Update on Parts...and Some New Toys- Blog Post 5

Error! Error! System failure! Devices shutting down! My motherboard died...

Sadly, yes, it died and I was really upset. Not just because it died, but because of WHEN it died. I had just finished setting up the BIOS and my desktop and I shut down my PC for the night. However, the next morning I found it unresponsive. There will be no funeral because I threw it away along with many of the parts I've already showed you. But now I have new parts and new toys! So please use these for reference from now on or you'll be really confused.

RAM: RAM stands for random access memory. It's your computer's short-term memory system that stores only a handful of information. However, short-term memory is erased when the computer turns off. Now obviously, more RAM is better; RAM is between 2 and 16 GB (this new one is 8 instead of the old 2 GB). More short-term storage allows for your computer to smoothly run multiple programs at once. If you realize that your computer is sluggish, this is because you don't have enough RAM. The best example of typical RAM usage is when working on a document or file such as a blog post like this or a Word document before they're saved. When you close your computer, there's a chance that the RAM will erase itself in order to be available the next time it opens up so that you have enough space to continue working on multiple programs. That's why you always save documents before you close your computer.

Hard Drives: Now I bet everyone's heard of a hard drive before. A hard drive or HDD is used for the opposite of RAM: long-term data storage. Hard drives' storage capabilities are measured, like RAM, in gigabytes and megabytes, though it's very rare to find an HDD that only holds less than 250 GB. Hard drives are very useful for storing large amounts of data, and range from the smaller 250 GB to up to 5 TB (terabytes). That's 931.323 GB in one storage unit. That's a lot of storage!

Did you know? Before HDDs, people used floppy disks to store data. The average floppy disk only held 1.44 MB! You would need 5,556 floppy disks just to download Minecraft.\











Cooling Methods: There's a lot of cooling options, I'm just going to say that now. From old computers' vacuum tubes to new-fangled water-cooling systems, cooling has changed for the better, and is always a necessary component of using your computer. All computer use a heatsink and fans as their stock method of cooling. My new setup uses one case fan and one stock fan/heatsink combination. My friend's PC uses a water cooling system which acts exactly like a car's radiator. It has plastic pipes that connect all over the inside of the computer and uses water to draw heat from the parts the water-filled pipes run over. A radiator keeps the water at a certain temperature so that it properly draws heat from the parts. Water cooling is the most effective way of cooling parts, but it can be tricky to install and sometimes the water might leak and completely ruin your PC.

This is the heatsink/fan combo that came with the processor. I didn't know it already came with thermal paste (another coolant applied directly onto the back of the processor) on the bottom of the heatsink and I got it all over my fingers. Luckily I had more or else I'd have baked my processor like a cookie.



Here are all the new parts I'm using. Their descriptors are on the other blog posts but I'll test your knowledge and see if you can guess which ones are which. The answers will be at the bottom.

Which part is this?
a. Processor
b. Motherboard
c. RAM
d. A silicon thingy with transistors

Which part is this?
a. Processor socket
b. It's THE processor
c. RAM slot
d. Screwdriver

Which parts are these?
a. Storage devices
b. RAM sticks
c. Orange Fanta
d. Ethernet PCI Adapters

Which part is this?
a. It's a fan duh
b. Airplane blackbox
c. PSU
d. Hard drive

Finally...

Which part is this?
a. iPad Touch Pro 
b. Kindle Fire
c. Acer Monitor
    d. Small TV Screen

Answers:
B
A
A
C
C

P.S. I wrote this entire blog using the computer I built. On my next post, I'll walk you guys through the basics of navigating the BIOS and setting up windows. Thanks for reading and I'll see ya next time!