Basic PC Terms to Amaze Your Friends.

Since the advent of the modern PC, manufacturers and sales personnel have swindled and bamboozled the masses with slick talk we call techno babble. Like the snake oil peddlers of the Old West, they rely on their infallible fluency in a language most people don’t quite understand. A steady stream of large numbers followed by the enigmatic gigahertz, megabytes, teraflops and kilobits, seeks to create a trust between you and someone who so obviously knows exactly what they are talking about. In the interest of education, I present to you a list of basic, but woefully important computer terms that every modern consumer should know.

GHz – Gigahertz is used to denote the speed of a processor. This is the actual frequency of the chips master clock signal, but is still fairly indicative of the chips performance.

Typically, a “decent” laptop computer should have more than a 1 to 1.5 GHz processor. Desktop PCs should be sitting pretty at around 2.5 GHz and up. Here is a nice bit of confusion for you though. The newest processors, often dubbed Dual Core or Core 2 processors, actually split the data flow between two cores or two processors and can therefore be well suited for most home use applications as low as 1.4 GHz.

MB – Megabytes are most often used to denote memory or RAM. A Megabyte is equal to 1,000,000 bytes (or actually 1,048,576 bytes in the case of RAM). Think of RAM like those shelves right inside of Wal-Mart that have toilet paper and other oft used sundries, saving you the trouble of walking all the way to the back of the store for something you go there for often. RAM has a faster access time than a hard drive, so your computer uses it to store certain files that are used often. Most modern computers need at least 512 MB of RAM, and if you plan on playing games or using Windows Vista, you might want to spring for 1 or even 2 GB.

GB – Gigabytes usually refers to the raw storage capacity of the computer. In newer systems, it could also refer to the RAM. Here is a good way to tell. If the number is between one and eight, it is referring to either the RAM or the hard drive in a 15 year old computer. Most modern hard drives come with at least 40 GB of space.

There you go, you are well on your way to becoming a techno geek. Here is one last tip for those in the market for a new PC. When buying a pre built PC from a retail outlet, the processor speed is paramount. The RAM and hard drive capacity are easily upgraded, but an upgrade to your processor can be extremely cost prohibitive, especially considering the prices of most retail PCs. As always, if you have a question or comment, feel free to drop us a line at techguys@ican-solutions.com or visit us on the web at www.ican-solutions.com.