Trying to understand hardware

[Seaborn63]

I know the names of of all the parts I need, but I don't really understand what they do.  I've watched some youtube vids and read some guides but I'm still not getting it.

 

Does anyone have any helpful links for helping an idiot like me understand what a CPU does and how it works, along with GPUs, MBs, etc?  I want to understand how it all works and works together.

 

Thanks!

[Fasauceome]

Well, techquickie is usually a great place to start, featuring Linus and associates.

[PopsicleHustler]

 

RAM or Random Access Memory is part that takes data and spoon feeds it to the CPU. 

[jorenc]

This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVWQthb-20&list=LLn2K_CIOpAmKNVfv93VUiHw&index=60&t=115s

 

Probably the most concise and simple way to explain it, but I'll do my best to help:

- Motherboard: think of it like the hub of your PC. EVERYTHING will in one way connect to the motherboard. As such, a better motherboard (mobo) doesn't really mean better performance. A better motherboard correlates to quality, longevity, safety of components, other bells and whistles you'll never use, etc.

- CPU: it's the brain of your computer. Every click, command, whatever is controlled by the CPU. It will handle most tasks and tells other components what to do. Any AMD Ryzen 5 or an Intel i5 will do everything you want.

- Memory/Ram: if the CPU makes commands and sends those commands around the computer, it needs a funnel or roads to send those commands. This is your RAM. It's gigabyte storage designed to handle chunks of commands in the short term. More RAM = more space for commands (but you really only need 16 gb).

- GPU: everything you see on the screen comes from the GPU. Any visual effect or render will be crunched by the GPU. If you want performance, spend most of your budget.

 

I'm bored, I won't finish for every component but these are the major ones so you get the idea. Watch the video

[jorenc]

13 minutes ago, PopsicleHustler said:

 

RAM or Random Access Memory is part that takes data and spoon feeds it to the CPU. 

Like Bran spoon feeding the Targaryen family tree to the audience last season...

[Mira Yurizaki]

33 minutes ago, Seaborn63 said:

I know the names of of all the parts I need, but I don't really understand what they do.  I've watched some youtube vids and read some guides but I'm still not getting it.

 

Does anyone have any helpful links for helping an idiot like me understand what a CPU does and how it works, along with GPUs, MBs, etc?  I want to understand how it all works and works together.

 

Thanks!

Of all places to have it, TV Tropes does have a decent section explaining hardware: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork

[SupaKomputa]

- motherboard : things that holds all the parts in place. its the lego board for legos.

- CPU : the data calculator, everything in the that involves calculation goes here, CPU Cores - just how many brain inside the cpu that do the calculation. the more the merrier. CPU Speed (ghz) : the more the merrier also

- Memory : The temporary place to store the data before processing, think of it as a queue line, data will go here before in enters the cpu. the more memory means the more / longer the queue line would be. The data stored here are temporary, meaning the data will be gone when it no longer used / calculated.

- Harddrive / storage : the place to store the final data or the data that you want to keep. think of it as a refrigerator.

- GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) : Same calculator unit as the CPU, but instead of just data as in raw math it calculates triangles, those triangles then generates the 3D model you play in the game. To calculate the triangles data would need massive computing power for the cpu alone to handle, so the GPU was invented.

 

Sorry for the oversimplification.