IT Lesson #5 - Building a computer (part 4) - Box, Motherboard formats, hybrid hard drives and more.

We've seen the different types of CPU, but let's expand a bit on that. 1-2 h max)

- What happened to Cyrix and why? (Cyrix was a CPU manufacturer back in the 90's)
- What is the difference between a normal Intel processor and a Celeron processor?
- Why is the Celeron different in price? (is it more expensive or cheaper?)
- Why can I not use an ARM processor on a PC ?
- Can I run windows on ARM ?
- What are the major PC processor manufacturers?

- IMPORTANT: what is thermal compound / paste and why do we need it?

Storage / Hard drives: (30-45 min max)

- What is an M.2 Hard drive?
- M.2 --> AHCI vs NVMe What is the difference?
    (https://mygaming.co.za/news/hardware/118533-different-types-of-ssds-explained-sata-vs-m-2-vs-pcie.html)
What is a SSHD? (Hybrid SDD-HDD) check the Seagate firecuda for example-
PCIe hard drives: what types are there?
Why would I want a hard drive with M.2 interface and not a SATA interface?
What is SAS?

Graphics cards
What was AGP ? (read 5-10 minutes max)
NVIDIA or ATI ?
What is the effect of cryptocurrency mining on graphic card prices?
Remember that the Graphics card needs a lot of power. Have you picked a PSU that will supply all the power needed?
Check the differences between VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, Thunderbolt (mini display port)
Can HDMI transmit audio? If so in what formats? What else can HDMI be used for?

Power supply:

- Make sure the power rating of the PSU is higher than the total power consumed by the computer.
(Keep in mind that the PSU consumes a lot of power)

- Make a list of all the different connectors you will find on a PSU

BOX:

We have to pick a computer case for our project!
Make sure that the form factor of the box matches the size and form factor of the motherboard (IE that it fits)
Investigate why airflow is important
Pick a fan speed regulator, unless you picked liquid cooling.
Note why you picked

Monitor:

What is the difference between screen resolution and pixel density?
What is the difference between CRT, TFT, LED, and OLED?


FINAL:

Make two computer configurations:

- One for a high end gaming PC
- One for an affordable office computer

History:

Internet explorer vs Netscape. The first browser war.

IT Lesson #4 - Building a computer (part 3) - Graphics, power.

1.- Graphics card

What is a graphics card and what do you use it for?
What are the fundamental differences between a GPU and a CPU ?
What is a CPU / GPU core?
How many cores do CPUs usually have?
How many cores do GPUs usually have?
For a given graphics card how much power is consumed? (what are WATTS )
Why does that make a difference?

PCIe speed --> how does the speed on the motherboard PCIe port influence the performance of the graphics card?
What is SLI ?

What are polygons?
What are textures?
What is screen resolution?
What do 720p and 1080p stand for?
Color bit depth, how does that make a difference?
How is the performance of a CPU measured? And a GPU? how is this measure different?

Concepts:

Core(s)
Flop / teraflop
PCIe (+speed)
Polygons
Textures
Resolution
Color bit depth

------

Connectors:

Take a look at the different video connectors and standards and make a list.
Which are analog and which are digital? Why does that make a difference?

Build the computer (Task):

Pick a graphics card (or several) for your setup, make note of power consumption, extra electric connections to the PSU and anything else that you might need.

2.- Power

Check power supplies on a computer hardware website.

Make a list of different power supply standards (Types)
Make a list of important characteristics for a power supply
Make a list of the different connector types on power supplies

What voltages does a PC PSU work with?
What is the voltage on a USB port?

Pick a power supply that will work with the hardware you have selected so far and has enough power to work. Justify your choice in one paragraph.

3.- History

Read about:

DARPA //
DARPANET/ARPANET //
NORAD

4.- Extra!!

- What is pixel density? (PPI)
- What is the "Native resolution" of a screen?

IT Lesson #3 - Building a computer (part 2) - Data Storage

1.- First watch this youtube video:

A History of Hard Disk Drives (and How They Work)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLgzqanGHIg


2.- Concepts

• RPMs
• SATA version
• IDE, SCSI, SAS

Key questions:

• What are RPMs ? (on a disk drive)
• 5400 vs 7200 RPM, what's the difference?
• IDE, SCSI, SATA1,2,3 (etc),  SAS what are they?

3.- More concepts

• Bus speed vs disk speed
• Sequential Read / Write
• Random Read / Write

We will go back to hard drives in more detail later.

4.- A bit of history

• The GNU project
• Richard Stallman

Bonus:

Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostics from WDC, we will use it in a later module to check hard drive health.
https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en