Bharat SainiLast Updated on January 10, 2014 by Bharat Saini
The last people that you expect to fall in love with computers are senior citizens. For them computers are just a fad or a thing that have little or no use for them. Some of them have this mentality that they have survived a time when the world have no computers and relied on their brains and bare hands to get the job done. However, the concept is fast changing and some seniors are embracing the information age.
Here are some tips to guide seniors on how to buy processors
Processors are the brains of the computer
Processors are akin to the brain, it is where everything happens in the world of computers. Without the processor, there would be no computers to speak of. It would be a useless piece of rectangular cube that is standing at the desk doing practically nothing than to attract dust. It is important that seniors understand that picking the right processors for their need is critical in making them appreciate what computers can do for them.
Processors come in different brands
Just like the breakfast milk and bread, processors are manufactured by different companies. The industry leader in desktop and laptop computer processors is the Intel Corporation. Currently, Intel controls about 90 percent of the Window-based processor market and around 7.5 percent of the mobile market. This means that nine of ten Windows-based computer that you will come across at the mall has an Intel central processing unit installed.
Processor speeds are measured in hertz
Processor speeds are the means to measure how fast it can process tasks. A faster processor means that it can do the tasks swiftly and could do more tasks at the same time. This is called multi-tasking. Today, computer processors are measured in gigahertz which is essentially billions of oscillations per second.
Processors come in cores
Dual and quad core processors have gaining a lot of press of late. Essentially, cores are brains and the more brains you got in a central processing unit means that there are more hands on deck to hasten the tasks. It is like having two heads. Of course, two heads are better than one and four heads are better than two. Do you really need the power of a quad-core processor? Chances are you may not need that amount of power if you are going to write documents, manuscripts or just to surf the web. Unless you are a serious gamer which is doubtful; single-core processors may be enough for your computing needs.
Processors need company
Other than the processing speed, processors also need to have a big random access memory and larger hard drive capacity to speed up things. A gigabyte of RAM is enough for seniors that will just be making tweets or Facebook statuses aside from the usual blog entries.
Buying a processor can be confusing. Luckily, there are articles like this in the internet to help you gain all the needed information and spare yourself from much stress and anxiety of buying a computer processor. The first thing a senior should do is to determine the computing needs. If the needs are not that heavy, entry-level processors is enough to service their needs.
