Posts Tagged ‘keyboard’

How to learn to use the keyboard

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

When I was a young boy I was watching people typing very fast on computers in the movies and I could not believe my eyes. I remembered that a few years back in college I had attended a class of typing… on a classical typing machine and I had never learnt how to do it properly. It was almost unbelievable to see these people typing while they were talking to someone else.

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The years went by, and today I type as quickly as those characters in the movies. And there is more. As I revisit those movies and I take a closer look at what they are doing on computers I realize now that they were faking it. There is no way they could operate those programs by randomly striking the keys./learninguspc_stickers_s.jpg” alt=”"

Even though I understood the miracle of television, I cannot explain how I came to write so fast and to know every key on the keyboard. The only explanation I have is that I have been working very, very much on computer. If anyone asks me to help them do the same I couldn’t.

Unlike me, there are very many people who know<strong> how use the keyboard</strong>. Let’s see an eight-step crash course to how to get acquainted with the keys.

Step 1: on our computer we choose the On-Screen Keyboard. To do that we go to Start button, find All programs, Accessories, and Accessibility heading.

Step 2: we click on the blue toolbar to make sure the window is active.

Step 3: we press the Alt key and keep it down while pressing Print Screen key to copy the image of On-Screen Keyboard. Alt key can be found by looking for the key that has Alt imprinted on it. Print Screen is the key that has PrtSC on it.

Step 4: the copied image must be pasted in a Word document.

Step5: we print the page in Word in as many copies as we can.

Step 6: in order to play the acronym game, we must write our name vertically down the left side of the sheet.

Step 7: with a pen, maybe with different color for each letter, we could trace the letters. We mark the letters that compose our name on the printed keyboard.

Step 8: we can think about spelling a word that would begin with the letters of our name. This will create a mental connexion between the words we say and their counterpart letters on the keyboard.

This is one exercise that can help us create mental connexions between things pertaining to our own universe and the keyboard. It may actually work. But this is only a first step in getting acquainted with <strong>how to use the keyboard</strong>. It takes a lot of practice and very many hours or even days to type fast and correctly on the computer keyboard.

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Alienware Computer Accessories

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Alienware is a top gaming PC manufacturer, purchased by Dell back in 2006. The latest Alienware masterpiece is a 11.6” gaming laptop. It’s based on a low power 1.3GHz Intel dual core processor (Pentium SU4100 or Core 2 Duo SU7300) and nVidia’s most powerful graphics card ever used in a sub-15” laptop, Geforce GT 335 with 1GB of GDDR3 memory. Although the graphics card is not the best, keep in mind that it has to control only a 1366 x 768 resolution screen, so most games will run without any problems using medium or high graphics detail settings. Alienware desktops on the other hand are nothing special (except for the case design). They include mostly standard components and a liquid cooling system that (or something similar) can also be installed in almost any non-Alienware computer.
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Computer accessories made by Alienware are a completely different story. For example Alienware monitors are specially designed for high definition gaming. This monitor looks the same as the others, but it has very realistic RGB colors and the response time is under 2ms that makes it perfect for gaming. The next monitor however offers something special, a very wide viewing angle, however the resolution is not so great, only 2048 x 1536. Other Alienware computer accessories include very resistant led-backlit keyboards designed especially for gaming.

The keyboard can be lit up in 20 unique colors with up to 400 possible combinations.Alienware also designed a very practical gaming mouse. It isn’t very stylish, but it’s very comfortable and it lets you play for many hours non-stop without hurting your hand even in the most action packed games.Considering the fact that most passionate gamers play well into the night, some soundproofing comes in handy. Alienware manufactures some really cool headphones too.Also designed for many hours of non-stop use, the earpieces surround your ears without pressing them to your head, and they produce a very high quality sound making it easier for midnight gamers to abandon their huge 5.1 speaker systems and let people sleep in the rooms nearby.If you have bought a very expensive Alienware gaming laptop it’s essential to carry it in a very secure and resistant bag.The Alienware Orion Messenger Bag supports laptops with screen sizes up to 17”, and offers great protection thanks to many safety features that are achieved by an optimal combination of different resistant materials:

Some people may not pay attention to your cool Alienware bag, so it’s best to buy an ware original Alienware Alpha-4 Trucker Caps too. Of course this is not always a good thing, it may draw unwanted attention from muggers and thieves. It would make more sense to choose, carry the Alienware bag or ware the cap, but not both at the same time.

