Parts of a PC – part 2

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to Learn English Vocabulary. My name is Jack and I’m making this podcast for you to learn or revise English vocabulary. 

These podcasts are graded from A2 which is around lower intermediate all the way to C2 which is advanced. 

I hope you find these  podcasts useful. If you do, please leave me a rating and review as this will help other learners find these podcasts.  

Introduction

This is the second part of two B2 podcasts that focus on vocabulary you need to talk about computers. Now, when I started this podcast last week, I started writing down all the Upper intermediate computer vocabulary and I realised that it was getting too long. However, what I’m left with today is really quite geeky language. This is not really general english, it’s a bit technical and not the sort of language that people use all the time, unless they are a bit of a geek. A geek is interested in technology or as it says in the dictionary, obsessively interested in technology. Geeks are also usually not very sociable, they are not comfortable around people they don’t know well. I am sure that anyone proactive enough to seek out this podcast to improve their language won’t be a geek, but in case you are, I’ll continue with this podcast. I will make sure that tomorrow, I talk about something that’s a bit … cooler.

PC parts

OK so what do you need to build a PC. What language do you need to describe the parts?

Let’s start with the motherboard. This is the main circuit board that everything else gets connected to inside your computer. Motherboards look very complicated and I think this scares people when they are building a PC. 

Motherboard

You need to install your motherboard in your computer case. Computer cases come in different sizes to support different sized motherboards. I have a really big PC case that I have used for years. It’s really heavy. 

Processor

OK, what else do you need.  You need a processor. Sometimes, this is called the chip and it’s one of the most expensive parts of your computer. Most processors are made by intel or AMD and they have lots of cores and a processor speed or clock speed measured in Gigahertz and lots of other specifications that I don’t really understand. 

Cooler

Next, there’s a cooler. Processors can get really hot so you need a cooler to make sure your computer doesn’t overheat. My old cooler was a strange metal device that had lots of fins to conduct the heat away from the processor and a really big fan that filled my computer case. Now I have a water cooler which has some tubes but is much smaller. 

Memory

A computer also has to have memory. There are two types of memory. RAM which is working memory that your computer uses while it is processing stuff and storage memory which is where all your files are kept. RAM comes in the form of little cards that you click into slots on your motherboard. RAM is measured in gigabytes and when you add more ram to your computer, the amount doubles. So you can have 4 or 8 or 16 or 32 or 64 gigabytes or more of ram in your computer. I think you can have different amounts, I’m not really sure, but they sell ram in these amounts.

Hard drives

You store your files on storage memory. In your computer, these are your hard drives. You can have more than one hard drive in a computer and there are two main types of hard drive. You can have a hard disk drive or HDD that has spinning discs inside or a solid state drive an SSD which uses flash memory and doesn’t have any moving parts. SSDs are smaller and much faster than hard disk drives. My computer has a M.2 SSD which is a tiny little card that clipped into my motherboard. This is the fastest type of memory and is used for my operating system and programs.

Power supply

There are two more important things in my computer. I have a power supply which a box that controls the power to the different components in my computer. It has all sorts of cables coming out of it that plug into the mother board and cooler and in other places.

Graphics card

And lastly, there’s a graphics card which is a big card with its own fan. Graphic cards go in a slot on the motherboard so that some parts of it poke through special holes on the back of the case. A graphics card is used for processing graphics and video and can be the most expensive part of your computer. 

Conclusion

So there you have lots of B2 vocabulary. I hope you have found it useful.

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a comment or a review and don’t forget that you can read the transcript for this podcast and complete some language activities on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk.

Thanks for listening.

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1 Comment

  • MAJID POURKARIMI
    Posted 03/01/2022 at 6:55 am

    Thanks, Jack!

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