Transcript Slide 1

Chapter 6
Understanding and Assessing Hardware:
Evaluating Your System
• To buy or upgrade? Evaluating your system:
– CPU
– RAM
– Storage devices
– Video output
– Sound systems
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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To Buy or To Upgrade?
Things to consider:
• Moore’s Law (Gordon Moore,
Intel) - CPU increases x 2 every
1.5yrs (On YouTube Moore
said every 1yr and later, every
2yrs)
• also RAM incrs 60% per 1yr;
HDD (hard disk drive) incrs
50% per 1 yr
• Cost of upgrading vs. buying
• Time installing software and
files
• Needs and wants
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Omit: Desktop or Notebook or …?
• Desktop
–
–
–
–
–
Hard to move around
Less expensive
Harder to steal
Easier to upgrade
Difficult to ship (repairs)
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Notebook
–
–
–
–
–
–
Portable
More expensive
Easily stolen
Difficult to upgrade
Prone to damage
-yet… ExpressCards can
be installed to expand
(analgous to expansoin
cards on desktop)
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Evaluating the CPU
• How does the CPU work? (works together with RAM)
– 2 parts:
– Control unit
– Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
– Machine cycle (4 steps):
• Fetch – Decode – Execute – Store
– Speed:
• GHz
– Common speeds: desktop: 2- 4 GHz
– Ex: 3 GHz = 3 giga Hertz = 3 billion cycles per second
(clock cycles ~ instructions per sec)
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Differentiating CPUs’ power
• Clock speed (previous slide)
• Number of cores (next slide)
– Core: A complete processing section from a CPU
embedded into the same physical chip
– Number of threads
– hyperthreading: a secondary set of instructions can start in
CPU before the last set is finished
• Cache memory – high speed expensive memory on the
CPU. Levels 1, 2, 3.
• Omit - FSB – front side bus (think bus route b/c it is the
route for signals between CPU and RAM). Not listed on
newest CPU spec list
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Multi-core processors
• Ex: In a Dual (2) core CPU,
one core executes the OS
and the other everything
else.
• With a multi-core processor
each task being executed
has the ALL of the CPU’s
resources and does not
share them with another task
as in the 3rd CPU pictured.
• 3rd picture shows
hyperthreading
Question: How many cores
on the 1st CPU? the 2nd?
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Evaluating the CPU
• Identify your CPU: right-click Computer,
Properties (or click Sys Props button in
Computer)
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Copyright © 2011
Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as Prentice
Hall
Some CPUs
CPUs for desktops diff than for laptops. See
Intel/AMD website for more models and spec
sheets.
desktop
Intel
Core i3, Core i5,
Core i7
AMD
Phenom X4
FX8150
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CPU spec sheet examples
• Example: Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo (64-bit):
• 2.66 Ghz speed
• 4 MB L2 cache
• 2C/2T (cores/threads)
• Bus/core ratio: 10
• 1066 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus)
Newer example: Intel Core i5-680 (64-bit):
• 3.6 GHz and w/ turbo 3.8 Ghz speed,
• 4MB Smart Cache,
• 2C/4T (cores/threads)
• bus/core ratio: 27
• 2.5 GT/s DMI (giga transfers per sec); no FSB # mentioned
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RAM (names for)
• Random access memory (RAM):
– Temporary storage (memory) also called Volatile
• Physical memory
• Memory modules fit on motherboard into
memory banks (slots)
• Module also called dual inline memory
modules (DIMMs)
– DDR2, DDR3
• DDR3 newer faster
– Omit: SDRAM (typical RAM type)
– (SRAM, DRAM -not on test)
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education,
Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
How Much RAM Do You Need?
