Computer Hardware Terms

Whether you're searching for a brand new computer or just parts to upgrade your current computer, you are bound to come across a few terms that seem confusing. Following is a brief list of popular computer hardware terms and their definitions.

Megabyte – Often simply expressed as "MB," one megabyte equals one million bytes. A byte is just a unit of information that represents an amount of storage, whether it refers to a hard drive, RAM, or many other applications. In perspective, one megabyte is enough to hold dozens of text documents.

Gigabyte – One gigabyte (GB) is equal to 1000 megabytes. Most modern computer hard drives will store an average of 60 to 80 gigabytes. Some of today's hard drives are capable of storing as much as 500GB of information. To put this into perspective, one gigabyte can store an hour, depending on the quality.

RAM – RAM is an acronym for "Random Access Memory," which is used to dynamically and temporarily store information for a computer. For example, things like pictures and movies are not stored using RAM; the computer uses RAM to let you access a picture or movie. Think of RAM as a computer's short-term memory.

CPU – CPU is an acronym for "Central Processing Unit," which essentially acts as the "brain" of the computer. The faster a computer's CPU, the faster it can perform operations. Most computers today feature a processor of 2GHz (two gigahertz) or above. Some cutting-edge computers now even use two processors, called a dual-core processing system.

Hard Drive – A computer hard drive is where all of your files and software reside. If RAM is computer's short term memory, then a hard drive is long term memory. Today's hard drives are rated by how many gigabytes (GB) they can store; the higher the number, the more it can store. If you'll be collecting a lot of music, photos, and video, consider buying a hard drive with a lot of memory, such as a 250GB hard drive.

CD/DVD-RW – A CD/DVD drive is simply a player built into the computer that allows you to read DVDs and CDs. Most of today's computers are sold with CD/DVD-RW drives, the "RW" standing for "re-writable." This means that in addition to reading CDs and DVDs, you can also burn things like movies, photos, and video onto blank CDs and DVDs.

When shopping for computer hardware, remember to educate yourself on terms you may not understand. You can simply enter the term into an Internet search engine like Google.com to find out what the term or word means.

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