Thought I'd spread some knowlege around, because jusging by recent threads some of yous need it :D
things geeks say translated to Engerlish: (feel free to add)
Items marked ** are not remotely important to know, but you will hear them if in the presence of 1 or more geeks.
Motherboard: ruddy great circuit board that everything plugs into, the flesh,veins and nerves you might say.
CPU/Processor: The "brain", essentially a very fast abacus. ALL it can do, is add 1's and 0's (all multiplying, dividing and subtracting is "bluffed"), very VERY fast. a 1MHz CPU can do 1 million sums a second, though it must also write it's answers down and find the next sum to do, so it never quite reaches this. however modern processors do 2 instructions per "tick" so a 1MHZ one could do 2million things a second. A 1GHz CPU is 1000 times faster, performing 2billion things a second. A 1THz (one terrahertz) would do 2000billion, and will probably be minimum spec for the next version of windows. Faster=better
Dual core: Two processors sandwiched together to give double(ish) performance. Some programs can only use one core at a time, so the performance isn't THAT much better, but you still have the other core their doing fuck all so it's available to do all the computer's housekeeping, so that doesn't bother the things you are running, so there is still an advantage.
32bit/64bit: All you need to know is that 32bit processors can only access 3.2 GB of memory in windows, and 64bit ones can access $STUPID_AMOUNT. There are not many 64bit applications that use the extra mathematical capacity for performance purposes, so essentially the memory issue is the only one that matters just now.
**FSB: Front Side Bus, fucking STUPID name. The Steve Morris, it is a measure of the pulse of the motherboard's clock. The clock pounds away at a certain speed, and all the other gubbins base their timings on that pulse. Faster=better
**Clocks and multipliers: The FSB is the Morris, but there are many musicians with their own rhythms inside a PC. Many components have a "clock speed", their own natural rhythm. Just like in a band, these timings are take from the main pulse. The final speeds are derived using "multipliers". Eg. My current machine has an FSB of 200MHz, and a CPU of 2.8GHz, so the CPU is using a multiplier of 14. My memory is 800MHz, so it uses a multiplier of 4 (though you will never see it refered to)
RAM: Random Acces Memory, "thinking memory". It's FAST, and when things are being done using only RAM, they happen a lot faster than if a disc is involved. More=better. 1GB is really good for XP, 2 is great
Hard Disc: "long term memory", much slower than RAM, but much cheaper, hence the massive sizes compared to RAM, it also keeps things when switched off. When RAM is low, things are always having to be read, dumped and then read again the next time they are needed, AND windows uses what it calls a "pagefile" on your harddisc as extra "virtual memory", if this is getting used a lot, your machine will "thrash" the drive with constant activity and it will respond like it's swimming through treacle. Bigger=better, but only if your old one is full. I will cover types of drive in another post, as there are faster and slower sorts.
VideoCard: a simple video card, is just that, a card that makes the picture and shows it on your monitor. A complex one, will have a "GPU" (Graphics processing unit) and it's own onboard RAM (usually faster than your sytem's memory), and is essentially a very small, very fast computer in it's own right. It's whole layout though is entirely geared towards drawing 3d images. When a program wants a big blue ball of light, it can either use the CPU to calculate it using usual and normal techniques, and draw it one dot at a time, OR it can just phone up the video card and say "big blue ball of light, over there, doing 20MPH, thanks", and get one with something else. ATi cards are fast but have poor image quality in my experience. Nvidia's have been much more friendly to me. If buying an Nvidia, pay attention to the last 3 digits of the model numeber. A 5800 will hammer the much newer 7200, the first number shows it's modernity and up to dateness, but the other 3 show it's position in the range. *600's and *800's are the ones you want if you play games.
I will post more some time, but I've talked enough shite for now.
ated Ste.
.............sounds familiar
i thought this was going to be funny.
