonomics and fine tactile feedback. Most keyboards are ergonomically design these days, but not all of them provide good tactile feedback. When you press a button on a keyboard, it shouldn't take much more than a light tap. A small indent on the 'F' and 'J' keys can also help you place your hands correctly when typing without looking at the keyboard. Pay attention to these features since they will allow you to use your keyboard better.
CPU
Okay, we're finally here. Your CPU houses the processor(s), memory, motherboard, graphics card, sound card, network card, hard drive(s) and CD/DVD-ROM. Quite a lot, huh? This is where the important parts of a PC does what it does best - computes and runs the task you tell it to do (with the mouse and keyboard) and then shows it on the screen (on your monitor). When you power up your PC (this process is called booting up), all these components start to work. The processor will retrieve the operating system from your hard drive and loads it in memory. It will take some time for the operating system to be fully loaded and ready for your commands. When it's done, you'll be able to issue commands to it, either through a command prompt (remember DOS?) or a graphical user interface (usually Windows). It sends what to display (the command prompt or the Windows desktop) through the graphics card to the monitor. The same thing happens with sound, only the PC sends it through the sound card to your speakers. All these components are connected (or integrated) through the motherboard. That's easy enough, wasn't it?To do all those neat tasks with your PC, you'll need applications - the operating system is just an environment. Just a manager really, one that provides you tools to manage your documents and applications. Operating system and applications are usually already preinstalled if you bought your PC as a package. If you're doing (building) it yourself, you will have to get your own copy.
Now, let's break it down into a list, so we could see it better. A CPU houses:
* processor to compute and run tasks
* hard drive to store documents, files, operating system and applications
* memory to load the operating system and the needed data for computation and tasks
* graphics card to display the screen in your monitor
* sound card to output sounds and music
* motherboard to connect all these components
Now, let's take a closer look at them. The processor is the one that computes and runs task (either from the operating system or application), so to be able to run an application faster, naturally you'll need a faster processor. Of course, it the processor is faster, you'll probably need to feed it more data and this means more memory. Remember, data is not stored in memory (it's only loaded there for processing), they are actually stored on your hard drive. If you have lots of documents and files and their size is quite large, you'll probably need a bigger one. Size isn't everything though, since you'll not only need a bigger hard drive, but also a faster one. If you're a gamer or planning to use your PC for games, you'll notice that games are now more graphically rich than ever - they use lots of graphical effects and displays everything in 3D, which means you need a 3D graphics accelerator (that also doubles as a graphics card) to be able to display them. OK, this is starting to get complicated, so let's break it down into a list (again).
Components in the CPU that will make a PC run better/faster:
* faster processor to compute and run tasks faster
* more memory to load the operating system and larger data
* graphics card / 3D accelerator to display images and play games
* bigger, faster hard drive to store large documents, files and to load operating system and applications faster
So, if we want the PC to run tasks and applications faster, we only need a faster processor and more memory. If we want operating system, applications, documents and files to be loaded faster, we just need a faster hard drive. Also, we only need a graphics card with a 3D accelerator built in if we want to play games. Using this information, we can choose which part of the PC we want to invest more to suit our needs.
Matching what you need and what to buy
Basically, there are three things we want to do with our PC: work, play (games) and entertainment (multimedia). Notice that we've separated games and multimedia. Games are usually interactive, which means you're required to do something (to interact with the software). Multimedia are usually passive, like listening to music or watching a movie. Playing games and watching a movie usually occupies much of our attention. While we're doing them, we're not doing anything else. Listening to music (or a television/video broadcast) can be done while working or doing something else. As for work, we usually have some idea how much and how heavy our work is. Writing a word processing document and tinkering with a spreadsheet while browsing the Internet and listening to music might sound heavy, but it's still a lot 'lighter' on the processor and memory than doing 3D animation work or non-linear video editing for example.|
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
|
Call of Duty |
3D Hardware Accelerator Card required Pentiumę III 600/700 MHz or Athlonę 600/700 MHz processor 128MB of RAM 8x CD-ROM drive 1.4GB of uncompressed free hard disk space 16-bit sound card mouse, keyboard |
|
|
RealPlayer 10 |
350 MHz Intel Pentium II processor or
equivalent 64/128 MB RAM 52 MB available disk space 28.8Kbps modem 16-bit sound card 65,000-color video display card set to display at 800x600 (video) |
500MHz Intel Pentium III processor or greater 128MB
of RAM High-speed Internet connection (audio/video) Full Duplex sound card 65,000-color video display card set to display at 800x600 or higher (video) CD writer (for CD writing features) 700+ MB available disk space for writing Media and MP3 CDs (not required for audio CDs) DVD player and DVD playback software (for DVD playback) |
|
WinDVD 4 |
Intel Celeron 400 MHz 64 MB RAM Video card with 24-bit resolution capability and DirectX support Windows compatible sound card A DVD-ROM drive 10 MB of hard disc space |
Intel Pentium III 700 MHz 128 MB RAM Video card with 24-bit resolution capability and DirectX support Windows compatible sound card A DVD-ROM drive 10 MB of hard disc space |
|
OpenOffice 1.3 |
Pentium compatible PC 64 MB RAM 250 MB available hard disk space 800x600 resolution or higher, at least 256 colors |
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The easiest way to determine what components you have to buy is matching them with the recommended requirements for the applications / games you want. Most operating systems and applications requirements today have already been surpassed by your basic PC package. So, it is quite enough for office work (word processing / spreadsheet), playing multimedia files (video / music) and browsing the Internet. Now, if we do more 'heavy' work, just choose a faster processor and more memory that fits that application requirements. As a general guideline, a basic PC package with a 2.4 GHz processor (or equivalent) and 512 MB memory is more than enough for Windows XP, office work and multimedia applications. Add a good 3D accelerator / graphics card to that package if you want to play games. For the hard drive, it's a good idea to choose at least a 7.200 rpm hard drive, with capacity starting from 80 GBs to 200 GBs.
Basic PC package
* 2.4 GHz (or equivalent) processor - or basically the cheapest one you can find.
* 512 MB RAM (memory) - Windows XP is really more comfortable with this much RAM, any more wouldn't do much good.
* 80 GBs 7200 rpm hard drive - high performance with enough capacity for your files. You could choose a larger version if you want to.
* graphics card / 3D accelerator for games.
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