Welcome to the fifth installment in the Be Your Own IT series, All About Computer Memory and How It Works. In this segment, we are going to talk about caching and how your computer uses it to make its performance faster and more efficient. In a previous installment, we discussed the different types of memory that a typical computer system comes with, and how the computer system uses a tiering process to determine when and how those different types of memory are used by the system itself. One of the types of memory that comes in a typical computer system that we listed were the Level 1 and Level 2 caches.

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If you have ever sent a folder to a zip file in order to make it smaller and therefore make sending it to someone else via email or upload, then you have engaged in file compression. Whenever you download a file or piece of software or something along those lines from the Internet to your computer, you will likely get that information in a zip file as well – and before you can actually use it properly, you must unzip the folder to get the files out and make them usable again. The reason you need to unzip or extract those files is that they have been compressed in order to transfer more quickly or take up less space on your hard drive or other storage device. In other words, the number of bits and bytes found in the file has been reduced. Then, when you unzip or extract the files, your computer system uses a program like WinZip to expand the files back to their original form. If it is all done correctly, the expanded file will be identical to the original file before it went and got compressed.

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Computer systems are all about the storage of data. We store all kinds of files and information on our computer systems, from digital photos to text documents to html documents to music files, video files, .pdfs, Word documents and more – and that's not even counting the software, applications and other programs we install and that also take up storage space on our systems. Many people simply save their data directly to their hard drives (also sometimes referred to as hard disks), but as technology becomes more and more prevalent in our daily lives, having all of your data tied to a stationary thing like a desktop computer becomes less and less convenient.

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Your hard drive is the primary communication device for the rest of your computer system. So, obviously, it's a very important piece! Without a hard drive, you can turn a computer on, but you can't do much of anything else with it. The hard drive stores most of a system's information, including the operating system and all of your programs, applications and files. Today's hard drives are pretty sturdy and durable, but they do still have moving parts, which means they are susceptible to wear and tear and failure. In fact, it is one of the few devices in your computer system that does have actual moving parts, making it one of the components that is most likely to fail.

Hard drives come in many different sizes, so you can choose one that is large enough to hold all of your data. If you run out of room, you can add another hard drive into the computer case itself, or purchase an external hard drive, which is basically a hard drive that you can temporarily hook up to your PC via a cable. External hard drives are excellent to use for back up data storage, which you should perform regularly, since, as we mentioned above, hard drives can and do fail. Since all of your data is stored on your hard drive, if it fails without you having back up storage in place, you can lose everything – all of your photos, documents, mp3s, videos, programs and more.

When you purchase a hard drive, it is important to look for one that is fairly quick in terms of RPMs – how fast the disks inside spin to serve up the info you are looking for. A fast CPU is important to have, but if you have a slow hard drive to pair with it, then you are doing yourself a major disservice. It will still take time for the hard drive to fork over the information you need, and while that is going on, the CPU is basically idling, with nothing to do. So look for high RPMs when you shop for a new hard drive, but also take cooling into account, since the hard drives with faster RPMs generally run hotter. You should also make sure that the hard drive you are purchasing will work with your motherboard. The data cables that connect your hard drive to the motherboard come in different types, so you need to get one that matches, whether it is the more traditional Parallel ATA (PATA) IDE cable that looks like a flat ribbon, or the more recently developed Serial ATA (SATA) cable. If you keep all of these things in mind when you go to get a new hard drive, you will end up with a device that works well for you and lasts!

Malware is a word that is short for “malicious software.” It is generally used as an umbrella term covering a wide range of different types of “malicious software,” from viruses to spyware to adware. Basically, any piece of software or an application or a program that was designed to be annoying, intrusive, harmful or similar is going to fall into the malware category. You will often find that many people use the phrase “computer virus” as a catch all term for ALL malware, whether it is a true computer virus or not. Regardless of the actual type of malware you are dealing with, if it was created with some harmful intent in mind, it is considered malware, but this is not the same as defective software that causes problems just because it was built or coded incorrectly. Instead, defective software is said to have “bugs.”

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When you are using your computer system, all of the programs, data, and instructions must be stored in the system's memory before you computer can actually go ahead and use it. The memory will hold recently used programs, recently accessed data, and recently used instructions, as long as there is room for all of it. This makes your computer run much more quickly than it would otherwise, such as if it had to access the hard drives each time it wanted that information. So the more memory you have, the more space you have to store these things, and the faster your computer will run.

