What is the hardware ? what is it for and definition

What is the hardware? Why is it so important when mounting our PC? Hardware is a word that we hear and read every day, but not all users understand its meaning.

Do you want to know everything about the hardware? For this reason, we have prepared this article to explain in a simple way the concept of this word, as well as everything that we must take into account in relation to the hardware of our PC or any computer system. Let's start!

Index of contents

What is hardware, what is its function and definition?

Hardware is an English word that refers to the tangible physical parts of a computer system, that is, everything that we can touch with our hands. Within the hardware we find a great variety of electrical, electronic, electromechanical and mechanical components. The hardware is the computer chassis, cables, fans, peripherals, and all the components that can be found in an electronic device. The Royal Spanish Academy defines it as "Set of components that make up the material part of a computer."

The term not only applies to computers, as it is often used in other areas of daily life and technology such as robots, cell phones, cameras, digital players, or any other electronic device. Hardware represents a concept contrary to Software, the intangible part of a computer system, that is, everything that we cannot physically touch.

One way to classify hardware is into two categories: the main hardware, which encompasses the set of essential components necessary to provide minimum functionality, and on the other hand, the complementary hardware, which is used to perform specific functions beyond those basic, not strictly necessary for the operation of the computer system.

Best Hardware Guides

We summarize the best hardware guides that should interest you:

• Best processors on the market Best motherboards on the market Best RAM memory on the market Best graphics cards on the market Best SSDs on the market Better chassis or PC cases Better power supplies Better heatsinks and liquid coolers

Hardware history

The history of computer hardware can be classified into four generations, each characterized by a major technological change.

• First generation (1945-1956): electronics implemented with vacuum tubes, which displaced the electromechanical components (relays). Second generation (1957-1963): electronics developed with transistors. The discrete logic was very similar to the previous one, but with a much smaller implementation, reducing the size of a computer to a great extent. Third generation (1964-today): Integrated circuit -based electronics, which allows hundreds of transistors and other electronic components to be integrated into a single integrated circuit printed on a silicon chip. This again represents a notable reduction in cost, consumption and size. Fourth generation (future): It will originate when silicon circuits are replaced by a new type of material or technology, the most promising being graphene and quantum processors.

The history of hardware begins in the long-ago 1960s, a time that is marked by the move from vacuum tubes to silicon-based integrated circuits, the same technology that continues to be used today. This important change is marked by discrete transistors, which began to be sufficiently viable from the point of view of economy and reliability, so there was no longer any reason to continue using vacuum tubes.

The main memory of computers saw a great evolution with the transition from magnetic tapes to chips based on silicon transistors, this movement allowed to greatly reduce the power consumption, size and manufacturing cost of computer equipment.. The years went by and the technology of integrated circuits was getting cheaper, which made possible the appearance of personal computers. Smaller and more affordable hardware also sparked the development of major new operating systems like Unix.

The first integrated circuit was created in 1958, although it took a few years for it to be used in computers. NASA was one of the pioneers in the use of this technology, the Apollo Guidance Computer of the Apollo program, and the incontinently ballistic missile LGM-30 Minuteman were the first creations of the space agency to use computers with integrated circuits.

Replica of the Apollo via a Raspberry

It was not until November 15, 1971, when Intel released the world's first commercial microprocessor, the famous Intel 4004. This processor was developed for Busicom, a Japanese calculator company, which was looking for an alternative to the wired circuit. The great capacities of this processor meant that it was used for the development of computers. This processor was capable of executing 60, 000 instructions per second, a number that was increasing in the future processors Intel 8008, 8080, 8086 and 8088. The Intel 4004 worked accompanied by a multi-kilobit RAM chip, based on an invention by Robert Dennard from IBM.

Until the appearance of the microprocessor, computers were generally large and expensive, their owners being large institutions such as corporations, universities, government agencies, and the like. Its users were specialists, who did not interact with the machine itself, but prepared tasks for the computer on offline equipment, such as card punchers. A number of assignments for the computer would be collected and processed in a batch mode. Afterwards, users could collect the outputs on printed listings and on punch cards. In some organizations this process could take hours or days to complete.

After the processor was commercialized, the cost of producing a computer system dropped dramatically. The arithmetic, logic, and control functions that previously took up several expensive circuit boards were now available in an integrated circuit that was very expensive to design, but cheap to produce in large quantities once designed.

