Computer Engineering: Hardware Basics - Coursework Example

Hardware Basics (First middle initial, sur no qualifications like Dr. College Position in organisation Place of author Abstract The web site Tomshardware.com is very informative. With a lot of information on many different areas of computer hardware. Ranging from hard disks, mother boards and memory to building a complete PC for specific work such as gaming or how to build a cheap PC. After studying the site I have decided to look closely at the build your own pages, as it interests me the most.

And it needs data from all the areas of the web site to get the most from my new PC. Review The build your own area on the site is very informative and seems to hold all the detail I need. Looking at the Build Your Own Gaming PC (Henningsen 2009) I went from the first part through the three parts of the series that have been published. There is certainly a logical progression starting with an explanation of graphic cards, then processors E.G. comparing Intel against AMD. I checked out the motherboards which are next in line then started to skip across the other areas of a PC such as power requirements.

The series then goes to configurations and what combinations will work well this includes building graphs to show how well GPU’s and various CPU’s will work together. See example. Fig. 1 Comparisons Graph Pros and Cons Thinking about the way the series is structured I do wonder if it should have started on motherboards then gone to the processors and memory, but as there are drop down menus to choose which area to study first this may not be a big problem after becoming familiar with the format of the web site pages.

I do have a couple of concerns though: 1. The sites home page can be confusing as there is so much on it. 2. How accurate are all the articles. 1. needs to be an alteration of the home page display maybe some items should be placed on other pages to give a simpler path. In 2 the articles have been written by various people? If they are not correct it could cost me time and effort, there are few references to experts from outside. And I am unsure how old the articles are so I would have to price everything before starting so maybe the series build your own can only ever be a guide.

Generally the site has a lot of information but it can be confusing to find particular information quickly which could be important if I am working on something at the time. The career information that was most interesting was that on certification from different vendors such as Cisco, this is very important today as most companies want to know a person has the latest top qualifications. This is a site that could be very helpful in my career with a huge amount of information, not just on hardware, but on many things that concern an IT professional today.

The only reservation is I would need time to get to something and read it as each page has so much data. References Henningsen, Paul (November, 10th, 2009) Building a Balanced Gaming PC Retrieved from http://www.tomshardware.com/ Toms Hardware. A part of Bestofmedia Network.