PC Overview
Personal Computer (PC) - A small, single-user computer based on a microprocessor as it's central "brain". In addition to the microprocessor, a personal computer has a keyboard for entering data, a monitor for displaying information, a mouse for selecting items that show up on the monitor, and a storage device for saving data.
Much like a car, the PC is "modular" . . . there are various, independent "modules" that perform different tasks. Anything modular can be understood. It allows us to break it all down into peices.
Computer-a-Phobia - I used to look at the PC as a "box" - a huge bowl of wires and circuit components put together like spaghetti . . . and figured there was no way I would ever comprehend it all. It is true that the traces of metal and solder on the back of the motherboard (the main circuit board of the PC) are spaghetti. It is true the the millions of micro-transistors within the chips on the motherboard are spaghetti. BUT - there are a number of basic components that are straightforward. These components may be filled with millions of incomprehensible pieces - but we don't care, because the components themselves make sense.
You have to give up on understanding the spaghetti, and instead, look at the basic functional parts . . . the sound, the video, the printing, the modem, etc. These are all solid building blocks of the PC puzzle, and are quite understandable.
So stroll with me through these sections, where we will take a simple and straightforward look at each component of the PC, and then tie them all together. There goes your computer-a-phobia !!!
PC's and Health
Just a quick but important Public Service blurb here. Be careful with the amount of time you spend at the computer. It is definitely addictive to many people, and is completely sedentary. I have actually suffered quite a bit with upper back pain due to long hours at the PC. In addition, many will stay up until 4 or 5 am, and then you're a wreck the next day. Been there - done that.
If you have a desk job, you could get have an active lifestyle in the evenings. Desk jockeys by day, should be playing tennis, jogging, or at the gym by night. But now, with the popularity and addictive nature of the home PC, many of us come home, eat, and then use the PC for hours. As much as I love PC's, they have taken a toll.
The Physical Components
Keyboard - there are many types of keyboards, but the primary standard of today is the AT Enhanced keyboard. Notebooks have smaller keyboards, of course, and there are many flavors - but they all scrunch the keys tightly together. Keyboards are user input devices, similar to a typewriter, that send the characters typed, into the PC as digital signals.
Mouse - A device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen, and allows you to "click" on any object on the screen, which enables you to select items and draw. A mouse is a small object you can roll along a hard, flat surface. Its name is derived from its shape, which looks a bit like a mouse, its connecting wire that one can imagine to be the mouse's tail, and the fact that one must make it scurry along a surface. As you move the mouse, the pointer on the display screen moves in the same direction. Mice contain at least one button and sometimes as many as three, which have different functions depending on what program is running. Some newer mice also include a scroll wheel for scrolling through long documents.
Hard Drive - stores your stuff. Whatever size you think you may need, quadruple that. At a minumum, you should have two drives. IDE is the default connector that comes on PC's. A faster drive standard, called "SCSI" has been popular for many years, but IDE drives have become so fast, that they are just a tad slower than SCSI - so stick with IDE. The exception to this rule is if you do full-screen video captures, because SCSI is much faster with that type of data transfer (i.e. constant data rates coming in). I do a lot of video, but mine are small PC videos, which I sometimes burn onto CD-ROM, so IDE works fine for me.
Zip Drives and Jazz Drives - these are portable hard drives, which store 100 MB and 1-to-2 GB respectively. The problem is - wherever you take the drive, you have to install it to be able to read the drive. If you do a lot of large file transfers between work and home - then a Jaz drive is for you. Make sure to buy two drives, so that the only thing you have to transport back and forth is the cartridge (the drive in Zip and Jaz drives is called a cartridge.
CD Drive - reads CD's such as software installation CD's. Also plays music CD's. Normal CD drives can read data from CD's but cannot record data (Write) onto CD's.
CDR (CD Recorder) - CD drive that can read and record. To record, you need special blank CD's that are called "CDR blanks". They only cost about a buck, and give you 750 MB of storage space. The act of recording data onto a CDR is called "burning the CD", since it can only be written to once. CDR's are popular because they can be taken anywhere, and can be read by other PC's with standard CD drives.
CDRW (CD ReWritable) - like a CDR, except can be recorded (written to) numerous times, just like a portable Jaz drive. CDRW are great for storage, but cannot be read by standard CD drives. I have heard through the grapevine that newer models can be read by standard CD drives, but have not confirmed it. Drop me a line of you know about this - thanks.
