It can often feel overwhelming trying to understand the ins and outs of computer hardware technology. Let’s start from the heart of a computer, which is the Central Processing Unit (CPU) or simply the processor.
A CPU is essentially the brain of your computer, which performs most of the processing inside computers. It is the main entity that performs the logic, arithmetic and controls most of the other components in the system. It’s responsible for carrying out the instructions of a computer program by handling basic control and input/output (I/O) operations.
CPUs come in various forms and sizes, but the most common are from manufacturers such as Intel and AMD. They differ in their processing power, which is typically indicated by their clock speed (measured in gigahertz, or GHz), the number of cores they possess, and the size of their cache memory.
Clock speed refers to the rate at which a processor executes commands. The higher the clock speed, the faster the CPU. However, faster isn’t always better. The use case for your computer will dictate what kind of CPU speed you need. For instance, if you’re going to be gaming or editing video, you’d want a faster processor. But if you’re just going to be sending emails and browsing the web, anything in the 2.0 to 2.5 GHz range would be sufficient.
CPU cores are like multiple brains, and more cores can mean faster and more efficient processing as tasks 🤔
