You have $2,000.00 to get the best computer system you can get for the money. What system will you buy?

Essay by mitchwxy October 2004

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When the word "technology" is mentioned, most people will think about computers. Virtually every facet of our lives is affected by some computerized components. The appliances in our homes, like our televisions, have microprocessors built into them. However, the computer that everyone thinks of first is typically the personal computer, better known as the PC.

A PC is an information processing device. It can take information from a person, device or from the network and processes it. Once processed, the information is shown to the user on the monitor, output to the printer or stored on a device like a hard disk. The heart of the PC is the microprocessor with many other different parts that work together.

Among all these parts that are working together, there are some components which are essential to running the PC. Without these components, the PC will fail to function. These components, the motherboard, microprocessor, memory and hard disk, will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The motherboard (also called mainboards) provides the infrastructure for the entire computer. It is the main circuit board that all other circuit boards such as the sound card and other internal components plug in. The choice of motherboard will determine the CPU type and RAM (these 2 components will be discussed in the later paragraphs) that is available to the user. The motherboard first premiered in 1982 on the original IBM PC. It was a large printed circuit board that contained the 8088 microprocessor, the Basic Input / Output System (BIOS), sockets for the CPU's RAM and slots that auxiliary cards could plug into. Since then, motherboards have shrunk in size but their functionality has skyrocketed.

Another essential component is the microprocessor. It is more commonly known as a CPU (or central processing unit). It is a complete...