The History of Computers and Computer Hardware Selection

    In today’s day and age computer programs and computer hardware are evolving so rapidly that one can get quite a bit overwhelmed when trying to select a new laptop or desktop PC. Today’s cellular phones, or smartphones, are faster than the average desktop computer was just a few years ago. some of the newest smartphones are faster and more capable than some of the computers still being sold in stores. Many people forgo PC's and Laptops all together and opt to use a tablet. As with smartphones, today’s tablets are extremely capable and outperform laptops and PC's. This blog post will attempt to teach you how much computer components have evolved and help you, the consumer, make the most educated choice about what hardware to buy to accomplish what you wish to accomplish, and run whatever programs you plan on running without going overboard and spending more than necessary to get the job done.

    The first "computers" were mathematical calculating devices called abacuses. "The oldest surviving counting board is the Salamis tablet (originally thought to be a gaming board), used by the Babylonians circa 300 B.C., discovered in 1846 on the island of Salamis." (Fernandes, 2015)

These early abacuses or counting machines paved the way for the computers we use today. Mankind has always been on the pursuit to make tasks quicker, easier, and basically more efficient. The evolution of knowledge and technology are evidence of exactly that. Fast forward to the 1960's and 1970's and computers became massive machines programmed to complete specific computations. "The first substantial computer was the giant ENIAC machine by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) used a word of 10 decimal digits instead of binary ones like previous automated calculators/computers." (Wolfe) After the 1960's computers and computing machines started to evolve quite expeditiously. The 1970 brought and explosion of personal computers with the Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak creating the first Apple II. It was considered the first "affordable" personal computer but priced at 1298$ in the 70's it was far from affordable for the average household. To give somewhat of a price comparison, A base model 1975 Ford Mustang was 3,805$. Apple's direct competition IBM created a personal computer called the IBM PC and was priced at 1265$



    The 1980's brought an explosion of new advances. Apple's Macintosh had the first GUI's (graphical user interface) and the first mouse which made it the more popular home computer due to ease of use. IBM released Spreadsheet and Word which made it the preferred business computer. Now in the 2023 Apple and Microsoft (IBM) are very similar and function virtually identically. User preference and comfortability with one platform or the other is what drives sales now.

    Now we will explore computers today, their uses and what exactly you need to accomplish what you wish to with a computer. The first specification you'll want to look at is the processor, how old it is, how fast it is, how many cores it has and what you want it to perform. INTEL, AMD, and many other computer processor sales sites have processor comparison tools. The tool I suggest using is https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/ With this tool you can quickly and easily compare processors and read relevant articles to help make selecting the correct processor for your computing needs.
Next is memory and storage. With the advent of cloud computing, many are opting for smaller hard drives. Hard drives are basically long-term storage. Comparatively, Random Access Memory or RAM is something you will want more of and to pay attention to as RAM directly dictates how quickly your computer will function and is short term storage of memory to speed up application operation and access. As of now 1TB is the minimum I would suggest for hard drive space for word processing and 4tb for gaming. When considering the amount of RAM one needs, it really is more user specific. For word processing programs and surfing the internet 16gb of RAM is a healthy amount to keep your PC from ever bogging down. If you intend to play games or do 3D rendering of any sort 32gb is the absolute minimum I would suggest. 64gb or more is ideal, but not necessary.

    Many of the large game studios have begun to offer cloud gaming. Cloud gaming "allows consumers to enjoy high-end games without owning expensive hardware such as consoles or computers." (Mochizuki, 2021) If you plan on cloud gaming it would behoove you to do further research on what minimum specifications those services require and decide if that's the only way you'll be gaming. The future is in cloud computing and gaming, but I strongly recommend against ever buying the bare minimum if you can afford not to.

    One last note, I strongly recommend creating a backup of important data such as photos, important documents and other sentimental or vital data. The backup should be an external hard drive that is inaccessible from the internet. This will ensure the safety of that information from hacks, data corruption or other unforeseen problems.




References:

Fernandes, L. (2015, January 11). The Abacus: A Brief History. The abacus: A brief history. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.ecb.torontomu.ca/~elf/abacus/history.html

Mochizuki, T. (2021). Tencent, Sony Step Up Investment in Cloud-Gaming Initiative. Bloomberg.Com, N.PAG.

Wolfe. (n.d.). History of Computers. History of computers. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading03.htm