Motherboard: The main board of a computer, usually containing the circuitry, (in a series of chips)
for the central processing unit, keyboard, and monitor and often having slots for accepting additional circuitry. Collectively,
all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard's chipset. It's also referred to as the Mainboard.
CPU: One of the key items to a computer is its speed. Most of the speed (but not all) is linked
to the CPU of the computer (Central Processing Unit). It's what runs your computers programs.
Floppy disk drives: devices that let you insert a magnetic media disk to store
data on. The disks are square plastic and inside is a magnetic flexible disk (hence the term floppy). These type of disks
and drives come in two sizes, 5.25" and 3.5". The 5.25" disks come in a thin flexible plastic form and the 3.5" disks are
encased in a hard plastic. It's very uncommon for the 5.25's to be found if you purchased your computer after the year
2000.
Megahertz: This term means millions of cycles per second. The more cycles per second the faster the
computer.
RAM (Random Access Memory - just a term used to describe the memory
Memory: (Obvious) is measured in K (abbreviation for KB or Kilobytes) and MB (Megabytes). K
stands for 1024 bytes. 1MB is equivalent to 1024K. Most computer systems now a days should come with a minimum of 8MB
Cache Memory: (pronounced "cash") memory should not be confused with your RAM memory. Cache memory
is very high speed memory either Internal (built into the CPU) or External (located on the motherboard). This high speed memory
can let you increase the speed at which the CPU is able to run your programs, it is kind of a buffer between your RAM memory
and your CPU. Pentium/P5 CPU's come with Cache memory. It's a bonus for extra speed and extra memory...but you'll pay
for it!
Modem: a device that allow you to transmit
data to/from your computer over a regular phone line. Modems can let you access a world wide network of data.
Hard Drive : This is the term used for where your files and documents are stored in
the computer. Hard drives are measured by size in MB (Megabytes) and speed (average seek time) in ms (milliseconds)
and transfer rate in K (Kilobytes) or MB per second. The higher the size is in MB the more data and applications you can store
on your drive. As a standard minimum, I would recommend at least a 500MB hard disk drive.
WATCH OUT:
When buying hard drives watch out for sales material that says something like 500MB stacked or 500MB doublespaced, what this
means is they are showing you how much data could be stored on the drive with software compression technology, the drive in
MB's is actually half of what they are advertising!
ABOUT PRINTERS
Dot Matrix Printers: usually come in two varieties 9pin or 24pin. The #
of pins refers to little metal pins on the print head that press into the ribbon to form characters. 24pin printers generally
produce higher quality output than a 9pin printer. Print speed can range from 80 characters per second to 300 or more characters
per second. Typically dot matrix printers are useful for printing on multiple (carbon type) pre-printed forms. There is usually
a rating of how many part forms the printer can work with successfully.
Ink Jet Printers: Inkjet printers do exactly what their name implies, squirt ink on
to the paper to form characters. This makes them very quiet printers when compared to dot matrix printers.
Inkjets can be a little on the slow side, but quality can vary from 200 to 300 (or more) dots per inch. This quality can come
close to laser quality. While quality is generally good on inkjet printers, some paper used with the printer may let
the ink blur on the page. It is recommended to use a high quality paper recommended by the manufacturer.
Bubble Jet Printers: Bubble jet printers are very similar to Inkjet
printers they just use a slightly different method of getting the ink on to the paper (bubbling it on!). Bubblejet printers
are also generally quiet and range from 200 to 720 (or more) dots per inch. The quality of print can come close to laser quality.
While quality is generally good on bubble jet printers, some paper used with the printer may let the ink blur on the page.
Thermal Printers: Thermal printers print onto thermal fax like roll paper. They
are generally very quiet. Unfortunately thermal printers are usually rather slow and the print quality is only fair to good.
The best use for thermal printing currently is for Dye-sublimation color printers, these are the best of the
color printers but are very expensive at present.
Laser Printers: Laser printers are the fastest of printers with the
best quality of print. Laser printers are generally quiet but can be on the noisy side sometimes with the larger printers.
Print quality usually ranges from 300 to 1200 dots per inch. Performance usually ranges from 4 pages per minute to 12 pages
or more per minute.
Printer Recommendations:
If you just want a printer for personal use, money is a concern, and you don't plan on doing any special printing, I
recommend an inexpensive inkjet or bubblejet printer. Inkjets and bublejets are also good if you want to do inexpensive color
printing.
If your print needs require you to deal with tractor feed or multipart forms then a dot matrix printer is
what you need.
If you like or need a higher print quality and speed then laser printers are your answer. If you can afford
one, get one.
About Scanners:
There are an interesting variety of scanners just like there are printers. The key factors in buying a scanner
will be decided by it's intended purpose. Most scanners now a days will come with software packages that let you scan and
edit the images you scan. Some provide additional features like fax and copier capabilities. Color scanners can come in many
varieties. You really want a color scanner hat can provide 24 bit color scans. The number of bits is a way of stating how
many colors the scanner supports. Twenty four bits color is often called "true color". Twenty four bit color is really two
to the twenty fourth power, in other words over 16 million colors. This is plenty of color to render even the most amazing
picture. Some scanners may even go up to 32 bit color.
One more thing you want to ask about color scanner is if it is a single pass or multiple pass scan. Some scanners make
3 passes to gather the colors of the item being scanned. This process is fine but it is a little on the slow side. One pass
is better speed wise. One pass scanners tend to be priced a little higher.
IN CONCLUSION:
Before knowing what you need to buy, you must know what you want it to do. Decide if you want to use it for
business, personal use or both. Decide what functions you will need to perform. If you were going to do a lot of accounting
you might want to find a software package that you might plan on using before you buy the computer and make sure what you
buy will run it. If you want to do word processing you might find a good word processing package and find out what it needs
to run, etc. Based on what you plan to do with the system can change decisions on what you need to buy. If you need letter
quality printing you might purchase a laser printer with your computer. If you needed to do desktop publishing you might get
more memory and a larger monitor and hard drive. If you want to access on-line services and get on the information highway
you will need a modem. You should try to buy the highest power system as you can reasonably afford, as machine power is fleeting
and software progresses and requires more horsepower to run it. Today's top of the line system will be next years mid-level
or base level system. On average a top of the line system remains in the mainstream approximately 3 years or less. Yes this
does seem like a short period of time for a computer to be useful, for the amount of money you pay. This is why buying the
highest power system you can "reasonably afford" is important, if you plan to make a computer a useful part of your life for
at least a few years to come. So, get an idea of how much you can spend and figure out if you can get what you need to do
the job within you're budget.
