Hardware is the name we give to the physical components of a computer. The hardware is all the stuff that actually sends the signals (electrical or otherwise) we need to make our computers work. Generally speaking there are a few pieces’ of hardware you need, and will be found in basically every machine…
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GPU (often optional or integrated into CPU); What actually renders frames to the monitor that you see. This can be a “discrete gpu” (one you buy and install), or integrated GPU where the GPU is built into the CPU
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Motherboard; This is essentially what connects all of your components. There are tons of specs to talk about with motherboards but generally speaking you will want to select motherboards based on the fact you are going to be limited to the chipset the CPU you are using is compatible with.
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RAM (primary Volatile storage); This is where your system will store temporary data, such as data that apps need to run
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Volatile implies that it requires electricity to store it’s data, this means when the electricity stops runing through it all the data is lost. This is handy because it means that if you get an error and shutdown your PC you know your RAM will be cleared
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The capacity of RAM determines how much multitasking you can do. Generally speaking if you run out of RAM you will be unable to run new processes (not always true [check out page files])
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Frequency, this is measured in MHz and is how many bits/s can be sent on one line. This is not a catch-all for speed however and should be balanced with channels and timings
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Memory Timing; This describes a number of different measurements available, see the video below for details
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Channels (single, dual, quad); Generally speaking your motherboard will determine if your RAM should be single, dual or quad channel. It is recommended to just go with what it says, however keep in mind going with a different config can effect performance
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resources
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Non-volatile or persistant storage (HDD or SSD); This is what is used to store your files persistantly (when the PC is turned off and on)
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Network Card[NIC; Network interface card] (Ethernet or wifi); This is what is used to connect to networks (such as the internet). It can be a wifi card to communicate wirelessly, or ethernet based. Typically this is included in your motherboard now, but you can have multiple NIC’s
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Soundcard (usually integrated in motherboard); This is what generates audio for you to listen to. Generally speaking this is integrated into the motherboard, and often not required to buy seperately
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USB chipset; This is part of your motherboard, but often these are seperate chips that can break independent of the rest of the motherboard so I figured I would mention it:
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PSU (power supply unit); This is what actually powers all the parts of your PC
Different Storage types and how they are used
Non volatile (slowest, but persistant, most space) ⇒ RAM (Faster, volatile, less space)
⇒ Level caches (Fastest, very volatile, least space)
| Component (click for more info) | Description |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | |
| CPU (TODO) | The “brain” of the computer. This is what essentially tells your computer what to do, and helps coordinates other parts of your computer |
| RAM | |
| SSD/HDD | |
| GPU | |
| NIC/WIFI/Ethernet | |
| Peripherals |
Resources
- Channels