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Desktop Computer Accessories

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Desktop computer accessories today include thousands of different devices. To a simple desktop with the right interfaces almost any laptop/desktop accessory can be connected, and even some industrial accessories too, like robotics controllers (and robots), different types of microscopes, telescopes, oscilloscopes …and so on. This is possible because personal computers are becoming more and more powerful every year. Those years are over when only NASA had computers with sufficient (?) speed to guide Apollo spaceships to the Moon and back.
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There are a few types of computer accessories:

  1. Input: data flows from the device to the computer
  2. Output: data flows from the computer to the device
  3. Input & Output: data flows in both directions
  4. Other non-digital accessories: there’s no data transfer

Input devices (or accessories) include keyboards, mice, microphones (and other audio sources), webcams, digital video cameras, TV-Tuners, scanners, DVD-ROMs, power reset and sleep buttons …etc. Output devices (or accessories) are screens, printers, speakers, projectors, LEDs. I/O devices (or accessories) are mostly storage and communication devices, like dvd-writers, external hard disks and networks, The Internet, telephone lines …etc.

Non-digital accessories are components or external devices that ensure the right electrical and thermal conditions for the computer’s components and accessories. Accessories that belong to this category are fans, power adapters, fluorescent lights, cables …etc. Today’s most frequently used desktop computer accessories are the ones that are already incorporated in most laptop computers: Keyboard – the best input device ever, in the last 100 years no one came up with a better idea than the QWERTY keyboard

Pointing device – laptops and some desktop keyboard include touch pads, but the best pointing device ever developed is the computer mouse, undefeated since apple first introduced it (the original Apple one-button mouse). Speakers – that’s something that any digital or analog device must have for warning sounds or simply for music/film/game/application sound. Image input – usually a simple webcam, incorporated in (or placed on) the top of the laptop/desktop screen, that’s used together with a microphone in most cases. Printers are becoming less practical desktop computer accessories, because storing stuff on hard drives, dvds or on the internet is much safer than keeping physical documents, photos or videotapes. Authorities and firms in evolved states already accept documents in digital form, thus simplifying procedures and making everything more efficient. In more primitive states you still have to do everything by going down to the authorities, filling out forms, taking documents and files to different institutes in the city or state and paying at a completely different place. Faxes are also obsolete, in fact they had a very short life. Although the fax was invented a long time ago, when it was finally manufactured at a larger scale the Internet and free E-Mail services were already wide-spread and far more practical.

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Computer Accessories For Kids

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Before presenting some interesting computer accessories for kids, it needs to be said that today’s kids all over the world have no problems with standard computer keyboards, mice, touch pads and touch screens. Many people don’t realize it, but all basic input/output devices were designed to be as simple as possible, so it’s no big surprise that even kids can easily use them.
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As if standard keyboards wasn’t simple enough, Sakar managed to simplify it even more:

The Crayola 11071 Keyboard is one of the best products from Sakar. The most important thing about it is that unnecessary keys were eliminated, and the rest is separated in appropriate groups by colors. This way any child will learn the differences between keys right from the start. By color it’s easier to differentiate numbers from letter, and signs from function keys.
Chester Creek Technologies has simplified the mouse, bringing it back to the first Apple mouse design with only one button.
Apple’s one button mouse designed ~30 years ago for Macintosh computers:

Chester Creek Technologies Ctmo One-button Optical Tiny Mouse, designed for kids:

There isn’t much to say about this tiny mouse. It has a friendly exterior, and its basic functionality makes us realize that for many applications one mouse button is enough.

