A Beginners Guide to the PC

A Beginner's Guide to what is going on inside your PC, published by Extreme Tech a few days ago, aims to explain how PC's work without using "geek" or technical language to do so.It aims to educate an audience that is not tech-savvy, that does not know about the components that make up a PC, that may never have heard about SATA or BIOS before in their life. The eight-part article begins with an introduction and goes on by encouraging all readers to take a look at their own PC first, if they already own a desktop PC. (After saving all work and the like). It would be a good way to print the article to have it available while the PC is turned off and you take a look at it.

After explaining most of the components that make up a PC you should have a basic understanding of the components and the connections between those components. The article then looks at core components that make up a PC, including the case, motherboard, input and output devices, cooling, and assembling the PC so that it actually works.

The guide is really helpful for PC users who never gave much thought before on what a PC is actually made of. While it may not provide experienced users with anything new, it may be a good read nevertheless, if only for the basic language used that may come in handy when you need to explain a PC-related feature or issue to an inexperienced user.

The form in which the article is published is not the best, as you need to flip through eight different pages to read it from beginning to end. You can however click on the print link at the top of the article page to have the site display the full article on one page. While you do not get the screenshots, it is nevertheless a better way of quickly going through the article without having to load new pages after every chapter.

Update: The site layout has changed, and the print option seems to have been removed from the site. Good news is that the article is still a good read even after six years of posting even though some of the information may be out of date.

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