Hardware specifications
GOOD DAY, students. This is lesson seven of our series of lessons. In this week’s lesson, we will be looking at hardware and system specifications needed for a given computer system for a specific purpose.
Whenever you decide to buy a new cell phone, laptop or even a desktop computer, one of the first things you will consider and will ask the sales clerk is, “What are the specs?” In other words, you will ask about the storage capacity, memory size and speed of the processor. Certain system specifications are important for the running of a particular application on your PCs. Let us first appreciate the typical hardware specs that are available.
THE PROCESSOR
The processor is measured by its clock speed in megahertz (MHz) or, most recently, in gigahertz (GHz). The faster the clock speed of the processor, the faster the execution of an instruction, task or command you give the computer. Examples are shown below of a few processors and their respective speeds.
■ Intel Pentium (R) CPU B970 @ 2.30GHz
■ Pentium 4 processor 540 w/HT technology @ 2.8 GHz
■ AMD FX 4-Core Black Edition @ 3.8GHz
MEMORY
When we refer to random access memory (RAM)/ main memory, we do not necessarily speak about what speed it is measured in but, rather, its size. The size of RAM can be measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). There are two main types of RAM and they are: dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). However, you may also see a combination called SDRAM. Similar to the processor’s clock speed, it is better to have more memory as the better the memory, the better the performance of your computer. Examples are shown below of three types of memory and their respective sizes.
■ 2GB DDR2
■ 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
■ 8GB DDR4
Note: DDR means Double/Dual Data Rate
HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD)
In comparison to RAM, main memory processing speed is faster than the hard drive. Information is generally swapped between main memory and the hard drive. The size of a hard drive is measured in gigabytes (GB) and, more recently, in terabytes (TB). The larger the hard drive capacity, the more data and information can be stored. Access time for the HDD is measured in milliseconds (ms) and its speed, which is the revolutions per minute (RPM), ranges from 5400 to 12000 RPM.
There are two types of hard drives: hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD). Examples of hard disk drives and their respective sizes are shown below.
■ 500GB SATA Hard Disk Drive (5400RPM)
■ 3.0TB SATA Hard Disk Drive (10000RPM)
EVALUATING THE SUITABILITY OF A GIVEN COMPUTER SYSTEM
Basic knowledge of system specification is needed for purposes such as the running of a video game, web browsing, graphic designing, video editing and desktop publishing. A computer system specification can be evaluated on the following:
(a) Processing speed (CPU type and speed)
(b) Memory (RAM)
(c) Secondary storage (capacity and speed)
(d) Types of software
(e) Input/Output devices
An example of a PC with its respective system specification is shown below.
SPECIFICATIONS NEEDED FOR A COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT WILL BE USED FOR PLAYING GAMES
If you have a laptop with weak graphics hardware or an older PC, it is important to check whether your computer can support a game. If your computer uses integrated Intel graphics instead of using a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, you will likely experience issues running newer, graphically demanding games. Most laptops that are not specifically billed as gaming laptops use Intel integrated graphics, which is cheaper and consumes less power.
Additionally, you will need to know about the hardware in your computer, primarily its CPU speed, amount of RAM, and graphics card details. You can find this information in a variety of different ways, including looking up your laptop’s specifications online. The following shows you what you need to know:
■ The CPU type and speed, in GHz.
■ The amount of RAM, in GB.
■ The model of your computer’s graphics card and the amount of RAM the graphics card has onboard.
Example of a popular played game: Fortnite
The Fortnite system requirements for the best performance:
■ Core i5 2.8GHz processor.
■ 8GB of system RAM.
■ Nvidia GTX 660 or AMD Radeon
■ HD 7870 equivalent DX11
■ GPU (graphics processing unit).
SPECIFICATIONS NEEDED FOR A COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT WILL BE USED FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN
Graphic design, also known as communication design, is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form it takes can be physical or virtual and can include images, words, or graphics. To do graphic designing, you would have to ensure that your computer is ready for such an application.
Some key things to focus on when upgrading your PC or making it ready include: processor speed, memory, screen resolution and, something you might not have heard of, hard disk speed. Graphic design software is processor-intensive; for most programs, you will want:
■ A processor (or CPU) that runs at least 1Ghz (meaning the computer can make one billion
calculations per second). That’s the minimum; look for an even faster processor if you can afford it.
■ Random-Access Memory or RAM, or sometimes just ‘memory’. The more RAM you have, the more things you can process at once, because it’s faster than going to the hard drive for the files in use.
■ You’ll want, at minimum, 8GB of RAM; more if you can afford it.
■ You will have to also consider the hard drive. If your internal hard drive is a solid-state drive (SSD), you will notice your computer boots faster, and programs launch faster. For your external drive, data transfers more quickly from SSDs than HDDs.
■ For your monitor, ensure the resolution is at least 1280 x 800. Again, a higher resolution is better, if you can afford it.
■ Most graphic design software run equally well on Windows and OS X. Windows PCs are much more affordable and more customizable.
Software needed:
■ 1. Adobe’s Creative Cloud
■ 2. Photoshop/Illustrator/After Effects
■ 3. Affinity Designer/Affinity Photo
HARDWARE NEEDED
1. Laptop/Desktop – MS Surface Book 2 or iMac 21.5-inch Retina (2017)
2. Reliable hard drive
3. Graphics tablet/stylus
4. Monitor calibrator
We have come to the end of this lesson. See you next week, when we will continue to evaluate the suitability of a given computer system for a given application. Remember, if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.