Learn the Basics. Your Computer.
By Matt Western.

In this multi part article I will explain to you the basic components of your Computer. I will also try and clear up some of the terminology used that describes various components of your computer.

This article is not intened to be detailed ot technical. It is just meant to offer you an introduction to the topic being discussed.

The Monitor

Your computer monitor is possibly the largest component of your computer.

What's a monitor'? It's the thing you're looking at right now (unless you have printed this out and are reading it, then you're just looking at paper).

Your computer monitor is also known as a 'screen' or a 'display' you may even hear it referred to as a 'video' (however generally the term video is used to describe what the monitor is displaying).

Types of Monitors

Computer monitors come in several different styles and types but I;m only going to discuss the two most common types, CRT and TFT.

CRT.

The most prevalent type of computer monitor is the big and heavy CRT monitor. These types of monitors are very common, your monitor may be a CRT type.

CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube.

CRT monitors can be identified easily by their physical size and weight. CRT monitors are big bulky things that take up half your desk and weigh about 1/2 a ton.

CRT monitors were one of the earliest if not the first type of monitor used with computers.

Fortunately for those of us who have to, from time to time, repair, install or even just move CRT monitors there is a new type of monitor becoming extremely popular and will most likely overtake CRT monitors as the most popular monitor type.

TFT

TFT screens are gradually replacing CRT screens as the monitor of choice, mostly due to two reasons.

Reason 1. TFT screens are a lot smaller in physical size than CRT screens. A typical TFT screen is around about 6 - 8 inches deep compared to a CRT screens depth of around 14 - 20 inches.

When you replace a CRT monitor with a TFT monitor you can almost trade in your old work desk for a smaller one, you get so much desk space back.

Reason 2. TFT screens are clear and crisp. The picture or image you get from a TFT screen is clear, sharp and bright. Corners are sharp, text is clear and the whole picture is like looking through a clean window after staring through a slimey one.

TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor
- a transistor is an electronic component, not a small radio!

Laptop computers use TFT monitors, the main reason being that the TFT monitor can be made so thin, or, not very deep, the other reason being weight.

Here's a little bit of technical information.

TFT is an abbreviation of Thin Film Transistor. TFT screens are a type of LCD flat-panel display screen. Each pixel within a TFT screen consists of three separate transistors, one each for red, green, and blue. TFT screens are sometimes called active-matrix LCDs.

LCD is the abbreviation used for Liquid Crystal Display. LCD is a type of display used in digital watches and many portable computers.

Computer Display Sizes and Settings.

Sizes

When people discuss monitors they usually refer their monitor as being a 17 inch TFT or a 21 inch CRT.

What they are referring to is the diagonal measurement of their screen or viewing area.

The measurement from either diagonal corner is what we're talking about here, for example from the top left hand (corner A) to the bottom right hand corner (corner B).

If the distance from corner A to corner B is approximately 17 inches then that monitor is said to be a 17 inch monitor. If the monitor is a TFT type, it is said to be a 17 inch TFT monitor.

Monitors come in many different sizes but the most common sizes for both CRT and TFT monitors are 15 and 17 inch however you can both types of monitors up to 21 inch and larger.

Settings

Back in the bad old days, not all computer monitors were able to display too many colors, or more correctly, too many shades of colors.

Older monitors were also not able to display what had to be displayed in too many different sizes.

What I am trying to explain here is the resolution setting.

Simply put, the resolution of your monitor is what restricts how large or how small you can make your monitor display things.

For example, with a monitor screen resolution of 640 x 480 the icons on your desktop appear large. With a resolution of 1024 x 768 those same icons are somewhat smaller, allowing you to fit more on your desktop.

These days nearly all new monitors, be it CRT or TFT have adequate resolution for any situation and requirement.

Article © Matt Western - deTechnify.com

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Matt Western has been working in the electronics and IT areas since 1983. These days he heads up deTechnify.com a web site aimed at clearing away the technical haze surrounding computers computing and the internet.
You can contact Matt via http://www.detechnify.com