MOUSE AND KEYBOARD

The mouse and keyboard are also component of your computer. Mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of a small case, held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons. It sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels or laser lights”, which allow the user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features can add more control or dimensional input. The mouse's motion typically translates into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows for fine control of a Graphical User Interface.

While Keyboard is a peripheral partially modeled after the typewriter keyboard. Physically, a keyboard is an arrangement of buttons, or keys. A keyboard typically has characters engraved or printed on the keys; in most cases, each press of a key corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence; other keys do not produce any symbol, but instead affect the operation of the computer or the keyboard itself. A majority of all keyboard keys produce letters, numbers or signs (characters) that are appropriate for the operator's language. Other keys can produce actions when pressed, and other actions are available by the simultaneous pressing of more than one action key.

In choosing a keyboard or a mouse, I suggest that you choose a device that is comfortable for you to use. For me, maximizing a user potential is also a factor for you to consider in choosing a PC device such as mouse and keyboard.

Hey fellow PC addicts, check this out! I have found a product catalogue for a keyboard and mouse. Hope it will help you in choosing or upgrading your keyboard and mouse device. By the way, just to inform you I’m just giving some ideas. It’s still up to you whether you choose these products or not. But for my opinion, hey amigos these products are GREAT! To see the complete products that they’re offering, log on to www.a4tech.com. Or just click a4tech on my recommended link sites. Here are some of the products.

KEYBOARD

A4tech Slim Keyboard
Anion Keyboard – Model KA(S)-15M

A4tech Wired Keyboard
A-Shape Natural Multimedia Keyboard – Model KB(S)-8

A4tech Baby Keyboard
My Kids – Model KBS-6000p

MOUSE / MICE

A4tech R7 Power Saver
Power Saver R7 Wireless Optical Mouse – Model R7-72D

A4tech X6 Glaser Mice
Glaser Mouse – Model X6-70D

A4tech Wireless Optical Mice
Wireless Optical Mouse – Model RP-650Z

Sources: wikipedia.org / A4Tech

PC MONITOR

The monitor is another component of your computer. The text and images generated by your computer are displayed on its screen. There are two types of monitor for a desktop computer.

1. CRT Monitor – cathode ray tube (CRT) is an evacuated glass envelope containing an electron gun (a source of electrons) and a fluorescent screen, usually with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electrons. When electrons strike the fluorescent screen, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected and modulated in a way which causes it to display an image on the screen. The image may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictures (television, computer monitor), echoes of aircraft detected by radar, etc. CRT screens have much deeper cabinets compared to LCD screens for a given area. They can, however, display higher resolutions on a smaller screen. Also, LCDs have worse color rendition due to the fluorescent lights used as backlights, even though they can be brighter overall. The result is that CRTs are useful for displaying photos with high pixels per unit area and correct color balance, and for having large desktop area concentrated into a small screen. Having 1600 × 1200 resolution in 18 inch 4:3 rather than 20–24 inch on most LCDs also allows less eye movement to view different parts of the screen. In addition to offering high-resolutions in a smaller screen area, they offer the resolutions more cheaply for a given resolution. In general, rear-projection displays and LCDs require less power per display area, but plasma displays consume as much as or more than CRTs. However, CRTs still find adherents in computer gaming because of higher resolution per initial cost and small response time. CRTs are often used in psychological research that requires precise recording of reaction times. CRTs are also still popular in the printing and broadcasting industries as well as in the professional video, photography, and graphics fields due to their greater color fidelity and contrast, better resolution when displaying moving images, and better view from angles, although improvements in LCD technology increasingly alleviate these concerns.

2. LCD Monitor – A thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a variant of liquid crystal display (LCD) which uses thin film transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality. TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD, though it is usually synonymous with LCD. It is used in televisions, flat panel displays and projectors. Being slim and compact is one of the advantages of a LCD monitor. However, it is much expensive as compared to CRT.

Source: wikipedia.org

PC HARDWARE

Yes, computer being assembled even by you makes computers nowadays affordable. But you’re maybe wondering, how can I assemble my own computer? In this case, computer knowledge most especially on the PC’s hardware aspect is needed to be able for you to assemble or customize your desire PC. For beginners, let me first give you an idea about computer hardware.

