Monitors and Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

1. Monitors and Hard Disk Drives (HDD) By : John Perez

2. What are Hard disk drives? • Hard disk drives or HDDs are forms of storage for computers (3.5”) and laptops (2.5”). • You would usually find these HDDs with various storage sizes. • Now most HDDs would have a storage capacity of 250 GB (Gigabytes) or more. • Hard disk drives allow for storage of files, documents, images, videos, music and applications.

3. How can you tell if the performance is good? • You can tell if the performance of the HDD is good or not by looking at two specifications (description) of the HDD Data Rate: • Number of bytes per second • The data rate is dependent on the track location. What this means is that it will be higher for data on the outer tracks and lower toward the inner tracks. • The most common unit used to identify the data rate is megabytes per second. Seek Time: • The amount of time between when the CPU requests a file and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. • The most common unit used for seek time is milliseconds.

5. What is a computer monitor? • A computer monitor is essentially a viewing screen in which you need if you want to see what you are doing on the computer. • Today there are 2 main types of computer monitors that you will find. • One of them is the CRT or Cathode-Ray Tube monitor. This would be the computer monitor you have in front of you. • Another one is the LCD or Liquid Crystal Display monitor. This is a monitor that you would get if you wanted a higher or better resolution for your monitor. • The difference between the two is what is built inside to create the display on your screen. Also that the specifications between the two are mildly different. Example: • Specifications for an LCD Monitor: • Resolution: 1440 x 900 • Screen Size: 19” • DPI (dots per inch): 0.25 mm • Specifications for a CRT Monitor: • Screen size: 17” • Resolution: 1280 x 1080 • DPI : 0.25 mm

6. Which monitor is good and which is not? • You can tell when a monitor is good or bad by looking at their specifications. • Also if the monitor’s interface could connect with your PC. You properly need to check what the interface on your PC is, before buying a monitor. • The main interface that all monitors have is a VGA port or Video Graphics Array port. The port can be found by looking for a pin-15 d-shell. • The main specifications that you should look for in a monitor are resolution (how good the quality of the screen will be), screen size (how big it is), DPI (what the screen will look like), interface type (what it uses to connect to the PC), and/or power consumption (only for those that want to use less electricity).

7. References • Images: • http://www.highdisplay.com/what-is-a-computer-monitor/ • http://www.lcd-computermonitors.com/ • http://pc-networks.info/ • http://www.myce.com/news/hdd-evolution-may-force-windows-xp-retirement-27042/ • http://reviewnewhardware.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html • http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=bks&fname=/SGI_EndUser/Fuel_UG/ch03.html • http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/04/17/access-hard-drive-using-usb-enclosure/ • http://www.geekalerts.com/5-disk-hdd-tower/ • http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5581359&Sku=A466-1904 • http://www.dimensionsguide.com/vga-port-dimensions/ • http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00215200&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=219439&prodTypeId=382087 • http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=CBL-HDMI-DVI • http://clickercable.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=89&osCsid=ryxzqldklo

8. References (Cont’d) • Information: • http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hard-disk.htm • http://computer.howstuffworks.com/monitor.htm