You can think of RAM as your computer's version of your own brain's short term memory, since it holds all of the most recent information it has come across for quicker access. As your brain ages, it can't retain that information as well or retrieve it as quickly, and it is similar for your computer's memory, too – bad memory in a computer will cause your system a myriad of different problems. For that reason, it is important to get the best, highest quality and fastest RAM you can to begin with, and keep an eye on things so you can swap any bad sticks of RAM out for good ones, before the ones that have gone bad can cause your system any untoward trouble.

There are many different types of RAM available on the market today. The type of RAM your computer system takes will depend on what kind of system you have and who manufactured it, usually. The most common types of RAM today are DDR, DDR2 and SDRAM. Laptop RAM is much smaller in size than desktop RAM. If you are replacing or upgrading RAM, you must make sure you get the same RAM type or your computer will not function. You should also endeavor to get the best quality RAM that you can, as low quality RAM will not last as long, and you will end up having to replace it and paying more anyway in the long run!

If the Central Processing Unit in your computer is the brain, then the motherboard is your computer system's nervous system. The motherboard is the large circuit board that you can find bolted into the inside of your computer case. Each and every component and device in your computer will somehow be connected to your motherboard. Video cards and sound cards plug into slots in the motherboard. Your hard drive will be connected to it via a Parallel ATA cable or a Serial ATA cable. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) will plug into a socket on your motherboard and then be covered with a heat sink and a fan to keep it cool and safe.

The motherboard is what facilitates communication among the CPU and the other components of your computer, so it is important to take good care of it and make sure the one you purchase is going to be a reliable one – reliable communication is very important, for obvious reasons! When you are out motherboard shopping, one of the most important things you will consider is the motherboard's chipset. The chipset holds all of the motherboard's basic instructions, as well as determines many of the motherboard's basic features, like some of the hardware you can use with that particular motherboard. Your motherboard needs to have enough slots to hold enough memory or RAM sticks for you, and you should also be on the lookout for the number of USB ports and Firewire ports it has for attaching peripherals like printers and other devices, as well as the number of PCI slots it has available.

Motherboards can also come with onboard components for audio, LAN and video. If something is “onboard,” then that means it is built into the motherboard. Unfortunately, much of the time, these onboard components are not up to snuff in terms of quality and productivity. For example, onboard audio is not going to be top notch quality, so you may want to add a sound card if you are a major music buff to get great sound. Similarly, onboard video is not usually excellent, either – you are going to want to add a better video card to get great graphics, especially if you enjoy playing games or watching movies on your computer.

Motherboard costs are usually based on the chipset it has, but in general, the costs are about the same across the board. Look for one that has a built in cooling component for the chipset if you are purchasing a higher chipset, as these tend to run hotter than their less speedy counterparts. Keep an eye out for slots, cooling, and a good chipset, and you will have a good motherboard to add to your computer system!

If you own a computer or have spent any time around computers, then “ROM” is a term that you have likely heard before, and probably repeatedly. ROM is an acronym that stands for “read only memory,” and it is a type of memory that your computer system uses for a very specific set of purposes. ROM chips are also found in many other electronic devices, as well. Read only memory is basically an integrated circuit within a device that is programmed with specific data when it is manufactured. There are five different basic types of ROM out there: ROM, PROM, EEPROM, EPROM, and flash memory. ROM is also sometimes referred to as “firmware,” which you may also have heard of before. ROM should not be confused with RAM. While they are both types of computer memory, their functions are completely different and they are not used for the same things.

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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that computers are here to stay. Everything – from your grocery shopping to your entertainment – is now relying on computers in some form or another to exist or function. No matter what your chosen profession, industry or hobby is, there is a good chance that computers play at least a partial role. For that reason, everyone wants to learn more about how to make the most of computers, and to do that, they turn to computer training courses.

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It is always interesting and exciting whenever Microsoft rolls out yet another Windows operating system. This is particularly true for those of us that are not exactly happy with our current Windows operating system – the prospect of a new one that might work better or at least resolve some of the biggest problems we have with our current version is intriguing, to say the least. But a new Windows operating system is not cheap. In fact, it is rather expensive! And you do not want to rush out and grab a copy only to get it home and find out that it does not do what you expected it to do, or, even worse, will not run on your PC properly at all in the first place.

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