Other computer accessories designed for kids are not so practical, they are normal computer accessories with an exaggerated exterior.
The C-3PO MIMOBOT flash drive is a nice gift for kids (or for any Star Wars fan). It’s preloaded with Star Wars-themed bonus wallpapers, screensavers, avatars, sound software and more.

Personalized mouse pads are also appropriate gifts for kids and adults, although they also lack any practical advantages over a simple, mono color mouse pad. Early optical mice had a problem with mouse pads that had many colors, but the latest GLaser mice work flawlessly on any flat surface, even on transparent glass.

A more useful computer accessory would be a computer desk in the kid’s favorite color or the universal pink for girls:

Paired with an appropriate ergonomic chair:

This combination is appropriate for kids because the desk is lower than normal and it also has a bottom part that raises the floor by 10cm, so kids may rest their feet if they sit on an appropriate height chair. Some manufacturers also offer pink computer cases, if the pink chair and desk weren’t enough:

It’s basically a simple ATX form factor computer case, compatible with today’s most configurations. The manufacturer of these cases is Raidmax, a very serious brand known for gaming and server cases. On the official website the pink case is listed in the Corporate section, which is a bit odd. I can’t imagine serious programmers, web designers, accountants or bankers working on such machines.

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Computer Server Accessories

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Servers are the most efficient computers available. Most of them are designed for fast data processing and transmitting, and not for gaming. Even if a server has a graphics card (not necessary in all situations) it’s a very slow one, on-board with 8-32MB of memory, enough for displaying statistics and diagnostic data. Their hard disks on the other hand are very fast, usually 10,000 or 15,000RPM, for very fast and dependable data access. Their memory modules are also different from desktops, they need to be very reliable, meaning that ECC (error correction cycle) RAM is mandatory. For even faster data access, servers also need huge quantities of memory, server motherboard usually support up to 32 memory modules, 4GB each.
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Because servers don’t really need monitors, especially if they are used in groups of 4-128, special computer cases were designed for them called Racks, which come in many different sizes for different destinations. For every such server group it’s sufficient to have one keyboard and one monitor, so a manufacturer called NORCO designed a very special, laptop-like monitor and keyboard that slides in one of the server rack bays, thus saving a lot of space. It doesn’t require any software, the server administrator selects the server unit he wishes to control from a simple on-screen menu, so it’s a very reliable server computer accessory.

Another useful server computer accessory is a special 3.5” hard disk rack that houses two removable 2.5” hard disks. This can be used for lowering hard disk cost by using two 2.5 7200RPM drives instead of one 15000RPM drive, or to improve speed by using two SSDs instead of one 3.5” high-rpm noisy hard drive. It’s made of aluminum and plastic, for optimal cost and durability. For data two S-ATA cables are needed, one for each hard drive, but only one power cable is required, because 2.5” drives have very low power requirements. It also has LED indicators for both power and HDD access, and a practical security lock prevents accidental removal of drives.

To bring down cost even more, RAIDON designed a very useful memory card to S-ATA rack. It fits into a 2.5” hard drive bay and uses to Compact Flash memory cards in RAID 1 or NRAID mode. This is not exclusively a server computer accessory, it also fits into any S-ATA laptop drive bay, improving both performance and battery life. For only $35 + cost of CF cards you can upgrade any S-ATA compatible computer’s hard drive to server-like speed. One of the cheapest and most useful computer accessories is a 5.25” to 3.5” bay converter. Basically it made of 4 pieces of metal and 4 pieces of rubber. One part has to be mounted to the side of the 5.25” bay, and the other one that’s connected with screws (but separated by pieces of anti-vibration rubber) has to be mounted on the 3.5” hard drive. The procedure is the same for the other side too. It costs only $6, but spares you a lot of stress and headaches normally caused by loud variable noises.

