Question

HELP ME UNDERSTAND HOW A PC WORKS

Answer 1

I see people always talking about how powerful pc's are specificly for gaming and I don't understand any of the numbers they share. PLease help!!!!

Answer 2

there is lots of lengthy articles and books you can read to learn about computers.
when people talk computer specs for gaming they are mainly concerned with

ram - your computers short term memory (measured in gigabytes)
cpu - you computers brain (measured in gigahertz)
graphics card - your computers eyes (measured by type)

good cpu is around 4 ghz with at least 5 cores
good ram is around 8 gigs
good graphics card is a ddr3

Answer 3

sorry @Austin6i6 but your response contains multiple errors

a computer is made of multiple parts

CPU (central processing unit)
RAM (random access memory)
HDD/SDD (hard disk drive/solid state drive)
power supply
BUS
GPU (Graphics processing unit)

all of these pieces are connected via the Mother board, this is kinda like the brain

the CPU does the work, tasks are sent here and worked on. The more cores a CPU has the more it can do at once. The speed that the processor works on a specific task is determined by the clock speed, measured in gigahertz (GHz) there is a trade off between clock speed and number of cores. Some server motherboard also accept multiple CPUs, but that's another story. The CPU also has a cache, which is like ram, except more accessible because it is directly in the CPU.

HDD/SDD is where your information is stored. Files/documents/games/etc. are saved here. The difference between and SDD and HDD is a disk. The HDD has a disk that spins and a hand that reads, like a record player. This causes delays in information retrieval because the arm has to wait for the disk to spin around to get to the spot it needs. SDD does not have a disk but instead is instantly accessible, resulting in much faster information retireval.

RAM this is a compensation for the time it takes to retrieve information from the HDD/SDD. Information is constantly being added and earased as you use the computer so the information retrieval method from RAM needs to be significantly faster than HDD/SDD (which use SATA and another process that i'm not too familiar with). The loading times you see in games or when opening programs or files are the process of moving information from the HDD/SDD to RAM.

The BUS is the system of wires you may see when opening a desktop case. It is like the information highway of the computer.

GPU is like the CPU except it's optimized to solve the complex equations involved with polygons and lighting. A better GPU handles these equations better

The power supply is self explanatory, however still very important when building a computer because each parts has energy requirements.

I think i covered everything, but i probably missed something

Answer 4

also i've never seen a cpu with 5 cores

the average clock speed is probably 3 ghz, 4 is too expensive for the average consumer and generates too much heat for the average computer

ddr3 is a type of ram

Answer 5

other than the fact that i said there is 5 cores which i agree was wrong.(meant to say i5 with 2 cores multithreaded) everthing else was supposed to be analogous. @caominhim
if he doesn't understand computers, typing long paragraphs were not going to help.

Answer 6

also you have lots of mistakes. I would hate for him to get misinformation. Sorry.
A bus is not just a collection of wires. if that was true, then there would be a million wires in the circuit.

Answer 7

a bus transfers data between components, such as the motherboard to the disk drive

Answer 8

and not to continue an argument that i unintentionally started, but you wouldn't be able to do much with a dual core i5, the i5 isn't the problem it's the 2 cores

Answer 9

here's a more professional explenation

http://lifehacker.com/5826509/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-lesson-1-hardware-basics

Answer 10

there is a thing called hyper threading that intel uses. I5 is defiantly sufficient for gaming, i have done it . I recommend you look in to hyper threading. And yes i see you have clarified for yourself that a bus is more than just wires.

Answer 11

dang dude take it easy, but real quick let me fix some things for you

i5 does not use hyperthreading, nor does the average game developer program for that

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404674,00.asp

as i said before, i5 is not the problem, dual core is, the big difference between i5 and i7 is multithreading count where i7 does double i think, but assuming you understand programming you'll know that in a game setting it's not efficient to have tons of threads open, that's more of a server thing

http://lifehacker.com/how-hyper-threading-really-works-and-when-its-actuall-1394216262

as for the BUS, in a computer you would recognize the bus as the wires tied together filling up the open space in a desktop. No the bus doesn't have to be wires, in fact in early computers it was vacuum tubes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_%28computing%29

but for the purpose of somebody learning about computers, it is essentially that mass of wires that you see in a desktop

sorry @YOLO_KING for this argument, i hope you learn something from all this

Answer 12

By, the way it's ssd

Answer 13

haha you're right, i can't believe i spent the time to argue, sorry to all of you that was quite immature of me