TechDish: Back to Basics with System Components

Posted on: Fri, 12/02/2011 - 12:14 — us104_techdish

It's the day after our big Holiday Open House and we've learned a few things from questions we fielded from customers who came into the store yesterday. In today's weekly installment of TechDish, we're going back to the basics and talking system specs!

But first, a reminder: We've got a brand new lineup of laptop and desktop systems in the store for this holiday season; and also, a brand new line of tablet PCs for you to check out!

If you're looking to buy a new system this year, or you're just wanting to know a little bit more about what your system contains and why it runs the way it does, this information is for you. And as always, if you ever need more information, we'd love to talk details with you, specific to your needs here in the store. Feel free to stop in any time!

Components in your computer

The three basic components we'll be covering:

• Processor
• RAM
• Hard drive

Processor: the wheels that spin

Your processor is the gears that turn to make things happen in your computer. Handling everything from system startup to program launches and functions, the processor pulls information from the hard drive, processes it, and puts it into the volatile (RAM) memory as necessary. One of the major factors in the performance speed of your computer, the processor could be considered the sprinter of these three components—its job is to run and grab, run and place, run run run and cart information to various places on your computer.

So, the faster the clock speed (measured in GHz these days), the more cores, the faster and beefier the processing power you'll have! Barring any complications due to a shortage of RAM or hard drive space, the processor is the main component figuring in to how "zippy" your computer is.

RAM: space for working

Every piece of software you run on your computer—be it the operating system, driver software for things like your printer; or production software like Microsoft Office—uses RAM while it is running.

Think of RAM as your thanksgiving plate. You throw on some turkey (Operating System), gravy (drivers and peripherals), mashed potatoes (programs that run at startup). Now if you start thanksgiving with a small plate (less RAM), you only have room for maybe one or two more things after the necessary staples are loaded. Now, if you have a large plate (more RAM), you'll have room for plenty of grean bean casserole (Internet Browsers), sweet potatoes (Microsoft Office), cranberry sauce (antivirus) to all share the plate at the same time. With a small plate (less RAM), you'll have to eat one thing before you can move on to the next.

the bottom line is this: sure, you can use a computer system with less RAM in it. And, you may be a user that doesn't like having more than one application open at the same time, so having more RAM would be overkill and unnecessary. Then there's others (myself included) who, like our thanksgiving plates, heap things on, filling every inch of real estate and even adding a second and third layer because we feel the calling of the multitasker. And for us, there's RAM upgrades!

Hard Drive: vault and backbone

The hard drive is your storage facility for everything on your computer. While it is also used to store your documents, photos, videos, music, etc; the hard drive also houses the files necessary for your operating system, your drivers and all software that's installed on the computer. Your total hard drive capacity, minus the overhead for installed software, equals remaining free disk space for you to fill to your heart's content with personal documents, favorite music and family photos.

However. We recommend keeping a minimum of 20% free space on your hard drive. One thing to keep in mind is that your operating system needs to utilize a certain amount of your hard drive space for temportary storage. This is used anytime new software is installed, whenever you browse the internet, when you check your email, or even while playing some games. In extreme cases where you have maxed out your RAM, your system reserves space on your hard drive to create virtual memory—another reason you want to leave some breathing room on that hard drive.