The first personal computers to be commercialized were the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080. Both computers were essentially small and incomplete minicomputers, since connecting a keyboard or a teletypewriter to them required heavy and expensive accessories. Both machines featured a front panel with switches and lights, which communicated with the user in binary.

Hardware and software How are they different?

Hardware represents a concept contrary to Software, the intangible part of a computer system, that is, everything that we cannot touch with our hands, such as the operating system, programs and all the files stored by the user, such as photos, videos, music, documents… Software is as important as hardware, since without it, a computer system would be a useless device that would be useless. Software and hardware work in harmony to allow the correct operation of an entire computer system, it is an inseparable pairing.

Hardware types of a computer or PC

Once we are clear about the concept of hardware, we will review the most important components of a computer or a computer system, as well as their most important characteristics. This list could be almost endless, so we have chosen the most relevant components in our opinion. Here we go with the basic hardware of a PC!

Processor or CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The Central Processing Unit, better known by its acronym in English CPU, is the fundamental component of a computer, since it is in charge of interpreting and executing instructions and processing data. In the event that the CPU is manufactured as a single integrated circuit it is known as a microprocessor, commonly abbreviated as a processor. The most powerful computers, such as those used in supercomputing, can have a multitude of microprocessors working together, all of them forming the central processing unit.

Central processing units are not only present in computers, but are included in all types of devices that incorporate a certain process capacity, some examples of them are industrial process controllers, game consoles, televisions, automobiles, calculators, airplanes, mobile phones, appliances, toys and many more. AMD and Intel are the designers of computer CPUs, while the models used in mobile and low-power devices are designed by a multitude of companies such as Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, MediaTek, Nvidia and Intel.

The microprocessor mounts on the motherboard over the CPU socket, which allows electrical connections between the circuitry on the motherboard and the processor. A heat sink is attached to the processor, which is essential in models that consume a lot of energy, which, to a large extent, is emitted in the form of heat. We can also find a processor soldered on the motherboard itself: Intel BGA. This is quite common on consoles, very thin laptops, or super-sized mini PCs.

Motherboard

The motherboard, also known as the motherboard, main board, motherboard or mainboard is a large printed circuit on which the rest of the components of a computer are connected. On the motherboard are the chipset, expansion slots, processor socket, connectors, various integrated circuits, and many other items. It is the fundamental support that houses and communicates to all the other components, for this it has a series of buses through which data is transmitted in and out of the system.

The current trend is to integrate as many elements of the basic functions as possible into the motherboard, such as video, audio, network and ports of various types. These functions were previously performed with expansion cards, which made the final price of the computer more expensive. The integration has gone even further in recent years, moving many of these elements within the processor, something that further lowers manufacturing costs. In this sense, there are currently systems called System on a Chip (SoC), which consists of a single integrated circuit consisting of several electronic modules inside, such as a processor, a memory controller, a GPU, a sound card with resistance to high impedance or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

There are several factors to consider when choosing a motherboard:

• Internal components : Power phases, CHOKES and Japanese capacitors. Cooling : Super important to withstand high temperatures and to keep the processor from throttling. Robust heatsinks in both VRM and chipset are key to overclocking the processor well. Form factor : Motherboards are also sized, as they must fit into certain chassis to meet the needs of the business or the end user. The most common are: ATX-XL, E-ATX, ATX, mATX and ITX (ordered from highest to lowest). Connections : It is very important to know the number and type of connections that the motherboard offers us. For example, it depends on how many SATA connections we have available, if you have one or more M.2 NVME connections enabled, the PCI Express connectors, what type of network card or the number of USB connections.

RAM

RAM is the main memory with which a computer system works, it is a set of chips that store information, which can be accessed very quickly, something important so that the processor does not have to wait for you get the data you need to continue working.

RAM stands for Random Access Memory , literally Random Access Memory . This term is related to the characteristic of presenting equal access times to any of its positions for both reading and writing. This feature is also known as direct access, as opposed to the sequential access of other types of memory.

Information, data, and programs that the CPU reads, processes, and executes are temporarily stored in RAM. This type of memory is volatile, which means that stored data is lost when its power is interrupted. That is, when we turn off or restart our PC.

The RAM of a computer is presented in what are known as modules, which house several DRAM memory integrated circuits that, together, make up all the main memory.

