computer science

PC Perspective

PC Perspective is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand PC Perspective rather than just read about it. In short: PC Perspective (often shortened to PCPer) is a web site dedicated to news and reviews of personal computing and gaming hardware. PC Perspective specializes in hardware that is most relevant to home users and enthusiasts.

Key takeaways

PC Perspective belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect PC Perspective to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of PC Perspective from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

PC Perspective (often shortened to PCPer) is a web site dedicated to news and reviews of personal computing and gaming hardware. PC Perspective specializes in hardware that is most relevant to home users and enthusiasts. The site also has an active online community, a weekly podcast, and founder Ryan Shrout was the co-host of TWiT.tv's This Week in Computer Hardware.

History PCPer was founded by Ryan Shrout in 2004. Shrout previously ran the AMD motherboard centric Amdmb.com, Athlonmb.com, and K7M.com websites. PC Perspective was originally located at pcperspective.com, but quickly moved to pcper.com.

Content The PCPer website publishes news and reviews of consumer computing and gaming hardware, which has been highlighted in Forbes, PC World, Ars Technica, and Anandtech. At the editor's discretion, products with exceptional reviews may be given Silver, Gold, or Editor's Choice awards. PCPer has also been noted for purchasing professional level products in order to infer the performance of consumer products based on the same microarchitecture, and livestreaming benchmarking of new products. The PCPer website also hosts a leaderboard of suggested components for computers at various price points. PCPer also partnered with Polygon in 2016 on the construction and evaluation of computers for virtual reality gaming. Due to consulting done by some PCPer staff on products, some PCPer reviews include disclosure statements describing the consulting and review relationship and any potential conflict of interest. With the departure of PCPer staff involved in private consulting and the transfer of ownership on January 1, 2019 to individuals not involved in any form of private consulting, the PCPer review disclosures statements have remained under the justification of providing readers with relevant information about published reviews.

Podcasts PCPer hosts a weekly podcast discussing the weeks technology news and reviews. Video podcasts have been produced since at least 2010, with a successful Indiegogo fundraising campaign supporting production equipment. PCPer also began in July 2017 to host a weekly video series answering reader's questions, after reaching a set support level on Patreon. Ryan Shrout was the regular co-host of TWiT.tv's This Week in Computer Hardware with Patrick Norton with other PCPer editors co-hosting as-well. Sebastian Peak took over co-hosting duties when Shrout went on to work for Intel.

Ryan Shrout Founder Ryan Shrout is also a consultant, analyst for MarketWatch and contributor to EE Times, and CNBC, and other publications; often discussing technology related news. Shrout has also co-hosted The Tech Analysts podcast, discussing technology topics, with Patrick Moorehead since 2017. In October 2018, Shrout announced he would leave PCPer and join Intel as the company's Chief Performance Strategist, later leaving Intel in 2023 to lead the technical marketing company Signal65.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with PC Perspective

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what PC Perspective claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to PC Perspective before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about PC Perspective ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of PC Perspective

In research: PC Perspective appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses PC Perspective in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: PC Perspective is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computing websites, Internet properties established in 2004, Technology websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for PC Perspective outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study PC Perspective in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what PC Perspective means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain PC Perspective out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is PC Perspective in simple terms?

Why does PC Perspective matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study PC Perspective?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on PC Perspective.