Desktops and Servers

Nowadays, there are various types of computers available. The most important are the mainframes, the servers, the desktops, the workstations, the laptops and finally the handheld devices. Every single computer has been designed for a specific purpose. Mainframes for example, have thousands of processing units and they are used for simulation purposes and for solving very complicated problems. Common users and businesses use workstations, servers, desktops, laptops and other handheld devices. As mentioned earlier, mainframes are large centralized computer systems found in large enterprises or research institutions. Servers are high performance computers systems mostly used in companies. Servers deliver services to several users. These special computers are optimized for responding fast to multiple network tasks. Usually they have more than one Central Processing Unit (CPU), large amounts of Random Access Memory (RAM) and several hard disk drives that offer fast information retrieval. The services that a server is offering are always very important and need to be available to employees at all times. For that reason, servers contain duplicate and redundant components to prevent them from failing. These computers are generally kept in secure locations where access is controlled. It is possible for a server not to have a monitor or a keyboard. This happens because this device is used as a storage point and not as an everyday end-user device. Active directory, email, file and print sharing are common services found on a server. Desktops have several capabilities and can be used for many things. There is a huge variety of cases, hard drives, motherboards, memory, video cards, monitors, power supplies and other peripherals. Desktops computers have various different connection types and support millions of peripherals. These computers are usually used to run software programs like office applications and web browsing. There is a different type of computer that might look like a desktop, but it is much more powerful: This computer is called "workstation". Workstations are more expensive than desktops and mostly used by businesses. They are optimized for particular, high-end applications like designing programs such as Photoshop. Workstations can be used in graphics design, virtual reality simulation as well as video animation. Workstations usually have several Central Processing Units, a lot of RAM and many fast hard disk drives. Most workstations have very powerful graphics cards and large high resolution monitors. Mainframes, desktops, servers, and workstations play a very important role in modern life. The world would be a much different place without them.

Manolis Skoras is a Cisco, Microsoft and HP Certified Trainer and systems-network engineer. Recently he created a site about IT Certifications to help his students and people around the world to better understand the material they will be tested on, thus having greater success rates. Check Certify4Sure today!