A computer set includes a variety of components; one of the most important of these is the System Units.

It houses your motherboard, video card, hard disk, optical disc drive, and other internal parts of your computer.

1. Motherboard – the most important components of the computer. At one point or another, every other component connects to the motherboard. It is the largest board of the computer system. Typically, the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots and controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive. Collectively, all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard’s chipset.

2. CPU (Central Processing Unit) – The CPU is the computer’s brain. This device does all of the processing within the computer. The popular CPU manufacturers are AMD, Intel, Cyrix and Motorola. CPU speeds are calculated in terms of megahertz, this is known as the clock speed.

3. RAM – Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of computer data storage. Today it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow the stored data to be accessed in any order, i.e. at random. The word random thus refers to the fact that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data. The word RAM is mostly associated with volatile types of memory (such as DRAM memory modules), where the information is lost after the power is switched off. However, many other types of memory are RAM as well (i.e. Random Access Memory), including most types of ROM and a kind of flash memory called NOR-Flash.

4. Power Supply Unit – (Computer PSU) is the component that supplies power to a computer. More specifically, a power supply is typically designed to convert 100-120 V (North America and Japan) or 220-240 V (Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) AC power from the mains to usable low-voltage DC power for the internal components of the computer. Some power supplies have a switch to change between 230 V and 115 V. Other models have automatic sensors that switch input voltage automatically, or are able to accept any voltage between those limits. The most common computer power supplies are built to conform to the ATX form factor. The most recent specification of the ATX standard is version 2.2, released in 2004. This enables different power supplies to be interchangeable with different components inside the computer. ATX power supplies also are designed to turn on and off using a signal from the motherboard (PS-ON wire, which can be shorted to ground to turn on the PSU outside the computer), and provide support for modern functions such as the standby mode available in many computers.

5. Video Card – a board that plugs into a personal computer, into the motherboard to be precise, to give it display capabilities. The display capabilities of a computer, however, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video card) and the display monitor. A monochrome monitor, for example, cannot display color no matter how powerful the video adapter. Modern video adapters contain memory, so adapters contain memory, so that the computer’s RAM is not used for storing displays. In addition, most adapters have their own graphics coprocessor for performing graphics calculations. These adapters often called Graphics Accelerators. Video Card is also called video adapter, video board, video display board, graphics card and graphics adapter.

Today there are motherboards with built-in video card. Although video graphics of this built-in video card is not so powerful as compared to a high-end video card, still produces desirable graphics. Advantage of this built-in video card is that it lessens your cost because it is already installed in the motherboard, however, it uses some of the memory of your computer’s RAM and that it’s disadvantage.

6. Hard Disk – a hard disk stores the files and programs in your computer. It is permanently connected to your computer. Today an ordinary hard disk can store up to 80 gigabytes of information.

7. Optical Disc Drive – an optical disc drive (ODD) is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves near the light spectrum as part of the process of reading and writing data. It is a computer's peripheral device that stores data on optical discs. Some drives can only read from discs, but commonly drives are both readers and recorders. Recorders are sometimes called burners or writers. Common media and technology families include CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc.

8. 3 ½ Floppy Disk Drive – is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible ("floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be confused with "fixed disk drive", which is another term for a hard disk drive.

The monitor, printer, keyboard, mouse, external speaker, AVR / UPS and external modem are other components of a computer aside from the System Unit. To be able to assemble or upgrade your own PC, computer hardware knowledge particularly in the System Unit is more important to acknowledge.

Source: wikipedia.org

COMPUTERS NOW

Before having a Personal Computer at home is not an essential thing for most of us. Why? It's simple because of the high price during that time. I remember that was in the year 90's, when a low-end Personal Computer cost 30,000 pesos. Well that's depend on the computer brand and specs, not mentioning that it is only a desktop computer. So you're maybe wondering how much is a Laptop Computer that time? I saw an Acer Laptop Computer when I'm strolling at SM Megamall, a whopping 100,000 pesos is the price, WOW! But now, it's a different thing, due to the uprising need of internet as a mean for information and communication. The demand for computers also increases. Computers nowadays can be assembled depending on the user’s need and budget. And this makes a big different, making computer affordable to most people.