Best Computer Parts Today
Computer parts have come a long way since their basic structure has been established. The first hard disk as we know it was introduced by IBM in 1956, but it was very primitive and it only reached the size of tens of megabytes in the ‘80s and ‘90s when the real improvement began right up to 3TB capacity, the maximum size available today.
Processors were also perfected in the same period of time, they evolved from under 1MHz to more than 24GHz today (eight-core Intel Core i7 LGA1366). Floppy disk drives didn’t have such a spectacular growth in size, they pretty much went obsolete when they reached 120MB size and were replaced by optical drives. CD-ROM drives became available in the ‘80s and have improved very little since then. From 700MB optical discs barely made it to the 50GB (Blu-ray disc) mark, so it is very disappointing to see only a 70x size increase in 30 years, while even floppy drives grew from 360K to 120MB, 360x size increase.
The first graphics card was also introduced by IBM, in 1981. The MDA (monochrome display adapter) supported only text mode, 80 x 25 characters, and had 4kilobytes of on-board video memory. Today’s top graphics cards have two ~1GHz graphic processors with a total of 4GB of memory (Radeon 5970).
The on-board memory got a million times bigger (in capacity), while GPU frequency was practically inexistent when it was first introduced by IBM, so today 2GHz (2 x 1GHz) means at least a two billion times improvement.
The reasonable system memory size today is around 8-12GB, while the first personal computers had only a few kilobytes. It means that memory size grew approximately a million times.
Monitors didn’t improve much, because the human eye can only distinguish so many dots on a given surface size. MDA had 720 × 350 pixel, although they were not addressable independently, only through 256 fixed characters. Today an average monitor can go as high as 1920 x 1080, just a couple of times better than the first computer monitors, although computer graphics today are incomparable to what early monitors had to offer.
The best computer parts today cannot be identified so easily, because the computer industry has expanded to great dimensions. There are many computer parts that are the best in their own price category.
The best cheap microprocessor is arguably the Sempron 140, made by AMD, which is sold for $32 as a single core 2.7GHz processor, but with the appropriate motherboard (ACC technology) the second core can be unlocked.
The best dual core processor is made by Intel, the 2.8GHz Pentium G6950 that can be easily overclocked above 4GHz with any LGA 1156 mainboard. It costs $87, but it has other attractive features as integrated memory controller and integrated 3D capable GPU (also overclockable).
Core i3, i5 and i7 processors also have very good value, but AMD Athlon II and Phenom II processors are much cheaper and more appropriate for gaming. Some are even more efficient than their Intel counterparts.
A recently released 3TB external hard drive from Seagate can be considered the best at the moment, although 1.5TB and 2TB drives are more mature with low power consumption, large cache size, higher speeds and decent price tags.
Floppy drives are rarely used today. Blu-ray optical discs are slowly spreading (because of their high price), but DVDs are still the best when it comes to reliability, price and speed. Classic 700MB CDs are still used for audio and it’s very uncertain when/if they will go out of style, however CD-Writers and CD-ROM drives are no longer available for computers, DVD-writers and DVD-ROMs can be used instead because they support classic CDs and come at very low prices (~$20 DVD-writer,~ $15 DVD-ROM).
ATI (purchased by AMD) makes the best graphics card available today for $700, the Radeon 5970.
Today the best computer parts also include a $270 24” LED-backlit LCD monitor from ACER that uses only 17watts for displaying stunning high contrast FullHD images.
It also features integrated 2 x 2Watt stereo speakers.
Written by Karpat Zoltan, date Jul 05, 2010 in computer parts
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Awesome article and really informative. I love to read the information that you write on this website because it teaches me a thing or two about computer in general. My daughter wrote a lot of research papers based on the articles from this website and she would like to thank you as well. Before reading this, I had no idea that a computer had such a thing as an onboard memory. I find that Acer LCD to be quite inexpensive so I think I am going to get one for my husband as his birthday is next months. Any ideas where I can get one? Hugs!
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