It's a birthday or some other holiday, or you just decided to treat yourself to buying a new thing. This thing was a personal computer, or PC. But bad luck, sales consultants themselves basically do not understand what they offer you, because they only need sales, and you want a durable device. Or you wanted to understand the device of personal computers. Let's find out all the pitfalls when examining a PC, the main types of PC, the difference in characteristics and brands of manufacturers.
Personal Computer Definition
At its core, it is an electronic computer that is capable of performing a well-defined, variable sequence of operations. Most relate to I / O operations, represented by the program.
Composition of a personal computer
It consists of many components that are combined into one system using special software called drivers and programs.
These components include:
- Monitor.
- Motherboard.
- CPU
- RAM
- Power Supply.
- Keyboard.
- HDD
- Computer mouse.
- Other accessories and peripherals.
PC types
- Desktop computers, or personal computers (desktops). Components for them will have to be purchased separately, since a computer consisting of one system unit is not able to perform the necessary tasks, because control cannot be carried out without controls, you also need a monitor. Most of these devices are not portable, in order to have a portable computer, you need to purchase a laptop, which already includes a monitor, keyboard and touchpad, speakers.
- Servers are a type of computer that is designed to perform tasks related to creating a local network, ensuring security and storing a large amount of data. The appearance of the servers differs from a regular PC - they are mounted in special metal racks. The racks themselves are located in a cold room to ensure optimal operating temperature.
- Nettops - a stationary PC in a small case. It has low power consumption and noise, low productivity, but at the same time it has greater mobility than a regular desktop. Suitable for home, home multimedia networks, offices. HDMI connection.
- Microcomputers are computers that look like a USB flash drive with an HDMI connector. Just insert it into the device with HDMI input and it will work. It usually has a passive cooling system, USB ports, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
- Monoblocks - a type of stationary PC. The system unit and the monitor are one. Accessories and boards are located in one compartment, which is mounted on the back of the monitor. Takes up little space and looks beautiful.
- Laptops and netbooks - a type of laptop and laptop PCs, equipped with a battery for offline work without connecting to a network. The case is made in the form of a clamshell. It is equipped with a monitor and control devices, has ports for various purposes. Netbooks are smaller, but have more mobility and less battery power. The main types of PC power are the types of power from the mains and battery.
- Tablet laptops and tablets - are independent devices, also have high mobility. Equipped with a screen, it is especially good if the screen is touch-sensitive, then you can not connect additional manipulation devices, and even better if the ports are on the device itself, and not the keyboard. Come with or without keyboard.
- Pocket PCs and smartphones are smart phones. High mobility, the flagships are equipped with sufficient computing power, a first-class camera, not inferior in quality to digital cameras, a large battery that will provide a long working time on a single charge.
- Gaming consoles. Yes Yes. They are also considered computers, but they belong to a special type of specialized multimedia equipment. Although they come with operating systems that are tailored only to run multimedia such as games, movies and music, you can put, for example, on the PlayStation, a system based on the Linux kernel. Do you need it? No. So just play.
- Smart TVs. They can also be attributed to specialized equipment with all the ensuing consequences.
- The remaining computers are for special purposes. These are ATMs and similar devices.
These are all types of PCs that are currently known.
But progress does not stand still, and it is possible that in a couple of years wrist or intradermal computers will appear, or with the development of cybernetics we can put all the equipment for the system into a tiny microcircuit.
Types of PC Power Supplies
When choosing PC components, special attention should be paid to the power supply, because without sufficient power to supply electricity, the components may simply not work.
Total types of power supplies 4:
- Transformer block.
- Impulse power block.
- Stabilized power supplies.
- Uninterruptible (backup) power supply.
The secondary power source of the device provides the computer and other computer equipment with direct current. Converts 220 volts to the required values of the PC design, smooths out surges of the mains voltage and provides power to all devices located in the system unit.
