new to computers? Here are a few basic things.

[Luke]

PCI-E 1.0/2.0

PCI Express was designed to replace the general-purpose PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) expansion bus, the high-end PCI-X bus and the AGP graphics card interface. Unlike previous PC expansion interfaces, rather than being a bus it is structured around point-to-point full duplex serial links called lanes. In PCIe 1.1 each lane carries 250 MB/s (250 million bytes per second) in each direction. PCIe 2.0 doubles this, emerging in late 2007, and is found on newer systems such as the Mac Pro. The latest proposed PCIe 3.0 standard will increase this further (scheduled for release around 2010).

PCI-E 2.0 is basically the same as 1.0 but has a higher bandwidth.

PCI-E is backwards compatible, meaning that a PCI-E 1.0 card will work in a PCI-E 2.0 socket, but not the other way around.

^^some information taken from wiki^^

RAM/MEMORY
Ram (random access memory) is what feeds information to you CPU (central processing unit) it uses cycles to send data to the CPU. There are many different types of ram but the most relevant are DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and GDDR. DDR is an older version of ram that is still in use but not as much as DDR2. DDR2 is the ram that is most commonly used in computers because of the price and performance. DDR3 is uncommonly used but it does have a slight performance increase over DDR2 but its price diverts people from using it. GDDR can be GDDR up to GDDR4 but is used on GPU's as there source of memory not as system memory. The main difference between DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and DDR4 is the amount of data that is processed in each cycle. EX. DDR2 memory processes more data each cycle then DDR.

All Ram is not compatible, if your motherboard supports DDR2 memory it does not support DDR or DDR3, only DDR2. Your Motherboard does not need to be compatible with GDDR ECT. Ram.

SATA-SATA2-ATA
SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) has a transfer rate of 1.5gbit/s. SATA is a computer bus primarily designed for transfer of data between a computer and storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives.
The main advantages over the older parallel ATA interface are faster data transfer, ability to remove or add devices while operating, and thinner cables that let air cooling work more efficiently.
SATA2 (Serial ATA II) has a transfer rate of 3.0gbit/s. SATA 2 only has faster transfer rates, other then that it is the same as SATA.

 

[Luke]

ATA (AKA IDE) has a transfer rate off 133 MB/s. This form of serial bus is most commonly used for optical drives as hdd's have moved onto SATA and SATA 2. The devices that do not use this connection anymore do so because it is a ribbon cable that restricts air flow and has quite slow transfer rates compared to SATA andSATA2.

DVI-VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a type of cable/connection for computer monitors.

DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is one of the newest cables/connections for computer monitors that allow better image quality over VGA. All newer GPU's have 2 of these connectors on them, instead of the older VGA.

USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to interface devices. USB was designed to allow peripherals to be connected using a single standardized interface socket and to improve plug-and-play capabilities by allowing devices to be connected and disconnected without rebooting the computer (hot swapping). Other convenient features include providing power to low-consumption devices without the need for an external power supply and allowing many devices to be used without requiring manufacturer specific, individual device drivers to be installed.
^^some information taken from wiki^^

ONBOARD VIDEO
Onboard video is a GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) that is incorporated into the motherboard but is less complex, it also has no memory so it draws memory support from the system memory (ram) and dedicates it solely for the onboard video to use, thus taking this amount from the total system memory.

ONBOARD SOUND

Onboard sound is basically a sound card that is incorporated into a motherboard. There is much debate whether an off board sound card produces better sound quality but it all depends on the user. It is also said that a good quality off board sound card improves system performance in computer games.

LCD-CRT

Until recently CRT (cathode Ray Tube) monitors had the advantage in color diversity and response times, but didn't last as long as LCD (Liquid Crystal display) monitors and were much larger. Within the last 2 years LCD monitors now have faster response times and their color diversity has improved a lot. After this being said there is no reason to buy a CRT monitor anymore because the same results can be displayed on a smaller, longer lasting, less energy using monitor.


I thought this could be useful to newbies but there really isn't a section for it. Is there anything else i should include?