Solid State Drive (SSD) Basics
Why is a hard disk drive so slow compared to a solid state drive and why don't they just get rid of the hard disk drive, and store everything in solid state memory? Since 2006 computer manufacturers have been producing Solid State drive based PCs. More ...
PC Sound Circuitry
Actual physical sound is an analog phenomenon while the computer is digital. To output a sound stored on a computer disk to a speaker the sound circuit uses a digital-to-analog converter. Sound input to the computer for recording uses an analog-to-digital converter. So PC sound circuitry is primarily an AD/DA-converter or a "coder/decoder", usually shortened to "codec". More ...
An Overview of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Fabrication Process
PCBs are fabricated with the use of two types of software. Computer Aided Design (CAD) software is used to design the electronic schematic of the circuit. Then Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software is used to produce the PCB design. More ...
Build Your Own Computer
Before you begin make sure you have all the tools you need and a clean space to work. Make sure you have all required tools and materials. Unpack the materials once package at a time and inspect them to make sure they are not broke or defective. More ...
How is Data Written, Stored On, and Erased From Hard Disks?
Inside your hard disk is a stack of one or more optically perfect platters where data is stored magnetically. When the drive is originally formatted, it is laid out in a pattern of concentric circles (cylinders) and wedges (sectors). More ...
Hard Drives - ATA versus SATA
with data rates hitting the 133MB / sec mark the parallel ATA standard is maxing out, thus industry leaders got together and came up with a new standard known as Serial ATA (SATA). More ...
Plug and Play Resource Allocation
Early PCs used a bus called Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). ISA devices cannot share resources, each ISA device must have its own IRQ. In 1993, Microsoft and Intel developed Plug and Play (PnP) to solve this problem. More ...
PC Keyboards
Today, there are many keyboard variations. Some keyboards have an integrated pointing device such as a trackball. Ergonomic keyboards are designed to be more comfortable for the hands and wrists. Regards of the variations, all keyboards, except those on notebook computers, follow the 105-key standard. More ...
Understanding Your Motherboard
Understanding your motherboard is about pointing out what the bits of your motherboard actually do, if you are not used to building or upgrading your own machine you will want to know the ins and outs of the motherboard. More ...
CompTIA A+ Training Kit - Safety Issues
When working on computers it's important to pay attention to safety considerations. CompTIA A+ Training Kit teaches computer safety issues as required for CompTIA A+ certification. More ...
SDRAM Types: DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4
With computer memory modules, DDR stands for Double Data Rate because it performs two transfers per clock cycle, the number after DDR specifies other characteristics like latency, speed, and voltage. More ...
Device Driver Basics
In this article, I'm going to reveal in plain English what a driver is, why we need drivers, and exactly where the drivers are hiding. To give you a basic understanding, I'm going to go back, way back, to the early days of computers. More ...
The Computers Back Connector Panel
So although the computer's back panel appears to be a complicated mess, each connector has a specific shape, number and pins, and polarity key that allows only the proper cable to be plugged in. If you get a nice comfortable feeling like your not smashing pins when you plug a cable in, then you can feel secure that nothing will blow up. More ...
Video - How to Buy a Motherboard
In this video James, computer hardware training coordinator for Interconnection, shows you how to buy a motherboard. There are a few things you want to keep in mind when buying a motherboard, like Will the motherboard support 64-bit processors? More ...