The power supply unit can be equipped with a fan for cooling it. This fan provides air circulation through the power supply unit, heated air is discharged out through special slots in the block body. The cooler is quite quiet due to the small amount of cooling.
A large number of manufacturers, such as laptops, supply them already with the power supply. System units are also equipped with a power supply, look at the button on the rear panel and see for yourself.
Power supply selection
- It is better to choose a power supply with a power button, this is more of a tip for servers.
- Suitable for PC device types and sufficient for your accessories.
It is necessary to check the input voltage, output voltage and type of output voltage, output current, efficiency, make sure the presence of protection against overloads and deep discharge.
You can check your electricity consumption with programs like Power Watts PC.
Details about the components of a personal computer
PC memory types:
- Random access memory (RAM) - stores temporary program files. Volatile.
- A cache is a buffer between RAM and the processor.
- Permanent - stores PC status data at each boot; programs responsible for starting the system and performing basic actions; system setup programs.
- Semi-permanent - parameter data.
- Video memory - saves interface data and graphic fragments that are displayed to the user through the screen.
RAM is divided into memory types DDR 1-4. They differ in the number of contacts and speed characteristics, called frequencies.
External memory is a repository of data that can be edited, run, or transferred. These can be USB sticks, solid state drives (SSDs), hard disks (HDDs), or outdated CDs.
The central processor is a complex microcircuit that is capable of processing machine code, is responsible for performing various operations and controlling computer peripherals. Used in the abbreviation - CPU and CPU - Central Processing Unit, in translation - the central processing unit.
It is equipped with many electronic devices, ranging from telephones to space rockets. It consists of millions of transistors assembled in the form of logic circuits in a special silicon case.
Processor capacity:
The clock frequency plays a special role, it is an indicator of the speed of operations. The number of cores affects the distribution of requirements in the calculation across multiple threads. More threads and cores - higher power, but it is still important that the kernel itself has sufficient processing speed for machine code, otherwise, with a weak kernel in single-core mode, programs that do not support multi-core will use one core, which leads to low performance.
Cache memory is divided into three types:
- Level 1 cache
- L2 cache
- Level 3 cache.
- Level 4 cache memory that pays off in multiprocessor systems.
Particular attention is paid to the cache of the 1st and 2nd levels.
Processors are also divided into different architectures and the technological process, which is measured in nanometers (nm): ARM, X86, MIPS and others.
A video processor, or accelerator, performs the function of processing a video signal or digital image image. It reads the vertex and index buffers from memory, determines how vertices forming the triangles are connected, and passes the rest to the pipeline.
The main characteristics that are worth paying attention to:
- Video memory
- Core frequency.
- Memory frequency and type of memory.
Now progress is moving very fast, so fast that gamers can play games with the best graphics, especially on games specially assembled for long and sleepless nights. Now it’s clear what types of PCs are most common among players.
A sound card is responsible for converting signals into sounds.
The motherboard provides communication to all components.
The popularity of personal computers
What types of PCs are the most common in the world? The largest number of personal computers consists of office computers. In the offices of many companies there are a large number of machines. These include ATMs.
Personal computer manufacturers
The biggest brands of PC makers are Dell, Apple, Asus, HP, Samsung, Acer, Sony, MSI and many others.
Pricing Features
Each manufacturer creates products for a different consumer. Apple produces expensive business laptops, other companies do the same, but do not forget about other users who need not only mobility, but also technical specifications, such as the frequency of the processor and its manufacturer, the power of a video card for gaming battles. Pay attention to the PC sound system, for example, DTS or the Dolby Digital version. The quality of the screen provided by external and random access memory for launching and installing a large number of programs and games.
Self assembly
If you understand how a personal computer works, then you can independently assemble different types of PCs from the available components, it even comes out cheaper. Often, pricing is associated not only with power, processor, graphics card and other technical features, but also with the manufacturer. Most of the price we pay for the brand, although this is good, because then the manufacturer will maintain a positive reputation and provide the best support and exchange and return program, if necessary.