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Useful Computer Accessories

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

The development of USB ports began in 1994 by the biggest computer companies, after it became obvious that too many different interfaces will cause many compatibility issues later on. The first USB controller was made by Intel in 1995, but the 1.0 version standards were adopted only in 1996. USB 1.0 had a maximum transfer rate speed of 12Mbits/s (1.5MB/s) that was later supplemented (USB version 1.1 adopted in 1998) with an optional lower transfer rate (1.5Mbits/s) for I/O devices that don’t need 12Mbits/s, like keyboards, mice and joysticks.
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Slowly, but surely USB became the main port for external computer devices, although it always had some competition. At first COM, LPT and PS2 ports were alternatives, which can still be found on most motherboards, but more serious adversaries are FireWire and eSATA. There are many popular devices that connect to the computer through USB, and many useful computer accessories are related to these devices. Today most keyboards come with USB connectors, allowing users to connect more than one to a single computer, each designed for a specific game or application (ex: gaming keyboards, numpads, A-shape keys for typing etc…).

The most common problems with keyboards are placement and keeping them clean. If your computer desk has a proper height and you feel comfortable typing on its surface then it’s best to place the keyboard in front of the monitor, leaving enough space in front of it for the armrest area. If the desk is too high, there are many solid keyboard drawers available that can easily be mounted under the desk with only 4 screws.

This particular model costs about $127, but it comes with a soft palm rest area and a heavy duty mouse pad. With this accessory the best way to work on the PC is to adjust your chair to the proper height so that your arms are on the armrest and your palm on the soft pad in front of the keyboard. Prevention is far better than treatment, so to prevent dirt from building up in your keyboard it’s recommended to use keyboard covers called keyboard skins. They are made of a rubber-like silicone material that is very flexible and resistant. It fits snugly on the surface of the keys and flexes easily with every keystroke, reducing some of the noise and makes typing more comfortable because of its soft surface.

Another useful computer accessory is for external hard drives, or – better said – for external use of internal hard drives.

This is basically an opened external hard disk rack that permits you to change the hard drive very easily. With this accessory you can make and organize huge archives made of many 2TB hard drives.

It has a USB 2.0 port for transfer rates up to 60MB/s (theoretically), while the eSATA port makes it possible to use any hard drive as if it was installed in the computer and connected to one of the primary S-ATA ports on the mainboard.

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Computer Blue Tooth Accessories

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Bluetooth is a short distance radio wave communication method. Compared to other similar technologies like Wi-Fi, it’s very slow, but speed wasn’t the main concern when it was invented. Bluetooth is mainly used in mobile phones to communicate with hands free earphones and microphones, but its applicability doesn’t stop there. It’s also suitable for small file transfers between phones or between a phone and a PC. Sharing a dial-up (HSDPA, 3G, WCDMA …etc.) internet connection is also possible through Bluetooth between a mobile phone and a PC (in both ways). The Bluetooth specification was developed in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who worked for Ericsson in Sweden. The first two versions, 1.0 and 1.0b had a lot of problems, the biggest of them all was poor interoperability between two different brand devices.
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With the implementation of version 1.1 in 2002 most problems previous versions were fixed, but the first practical connection was possible with Bloutooth V1.2 (ratified in 2005) that had a 721kbit/s (90K/s) transfer rate speed. This was enough for small jpegs, sharing an internet connection, and of course for high-quality audio devices. Most laptops, phones and other devices available in stores today use Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate) communication modules. Ratified in 2007 the new Bluetooth version supports transfer rates up to 3Mbits/s (up to 384KB/s), still not comparable with Wi-Fi speeds that range from 54Mbit/s to 600Mbit/s, but enough for smaller file transfers and Internet connection sharing.

