Modem
Modem stands for Modulator Demodulator. It converts digital signals to analogue so that it can travel via your telephone line, and vice-versa. A modem is an essential item if you are intending to connect your PC to the internet.
There are many kinds modems out there based on the Rockwell/Connexant v.90/v.92 chipset. There are two kinds of modem, software and hardware. Software modems uses your CPU resources to perform its tasks and is run on a virtual COM port. Hardware modem performs its tasks using the onboard chipset and therefore does not take up the CPU resources. It also runs on a physical COM i.e. communication port 3. Software modems, which are also known as winmodem can only run on a windows operating system, while the hardware based modem can run on other operating systems like linux. External modems are mostly hardware based and connect to the serial port. You can also get external modems that connect to the USB port, however most of these are software based.
Analogue modems are currently on the decline as they are being replaced by Digital modems which are used for high speed broadband internet. Also known as ADSL modem or ADSL routers. ADSL modems are mostly external although you can get Internal ADSL modem's. Many people are also using Wireless ADSL routers as it offers an excellent way to share internet connections with multiple PCs. Some common ADSL Router suppliers are Netgear, Belkin and D-Link.
I have decided to use a Connexant 56K v.90 software modem for our demonstration PC as it performs quite well in terms of download.
Floppy Disk Drive
You need a FDD to access floppy disks. Although floppy disks are limited in capacity, only 1.44 mb, every old PC is almost guaranteed to have a FDD. Floppy disk drives and now coming the end of their life span as some current PCs are built without a floppy drive. This is due to the popularity of USB Flash drives. Floppy disk is ideal for storing small files and documents, creating boot disks, and transferring small files. It really does not matter which make of FDD you purchase as they are cheap and performs the same task.
Hard Disk Drive
Hard disk drive stores all your data including operating system, applications, user files and documents. It is a non-volatile storage, which means the contents of the HDD is not lost if the PC is switched off.
There are three different types of HDD, which are IDE/ATA, SCSI, SATA (Serial ATA). Majority of home PCs are equipped with IDE Hard drives. SCSI hard drives are mostly included in servers and powerful workstations as they offer better data transfer rate which results in better performance than the IDE drives. However modern SATA drives are not far behind SCSI drives in terms of performance with the introduction of the newer SATA 300 drives.
The price of IDE/SATA drives have fallen quite dramatically in the recent years. You can buy a very large drive for a competitive price. It is better to buy a drive which is quite large as it works out cheaper. A recommended entry level drive would be 80 GB to 120 GB. The major HDD manufacturers are IBM, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung, Western Digital and Fujitsu. For our demonstration PC I have chosen a Maxtor ATA100 drive as shown below.
CD or DVD-ROM
Nearly all operating systems and applications software comes on CD. It is therefore essential to have a CD-ROM drive for installing your applications. Certain programs requires the CD to be in the CD-ROM drive for that program to run. For example, various encyclopedia and games. CD-ROM can also be used for playing standard audio CD's on your PC.
If you are intending to watch DVD movies on your PC then you would require a DVD-ROM which can perform all the tasks of a CD-ROM as well as play DVD movies.
CD-ROM's come in various speeds, the faster drive, the faster it will install your applications. DVD drives specifies two types of speeds, one for the software installation and other for the DVD extraction. For example a DVD drive with 16x32x specification means that it is a 16 speed DVD and 32 speed CD. Some of the CD/DVD-ROM manufacturers include Toshiba, Poineer, Hitachi, LG and Samsung.
Speakers
A quality sound card would not be much of a benefit without a decent pair of PC speakers. Most PC speakers are magnetically shielded so that it does not interfere with your monitor, but there are some budget speakers out there that are not shielded, so check before you buy. If you are just going to use the speakers for basic sound and music and are not one of those people who play CDs on a PC then you can get away with a budget PC speaker. However, if you play games and CD's then you should consider a speaker system with a sub-woofer. These would produce high quality sound suitable for most tasks.
Monitor / LCD Display
It is important that you get a quality monitor that is comfortable to view. Monitors come is various sizes and refresh rate. 17" monitor are becoming entry standard monitor. 15" monitors are OK if you are running it at a low resolution and not using it for long hours. As monitor prices have dropped in the recent months it is recommended that you consider a 17" or 19" monitor. You can run these monitors at higher resolution and refresh rate, which means they are more comfortable to view and you can work with them for long hours. Monitors are measured diagonally. If a monitor is 17" it does not mean that it is the actual viewable area. Some 17" comes with a viewable area of 16" which is good where as others can be as low as 15.6". Monitors consist of thousands of pixels (the tiny dots you see on the screen). Smaller pixels produces high definition sharp display. Settle for something which is at least 0.25 mm dot pitch. If you purchase a 17" monitor make sure it can handle refresh rate of at least 85 Hz at 1024 * 768 resolution. A 19" monitor should handle at least 1280 * 1024 at 85 Hz.
Currently the most popular viewing device are TFT Flat panels. They are now more affordable than before. Most people prefer TFT Flat panels as they save lot of desk space. They are also more comfortable view
TV Card
A TV card gives you the option of watching TV on your monitor. TV cards are quite useful as it offers more than just watching TV. You can connect your VCR to the TV card so that you can watch video's too. One of the useful things about having a TV card is that you can use it for capturing Video. Using the necessary software you can capture video in various format such AVI or MPEG files. One of the popular TV card is Haupauge WinTV PCI as shown below.
Older TV cards were all analogue device. Now you can get Digital TV cards which allows you to view Digital terrestrial TV channels. You can even get Digital Satellite and Cable TV cards.
Satellite Card
Digital satellite cards (DVB-S) are designed to allow you to watch Satellite TV or get high speed broardband via Satellite. You can connect the card to a satellite dish using the standard F-socket just like a deicated satellite box. Once installed and the dish is alligned to your chosen satellite like Astra, Hotbird etc you can use a DVB software to watch your favaourate satellite channels on you PC.
There a quite a few manufacturers of satellite cards. Some of the popular brands are Hauppage, Technisat and Technotrend.
Cable TV Card
Digital Cable Card (DVB-C) allows you watch cable TV on your PC. In many countries you are given the choice of free-to-air cable TV. It offers an alternative to digital terestial TV via arial.
There are many commercial and free DVB software that allows you to watch, record, or use your PC as a PVR.
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