The most used RAM memory at present is DDR4 SDRAM. The modules have a total of 288 DIMM pins, each of which offers a data rate that ranges from a minimum of 1.6 GT / s to a maximum initial target of 3.2 GT / s. DDR4 SDRAM memories have higher performance and lower consumption than predecessor DDR3 memories.

DDR4 memories come in two different formats:

• DIMMs: used in desktop computers. SO-DIMM: used in laptops, minipcs and some ITX format motherboards. RAM Soldered on the same motherboard: These are the most complicated, since when they break down, we will not be able to replace it with another one, if not, we will have to change the entire motherboard. They are very common in very thin portable computers (ultrabooks) and in some mini computers with Android operating system.

Hard disk (HDD)

A hard disk drive is a data storage device that relies on a magnetic recording system to store digital files. A hard drive is made up of one or more platters linked by a shaft that spins at high speed inside a sealed metal case. On each side of each plate there is a reading and writing head that is kept in suspension on a thin sheet of air generated by the rotation of the plates.

The first hard drive was invented by IBM in 1956, since then it has multiplied its capacity and become more compact. Currently, we can find 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch models, the former being used mainly in desktop and server PCs, and the latter in laptops. All hard drives communicate with the PC through a standardized interface, the most common until the 2000s was IDE in the home environment and SCSI on servers and workstations. From 2000 onwards, the use of the SATA interface has become more widespread.

Solid State Drive (SSD)

A solid state drive is a data storage device that uses nonvolatile flash memory to store data, rather than the magnetic discs or platters of conventional hard drives. SSDs have no mechanical parts inside, making them less shock-sensitive, noise-free, have shorter access and latency times, and consume less power. Their main drawback is that they have a limited number of write cycles, and the absolute loss of data can occur unexpectedly and unrecoverable.

Solid state drives can use either the SATA interface or the PCI Express interface to communicate with the rest of the PC. The fastest are those based on PCI Express, although their manufacturing cost is also much higher. SATA-based SSDs are usually presented in the form of a 2.5-inch drive, while those based on PCI Express are presented in the form of an M.2 card, although this is not always the case. You also have to take into account if it has MLC or TLC memory, to know its durability.

The most common models that we will find in the market are:

• SATA SSD: The classic and cheapest on the market. It offers us read and write rates of over 500 MB / s. With these models we can greatly speed up the startup of the operating system and applications on our computer. M.2 NVMe SSD: This slot allows us to connect ultra fast SSDs with a speed from 2000 MB / s to 2800 MB / s in both writing and reading. They are the fastest and will help us improve performance in high performance applications. Be careful, prepare additional refrigeration to lower its high temperatures. M.2 SATA SSD: There are also cheaper SSDs for M.2 connection. They are on par with SATA SSDs and their performance is practically the same. They come in handy for tight pockets or Intel NUC-style MiniPCs. PCI Express: Before the launch of NVME devices they were quite common. At current dates they are rare to see, it is easier to see some high-end Intel Optane unit with this interface. MSATA: It was incorporated in some mid / high range motherboards a few years ago but currently we can only find it in some business line laptop. Its performance is very similar to SATA SSDs.

Power supply

We continue to see more parts of the hardware. One of them is the power supply, power source or power supply unit (PSU) is the device that is in charge of converting the alternating current (AC), into one or several direct currents (DC), that supply the different circuits of the electronic device to which it is connected. Power supplies are used in all kinds of electronic devices, since generally all of them need direct current to function, and the electrical networks of our houses only offer alternating current.

This is one of the most important components of our PC, since it is in charge of feeding the rest of the components, a low quality power supply is going to give us many problems, almost certainly, so it is highly recommended to opt for a model of good quality.

Some of the most important points when choosing a power source are:

• 80 PLUS certification: It is a simple way of the quality of our power supply. Normally we will find bronze, silver, gold, platinum and titanium certifications. Although sometimes they can deceive us (in bronze and silver certification above all) and we must take into account other factors. Internal components: who has made the core, whether it has Japanese capacitors, the fan, the number of Watts supported or the DC-DC converters are key points. Modular or fixed wiring: We always recommend that you buy modular sources, but if your budget is tight, fixed wiring should not be a problem for a good organization. Necessary power for your PC: For this you must calculate how many Watts your tower can consume. In our forum do you have a post that talks about it in more detail?

