Hardware

Make sure you have paper and pen to hand as you will need to take notes and write down answers and thoughts that you can refer to later on.

Computer System Needs to be powerful enough to open large, complex pictures and quickly show any changes you make. What are the internal components that need to be fast and powerful?

File storage devices Because graphic files are large, storage devices to be able to accommodate that. What size storage would be sufficient? Through what mechanism can you transfer large graphic files?

Input devices A range of input devices including digital cameras, are used to capture images. What other devices can you think of to capture graphic images. What technical specification can affect the quality of the image and therefore the usefulness of the device?

Output devices What output devices can you identify. How does their specification affect how the graphic is displayed?

Internal hardware devices Internal hardware devices are the components inside a computer system, the main part of any computer system. They are very important-if they are not powerful enough, the computer will run slowly. This becomes a problem when working with graphics.

Relevant internal hardware devices when working with graphics Graphics card- to create the screen display RAM- to hold running software and data Processor (CPU)-to run the software Hard disk-as main storage for software data

Graphics Card Every computer has graphics circuits needed to make the screen display work. Cheaper computers have these graphics circuits built into the motherboard. This is known as on-board graphics and is not recommended if you want a powerful computer system.

Socket The type of socket the graphics card plugs into on the motherboard is very important as a faster socket means faster graphics. Older motherboards use AGP (Advanced Graphics Port). However more recent motherboards use a faster version of PCI (Peripheral component interconnect) sockets, called PCIe (express)

Often the specification has a number next to the type of socket eg: PCIe x 16. This shows how many times faster the socket is compared t the original version eg: PCIe x 16 socket is better than a PCIe x 8 socket and runs 16 times faster. There are two main manufacturers of graphics cards: ATI and NVIDIA.

Resolution is the number of pixels per inch on a screen if other graphics device. High resolution means there are a lot of pixels in every inch and so a lot of details in the images. Low resolution means that the image quality is poor. Screen resolution is the number of pixels (dots) across the display followed by the number of pixels down. 1920x1200 uses 1920 pixels across the screen and 1200 down.

RAM Random access memory is required in large amounts to support work on graphics. 2 gigabytes (2GB) of main memory, remember you can never have enough memory in a computer!

Processor CPU, central processing unit, is the brain of the computer. A fast powerful processor will run software quickly, as well as being efficient at other tasks. AMD and Intel are the two main manufacturers of CPU. There are two main parts of the specification of a processor that effect performance.

Speed: the speed is usually measured in gigahertz (GHz) although some older processors speeds are measured in megahertz (MHz). As 1GHz is a thousand times faster that 1MHz, it is almost certain that a processor specification using MHz will not be as good as one using GHz

Processor design: the processor design has a large impact in how well it works. Most processor have a single, duo or quad core, which tells you the number of processor circuits on the chip. A quad core has four, a duo has two and a single has one. So a quad core processor is usually better than a duo core, which is usually better than a single.

Hard disk The hard disk is important because it must have enough space for all your data. Size is measured I gigabytes (GB) or terabyts (TB). As 1TB is a thousand times larger than 1GB, it is almost certain that a hard disk spec using GB will not be as big as one using TB.

Spin speed-10,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) should be quicker than one that spins at 7200rpm. Seek time- this is how long it takes to find something on the disk, therefore a smaller number is here is better. A seek time of 8.9 milliseconds (ms) should be faster than one with a seek time of 12ms. Cache size- buffer memory built into the hard disk. Speeds up the saving process by acting as a half way stop between the document and the hard drive.