Читать книгу Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies - Ciprian Adrian Rusen - Страница 18

It's time to share some information about the inner workings of a desktop or laptop PC. The big box that your desktop computer lives in is sometimes called a CPU, or central processing unit (see Figure 1-5). Right off the bat, you're bound to get confused, unless somebody clues you in on one important detail: The main computer chip inside that big box is also called a CPU. I prefer to call the big box “the PC” because of the naming ambiguity, but you’ve probably thought of a few better names.

Courtesy of Dell Inc.

FIGURE 1-5: The enduring, traditional desktop PC.

The big box contains many parts and pieces (and no small amount of dust and dirt), but the crucial, central element inside every PC is the motherboard. (You can see a picture of a motherboard here: www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/PRIME/PRIME-Z590-V).

The following items are attached to the motherboard:

 The processor, or CPU: This gizmo does the main computing. It's probably from Intel or AMD. Different manufacturers rate their processors in different ways, and it's impossible to compare performance by just looking at the part number. Yes, Intel Core i7 CPUs usually run faster than Core i5s, and Core i3s are the slowest of the three, but there are many nuances. The same goes for AMD’s Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 3 line-up of processors.Unless you tackle intensive video games, create and edit audio or video files, or recalculate spreadsheets with the national debt, the processor doesn’t count for much. You don’t need a fancy processor if you’re streaming audio and video (say, with YouTube or Netflix). If in doubt, check out the reviews at www.tomshardware.com and www.anandtech.com. Windows 11 requires an Intel Core processor from at least 2017, an AMD Ryzen processor from 2019 onward, or a processor from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 line-up.

 Memory chips and places to put them: Memory is measured in megabytes (1MB = 1,024KB = 1,048,576 characters), gigabytes (1GB = 1,024MB), and terabytes (1TB = 1,024GB). Microsoft recommends a minimum of 4GB of RAM. Unless you have an exciting cornfield that you want to watch grow while using Windows 11, aim for 8GB or more. Most desktop computers allow you to add more memory, while many laptops don’t.Boosting your computer’s memory to 8GB from 4GB makes the machine snappier, especially if you run memory hogs such as Microsoft Office, Photoshop, or Google Chrome. If you leave Outlook open and work with it all day and run almost any other major program at the same time, 16GB is a wise choice. If you’re going to do some video editing, gaming, or software development, you probably need more. But for most people, 8GB or 16GB will run everything well.

 Video card: Most motherboards include remarkably good built-in video. If you want more video oomph, you must buy a video card and put it in a card slot. Advanced motherboards have multiple PCI-Express card slots, to allow you to strap together two video cards and speed up video even more. If you want to run a VR or AR headset, such as an Oculus Rift, you’ll need a much more capable video setup. Note that Windows 11 requires a DirectX 12–compatible video card, which means all video cards released in 2016 and beyond should be fine.

 SSD: Solid-state drives, or SSDs, are fast and cheap storage. You don't have to buy an expensive drive to benefit from tangible speed improvements. If you don't want to wait a lot for your programs to load, and you don’t want Windows 11 to take minutes to boot, buying an SSD is a must. In comparison, hard disk drives (HDDs) are slow and dated. You should use an HDD for storing your personal files and backing up your data, not for running Windows 11, games, and apps. Remember, Windows 11 alone requires 64GB of storage, so don’t be stingy with your SSD: Choose one with at least 256GB of storage space.

 Card slots (also known as expansion slots): Laptops have limited (if any) expansion slots on the motherboard. Desktops contain several expansion slots. Modern slots come in two flavors: PCI and PCI-Express (also known as PCIe or PCI-E). Many expansion cards require PCIe slots: video cards, sound card, network cards, and so on. PCI cards don't fit in PCIe slots, and vice versa. To make things more confusing, PCIe slots comes in four sizes — literally, the size of the bracket and the number of bumps on the bottoms of the card is different. The PCIe 1x is smallest, the relatively uncommon PCIe 4x is considerably larger, and PCIe 8x is a bit bigger still. PCIe 16x is just a little bit bigger than an old-fashioned PCI slot. Most video cards these days require a PCIe 16x slot. Or two.If you’re buying a monitor separately from the rest of the system, make sure the monitor takes video input in a form that your PC can produce. See the upcoming section “Displays” for details.

 USB (Universal Serial Bus) connections: The USB cable has a flat connector that plugs into your USB slots. Keep in mind that USB 3 is considerably faster than USB 2, and any kind of USB device can plug into a USB 3 slot, whether or not the device itself supports USB 3 level speeds.USB Type-C (often called USB C) is a different kind of cable that requires a different kind of slot. It has two big advantages: The plug is reversible, making it impossible to plug it in upside down, and you can run a considerable amount of power through a USB-C, making it a good choice for power supplies. Many laptops these days get charged through a USB C connection.Make sure you get plenty of USB slots — at least two and preferably four or more. Pay extra for a USB C slot or two. More details are in the section “Managing disks and drives,” later in this chapter.

Here are a few upgrade dos and don’ts:

 Do not let a salesperson talk you into eviscerating your PC and upgrading the CPU: Intel Core i7 isn’t that much faster than Intel Core i5; a 3.0-GHz PC doesn't run a whole lot faster than a 2.8-GHz PC. The same is true for AMD’s Ryzen 7 versus Ryzen 5.

 Do not expect big performance improvements by adding more memory when you hit 16GB of RAM, unless you’re running Google Chrome all day with 42 open tabs or editing videos.

 Do consider upgrading to a faster video card or one with more memory if you have an older one installed. Windows 11 will take good advantage of an upgraded video card.

 Do wait until you can afford a new PC, and then give away your old one, rather than nickel-and-dime yourself to death on little upgrades.

 Do buy a new SSD if you can't afford to buy a new PC and you want more performance. Install Windows 11 and all your apps and games on the SSD. No other hardware component delivers bigger performance improvements than the switch from HDD to SSD.

If you decide to add memory, have the company that sells you the memory install it. The process is simple, quick, and easy — if you know what you’re doing. Having the dealer install the memory also puts the monkey on the dealer's back if a memory chip doesn’t work or a bracket snaps.