Sound card

The sound card or sound card is an expansion card that is installed in a computer or other electronic device and allows audio output controlled by a computer program called a driver or driver. Some computers have the card already integrated into the motherboard, while others require expansion cards. There are also equipment that does not require this function due to its use. The most important part of the sound card is the DAC, which is in charge of converting the digital files stored in the computer's memory into an analog signal that will reach the speakers for playback.

We have also seen a lot of improvement in the last 4 years in the software of the main motherboard manufacturers. Helping compatibility with professional headphones (this is due to the hardware characteristics of the card) or even improving on 5.1 / 7.1 in headphones or speakers while we play.

Graphic card

A graphics card or video card is an expansion card that is in charge of processing the data coming from the CPU and transforming it into representable information in the output device, for example: monitor, television or projector. As with the sound card, the graphics card can also be integrated in the motherboard or even in the processor.

A graphics card is made up of several elements that work together to do their job:

• Graphics card or GPU: The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a specialized component in graphics processing. Its raison d'être is to lighten the workload of the core processor. It is optimized for the calculation of floating point operations, predominant in 3D functions. The GPU constitutes the most important part of the graphics card, and is the main determinant of performance. VRAM: These are memory chips that store and transport information among themselves, they are not decisive in the maximum performance of the graphics card, but they must be fast enough to contain all the data that the card needs to function. When we buy a GPU, for example, an Nvidia GTX or an AMD RX already come assembled and we can never expand it, this means that we will have to acquire a new graphics card. A different case is the integrated graphics card that incorporates some processors (Intel HD or AMD APUs), which acquire their memory from RAM sharing. RAMDAC: It is responsible for transforming the digital signals produced on the graphics card into an analog signal that can be interpreted by the monitor.Due to the increasing popularity of digital signal monitors, RAMDAC is becoming obsolete, since it is not necessary to conversion.

In turn, the GPU is made up of several elements:

• Shaders - The most notable element of power in a GPU, these unified shaders are named CUDA Cores for NVIDIA and Stream Processors for AMD. ROPs: they are responsible for representing the data processed by the GPU on the screen, in addition to filters such as smoothing or antialiasing. TMUs: are the units in charge of applying the textures to the generated pixels.

Can I connect two graphics cards to gain twice the power? Yes, but the scaling is not 100%. Depending on the game we can have an improvement of 20% more or 50% thanks to AMD Crossfire or AMD SLI technology. It must be made clear that we can never scale to the maximum, so it is better to buy the best graphics card for gaming to gain maximum power. If we talk about mining or distributed computing if we can use it without the need for any technology.

How to know the hardware and technical specifications of my PC

To know the hardware information we can use some tools such as Speccy and AIDA64, two applications that will give us a large amount of information about the components that we have installed on our PC. These applications classify the information by categories, so that we will have everything perfectly organized and always at hand.

They are two very useful tools when we need information to find a driver, the replacement of a component that has been damaged and in many other situations. There are many options, but these are usually the most used.

Common problems or hardware failures

The most common hardware problems are in the power supply, graphics card, RAM, motherboard and hard drive. We go into greater detail below:

Power supply problems

We have already mentioned before that the power supply is a very important part of the computer. Many users are unaware and choose to buy a cheap, low-quality font. This is a big mistake, since a low quality power supply can cause irreversible damage to the rest of the components of your PC, if you are going to spend 1000 euros on a new computer, do not put it in danger for wanting to save 50 euros.

Some of the most frequent problems are sudden blackouts or that the computer does not turn on when pressing the corresponding button, if you are experiencing one of these problems, the power supply is the first thing you should check.

Graphics card problems

The graphics card is another component that tends to fail a lot, it is a very complex component , it consumes a lot of energy and it gets very hot, especially in high-performance models. A typical failure of the graphics card is that the computer seems to turn on, but nothing is displayed on the screen. It may also be that strange colors and elements appear in the image, a sign that the card is failing.

One of the most common solutions is to do both internal and external maintenance. With the help of a can of compressed air and a brush we can leave our GPU as new. While, changing the thermal paste is key to lowering many degrees at rest and at full load.

