Deconstructing Your PC: What Do All the Components Actually Do?

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Have you ever wondered how computers actually work? Not too long ago in our history computers would take up entire rooms and had only enough processing power to do a few simple calculations. Now we can fit computers, with more processing power than the computers that sent a man to the moon, in our pocket.

Most people use these machine without any understanding of how they are put together or what the individual components inside actually do. It might as well be magic as far as they are concerned. And it’s understandable. Computers are complex machines. Not easy to understand.

So we are going to virtually deconstruct a typical PC and go through what each of the components actually does. We will be explaining it in layman terms as well, so don’t worry about getting bogged down with a lot of technobabble.

The Motherboard

You will hear the motherboard mentioned in connection with nearly every other component inside of a PC. The motherboard is, essentially, the large piece of circuitry that all the other components rest on. It is the section of the PC that it attached and fitted inside the case itself. It acts as a body for the machine, allowing all the individual components to do their job in tandem. This does mean if the motherboard gets damaged, the whole system can stall out and break.

 

The CPU

If the motherboard if the body, the CPU is the brain. Without this, you don’t have a PC. CPU stands for central processing Unit, not to be confused with the processors. The CPU is where all the commands are issued from. It controls all the other components and is what generates the information you see on your screen. When ever you click your mouse, the CPU passes that information to the relevant section. If you open a program, the CPU will start the code and activate it. The more powerful your CPU, the faster your machine will run.

 

Processors

The CPU handles all the big tasks, but a computer also has to carry out an insane amount of calculations a second, and the CPU cannot handle this alone along with managing all your apps, tasks and the other components. This is where your processors come in.

Processors do all the busy work. All the calculations or background checks the CPU is too busy to handle. The CPU is the queen and the processors are the workers bees. Having more processors will make your machine far more powerful, which is why you often see Quad-Core touted as a great thing to have.

RAM

The most common question I get asked is, what is RAM? RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Imagine it like a massive box of thumb tacks. And every time you need to open a program you need to tack it up on the wall. This is how RAM works. It is spare memory used only to run different programs.

Programs need to store information while they are running. And if they stored it on your hardrive it would slow down you machine constantly. So instead that information is stored on the RAM drive and then deleted once the program closes.

The more RAM your machine has, the more programs you can have open at once without issues. You also need a lot of RAM to run high-end games. So if you are building a PC make sure you check out the best ram for your PC on this German site.

 

Hard-Drive

Chances are you know what this one does. But for anyone who doesn’t, that’s OK. Simply put the Hard Drive is the memory center of your PC. It is where everything permanent is stored. The CPU knows how to run programs but is only a tiny chip. The Hard Drive is where the code is kept.

It is also where you store all your documents, music, photos and videos. You might also have heard the time SSD, which stands for Solid State Drive. These function the same as a hard drive, but allow for quicker memory retrieval and are far more powerful.

 

The Fan

I have said that the CPU is the most important part of the computer, and this is technically true. But for the survival of a PC, the fan is the most important part. CPU’s run hot. It is a side effect of the sheer power of the computations that go on within the case. Not to mention anything that uses electricity is going to run hot as it is.

The more your computer is processing, the hotter it gets. And if it gets too hot it can overheat and die. So the fan, as you can guess, keeps the system cool and functioning. The cooler a CPU is kept, the greater its efficiency.

 

Living In Third Person: Can Drones be Used With VR?

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VR is seemingly the future of digital technology. The gaming world has been waiting seemingly forever for VR technology to reach the stage we envisioned it in movies and TV shows. While it still has a fair way to go, the current state of VR tech is very impressive.

And another bit of future tech that has finally materialized into the commercial world is drones. Before the idea of drones was reserved for the dystopian visions of a cyberpunk future. Now anyone can walk down to the mall and grab themselves a powerful drone equipped with high-quality cameras and responsive controls.

 

Third-Person

Someone posed an idea to me the other day. What if you were wearing a VR headset and had a drone following just above your head. Then if you connected the drones camera feed to the VR headset you would essentially be living life like a third-person video game.

It would be an odd experience. The human mind is not used to experiencing reality in any other format than the first person. And VR technology on its own can be a huge adjustment for people. I have watched plenty of people trying to lean against virtual walls only to fall on their asses.

So we imagine that anyone using a drone to live in third-person would find themselves very disorientated and nauseous.

 

The Other Uses

But gimmicks asides using a VR headset at random with a drone has plenty of other advantages. As we all know, drones are great for photography, but as it stands at the moment photographers are limited to watching the camera feed through their phone screens or the screen on the remote control.

Using a VR headset would allow people more control over their drone photography. They could really study the subject of their photo and better navigate around the area.

Using drones to film movies is another use that has become extremely popular in recent years. In fact, we are already seeing entire movies shot with just drones. And using a VR headset would allow for greater control over what is being shot. It would also offer a unique experience for people to create VR specific movies.

 

Flying!

The biggest use of VR technology and Drones is, of course stimulating flying. And we don’t mean flying in a plane. We mean super-powered flying. By linking your drone to your VR headset you can move with it and feel like you’re flying. VR headsets have an odd effect on the human mind. As the VR world moves around you, you feel yourself being pulled around. Despite your body staying perfectly still.

As we mentioned, VR specific movies could be made. These movies could be used to simulate different flying experiences and trips. This would be fantastic for the travel industry. Imagine instead of having to travel abroad you could simply simulate flying through the hills of the Netherlands. Or soar along Route 66.

This would also be fantastic for accessibility. Sadly there are a lot of people with physical restrictions that struggle to travel abroad or take part in a lot of fun experiences life has to offer. So these VR simulations could provide them with the same chance everyone else has.

In conclusion, VR headsets and Drones seem to be a technological match made in heaven. The possibilities are seemingly endless. The only issue at the moment is the price tag attached to both these products. But, as with most tech, eventually, the price will drop and make it affordable for the general consumer.