Help on understanding PC's

[The Glorious Moldovan]

hy,so as a gamer i really get confused with all the hinky pinky names and stuff a PC is made of.
so can somebody give me an expalantion of what do the most important parts of the PC do? like what role they have in a pc.Thank you

[Ishan]

Read this.

[The Glorious Moldovan]

hey thanks! but how about a bit more complex description?

oh and this question: Whats the difference between having 1 CPU and 2 CPU in you're Pc?

[english tyrant]

The CPU or "Central processing unit" is as that article said, basically the brain. It is a relatively small chip that gets put onto your motherboard and the overwhelming majority of home computers only have one of these chips. So only 1 CPU.
What you might be talking about is having multiple "cores". This is where you basically squeeze two processors onto 1 chip. So you can only see one CPU, but theoretically it can go up to twice as fast because you have 2 CPU's on the one chip. .. if that makes sense.

[The Glorious Moldovan]

mhm,and whats the advantage of having 2 or more CPU's ?

[RO Citizen]

You can't have 2 CPUs, but only 1 physical CPU in a computer.

The "multi-core CPUs" are newer (well, newer than Pentium 4...) CPUs that have more...heads ("cores") So they're 2, or 4 or even 8 CPUs in the shape of 1 single CPU. Looks similar, but has more power These multi-cores are vital these days, for games, photo/video-editing, Windows 7, etc., but however old stuff (like before 2005) can have serious with such CPUs, because the old program will use only one "core".

Other important stuff are:

Motherboard (mobo): that big thing with a lot of holes, big momma of everything. Everything is linked to her.

RAM: random access memory, or simply memory. That thin long green things Memory is used for stocking temporary information and speeding up your computer.

GPU: graphic process card, or simply the video card. Most motherboards have only 1 slot for a GPU, but there are a few who can have more (2, or the very rare and unuseful 4). However, only certain cards can "collaborate" well enough in 2. The video card does almost the same thing with RAM, only that it stocks visual information (vital for games, HD...)

HDD: hard disks, those boxes with disks in which all the files and folders are stored. In the future they'll probably be replaced by SSDs (combo of RAM&HDD), but it's a long time until SSDs will come at an acceptable price.

CD/DVD/Blu-ray player: C'mon, that's obvious.

PSU: The Power Supply. This is vital for your computer, as it gives it all the power. If you upgrade your GPU, CPU or motherboard, be sure that your PSU handles the new parts, or else something might burn...

There are other things, too, like network card, sound card, additional fans, etc, but the basic is up there

[karamazovmm]

You can't have 2 CPUs, but only 1 physical CPU in a computer.

yes you can have more than 1 cpu. you just have to find a mobo that supports it.

for example in the consumer level you can use the SR2 from asus, packing 2 lga 1136 sockets.

mainframes can put up to 58 cpus if Im not mistaken, servers up to 12.

[GrnEyedDvl]

You can't have 2 CPUs, but only 1 physical CPU in a computer.

The TWC servers both have 4 sockets, with 4 cores per socket, so 16 physical processors.

[Ishan]

You can't have 2 CPUs, but only 1 physical CPU in a computer.

2 CPU sockets, LGA 1366
12 DDR3 memory slots
& 7 PCI-ex slots .

Gamers don't need Dual CPUs btw.

[Taiji]

hy,so as a gamer i really get confused with all the hinky pinky names and stuff a PC is made of.
so can somebody give me an expalantion of what do the most important parts of the PC do? like what role they have in a pc.Thank you

I play first person shooters a lot, and a lot of what I think is coming from that type of gaming - Just a warning

Mainboard: Determines what other parts you can use. May offer groovy overclocking stuffs, for getting free speedups from the CPU and RAM. Might include various things like a network card, sound card, graphics card, bluetooth network, firewire, wifi, etc. etc. Might offer the ability to SLI or CrossfireX your graphics cards.

Graphics card: Most important component for a gamer. Get the best one you can afford. This is the main contributor to a high FPS.

'Processor' or CPU: This needs to be fast enough to keep up with your graphics card, or else it will be slowing the system down and producing lower FPS. It also helps to reduce load times. Some games will use multiple 'cores', they can work with dual core, quad core, etc. CPUs to make the game load and run faster. This has taken over from the old thing of having multiple CPUs on the same board, now we have multiple cores in the same CPU. Important to note that most old and present games do not use more than one core, and when they do use multiple cores the results are not usually amazing.

RAM: This is what provides the CPU with space to work with programs. Games that require a lot of RAM actually tend to need even more, because your operating system is taking up some of it. RAM speed doesn't really matter much, but if you're overlcocking then you'll want fast and reliable RAM to help keep the system stable. So usually what you need is more than merely enough - If your game says 2gb and you have 4gb on Windows 7, for example, then get yourself 8gb. Of course it's just a rule, and they're made to be broken - some games won't benefit, but some will benefit massively.

