Understanding PC specifications

"Intel ® Pentium® 4 processors from 2.40GHz with 533 Front Side Bus to 3.20GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology and 800MHz Front Side Bus, Standard 256MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM Memory up to 2GB, Standard 250 GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive (7200 rpm) up to 500GB, Standard SATA DVD-R Drive or DVD+RW."

Just your typical consumer advertisement for a PC. If you understand every word and implication of it, this section is probably not for you. You are a person who can strike the perfect balance between the performance you need, the purchase price you're willing to pay, and the running costs (e.g. energy) you will put up with later on.

For 'The Rest of Us' these pages try to give some first insights:

Computer Land : The introductory section uses a metaphor to help you understand the basics of how a PC looks like inside.
Technical library : courtesy of ADEME, tells you more on each component.
Glossary : contains a few 100 of the most used acronyms.