Multimedia:Overview:Hardware

A multimedia PC
While the definition of a multimedia PC can vary considerably among users, some components are important parts of the multimedia PC. By 2009, there are very few PCs that are not multimedia capable and indeed many PDAs and cellphones now have this capability.

Between 1991 and 1996 there was an effort to define the specifications for a multimedia PC - MPC(Wikipedia:Multimedia PC, 2009)

Hardware can be classified as follows: (Links contain detailed information):
 * Input Devices
 * Output
 * Processing
 * Storage
 * Communications

Choosing a Multimedia PC
As with any PC choice two overriding factors need to be considered:
 * 1) What software do you need to run?
 * 2) What is the expected lifespan of the hardware, and will it support future upgrades and software updates?

CPU and Memory
-Jerric 123 20:41, 30 August 2010 (UTC) July 22, 2009 windows 7 launched. requirements 16 GB available hard disk space. DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.
 * Central Processor (CPU)
 * Measured in MHz, has a major effect in the performance of multimedia. The process of rendering (placing colours, textures and lighting) into an animation requires a high performance CPU.
 * 1980 8MHz
 * 2003 1,700 MHz or 1.7 GHz
 * 2007 Pentium [Desktop, Mobile ], Core Duo 2. AMD 64. Note: Clock speed (GHz) ratings now do not give a true indication of performance.
 * RAM
 * Random Access Memory, also has a major impact on the multimedia performance.
 * Measured in MB/GB, this is increasing dramatically
 * 1980 64K
 * 2003 256,000KB or 256MB (graphic intensive operating systems such as Windows XP and associated games (Age of Mythology) require 256MB and more for acceptible performance.)
 * 2007 (Feb) 512MB - 1GB (Vista requires minimum of 512MB)

Secondary storage

 * Hard Drive
 * Measured in Giga-bytes, are used to install CD-ROM games to improve performance. Also the main medium for capturing Video onto for editing.
 * 1980 10MB
 * 2003 40,000MB or 40GB
 * 2007 200GB+ (Laptops 80GB)
 * 2009 1TB (External drives) around $300


 * CD-ROM / DVD
 * Storage at
 * 640MB for CD
 * 4.7GB for DVD.
 * 2002 Combo drives become popular Read DVD/Read+Write CDs
 * 2004 DVD-RW Drives (can also Read/write CDs) became affordable.($250, by 2007 < $100)

Adaptor cards

 * Sound Cards
 * Digitise sound usually interpreted as the number of bits used to sample the sound. A 16-bit sound is considered adequate for most multimedia applications (Dynamic range of 98dB).
 * Most sound cards support a Musical instrument Digital interface (MIDI) which enables the computer to play synthesised sound (interprets notes).
 * Video Adaptor Cards
 * Performance of a game can be strongly influenced by the video adaptor card in the PC, to reproduce textures and lighting. In 2003 64MB would be a standard (e.g. G-Force MX).
 * Video Capture Card
 * Sometimes included with the Video Adaptor card, used to capture video. Can be replaced with a software solution via USB 2.0 or firewire adaptors.

Output devices

 * Monitor
 * 2000 15" (800 x 600 pixels) CRT most common.
 * 2003 17" (1024 x 768 pixels) CRT most common.
 * 2003 15" LCD displays (equivalent to 17" CRT) become common.
 * 2005 17" LCD displays becoming common.
 * speakers