Storage Drives: HDDs and SSDs are where your operating system and programs are stored. This is usually the number one item to upgrade if load times are an issue. HDDs are older and mechnical, they have actual disks like CDs in them, and they have 'heads' that have to find the data on the disk. SSDs are chips, no moving parts at all. They are the latest storage solution and these days they're at least double the speed of HDDs.


So that's what I think you mean, those are the main points a gamer needs to get. But in fact the most important bits of your PC are your screen, your keyboard, and your mouse. You can always lower settings, or play a less demanding game, to solve the problem of your PC not being powerful enough. But if the screen is not top notch and the mouse and keyboard feel like crap then you'll have a second rate experience no matter what you do.

For a keyboard you just need something that is responsive and feels nice. I don't have a decent keyboard these days, and I suck at times when I shouldn't because of it. I'm looking at the Steelseries g6v2 because that keyboard has full anti-ghosting - this means you can press all the keys at once and they will all register. Plus it also has nice switches that don't make horrible clicking noises.

For a mouse you just need something that you're comfortable working with for long periods, has as many buttons as you'd like, is very responsive, has a low lift sensor thing (as in you can lift the mouse from the mat and put it down elsewhere without your aim going to crap.). Crazy huge DPI capabilities don't seem to matter at all. The Razer Deathadder looks to be the best mouse to own these days. I have a Zowie EC1, and I like it but I'm beginning to think there is something weird about it... Not sure... Anyway the Deathadder is the best recommended mouse.

For both mouse and keyboard a serious gamer does not consider wireless

For a screen you want the least input lag possible. Input lag is the time it takes the signal to get from your PC to being displayed on the screen. With a CRT (the old fat ones) it's a given, you'll have 0ms. But this can range up to ridiculous 30ms of lag on some LCD screens (the new thin ones).

If you have an LCD screen then you also have to be wary of response time. This is the time it takes for a pixel to go from grey to white and back to grey. Lower response times means less ghosting. So ghosting is basically trails left by objects as you move your view around. These days some new screens are also using software to reduce ghosting. So along with checking the reported response time you will want to find out what their software ghosting reduction technology is capable of.

A final point, when you look at a game's system requirements remember that the 'recommended' section is not what you need for smooth play when you turn on all the options. The software industry drives the hardware industry, games makers are always trying to produce games that don't quite run on today's systems. So if you have hardware that is a lot better than the 'recommended' only then should you get excited about the possiblity of turning everything on.

[Roman Clone]

Hard Drives: The "long-term memory" of the computer. Your programs and O.S (Operating system, e.g, Windows) are stored here.

RAM: Random Access Memory, this is the "short-term" memory of the computer.

Motherboard: This the largest piece of hardware in the computer, it acts like the spine of the computer where everything comes together.

DVD Drive: I think that's self-explanatory.

Graphics Card: This processes visual data and displays what you see on the computer. If a computer does not have a graphics card, then usually it uses an integrated graphic chip on the motherboard.

Tower/Case: The "skin" of the computer. This protects everything and has fans to move hot air out and cold air in to ensure your parts do not get damaged by heat.

Processor/CPU: The "thinking" part of the computer. It does calculations so programs can run. Its power is determined by its frequency, which is measured in GHz.

Power Supply: This rather dense piece of equipment acts like the digestive system of the human body; it takes current from an electric source and coverts it into a current that your computer can use to power itself with.

[The Glorious Moldovan]

thank you all for the information! that was helpfull

but now another question comes in my head

This (CPU) needs to be fast enough to keep up with your graphics card, or else it will be slowing the system down and producing lower FPS

so how do i know if the CPU is fast or slow enought to keep up with my graphics card?

[Taiji]

so how do i know if the CPU is fast or slow enought to keep up with my graphics card?

Well in the first place you're already happy if your frame rates are already OK, so you wouldn't need to know in that case.

But then when it comes to upgrading, and having to decide which component to upgrade, you would just have to check out reviews for your card. You'll see what kind of processor they're using in the review and hopefully you'll get an idea of how your card is performing in games alongside that CPU. If it seems like better performance with that CPU than with your own, and if the results are considerably better (like +10 fps or so), then it's a pretty safe bet that your card is being held back by your processor.

It would also be a factor in deciding whether to overclock or not. If you know you will get 10+ fps from overclocking your CPU, because it's 'bottlenecking' your graphics card, then it becomes a seriously good idea. But overclocking carries slight risks even when you really know what you're doing, so it's well worth reading up on it before doing anything.

[Roman Clone]

There really isn't a definite answer - typically the more high end your GPU is, the more high end your CPU should be.

You wouldn't want to put something like an Core 2 Duo E7300 with a Nvidia GTX 580.

[RO Citizen]

yes you can have more than 1 cpu. you just have to find a mobo that supports it.

My bad then, to all the people who corrected me. But I guess more CPUs are only needed for servers.

so how do i know if the CPU is fast or slow enought to keep up with my graphics card?

Well, you can't be really sure, except if you buy like Roman Clone suggested. The best way would be to see the years in which they were made, and for what part of the market (for low budget, mainstream, gaming...). Just google their names and you'll find out