Although two more revisions have been made to the Bluetooth communication method, for some reason manufacturers hesitate to adopt the new specifications. Version 3.0 supports transfer speeds of up to 24Mbit/s (3MB/s) while Bluetooth version 4.0 has focused on efficiency, and kept the same maximum speed as v3.0. For computers version 2.1 is more than enough. Bluetooth connections are used for connecting keyboards, mice, wireless headsets …etc. to the computer. None require greater transfer speeds or bigger than 20m functioning distances. One of the most popular accessories for computers connected through Bluetooth is the Apple wireless keyboard:

It’s small, resistant and with a stylish aluminum exterior captivates anyone’s attention. Keeping the number of cables around the computer is essential, so using wireless headsets for Skype, Yahoo Messenger and other types of chat programs that allow voice and video calls makes a lot of sense. With Wi-Fi capabilities spreading to all devices a Bluetooth modem doesn’t seem so practical anymore, it may have some advantages in specific special situations.

USB to Bluetooth adapters have been significantly reduced in size, for laptop mice (but also compatible with any Bluetooth device) they made a very small adapter that has a body of a few millimeters beyond the USB plug itself, and it’s also rounded so you don’t accidentally brake it off with a cable or while getting the laptop in or out of the laptop case. In conclusion Bluetooth is a very handy connection type, hopefully most manufacturers will start to adopt the new 4.0 standards until the end of this year.

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All Computer Accessories

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Many years ago the computers were just some really big and unpractical devices that were capable of just some simple and basic operations. But in time they evolved a lot and today they had become really small and lightweight devices that are also capable of very advanced tasks. The computers had spread all over the world, in so many domains, that today in 2010 we can definitely say that they are a part of our life. Either if we use them for work or for personal fun, they had become indispensable for so many of us that we can’t even imagine how the world would have been today without the computers.

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As you might already know, a computer is made out of 2 basic components: the monitor, and the central unit that contains all of the internal components – hard drive, processor, RAM memory, video card, etc. So these are the two basic components, that a computer definitely needs to have, and the other components can be considered accessories. It is true that we can’t use a computer without having at least one of these components : mouse or keyboard. So even though they are also accessories, they can be considered indispensable accessories. We guess that anyone who used a computer so far knows what a keyboard does, and which are the purposes of the mouse, so we won’t discuss about them anymore. But we will discuss about all the other computer accessories that you can use.

First of all there are the speakers. They are accessories, but they are also very important, and anyone usually has them. They can have all sorts of shapes and sizes and they are the devices that are giving the sound from the computer. So either you are playing a video game, watching a movie or listening to some music, you will definitely need some computer speakers. But if you don’t want to use some speakers, then you can choose to use headphones. These are much smaller than the speakers and they are giving quite a good and accurate sound. And the best part is that you can play the music really loud, because only you will hear the sound, and you won’t disturb the others around you.




Another audio computer accessory that you can use is the microphone. You can use this one for communicating over the internet with friends or family and also to record your voice or any other sound you want. There are microphones with all sizes and shapes, depending on the audio quality you are searching for. Another computer accessory that is also used for online chatting is the webcam. This is usually a small device that is filming you and allowing other people on the internet to see you….only if you agree with this of course. It is really useful for the times when you are far away from your family and friends, and you want them to see you, and also you to see them. The webcams also have a lot of shapes and sizes, and most of the new notebooks today come with an integrated webcam, so you don’t even need to buy one.

Other computer accessories are the gaming accessories. So these are used when playing video games, and they are meant to improve the gaming experience. The most popular accessory is the steering wheel which of course will be used in racing games. Most of the steering wheels today also come with pedals and a gear shifter, so the driving experience will seem more realistic. Another gaming accessory is the joystick, and this one can be used in many types of games, and can allow you to play the game easier, and feel it better.




The printers, scanners and all the other similar devices can also be considered computer accessories and they can be really useful for printing and scanning documents, pictures, or any type of files you want.

So these were all the accessories that you can use with your computer. If we missed some just let us know, and if you have some good computer accessories that you are really proud of, tell us all about them!

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Basic Computer Hardware

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Computer hardware is the physical part of the computer including the digital circuits inside the computer as opposed to the software that carry out the computing instructions. The hardware of a computer is unlikely to change frequently unless due to the crash or for upgrading them. The devices that is capable of storing, executing system instructions and controlling other logical outputs.