• Kernel memory (that needed for OS)
• Windows 7 recommended memory min: 2 GB
• Need RAM for operating system, application
software, and data all to run at same time
• Sample RAM requirements:
Application
Minimum RAM Required
Windows 7
Microsoft Office Professional 2007
Internet Explorer 8
iTunes
Adobe Photoshop Elements
1000 MB
256 MB
128 MB
256 MB
512 MB
Total RAM required to run all
programs simultaneously
2,152 MB or 2.15 GB
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Typical types of RAM
Types common now:
• DDR2,
• DDR3 (newer)
DDR = double data rate; DDR3 is faster than and
newer than DDR2
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Adding RAM
• Increases system performance (May need to add
more if your system is slower over the years)
• Check your RAM amount: right-click Computer,
Properties (or click Sys Props button in Computer)
• To upgrade, find out from your manual, or
crucial.com req’d RAM amounts & specs for your
computer model:
– Type of module (common: RAM DDR3)
– Maximum total limit, maximum limit per slot
– Maximum limit for your operating system
• Common size: 4-24GB (expandable to 24 GB)
• Easy to do and reasonably priced
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Omit: Virtual Memory
• Memory bound (sys that runs out of RAM space)
• Virtual memory (also page file)– When system runs
out of RAM, hard drive space is resorted to.
• Drawback = speed is slowed. That is, RAM
operates in nanosecs (1/billion= 1/1,000,000,000) and
Hard Disk Drive operates in millisecs (1/1000)
• Increasing RAM can avoid this problem
• Identify your amounts of RAM and virtual memory:
type “system information” into search
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HDD and SSD
• HDD – hard disk drive
– Common storage capacity: 320 GB, 500
GB, 640GB, 1 TB, 2 TB – 4TB (Terabytes)
– Access time (in milliseconds) - time to
locate and make avail for processing
– Omit: Data transfer rate (in MB per sec)
– Spindle speed is measured in revolutions
per minute (rpm) typical: 5400 rpm, 7200
rpm, 10,000 rpm
• SSD – solid state drive
– expensive
– similar technology to the USB drive
(i.e. chips)
– no heat, no noise, no spinning discs
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How a Hard Disk Works
• Composed of iron oxide
coated platters stacked
on a spindle
• Data saved to the disk:
pattern of magnetized
spots (0s and 1s)
• read/write heads
access each platter
surface (platter=disc)
• Check your C: Drive
size: Right-click C:
drive, Properties
Platters
Read/write
head
Access arms
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Optical Storage
• Optical media: Store data as tiny pits burned into
a disc by a laser; nonpits=lands
– Prerecorded
• CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, BD-ROM
– Recordable
• CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R
– Rewritable (rewrite again and again)
• CD-RW, DVD-RW, BD-RE
• Omit: A DVD-RW burner will burn CDs and DVDs;
• Omit: A Blu-ray burner will most likely burn CDs
and DVDs
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education,
Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Omit: Optical Storage
• Be aware of the variety of DVDs and Blu-ray discs
– Read your products label to determine which to buy:
ex: DVD+R/RW (plus) DVD-R/RW (dash), DVD-RAM
• Omit: Speeds: write, rewrite, play in that order:
– Ex 52x32x52x - “52x” the original technology’s speed
• Going from CD, to DVD to Blu-ray (BD) drives,
their size capacities and speeds increase.
© 2009 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education,
Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Video Card
• Process binary data into
images
• Attach to motherboard as
expansion card (else
“integrated”)
• Contain memory:
video memory (VRAM)
types:GDDR3, GDDR5
• Contain own
Processor (GPU)
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Video Card
• To determine specs of your video card
(graphics card) -- go to screen resolution
settings screen in Control Panel, click
Advanced button
• Ports on video card:
– S-video to connect to TV, stereo or VCR,
– DVI to connect to digital LCDs
– HDMI to connect to HD TV
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Sound card
• Attach to motherboard as
expansion card (on lower
end PCs it may be
“integrated” on
motherboard)
• Process digital data into
sounds
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Omit: Evaluating System Reliability
• Performance:
– Is slow
– Freezes
– Crashes
• Upkeep and maintenance:
– System tools
– Control panel
– Update software, and hardware drivers
(Windows update can include Microsoft’s other
software)
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Omit: Upkeep and Maintenance
• System tools:
– Disk defragmenter
– Disk cleanup
– Add/remove programs
– Run anti-virus and anti-spyware scans
– Updates Windows
– Update programs
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Omit: The Last Resort
• If problems persist: First…
– Try reinstalling the software application that is the
probable cause (e.g. maybe you just attempted
installing a new program)
– Create a restore point
• Drastic measures…
– Reinstall (“recover”) the operating system
– Upgrade the operating system to the latest version
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