Motherboard issues

The motherboard is another incredibly complex component, as it includes a large number of elements, such as the integrated graphics card (although it is now in the processor), the network card, sound card and many more elements. In general, a problem on the motherboard will cause one of these elements to fail, the easiest way to solve it is mounting an additional card that fulfills the lost function. In the most severe cases, the computer may stop working entirely.

If your motherboard is still under warranty, contact the store and proceed to the RMA so they can offer you another one. If you bought it 2 years ago, surely they do not have any in the factory and you will have to renew your computer. A chore!

Hard drive problems

Hard drives are another element that can fail, as they include moving parts that can break with use. The most common mistake is that the surface of the disc is damaged by an impact of the reading head, this type of damage is irreparable, and as a consequence, the disc may lose capacity or stop working. Another type of failure is logical, related to the integrity of the stored data, this type of error is repairable.

If you open a hard disk you will surely break it, since the slightest contact of a speck of dust can damage a part of the files that you have stored. So it is highly recommended that you back up to an external device (USB Hard Drive or NAS) or sync the most important data in the cloud.

How can I check if my hard disk is healthy? We always recommend that you install the Crystal Disk Info application in your operating system, which gives you a lot of details and characteristics of your hard drive. If the icon appears in yellow or red, buy a new one and transfer all your data?

RAM memory problems

Finally, we have the problems in RAM memory, this is the component that fails the least of all on this list. Problems in RAM can be detected with a problem analysis software like Memtest86 +, as long as it is not serious enough to prevent the PC from working.

Upgrade my PC hardware or buy a new one?

A very frequently asked question is whether it is worth upgrading a PC or is it better to buy a new one. The answer is not easy, since it depends on many factors such as the current components and the use to be made of it. The market offers us a large number of options to choose from when assembling a PC, so there are never two teams that are the same and each case must be meticulously evaluated. The second-hand market can be a great solution when updating a PC, in this way we can extend its life without spending a lot of money.

In general, we can say that it is not worth updating your PC if it meets the following points:

• More than three years old motherboard More than three years old graphics card DDR3 RAM memory usage

If our PC has been around for a long time, it may be that we update it and some component of the ones we have preserved will begin to fail, at this point we can enter a loop of failures and repairs that make us spend more money than buying a New pc.

Consoles vs PC hardware

The current PC and consoles are very similar, but at the same time very different. The biggest difference is that the consoles are a closed system, which does not allow updating, so we will have to buy a new one when it has become obsolete. The PC, on the other hand, is an open system that allows updating its components in a simple way, which is worthwhile or not depending on each case.

The current consoles are based on a processor that includes the graphics card inside, it is a customized model and specially manufactured in a way that best suits the needs of these devices. The graphics card that integrates the processors of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X is much more powerful than the graphics card integrated in any PC processor, this makes these consoles offer excellent performance for a price of 400 euros and 500 euros.

Another advantage of the consoles is that, being a closed system, the games are much more optimized, making their benefits take advantage of much more. At the same price, a console usually offers better performance than a PC, except in very specific cases. The open nature of the PC makes it impossible to achieve the same level of use of its power, so more is needed to do the same.

In any case, the PC is the most powerful platform and the one with the most possibilities, it is the only one with which you can play at any existing resolution and very high frame rates per second. There is a reason why it is the platform on which professionals play.

We want to emphasize that everything depends on the PC configuration you have. Sometimes it is much cheaper to update the graphics card than the whole system (even if it has a slight bottleneck). Therefore, we always recommend that you ask us in our article on PC configurations or in our forum to have various opinions from our community.

Where can I buy the cheapest hardware?

Once you have chosen the hardware for our new PC, it is very important that we buy it from a trusted store, as it is the only way to have guaranteed access to genuine products and good after-sales service.

In the case of Spain, the most recommended stores are Amazon, PCComponentes and Aussar, all three are completely trustworthy, and they assure us that we have no problems, since they will assist us in the best way possible in the event of any setback. Ebay and Chinese stores can offer us better prices, but in these cases the after-sales service is null or almost null, and we are exposed to counterfeits.

It would not be the first time that a store of this type offers us a very high-end graphics card at a price that seems impossible, the hardware is worth what it is worth, so if you see a price that seems impossible, it will be. Remember that cheap can be expensive.

So far, the most important thing you should know about hardware, remember that if you have any questions you can leave a comment or open a topic in our hardware forum. What do you think? Do you miss something?