Example and Summary

If you do:

• Hard-core gaming, including advanced flight simulation for real world training, you would likely be best served by a computer with at least the specifications of the one above.
• Lots of movie production, or computer-aided design (CAD) and other architectural rendering, a computer configured as above would serve you very well.
• Heavy Photoshop, graphics design, and music editing work would not require quite the specs as the computer above.
• Just general office document work, Web surfing, email, and movie watching, you could get by with much less than that specified above

Common Computer Terminology

• Operating System (e.g., Windows 8, Mac Mavericks, Linux)
  • What it is: The program that allows you to install and run the programs you use as well as manage your files.
  • Importance: You interact with it all of the time. It should be comfortable and responsive.
  • Choice: You don't have much choice. When you choose a company (Microsoft or Apple) you get their operating system, unless you are advanced enough to install your own operating system (normally Linux).
    
    
• Processor (e.g., Intel core i7, AMD FX)
  • What it is: the heart (brain, some like to call it) of the computer where all calculations are performed as a program is executing.
  • Importance: The speed of your computer and its ability to complete tasks quickly is dependent on the processor
  • Choice: The only choices right now are Intel and its competitor AMD. Within those two companies, choose a processor that meets your needs according the table above, along with clock speed, number of cores, and number of threads per core.|
    
    
• Clock Speed - currently approaching 4GHz (four billion ticks per second) at the high end of general consumer-use computers
  
  • What it is: the main indicator of how fast the computer will execute the instructions;  the higher the clock speed the faster the processor
  • Importance: Very important for intensive computer apps. Not so important for everyday informal use.
  • Choice: Choose according the table in the previous sections
    
    
• Cores (Usually 2 on low-end computers, 4 on upper-end computers, 6 or sometimes higher on gaming and graphics-use computers)
  • What they are: sort of mini-processors within the main processor each with its own separate instruction-fetch-execute cycle
  • Importance: each core allows separate computations to be happening in parallel (at the same time) so that more work can be accomplished per second.
  • Choice: choose processors with more or fewer cores depending on the intended main use of the computer (see table above)

• RAM (now up to 32GB)
  • What it is: Primary memory that is both volatile (loses its memory when power is turned off) and fast. All programs (apps) and data being currently processed must be in RAM.
  • Importance: Very important. It's one of the cheapest investments you can make to speed your current computer up. The more RAM memory you have, the more programs and data can be kept in RAM for current processing. Particularly important when working on large videos in movie editing programs or manipulating large programs in Photoshop, or doing a large graphics design project with multiple programs running, such as Photoshop, inDesign, Illustrator, etc. If too little RAM is available, the operating system must keep swapping some of the data in RAM back to the hard drive and vice versa to make room for other data as programs execute.
  • Choice: Choose as much as you can afford. You will not need as much for just general computer work, but for more serious tasks, the more RAM the better.
    
    
• Hard Drive (now up to 3TB and more)
  • What it is: Electro-mechanical (with moving parts) secondary storage using magnetic data that is non-volatile (keeps its memory when power is turned off). All programs, data, and the entire file system in general is kept in non-volatile secondary storage when not being processed.
  • Importance: A large hard drive is nice, particularly if you have lots of media files (which gobble up enormous amounts of space over time). Not nearly as important as RAM, as one can easily add external hard drives as more space is needed. It is important also for what is called "swap space" where the operating system stores data that needs to be swapped in and out as programs are running on the data (see the point under RAM > Importance above.
  • Choice: Choose at least 1TB at this point and as large as you can get if you are a media editor.
    

• SSD Drive (now up to at most 1TB)
  • What it is: Solid state secondary storage device that has no moving parts like a hard drive and that is also non-volatile (keeps its memory when power is turned off). Much more expensive than a hard drive, but much more convenient in terms of transferring files and data to and from RAM at very high speeds. It is used as a replacement or a companion to hard drives. High end MacBook pro laptops now do not come with hard drives (which is a shame, because the SSD space is usually not sufficient. It does keep the laptops lighter and smaller, but that can be seriously offset if one has to carry around an external hard drive as a result.)
  • Importance: Mostly important if you have a hard time waiting for files and programs to load from your secondary storage to RAM. Keeping the operating system, the swap space, and some other often-used programs and data (e.g. for a video or photo job) on the SSD will provide very noticeable speed-up for loading and saving files from and to RAM (once in RAM the files are processed there unless they need to be swapped in and out occasionally, in which case the SSD will also show its worth.)
  • Choice: If you can afford it, choose some SSD storage, and as much as you can afford for compute-intensive programs.

• Video Card (constantly improving the performance of graphics)
  • What it is: The unit that drives your display. Simple ones built in by the processor manufacturer (e.g., Intel) may suffice for simple computer use, but are completely inadequate for high-performance graphics programs, such as gaming, computer aided design, movie making software, etc. Upgraded video cards have their own processor, RAM, and multiple outputs for driving multiple displays simultaneously
  • Importance: Critically important for gamers, graphics designers, movie makers, and Photoshop workers.
  • Choice: Choose the best you can afford if your job is compute-intensive. Otherwise a more modest solution, even the default version, will work.

• Sound Card (now supporting 7.1 channel surround sound)
  • What it is: a unit that provides one with more options for recording, editing, and playing back high quality music.
  • Importance: Only important if you are a gamer who wants to be immersed in the sounds of the game, a musician working on editing and/or producing music, or someone who just likes to listen to high quality music while working at the computer. Remember that you will also need to buy a high-end speaker set to accompany listening to 7.1 channel surround sound coming from your computer.
  • Choice: Your choice.

• Network Card (now up to level N-very high speed.)
  • What it is: The necessary connection to the internet, whether wireless or wired.
  • Importance: Critical if you want to connect to the Internet with your computer.
  • Choice: No choice. Seems to come standard on just about any computer at this time, and there is no special upgrade required as long as it supports the latest wireless N technology, which they most assuredly do. Just in case, it is good to check, particularly when looking at a used or low-end new computer.

• Optical Drive (Blue Ray, DVD, CD)
  • What it is: A unit that allows one to play and/or record Blue Ray, DVD, and CD discs.
  • Importance: Important if you like to watch movies on your computer display, or if you record music or movies to be distributed on DVD or Blue Ray discs.
  • Choice: If you want to generate full HD Blue Ray discs, you will most likely need to buy and external drive. Most computers seem not to come with one, although virtually all can be ordered with a Blue Ray player that will also record and play both DVD and CD discs.

• Ports (various)
  • What they are: Connections that allow you to hook your computer to various external devices.
  • Importance: Quite important. Most important and useful are USB 3 (the latest and fastest USB technology) ports for connecting just about anything from external hard drives, Blue Ray recorders, thumb drives, cameras, printers, and so forth. Not so important unless you are a movie maker or high-end photographer are HDMI ports. An Ethernet port can be useful if wireless is unavailable but Ethernet is. Special ports (e.g., Mac thunderbolt port) will come with various computers. Very useful on are camera flash card ports. These can usually found on desktops for just about any style of card, but sometimes will be found on certain laptop models for a select few cards (e.g., SD cards).
  • Choice: The more connections you have, the more flexible your computer will be. Generally you will not have much choice, particularly with laptop computers.