Giga disks
 The processor or CPU is the heart of any computer and is what actually does the work within the computer. This is what truly divides the PC world as Apple and Windows computers use totally incompatible chips. Windows CPU come from a number of different manufacturers, the main ones being Intel and AMD, and in a number of different formats, for example Celeron, Pentium I, II, III etc. The chip designations are a source of confusion because some chips are designed with specific purposes and all can be run at different clock speeds. The clock speed is a reflection (though not an absolute guarantee) of the speed that the processor executes instructions. It is usually stated in Mega Hertz (MHz), therefore a 650MHz is slower than a 850MHz processor. Today we are seeing the advent of processors running in excess of 1GHz. May 18, 2005 - San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan earned his eighth consecutive selection to the All-NBA First Team when the NBA announced the 2004-05 All-NBA teams today. Duncan is only the fifth player to make the All-NBA First Team in each of his first eight seasons, joining Hall of Famers Larry Bird, George Mikan, Bob Pettit and Oscar Robertson. During Duncan’s tenure on the All-NBA First Team the Spurs have enjoyed the success of two NBA titles (1999, 2003), held the NBA’s best record three times (1998-99, 2000-01 and 2002-03) and earned five division titles (1998-99, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2004-05). Duncan averaged 20.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists this season in leading the Spurs to their eighth consecutive playoff appearance. Joining Duncan on the All-NBA First Team are Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks at forward, Shaquille O’Neal of the Miami Heat at center, and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns and Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers at the guard positions. *2004-05 ALL-NBA FIRST TEAM*
O’Neal led all players in All-NBA first place votes (122) and total points (616) after averaging 22.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.34 blocks per game. His performance this year enabled the Heat to record a 17-win improvement over last season. This season also marked O’Neal’s record 13th consecutive season that he has averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. This is O’Neal’s seventh selection to the All-NBA First Team. Nash, the 2004-05 NBA Most Valuable Player, averaged 15.5 points (.502 FG%) and an NBA-best 11.5 assists in 34.3 minutes per game. Phoenix enjoyed a 60-15 record when he was in the lineup this season as he helped guide the team to its first division title since 1994-95 and its fourth overall. Nash is appearing on the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. Iverson ranked in the top five in scoring (first, 30.7 ppg), steals (second, 2.40 spg), assists (fifth, 7.9 apg) and minutes per game (second, 42.3). Iverson joined Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan and George Gervin as the only players in NBA history to capture four or more scoring titles. This is Iverson’s third selection to the All-NBA First Team. Nowitzki averaged career-highs this season in scoring (26.2 ppg), assists (3.1 apg) and blocks (1.53 bpg). He was the only player in the NBA to be ranked in the top 10 in both scoring (fourth) and rebounding (tied for ninth with 9.7 rebounds per game). Nowitzki scored 10 or more points in the fourth quarter on 18 occasions this season and 20 or more points in a half 13 times. He makes his first appearance on the All-NBA First Team after twice making the All-NBA Second Team (2002, 2003) and Third Team (2001, 2004). The All-NBA Second Team consists of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett, Phoenix Suns center Amaré Stoudemire, Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade and Seattle SuperSonics guard Ray Allen. The All-NBA Third Team includes Phoenix Suns forward Shawn Marion, Houston Rockets forward Tracy McGrady, Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas. The 124-member voting panel of writers and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada consisted of national media members and members from each of the league’s 30 teams who regularly cover the NBA. The media voted for All-NBA First, Second and Third Teams by position with points awarded on a 5-3-1 basis. *Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first team votes in parentheses):* Yao Ming, Houston, 82; Vince Carter, New Jersey, 63; Jason Kidd, New Jersey, 16; Paul Pierce, Boston, 15; Marcus Camby, Denver, 14; Rashard Lewis, Seattle, 13; Manu Ginobili, San Antonio, 12; Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland, 11; Jermaine O’Neal, Indiana, 8; Tony Parker, San Antonio, 7; Mike Bibby, Sacramento, 6; Elton Brand, Los Angeles Clippers, 6; Grant Hill, Orlando, 6; Carmelo Anthony, Denver, 5; Antawn Jamison, Washington, 5; Richard Hamilton, Detroit, 3; Tayshaun Prince, Detroit, 3; Chauncey Billups, Detroit, 2; Chris Bosh, Toronto, 2; Stephon Marbury, New York, 2; Reggie Miller, Indiana, 2; Michael Redd, Milwaukee, 2; Larry Hughes, Washington, 1; Corey Maggette, Los Angeles Clippers, 1; Kenyon Martin, Denver, 1; Brad Miller, Sacramento, 1; Peja Stojakovic, Sacramento, 1.
The question you need to ask is how much this will affect your work. If you can type at speeds above 1GHz then you are superhuman, whereas some applications such as photo-retouching require alot of processing power and the speed of the processor will have an impact on how much work you can do. Typically in adverts you will see the processor as the first line of any spec, for example:
The type and speed of processor you require is difficult and you should look at the package as a whole, for example it is not worth buying a very fast processor at the expense of having a smaller amount of RAM. RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is what the computer uses to work with information, for example if you open a letter from a storage device (e.g. a disk) it will be copied to the machines RAM so that it can be worked on. RAM is installed into a PC using chips that contain a certain amount of RAM, which is why the amount of RAM you can install is governed by the size of chips that are compatible with your PC, i.e. if your PC accepts 64MB chips you can have configurations in multiples of 64MB, up to the maximum allowable number of chips. As a guide 32MB is not enough, 64MB is just about acceptable for general office tasks, 128MB is recommended for most applications, 256MB is about as much as can usefully be used for many applications. Hard Disks Any PC needs a hard disk to store your documents and the applications that you use to create them. The bigger the disk, the more you can store. Most PCs now come with hard disks in Giga bytes (100MB) increments, for example a basic PC will have a 6GB hard disk. As a guide a letter in word format may take 20Kb to store whereas as an A4 picture could take up to 25MB of storage. The bigger the disk the more you can store. The cost of these storage devices is incremental, so only pay for what you need - and remember that if you have a huge disk and it breaks down, you will lose everything - so think about removable storage as well. Removable storage refers to any media that can store information but can be physically removed from the computer. In the early days this was basically the floppy disk, but now a number of other options are available and some come as standard on new PCs. The most popular devices are made by iomega and are the Zip drives that come in 100MB and 250MB formats (this refers to the size of the removable disk). The advantage of these devices are that they can be used to regularly back-up your hard disk or transfer files to others (although they will also need a Zip drive). The other increasingly popular method of removable storage is the CD writer. These come from a number of manufacturers and allow you to create your own CDs that can be sent to others and used for backups. The downside of CD writers is that they are quite slow and are less flexible as you can typically only "burn" or write the CD once. There are also a number of different formats and this can lead to incompatibility with certain CD readers. The main advantage is that the media is very cheap. Typically a blank CD, purchased in bulk works out at below £1 for 650MB of storage, whereas a Zip 100MB cartridge may cost up to £7.
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