Hardware comprises all of the physical part of the computer such as Monitor, CPU, motherboard, ram, CD-Rom, printer, scanner, hard disk, flash drive (AKA pen drive), processor, pci buses, floppy disk, power supply, VGA card, sound card, network interface card, peripherals, joystick, mouse, keyboard, foot pedal, computer fan, camera, headset and others.



CPU (Central Processing Unit): CPU or central processing unit relates to a specific or processor. The performance of the computer is determined by the CPU chip (processor speed) and the other computer circuitry.



Hard Disk Drives – Disk drive is the mechanism to run the disks. All disks need a drive to get the information, read it and put it back to the disks. Hard disk is used to store the data permanently. Often the terms disk and drive used to describe the same thing but it should be clear that a disk is a storage device.



Modem – A modem is used for the modulation and demodulation of the data that is transferred through the modem and the telephone lines. Modem translates the data from digital to analog from analog to digital. Because on the telephone lines data can travel in the form of the analog signals and in the computer data transmits in the form of digital signals. Modems are measured by the speed which is called baud rate.



Video cards-Video cards allow computer to display video, graphics and animation. Some video cards allow computers to display television. A video card with a digital video camera allows users to produce live video. A high speed broadband internet connection is required to watch the videos on net.



Network cards: Network interface cards allow PCs to connect with each other and communicate. Every network computer is required to have a NIC card. NIC cards are required both in wired and wireless networking.



RAM (Random Access Memory) RAM is a memory that is being used by the computer to store the information temporarily. For example when some work is performed on some applications that work is temporarily stored in the RAM. More RAM in the computer more faster computer works.



Cards – Cards are the hardware components that are added to the computer to increase their functionalities and capabilities.

Memory – Memory is the one of the important piece of the hardware. Sometimes memory chip memory is confused with the hard disk memory. Sometimes unallocated space of the hard disk is used as virtual memory also known as page file. This type of memory is a temporary memory and is used actual memory is less and requires some additional memory to perform a specific task.

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Computer And Its Parts

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

If you use a desktop computer, you might already know that there isn’t any single part called the “computer.” A computer is really a system of many parts working together. The physical parts, which you can see and touch, are collectively called hardware. Software, on the other hand, refers to the instructions, or programs, that tell the hardware what to do.

The illustration above shows the most common hardware in a desktop computer system. Your system may look a little different, but it probably has most of these parts. A laptop computer has similar parts but combines them into a single notebook-sized package.


The system unit is the core of a computer system. Usually it’s a rectangular box placed on or underneath your desk. Inside this box are many electronic components that process information. The most important of these components is the central processing unit (CPU), or microprocessor, which acts as the “brain” of your computer. Another component is random access memory (RAM), which temporarily stores information that the CPU uses while the computer is on. The information stored in RAM is erased when the computer is turned off.



A mouse is a small device used to point to and select items on your computer screen. Although mice come in many shapes, the typical mouse does look a bit like an actual mouse. It’s small, oblong, and connected to the system unit by a long wire that resembles a tail. Some newer mice are wireless. A mouse usually has two buttons: a primary button (usually the left button) and a secondary button. Many mice also have a wheel between the two buttons, which allows you to scroll smoothly through screens of information.



A keyboard is used mainly for typing text into your computer. Like the keyboard on a typewriter, it has keys for letters and numbers, but it also has special keys. The function keys, found on the top row, perform different functions depending on where they are used. The numeric keypad, located on the right side of most keyboards, allows you to enter numbers quickly. The navigation keys, such as the arrow keys, allow you to move your position within a document or webpage.

A monitor displays information in visual form, using text and graphics. The portion of the monitor that displays the information is called the screen. Like a television screen, a computer screen can show still or moving pictures.

There are two basic types of monitors: CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors and LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors. Both types produce sharp images, but LCD monitors have the advantage of being much thinner and lighter. CRT monitors, however, are generally more affordable.




Speakers are used to play sound. They may be built into the system unit or connected with cables. Speakers allow you to listen to music and hear sound effects from your computer.

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