Searching for good hardware

Hey, i just got an Hp notebook for christmas and I know basically nothing of computers, i need to be taught in their ways by someone proficient, so i guessed i should come to the computer forum. List any places to find some decent hardware, hardware brands. And I don't mean like keyboards, and mice. I mean like hard-drives and Cd drives.
List any computer terms or good hardware.

 

Well, then if that's the case, then don't post hardware, post Computer terms, I'd like to know what I'm looking at when I'm online.

 

Not strictly true, some companies companies in my country offer the upgrade/exchange of Hard drives/RAMs/motherboards for an insane price.
But generally it's not worth it.

 

Well, there are some tricks when looking up some components.

For Hard Drives: first thing, see the capacity (the more, the better) (measured in GB, might reach 1TB, which is 1000GB); next, check the speed, measured in RPMs (rotations per minute) (the more RPMs, the smaller the loading/reading time is) (normal desktop HDDs have 7200 RPMs, some reach 10000 RPMs and some even 15000 RPMs; laptops' HDDs are usually 5400 RPMs; be careful, the faster the disc is, the hotter it becomes); next, the cache size (not sure if it's cache) (measured in MB, might be 4MB, 8MB, 16MB or 32MB; the more the better, but I don't really know what cache memory is). Good brands: Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, etc. I think that's it.

For CPUs/processors: first, check the number of cores. The more cores, the faster the CPU. For AMD CPUs, the cores are shown as X2, X3 or X4, being X2 dual core CPUs, X3 tri-core CPUs and X4 quad core CPUs. For Intel ones, it's usually quite explicit (Core2 Duo and Dual Core are dual core CPUs, Core2 Quad are quad core ones) (there are no Intel tri-core ones). Next, the model. For AMD, there are Sempron, Athlon, Phenom, Opteron, etc., and I think (not sure though, please correct me if I'm wrong) they are in order (the first is the slowest model, the latest is the faster one). For Intel, there are Pentium, Core2 and the very recent i7 (these also being in order, although I believe I'm missing quite some). Next, processing power, which is measured in GHz (the more, the better). When with multi-cored CPUs, the power is gotten by multiplying the number of cores by the amount of GHz (for example, 2x2.4GHz=4.8GHz total, or 4x2.6GHz=9.2GHz total). There is also the cache memory size (not sure again), also measured in MB, usually 2MB, 4MB or 8MB (the more, the better). Good brands: AMD and Intel.

For RAM memory: check the memory type, which might be DDR, DDR2, DDR3 or SDRam (whereas DDR3 is faster than DDr2, which is faster than DDR; don't know about SDRam). Next, the memory speed, measured in MHz (the more, the better) (usually there are 533MHZ, 667MHz, 800MHz and 1066MHz memories, in order). There is more into it, but I don't know any more. Good brands: Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, etc.

For Graphics cards: I'll split this into two, it's easier.

nVidia cards: take, for example, the card 8800GTX+ 512MB . The first number, 8, is the series (the most recent series are the 6, 7, 8, 9 and now the 200 series, although the 6 and 7 are getting old, so try to avoid them). The series number determines nothing about memory speed/graphics quality, although newer is (not every time) better. The second number, also 8, determines how fast the memory is. The higher the number, the faster the memory. For games, faster is better. The other two numbers are there for decoration. The next set of letters also determines the speed of the memory. These are organized as GS, GT, GTS, GTX and GTX+, going from slowest to fastest (faster is better). The next part is the memory size, which are measured in MB, now reaching GB. The more, the better, but there's no use having a huge memory if there's no speed to compliment it. There's also one more thing: the memory type is divided into several categories (DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, GDDR3, GDDR4 and GDDR5). I don't know if I'm missing any, but the ones I listed are in order, so the latter one is the best one.

AMD/ATI cards: take the 3870 X2 1GB. It follows the same patter: first number indicates series (2, 3 or 4 series, the other are getting old), second number is for memory speed, higher being better, and the third also determines the speed, higher being better too. The second part is not present in all cards, but it basically indicates that card's almost like two cards, boosting performance a lot. The rest is memory size, which I explained above. The memory is also split into the same categories as above.

As sides notes: nVidia bets more on raw power (getting pricey cards), whereas AMD/ATI gets a much more economic solution, providing a very good performance for the price asked (although nVidia cards outperform AMD/ATI ones). Also, there is something very important if you're thinking on future upgrades: SLI for nVidia and Crossfire for AMD/ATI. These systems allow several cards to be put on one motherboard, so that you can get ultimate performance. There are limitations on the number of cards that can be used (limited by the card itself, I believe, and the motherboard.

For motherboards: I'll be frank. I know almost nothing about motherboards. I base my judgment merely on their price, knowing that pricier is generally better. Not much more than that, try asking someone else.

Alright, I think that's it. Took me a lot to write it, so take a nice look.

 

Yeah, I was hoping you'd complete that, Loony.