CPU - this is a misnomer. Actually, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) is a large chip (the largest chip) inside your PC, and is mounted to the motherboard. The reason I showed the main box as the "CPU" in the diagram is because so many people call it that. It should be called the "Main Unit" or something like that, but it is still referred to as the CPU. To make matters more confusing, the chip itself is also called the CPU. Therefore I will describe both below, and just add the words "box" and "chip" to differentiate..
CPU (the Box) - the main unit of the computer, which is enclosed in a "case". The unit contains a case, the motherboard, andpower supply.
Case - There are many types of cases, but the two main two types are the "AT" and/or "Baby AT" case, and the "ATX" case. The style of case is also, oddly, called a "form factor". Older PC's exclusively used the smaller AT or Baby AT-style case, which has a socket-7 type CPU (the CPU lays down flat, and is a square). The case is simply cut out differently so that it will accomodate the type of mother board that will be placed inside.
Motherboard - this is the mother of the PC, hence the name. It is a central connecting point for all the components, and is chock-full of ports, jacks, and slots. Similar to the Case, there are two main physical styles of motherboards - although within those two styles there are countless varieties. The older AT / Baby AT has smaller dimensions (8.5" x 13"), and uses a large keyboard plug with 5-pins, and two modular plugs for the power supply to connect to. The ATX has a small mini-plug with 6 pins, and one moles power supply connector. In addition, the Baby AT style motherboard uses 5 and 12 volt power supply levels, while the ATX uses 3.3v, 5v. and 12v.
Power Supply - there are two types of power supplies - the AT and the ATX
CPU (the Chip) - this is referred to as the "brains" of the computer. It performs all the computations, and other numeric and logical algorithms required to run programs. Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations . . . and the control unit, which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.
Printer - gets the stuff on the PC onto paper. The printer section will show you the advantages of owning a B&W laser for your parallel port, and a Color printer for your USB port.
Scanners - a must. Don't be fooled into thinking you don't need one. So few people own a scanner, but there are millions of excellent graphics free for the taking inside of magazines. You need a scanner. The SccanMaker E3 from Microtek fits the bill - great scanning, low cost. Go for the SCSI or USB variety - not the parallel port type!!! They are slow, and often have trouble and can cause printer problems. STAY AWAY FROM PARALLEL PORT SCANNERS !! Unbelievable to me that they represent the majority of scanners.
Mic and PreAmp - if you are into music with vocals, I should tell you right now, that sound cards have very lousy mic inputs. The preamps within the sound card are very cheap. However, the line inputs are fine. Get an Audio Buddy preamp for a hundred bucks, and Shure SM58 or SM57 mic for about the same . . . you will never look back.
Joystick - basically for games only. I know of no business apps that can make use of a jostick. There are a lot of complex joysticks out there, with buttons all over the place. Get the standard, large, heavy, reliable, Microsoft Standard sidewinder. It is a regular, 2-axis joystick that plays the games, and has a heavy base, which is very important with joysticks. Nothing will drive you up the wall faster, than a light joystick that teeters all over the desk as you are trying to play the game. One thing - you may get burned out on joystick games quickly, so don't sell the farm to get one!!
Video Capture Card - my favorite hobby of all time. It is amazing to me that nobody I know edits videos. You go to Aunt Matilda's house for a 2-hour birthday party for your Neice. Bring the tape back, import the 5 minutes that were actually entertaining, and within your PC, you open a video editor and cut, stitch, paste, add background music, etc. When you finally have your 3-minute masterpeice done - export it back to VHS tape. Now when Aunt Matilda visits, you don't have to waste 2 hours viewing the original video. I have been making these for a few years, and they are a blast !!! Even special effects are available at your fingertips. My next project? The Matrix, Part II (hehe).
Network Card - if you have more than one PC at home, and I hope you do . . . you have to buy a network card for each PC (get the 100 MHz Ethernet cards), and also purchase a Network switch (100 MHz) instead of a regular hub. We have 3 PC's here. We use the network so that we can all print to the same two printers. We also trade files, and I keep all the install files for applications on an extremely large hard drive. As you know, applications need to be reinstalled once in a while, and it is awfully nice, not to have to dig through the 500 CD's. I must confess, the most frequent use of the network at my house it to play Age of Empires with my daughter . . . the only game I have truly gotten hooked on. It's been almost 2 years of regular play now.
Wireless Network Card - unless you are going to have great difficulty running the wires - don't buy these. They are slow, and prone to error, as well as interference.