A Definitive Guide on How to Choose Your New PC
There are lots of PC buying guides out there but they're often too high level and only explain the very simplest of specification details and the minute a sales rep gives you other options you're lost. This guide is aimed at the novice to moderately experienced PC user. More ...
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 ...
Understanding Your PC's CPU Clock Speed and Front Side Bus
The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brains of any computer and the two major manufacturers are Intel and AMD or Advanced Micro Devices. For many years Intel CPUs were found in nearly all PCs. And now the Intel is found in most systems but the newer Athlon class CPU from AMD have taken a large chunk of the CPU market. 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 Hard Disk Drive vs. The Solid State Disk
Much has been written about solid state disks (SSDs) becoming the next big thing1 in the IT industry. But as to whether or not we have enough knowledge of how it will revolutionize the industry is a different question. How much do we really know about SSDs? More ...
Introduction to Operating Systems
An operating system is software that acts as an intermediary between a computer user and the computer's applications and hardware. An operating system can be viewed as a resource allocator. Resources might be CPU time, memory space, file storage space, and input/output (I/O) devices. More ...
Motherboard Basics
A motherboard, also known as a main board, is the primary circuit board inside of a computer, and is where the central processing unit (CPU), memory, expansion slots, drives, and other peripheral devices are connected. More ...
PC Technician Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA A+ Skills
Hit the ground running with the street-smart training you'll find in this practical book. Using a 'year in the life' approach, it gives you an inside look at the common responsibilities of PC Technicians, with key information organized around the actual day-to-day tasks, scenarios, and challenges you'll face in the field. More ...
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
Today's computers use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) displays. LCDs are a digital device. It makes little sense to convert the digital image data to analog just to convert it back to digital to display on the LCD. To avoid this double conversion, the DVI (Digital Video Interface) standard was developed. 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 ...
IEEE-1394 FireWire
IEEE 1394 FireWire is a serial bus designed by Apple Computer as a replacement for legacy interfaces like serial ports, parallel ports, and SCSI. Article updated for IEEE 1394a FireWire 400 and IEEE 1394b FireWire 800. More ...
The Master Boot Record (MBR)
The Master Boot Record, created when you create the first partition on the hard disk, is probably the most important data structure on the disk. It is the first sector on every disk. The location is always track (cylinder) 0, side (head) 0, and sector 1. More ...
Power and Your PC
The power coming into a computer is the most critical component, and it may be one of the most overlooked. It is just taken for granted that it will always be there and working properly. 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 ...
