Evaluating Computer System Components

3D Sound Card

This technology advances sound reproduction beyond traditional stereo sound (where the human ear perceives sounds as coming from the left or the right of the performance area) and is better at convincing the human ear that sound is omnidirectional, meaning that you can’t tell from which direction the sound is coming.

Access Time

The time it takes a storage device to locate its stored data and make it available for processing. SSD drives offer superior access times compared to conventional mechanical drives.

Data Transfer Rate

Another key performance specification for a hard drive is the speed at which it can transfer data to other computer components (such as RAM). This speed of transfer is referred to as data transfer rate.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Performs the same kind of computational work that a CPU performs. However, a GPU is specialized to handle 3-D graphics and image and video processing with incredible efficiency and speed.

Hard Drive (HDD, mechanical)

With storage capacities exceeding 16 terabytes (TB), a hard drive has the largest storage capacity of any storage device.

Solid State Drive (SSD)

Uses the same kind of memory that flash drives use, but whereas flash drives have access times of about 1 ms, SSD drives can reach data in only a tenth of that time (around 0.1 ms). There access time is vastly superior to mechanical hard drives.

Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD)

A combination of both a mechanical hard drive and an SSD into a single device. SSHD drives offer a very small amount of SSD storage space.

Sound Card

A card integrated into the motherboard that enables your computer to produce sounds.

Surround Sound

A type of audio processing that makes the listener experience sound as if it were coming from all directions.

Video Card/Video Adapter

A card that is installed inside your system unit (or integrated into the motherboard) to translate binary data into the images you view on your monitor.

Video Memory

Video cards include their own RAM called video memory.