How to Build a Computer
Branded computers can offer both value and performance, yet parts are often short-spec in one place or another. Sadly you'll often get a performance "bottleneck" such as a slow graphics card, only a basic amount of memory, or a slimline motherboard with too few upgrade slots. Luckily, computers are surprisingly easy to build. 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 ...
External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (eSATA)
Initially all SATA (and PATA) interfaces were for internal hard disks. With the introduction of eSATA, the SATA interface can be used with external storage media. This puts eSATA in competition with Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Firewire. Especially since, like USB and Firewire, eSATA allows hot swapping. 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 ...
General Overview Of Motherboards
Everyone hears the term motherboard and wonders exactly what it is? The motherboard will
contain connection points for your CPU (Central Processing Unit), Hard drive, RAM (Random
Access Memory), Video Card, and Power Supply. More ...
What You Need To Know About Server Memory
DDR is Double Data Rate which is what all memory is now. Since DDR came out it's gone through a few generations DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and now DDR4. These different generations of memory have different peak transfer rates. 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 ...
Understanding The Speed Of New Pci Express Data Bus
PCIe is intended to be used as a local interconnect only. As it is based on the existing
PCI system, cards, and systems can be adapted to PCI Express without any change in
software. The higher speeds on PCIe allow it to replace almost all existing buses. More ...
Hard Disk Drive Basics
On a hard disk, data is stored in thin, concentric bands. A drive head, while in one
position can read or write a circular ring, or band called a track. There can be more
than a thousand tracks on a 3.5-inch hard disk. More ...
MPEG4, H.264, MJPEG Compression for DVR Recording - What's the Difference?
The main objective of Video compression is to have the smallest file size possible while still preserving good video and audio quality. MPEG4, H.264, and MJPEG are three DVR CODECs that aim to compress the videos for transferring purposes. Each of these formats have their own strengths and weaknesses. More ...
Understanding PC Data Buses
Physically, a data bus is the connection between the CPU and other devices on the PCs motherboard. A data connection can be serial or parallel. The data bus used in first-generation PCs used 8-bit architecture. PCI Express uses switched serial connections. More ...
Building Your Own PC! - The Motherboard is the Core of the PC
The single most important piece of hardware that you will buy is the motherboard - the very
core of your PC. If you buy a PC from a shop, chances are you'll never think about or even
see the motherboard; but when you build a system from scratch, it must be your primary
consideration. Everything else follows from here. More ...